Eight Alums Raised More Than $292 Million in Q2 2024

Eight Alums Raised More Than $292 Million in Q2 2024

“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.

April: More than $43 million raised by two alums

May: More than $150 million raised by two alums

June: More than $99 million raised by four alums

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.


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Tuum Teams Up with Debt Management Specialist Flexys

Tuum Teams Up with Debt Management Specialist Flexys
  • 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.


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Earnix Enters Strategic Collaboration with NTT DATA

Earnix Enters Strategic Collaboration with NTT DATA
  • Earnix and digital business and IT services company NTT DATA announced a new collaboration.
  • The partnership will help property and casualty insurers enhance the pricing, rating, and underwriting process, as well as increase policy personalization.
  • Israel-based Earnix made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016.

Financial services solutions provider Earnix has announced a collaboration with digital business and IT services company NTT DATA. The partnership will enable Earnix to give property and casualty insurance carriers intelligent solutions for pricing, rating, underwriting, and policy personalization. The integration, combined with NTT DATA’s pedigree in data migration, will accelerate insurers’ time to market and enhance their ability to put data to work in fostering innovation.

“We take pride in driving transformative change in the insurance industry with AI-powered solutions,” said SVP of Insurance Services at NTT DATA North America Rob Baughman. “By integrating our products and services, we help clients achieve long-term success and identify opportunities for growth.”

Earnix and NTT DATA are joining forces at a time when the international insurance analytics market is expected to grow from $11 billion, where it stood in 2022, to $35 billion by 2030, an annual rate of more than 15%. Accompanying this growth is an expectation from insurance consumers for products that are more relevant and tailored to their needs. Earnix has leveraged AI to address these preferences, enhancing the rate-making process and creating personalized experiences by incorporating real-time feedback.

“Our partnership with NTT DATA is a game changer for insurers,” Earnix Head of Business Development Ruth Fisk said. “Bringing together their powerhouse expertise in data management and pricing modernization with the strength of the Earnix platform, we can equip insurers with the insight and flexibility to respond quickly to shifting market needs.”

NTT DATA first demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2018, and returned the following year to demo its latest innovation at FinovateFall in New York. The Tokyo, Japan-based company serves 75% of the Fortune Global 100 with business and technology services including consulting, data and AI, and industry solutions. NTT DATA also assists in the development, implementation, and management of applications, infrastructure, and connectivity.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, and founded in 2001, Earnix made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016. In the years since, Earnix has grown into a major provider of cloud-based intelligent solutions for analytical underwriting, dynamic pricing, product personalization, and customer engagement. The company’s solution for insurers inserts a new SaaS layer into the firm’s existing tech stack, adding both intelligence and agility to the pricing, rating, and underwriting process. For banks and lenders, Earnix offers a digital decisioning solution that enables lenders to manage portfolio risk, loan profitability, origination volume, speed to market, and regulatory compliance.

With customers in more than 35 countries across six continents, Earnix has raised more than $100 million in funding from investors including Vintage Investment Partners and Israel Growth Partners. Insurance and fintech industry veteran Robin Gilthorpe joined the company as CEO in February of last year.


Photo by Haley Black

Paytech Tyro Teams Up with StoreConnect

Paytech Tyro Teams Up with StoreConnect
  • Payments company Tyro has announced a new partnership with StoreConnect
  • The partnership adds integrated payments to StoreConnect POS, the first POS solution build on Salesforce for SMEs.
  • Australia-based Tyro Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2017.

A new partnership between paytech Tyro and StoreConnect will launch integrated payments on the first point-of-sale solution built on Salesforce. The solution, StoreConnect POS, is designed for small to medium-sized businesses and offers an e-commerce website, POS terminal, cash drawer, and receipt printer. Built on Sales Cloud, all components of StoreConnect POS fully integrate with Tyro to enable merchants to accept payments natively from within StoreConnect’s Salesforce POS.

“At Tyro, we believe nothing should get in the way of success for Australian businesses,” Tyro Payments Chief Growth Officer Deanne Bannatyne said. “We’re so thrilled to be able to work with StoreConnect to power this Australian-first innovation, to help more merchants take payments seamlessly with an exciting all-in-one POS solution.”

Bannatye noted that the integration also will enable Australian business owners who use Salesforce for CRM to benefit from deeper insights into their customers and streamlined operations. StoreConnect is available as a self-install SaaS package on the Salesforce AppExchange and is suitable for mid-market firms and non-profit organizations, as well as SMEs.

“We’ve been on a mission to build StoreConnect to be a powerful tool to help SMEs around the world to remain competitive,” StoreConnect founder and CEO Mikel Lindsaar said, “and we’ve delivered on that mission with our Point-of-Sale release here in Australia.”

Tyro made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2017. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and founded in 2003, the company today is Australia’s largest EFTPOS provider of all Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs) – aside from the country’s big four banks. With more than 68,000 customers throughout Australia, Tyro processed more than $34 billion in transaction value in fiscal year 2022.

The company’s partnership news with StoreConnect comes just days after the paytech announced that it has teamed up with real-time payments and loyalty platform Hello Clever. The partnership enables shoppers at more than 70,000 merchants on Tyro’s network to redeem instant cashback rewards in person and online via Hello Clever.

Tyro has raised more than $103 million from investors including Ellerston Capital and TDM Asset Management. Jonathan Davey is CEO.


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Avaloq Implements OpenWealth at LGT Private Banking

Avaloq Implements OpenWealth at LGT Private Banking
  • In partnership with Avaloq, Liechtenstein-based international private bank LGT has implemented a new standard to give financial intermediaries real-time access to investment positions and transaction data.
  • The new standard, OpenWealth API, was implemented in collaboration with Synpulse8, the integration specialist of Synpulse.
  • Based in Switzerland, Avaloq won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018.

In collaboration with Avaloq and Synpulse8, Liechtenstein-based private bank LGT has implemented a new standard that will make it easier to provide financial intermediaries with real-time access to LGT’s investment positions and transaction data. The new standard is called OpenWealth API and will help the custodian bank better serve its customer base of independent asset managers, multi-family offices, and fund companies with customized investment solutions, personal advice, and fast order processing.

“With this latest joint innovation, LGT is taking a leading role in helping to create a more interconnected financial marketplace while enhancing the value that financial intermediaries deliver for their investors,” Avaloq Chief Technology Officer Martin Büchi explained.

The partnership between Avaloq and LGT extends back nearly 20 years, when the bank first adopted Avaloq’s core banking solution, Avaloq Core. The OpenWealth implementation was conducted in partnership with technology and integration specialist Synpulse8, a division of Synpulse. Synpulse is the founder and orchestrator of the OpenWealth Association, the standardization body for OpenWealth. The standardized connectivity made possible by OpenWealth will lower operational risks for financials and empowers intermediaries to keep their platforms updated with more timely and accurate data than can be provided via daily batch processing.

“The standardized solution will ensure that our partners have access to the latest data to better serve their clients,” LGT Bank AG Executive Board member Markus Werner said. “We look forward to strengthening our long-term partnership with Avaloq in the coming years and to continuing our joint development activities for enhanced connectivity with financial intermediaries globally.”

Founded in 1985, Avaloq provides technology solutions to private banks and wealth managers, investment managers, retail and commercial banks, as well as challenger and neobanks. The Switzerland-based company won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018, and has since grown into an international financial services solutions provider with more than 160 clients in 35 countries and $4.4 trillion (CHF 4 trillion) in client assets managed by Avaloq software.

The company’s signature solution is Avaloq Core, a core banking solution for private banks and wealth managers. Avaloq also offers three standalone digital products lines: Avaloq Engage, Avaloq Wealth, and Avaloq Insight. Avaloq Engage helps institutions boost client engagement. Avaloq Wealth supports the entire client journey in wealth management from prospect to trusted relationship. Avaloq Insight offers technical and business users access to insightful data from their banking systems. Avaloq was acquired by Japan-based NEC Corporation in the fall of 2020.

This spring, Avaloq announced the retirement of Co-CEO Thomas Beck, with Martin Greweldinger taking over the role of Avaloq Group CEO. Beck had served as Co-CEO with Greweldinger since the spring of 2021, having joined the company in 2012.


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The Finovate Podcast: Best of Show Conversations with Bloom Credit and Kobalt Labs

The Finovate Podcast: Best of Show Conversations with Bloom Credit and Kobalt Labs

What better way to celebrate the start of summer than with some of the latest conversations from Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast!

The podcast has just kicked off its series of interviews with Best of Show winners from FinovateSpring. First, Greg Palmer talked with Christian Widhalm, CEO of Bloom Credit, about building credit and creating new lending opportunities. Episode 217.

“We are an infrastructure platform that’s really leading the modernization of credit data and credit data transmission,” Widhalm said in his Finovate Podcast conversation earlier this month. “There’s a significant amount of value to be uncovered within the ecosystem right now, specifically around credit data, and that’s what Bloom has set out to do.”

Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2016, Bloom Credit is a B2B credit data infrastructure platform. The company is building the next generation of rails for “all things credit data,” including transmission and compliant storage. Bloom’s technology helps facilitate the extension of affordable credit to the millions of consumers who are either subprime borrowers or have thin/no file with major credit agencies.

Watch Bloom Credit’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.


Most recently, Greg Palmer sat down with Kalyani Ramadurgam, CEO of Kobalt Labs, to discuss third-party regulations, the rise of AI, and the broader regulatory environment for fintechs, banks, and financial services companies. Episode 219.

“We automate all things third party diligence,” Ramadurgam explained. “When I say third party diligence that usually includes everything from vendor risk assessment all the way to monitoring, as well as partner and merchant risk assessment – whether you’re a partner bank or a fintech that’s looking to do business with new entities.”

New York City-based Kobalt Labs enables FIs to accelerate and fortify compliance operations. The company’s technology also provides automatic alignment with the latest regulations in privacy, lending, money movement, BSA/AML, ACH, and more. At FinovateSpring this year, Kobalt Labs demoed its AI-powered co-pilot that streamlines this process. The company was founded in 2023.

Watch Kobalt Labs’ Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.


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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

As 2024 works its way toward halftime, we’re seeing an uptick in partnership and collaboration activity from crypto to regtech. Check back all week long for updates on the latest in fintech news.


Payments

Payment orchestration platform Gr4vy extends its partnership with open banking payments company Trustly.

Tyro Payments teams up with StoreConnect to enable integrated payments for a Salesforce-based POS solution.

Intelligent verified payouts solutions provider Verituity closes $18.8 million funding round.

MENA and Africa-based consumer fintech Pyypl to issue prepaid Visa cards from its UAE headquarters as part of a new partnership with Visa.

Clair partners with Check to seamlessly offer on-demand pay. 

Tribe Payments appoints Andrew Hocking as CEO.

Frost Bank taps Finzly to provide FedNow and RTP instant payments to its business clients and consumers.

Digital banking

Mahalo Banking introduces its latest partner: Industrial Credit Union.

Bluevine teams up with Mastercard to launch its new Small Business Cashback Mastercard.

Bank Midwest partners with Finastra to launch its new digital bank, OnePlace.bank.

Tuum expands its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver its next generation core banking platform through the AWS Marketplace.

Quail Creek Bank chooses Jack Henry to stay competitive and enhance customer experience.

MoneyLion appoints Jon Kaplan as Chief Revenue Officer.

Avidia Bank partners with Q2 and Personetics to modernize its digital banking experience and strengthen engagement.

Eltropy announces key enhancements to unified conversations platform.

Fraud and Identity management

Risk-decisioning software provider Provenir launches onboarding fraud solution.

Email address intelligence firm AtData forges strategic partnership with unified identity platform Dodgeball.

DataVisor enhances multi-tenancy capabilities for scalable, secure, and flexible fraud and AML solutions.

E-Commerce

Klarna divests its Klarna Checkout (KCO) division for $520 million.

Regtech

E-document management platform A-Cube API announces collaboration with Salt Edge to facilitate compliant document digitization.

DeFi

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform 1inch partners with Web3 security provider Blockaid.

Embedded finance

Cotribute, an embedded fintech platform serving credit unions, partners with APCU and Center Parc Credit Union to launch an automated digital account opening solution.

Embedded finance platform for technology purchases Gynger raises $20 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures.

Banking-as-a-Service

Payments and financial solutions provider Finzly partners with Frost Bank to bring FedNow and RTP Instant Payments to business and retail customers.

Egyptian Banking-as-a-Service startup Connect Money secures $8 million.

Lending

USMI names Enact MI President and CEO Rohit Gupta as Chair of the Board.

Conotoxia makes loan applications and processing available in its mobile app.

Small business finance

Airwallex integrates with Intuit QuickBooks to provide seamless multicurrency reporting.


Photo by Nubia Navarro (nubikini)

Finovate Global Mexico: A Fundraising Unicorn and Open Finance’s Contribution to Financial Inclusion

Finovate Global Mexico: A Fundraising Unicorn and Open Finance’s Contribution to Financial Inclusion

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Mexico.


Mexican digital payments and commerce enablement platform Clip announced a major investment this week. The company, which offers a suite of payments and other financial services solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, has raised $100 million in new funding. The capital came courtesy of investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value and an unnamed West Coast mutual fund manager.

In a statement, the company noted that the funds raised value the company “in line” with the company’s Series D round from 2021. That round, led by SoftBank Latin America Fund and Viking Global Investors, added $250 million to Clip’s coffers and gave the Mexican fintech a valuation of “nearly $2 billion.”

Clip Founder and CEO Adolfo Babatz praised this week’s investment as “a testament to Clip’s opportunity to continue to lead the digital transformation of Mexico’s commerce ecosystem.” Babatz continued, “More broadly, (the investment) provides even further validation of our mission to open access to digital payments, financial services, and technology solutions to SMBs in the country. We are excited to leverage this financing round to continue to expand and strengthen our offerings to empower more stakeholders across Mexico’s economy.”

With offices in both Mexico City and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Clip offers a range of solutions to enable SMBs to accept digital payments, sell goods and services online, secure financing, and streamline their operations. The company will use the new capital to accelerate product development and support its efforts to leverage technology to enhance financial inclusion in Mexico. Clip was founded in 2012.


Speaking of financial inclusion in Mexico, Latin American open finance platform Belvo and Citibanamex, the second largest bank in the country, have forged a new partnership designed to put open finance to work in bringing credit access to the unbanked.

Via the collaboration, Citibanamex will extend credit and credit card options to applicants without credit histories. Instead of traditional underwriting, the bank will review factors such as outstanding debt levels and the number of credit applications outstanding, as well as leverage Belvo’s open finance technology to secure income verification for applicants whose data is otherwise difficult to retrieve.

“At Citibanamex, we are continuously seeking financial inclusion solutions to facilitate access to banking products for individuals who have not been able to benefit from current solutions,” Citibanamex Director of Digital Business Development Miguel Lavalle said. “With this new functionality, it will be easier for our customers to verify their income, making credit opening processes more agile.”

Belvo’s open finance and payments platform helps financial institutions and their customers benefit from user-permissioned, secure data sharing. The platform validates employment histories, as recorded by employers, to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). This enables banks, fintechs, and financial services companies to process financial data and initiate payments directly from users’s accounts.

“This is pioneering and exciting work, aligned with our mission to help financial innovators create new, more efficient, and inclusive experiences for their users,” Belvo General Director, Mexico, Federica Gregorini said. “We are excited to see how financial entities in Mexico are betting on open finance models due to their positive impact on reducing the gap in access to financial services.”

Headquartered in Mexico City, Belvo was founded in 2019. Last month, the company launched its employment data aggregation solution in Colombia. The launch followed Belvo’s partnership with Colombian digital wallet Nequi, a move considered to be a significant advance for the cause of user-permissioned, secure data sharing.

“This connection via API is just the first of many other integrations that will come soon, which portends a promising future in the development of Open Finance in Colombia and in the region,” Belvo’s General Director in Colombia, David Ballesteros, said.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal forged a partnership with Lithuanian gaming marketplace Eneba.
  • Brazil-based fintech Celcoin raised $125 million in funding in a round led by Summit Partners.
  • PayGoal, a fintech based in Argentina, teamed up with Paraguayan acquirer Bancard to launch contactless payments solution Tokefon in Paraguay.

Asia-Pacific

  • Open finance technology provider Brankas and Global Finteq forged a strategic partnership to launch Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) platforms in the Philippines.
  • South Korean fintech Travel Wallet secured $10 million in funding from U.S.-based VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.
  • Japan’s Softbank entered a strategic partnership with Gen AI search startup Perplexity.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • African paytech Flutterwave announced plans to build a cyber crime research center in Nigeria.
  • South African fintech Ukheshe rebranded as EFT Corporation.
  • Ethiopia’s cabinet approved a legal framework for CBDCs.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German corporate card platform Pliant inked a partnership with Commerzbank
  • Lithuanian regtech iDenfy launched its AI-enabled Customer Risk Assessment solution.
  • Tietoevry Banking expanded its card personalization services in Riga, Latvia.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Courtesy of a partnership with Revolut, UAE-based fintech GTN will offer bond trading to EEA customers via the Revolut app.
  • Israel-based Refine Intelligence unveiled its new check fraud prevention solution.
  • Innovation Village profiled Egyptian wealth management fintech Bokra.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India’s Pine Labs is considering a $1 billion IPO.
  • The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) profiled women-founded Nepal-based fintech Aloi.
  • TBC Bank Uzbekistan announces a $10 million line of credit from Switzerland’s responsAbility Investments AG.

Photo by Pixabay

Refine Intelligence Unveils New Check Fraud Prevention Solution

Refine Intelligence Unveils New Check Fraud Prevention Solution
  • Refine Intelligence has introduced its Digital Customer Outreach for Check Fraud Prevention solution.
  • The technology automatically contacts customers whose checks have been flagged as suspicious, and provides a user-friendly digital inquiry process to help customers resolve issues in seconds.
  • Refine Intelligence made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.

Refine Intelligence launched its Digital Customer Outreach for Check Fraud Prevention solution this week. The technology, which works with all existing check fraud detection systems, will help banks and other financial institutions deal with an increase in check fraud due to both mail theft and the development of advanced counterfeiting techniques.

Digital Customer Outreach for Check Fraud Prevention automatically contacts customers whose checks have been deemed suspicious. A user-friendly digital inquiry process that takes a few seconds to complete enables customers to review the flagged check and immediately verify key issues such as the amount and the payeee.

“Fraud teams are under time pressure to deal with a tidal wave of alerts about potentially fraudulent checks,” Refine Intelligence CEO and co-founder Uri Rivner said. “In an ideal world, they’d ask the customer about each alerted check, but chasing customers over the phone is expensive and irritating for everyone involved. This new solution closes the gap between detection and prevention by enabling customers to resolve alerts themselves. It works with any detection system, maximizing the current workflow and reducing fraud losses and operational costs for dealing with fraud claims.”

Refine Intelligence’s Digital Customer Outreach platform helps financial crime and compliance teams tackle a range of fraud and financial crime issues. The platform gives banks the ability to automatically contact customers to resolve both AML and check fraud alerts, as well as to automate enhanced due diligence (EDD). The technology leverages proprietary AI to glean insights into anomalous transactions, enabling fraud and compliance teams to learn the context in which the anomaly occurred and to determine whether the transaction is legitimate or not.

Refine Intelligence made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. With headquarters in both Israel and New York, the company this year has been named to the FinCrimeTech 50 for 2024 by AML & FinCrime TechForum, and Chartis Research’s Financial Crime and Compliance 50 for 2024. Refine Intelligence has raised $13 million in funding courtesy of an investment from Glilot Capital Partners and Fin Capital.

Learn more about Refine Intelligence in our spring 2023 Finovate Global interview with Uri Rivner!


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Glia Brings Interactive Technology to NCR Voyix’s Mobile Solution

Glia Brings Interactive Technology to NCR Voyix’s Mobile Solution
  • NCR Voyix has teamed up with customer interactive technology company Glia.
  • Glia will integrate its unified interaction capabilities into the mobile version of NCR Voyix’s digital banking platform.
  • Glia has won Finovate’s Best of Show award 10 times, including in the company’s debut (as SaleMove) at FinovateFall 2015.

NCR Voyix’s mobile banking app just got a lot more interactive.

Courtesy of a partnership with Glia, NCR Voyix will enhance the mobile version of its Digital Banking platform with unified interaction capabilities. Glia’s ChannelLess Architecture enables seamless transitions between multiple interaction channels: from phone calls and digital messaging to chatbots, video chats, and SMS. Now a part of NCR Voyix’s mobile solution, the technology will help banks and credit unions boost customer and member engagement and loyalty.

Glia Chief Product Officer Jay Choi talked about the importance of the mobile channel for a younger, generation of financial services customers. “Forcing customers to exit the mobile app experience to receive guidance or support results in inefficiencies, delays in resolutions, and frustration for all involved,” Choi explained. “With the integration of our digital-first tools into the NCR Voyix mobile app, we are empowering banks and credit unions to overcome this challenge, instead providing instant, personalized and seamless engagement where customers and members already are.”

Among the FIs to deploy the technology are Texas-based 5 Point Credit Union, which has credited Glia’s solution for increasing staff efficiency, simplifying processes, and reducing fraud. The credit union also underscored how the technology enhanced its ability to communicate and engage with its members, improving in-app support.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, Glia won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 (as SaleMove). The company has gone on to win a total of 10 Finovate Best of Show awards, including in its most recent appearance on Finovate’s digital stage in 2021.

Last month, Glia unveiled its responsible AI platform purpose-built for financial services companies called Glia Cortex. The technology provides personalized self-service experiences at scale, helps agents become more productive, and gives managers new insights into agent/customer interactions. Among the solution’s early adopters is Service 1st Federal Credit Union, a Danville, Pennsylvania-based institution founded in 1975.

NCR Voyix was formed in October 2023 when NCR Corporation split into two entities. The company’s ATM business was spun-off as NCR Atleos. NCR Voyix is the successor to NCR Corporation, which demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2016 and again in 2017.


Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Kani Payments Teams Up with CLOWD9

Kani Payments Teams Up with CLOWD9
  • Reconciliation and reporting services provider Kani Payments has partnered with issuer processor CLOWD9.
  • CLOWD9 will leverage Kani Payments’ platform to power its data reporting and reconciliation capabilities.
  • Kani Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023.

Reconciliation and reporting services provider Kani Payments has inked a partnership with CLOWD9. The cloud-native issuer processor selected Kani Payments to power its data reporting and reconciliation capabilities and help the company manage the unique data standardization requirements faced by banks and fintechs alike.

CLOWD9 will use Kani Payments’ SaaS platform to collect and standardize transaction data, including both authorization and settlement data from payment schemes. The platform will enable CLOWD9 to report to clients across the payment value chain faster, as well as provide enhanced and easy-to-understand data customization and visualization via the Kani Payments’ portal dashboard. This will empower clients with the flexibility to configure data as they choose.

“The sweet spot is taking standard data, formatting it for the individual needs of our mutual clients, and accelerating reconciliations with it,” CLOWD9 Chief Product Officer Richard Wray explained. “Kani Payments are the experts in that area and their understanding of the depth, detail, and specializations within the payment data value chain is unsurpassed.”

Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., Kani Payments made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, the company demoed how its automated reconciliation and reporting platform provides fully automated reconciliations, as well as automated legal, regulatory, and scheme reporting. Kani CCO Marc McCarthy used the example of a simple transaction at a coffee shop to explain the myriad actors – issuing bank, network, processor – that play a role in managing the data of even an everyday purchase. “Each one of those organizations has a different version of that event,” McCarthy said. “We here at Kani Payments provide a reconciliation and reporting platform that helps each one of those actors to have compliance, to have validation of their data, and to have insightful reports of what they can see with their information.”

Earlier this year, Kani Payments announced a partnership with core banking platform Pismo. The collaboration makes Kani’s platform available to Pismo’s bank, marketplace, and fintech clients. Vishal Dalal, Pismo CEO for North America, EMEA, and APAC said that the partnership “will unlock useful insights to help (financial institutions) make better, more informed decisions, shaping a new era for banking and payments.”

Kani Payments was founded in 2018. Aaron Holmes is CEO. Holmes co-founded the company following tenures at Flex-e-card, Global Processing Services, and NBS Card Solutions (now Wirecard).


Photo by Daniel Smyth

MTC FCU Teams Up with Mahalo Banking to Enhance the Member Experience

MTC FCU Teams Up with Mahalo Banking to Enhance the Member Experience
  • Greenville, South Carolina-based MTC Federal Credit Union has turned to Mahalo Banking to enhance its member experience.
  • Mahalo’s technology will bolster MTC FCU’s offerings, including online account opening, Skip-a-Pay, and Savings Jar.
  • Mahalo Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023.

MTC Federal Credit Union (MTC FCU), a credit union based in Greenville, South Carolina with assets of $292 million, has partnered with Mahalo Banking to enhance its member experience. Mahalo’s online and mobile banking solutions will power a range of member-centric features for the credit union, including a number of member-requested tools and services designed to streamline platform navigation and boost engagement.

“Mahalo’s committed member and core-centric focus, alongside their dedication to continuous innovation including security and neurodiversity solutions set them apart from other providers,” MTC FCU President/CEO William H. Love Jr. said. “Mahalo is a true partner in our endeavor to provide a comprehensive digital banking experience for our members while attracting new members looking for a state-of-the-art platform with an outstanding user experience.”

Among the enhanced self-service solutions that will be available to MTC FCU members in addition to online account opening are Skip-a-Pay and Savings Jar. Skip-a-Pay enables borrowers to defer loan payments for 90 days – over November, December, and January – when they make a donation of $36 to the MTC Federal Foundation. The foundation supports health and sustainability initiatives, funding for natural disaster relief, and financial education and scholarship awards. Skip-a-Pay eligible loans include personal, vehicle, recreational vehicle, ATV, motorcycle, and watercraft loans. Savings Jar is a round-up transactions feature that helps make saving an effortless part of everyday shopping.

“Our deep credit union ties enable our team to form strong bonds with the credit unions we serve, and that has been the case throughout our partnership with MTC Federal Credit Union,” Mahalo COO Denny Howell said. “Working with MTC Federal Credit Union allows us to deliver on what we do best, empowering the credit union with a member-centric platform that provides enhanced, user-friendly functionality and meets members where they are.”

Mahalo Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last year. At the conference, the company demoed its online banking solution that fully integrated comprehensive neurodiverse functionality directly into its platform. This innovation enables credit unions to support members who have unique needs ranging from color-blindness to autism, dyslexia, and epilepsy.

Founded in 2018, Mahalo Banking is headquartered in Troy, Michigan. The company’s June partnership announcement is only the latest deal the fintech has forged of late. Just a few weeks ago, the company reported that Texas-based Memorial Credit Union selected Mahalo as “an ideal partner to help transform and improve our digital offerings,” in the words of Memorial CU President and CEO Thomas Rogers. In May, Mahalo Banking partnered with Affinity Credit Union of Iowa. In April, the company announced that it was working with a pair of Michigan-based FIs: Gerber FCU and The Local CU.


Photo by David Martin Jr.