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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
Ender Turing has created the fastest-to-value AI-based speech analytics for financial services companies. The platform improves the quality of service, customer experience, and front-end employee experience.
Features
Includes AI analysis of calls, chats, and e-mails in near real-time in 24 languages
Delivers automatic alerts on every possible situation in communication with clients
Provides rich analytics on QM, CX, and EX
Why it’s great
Ender Turing’s platform brings financial services companies’ contact centers from cost to profit via AI-analysis of customer communication and front-end employee AI-based coaching.
Presenter
Olena Losifova, CEO Losifova has been bringing new technologies to the financial services industry for over 17 years. In 2020, she co-founded Ender Turing with two AI researchers and was happy to continue delivering innovation. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
NF Innova is dedicated to the digital transformation of banks by helping them provide state-of-the-art digital banking services to their customers.
Features
Delivers personal finance management in augmented reality
Includes buy now – pay later shopping in augmented reality
Provides a futuristic way to bank digitally
Why it’s great
NF Innova’s Fintense is a ready-made digital banking platform that supports banks looking for a quick transformation into a digital leader.
Presenters
Gregor Bierent, CEO Bierent is an experienced c-level executive with a demonstrated history of growing and improving business in an international information technology and services company. LinkedIn
Slavko Milojevic, Product Director Milojevic is a product leader who specializes in driving vision and roadmaps for digital transformation for financial businesses. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
BehaviorQuant brings behavioral science and machine learning to investment decisions. Their automated survey technology provides detailed data about financial professionals, clients, and investment teams.
Features
Improves performance for asset managers and teams
Allows investors to select the best fund managers for their needs
Allows advisors to tailor advice to their clients
Why it’s great
BehaviorQuant turns people making investment decisions into detailed profiles and predicts their future behavior and outcomes.
Presenters
Thomas Oberlechner, CEO & Founder Oberlechner is BehaviorQuant’s CEO and an expert in investor psychology. As a university professor, his research included many of the world’s leading financial institutions. LinkedIn
Gerlinde Berghofer, COO & Co-Founder Berghofer is an expert on behavioral assessments. Before co-founding BehaviorQuant, she lived in San Francisco where she developed decision support systems for investors. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
Merlin is a multi-asset educational, strategic, and tracking tool for personal investment strategies, complementary to any trading platform and designed for any kind of retail investor.
Features
Access different market data and sentiment all in one place
Easily create, analyze, compare and backtest infinite sets of investment strategies
Track the performance of portfolios
Why it’s great
Merlin empowers retail investors to easily build and manage their own investment strategies.
Presenter
Guido Petrelli, Founder & CEO For more than a decade, Petrelli was the CFO and COO of a multinational company operating in the automotive sector. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
°neo by Five Degrees is a next-gen core banking system offering a wide variety of financial products and standard banking processes and enabling a full 360-view on customers, companies, products and their relations.
Why it’s great
°neo enables financial institutions to create banking-grade experiences for their customers in a faster, flexible and more cost-efficient way.
Presenters
Maurits van Schooneveld, Head of Business Development van Schooneveld is an experienced FinTech strategist and commercial manager on a mission to guide financial institutions to modern banking technology. LinkedIn
Fridrik Reynisson, Chief Architect °neo Reynisson is an experienced technical leader and has worked on fintech innovation for over 15 years, enabling banks to build great value for their customers. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.
StockRepublic offers white label social trading apps for banks and brokers to provide their customers with features like social feeds, performance benchmarks, and access to like-minded people.
Features
Customizable to fit unique brands and needs
Ready to launch with weeks with no internal developer required
Fully compliant
Why it’s great
From organic growth to greater customer engagement and loyalty to increased trade volumes, StockRepublic’s social trading platform drives powerful results.
Presenter
Maximilian Knopp, Managing Director Germany & Head of Business Operations With vast working experience in innovation and business development roles, Knopp understands what makes a great product, how to adapt to modern times, and what it takes to succeed in a market. LinkedIn
European fintechs in search of venture capital funding are in luck this spring. The Startup Booster Program at FinovateEurope, taking place March 14 through 15, has been crafted to help early stage companies pitch their new ideas in front of investors from across the U.K. and Europe.
Fintechs that are less than five years old and haven’t closed a Series A round can apply now for the opportunity to have two hours to network and pitch their innovation to an audience of VCs, angels, corporate venture studios, and accelerators. Some of the investors participating in this year’s program include:
Here are three reasons why early stage, European companies in search of venture funding should make this year’s Startup Booster Program a priority:
Two-hour investor networking reception All startups accepted into the Startup Booster Program will have a table to pitch, ask and answer questions, and make an impression.
Your three-minute pitch video and pitch deck are shared with investor attendees Finovate provides startups with guidance and best-practices to make an engaging, three-minute pitch video. We’ll also share your video with the investor audience and event attendees.
A full event access pass for only £600 per ticket Startup Booster participants receive special, discounted tickets to FinovateEurope that grant access to the entire event for only £600 per ticket. That’s a discount of £1,199 when compared to the current rate of £1799 for general audiences.
We’re also hosting a dedicated stream with content aimed to help early stage companies on their journey towards growth. Session topics include discussions on scaling your startup, selecting the right funding, landing a bank client, regulations, and a look at the newest opportunities in the space.
Since we launched in 2007, we’ve actively looked for ways to foster growth in the fintech industry. Helping early stage companies find access to funding is one way we’re doing so– which helps build and better our industry, as well. If you meet the criteria listed above, apply today.
What are the biggest obstacles to digital transformation in banking and financial services? For Leda Glyptis, self-described “recovering banker” and author of the new book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, the fault lies not in the stars, but in bankers themselves.
Fortunately, Glyptis sees bankers as the solution, as well.
“For years I have been blogging and speaking about how the biggest obstacle to progress inside banks is people. And that the only hope for change are also people,” Glyptis told Fintech Futures as the date of the world premier of her book was announced earlier this month. “What is so often approached as a technology journey often falls down or triumphs around the humans that keep on keeping on, the dreamers, the builders, the plumbers, and the storytellers of banking transformation.”
Leda Glyptis will discuss her experiences and insights as a veteran of the banking business in an afternoon keynote address on Day One of FinovateEurope, March 14 through 15 in London. Titled “The Problem With Digital Transformation is You,” Glyptis will discuss the human and structural obstacles to digital transformation with a focus on the kind of mentality and leadership bankers need to embrace in order to bring about the changes in banking and financial services that consumers increasingly demand.
For Glyptis, there is no reason – and no time – to wait for the rise of a younger, more digitally-native generation to do the work of transforming financial services. The time to act is now, and the ones to act are bankers — with “grit, determination and energy to drive change,” Glyptis insists. “Like us.”
Bankers Like Us will be available for pre-order on Friday, January 20th, and is expected to ship after February 10th. This provides plenty of time to get your copy of the book ahead of Glyptis’ keynote at FinovateEurope in March. At the event, after Glyptis’ afternoon keynote address, we will also host a special Networking Break & Book Signing with the author.
In addition to her work as an author, Glyptis is the Chief Client Officer at 10x Banking, a cloud-native core banking platform provider based in London. She is also a Non-Executive Director at leading U.K. cash deposit platform, Flagstone. Glyptis has a PhD in Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and shares her thoughts on banking and financial services as a columnist – and “resident thought provocateur” – with Fintech Futures. Her latest columns have tackled topics such as the importance of preparation, the role of pain in learning, and the challenge of maintaining the courage of convictions.
Be sure to visit our FinovateEurope 2023 hub to save your spot at our upcoming fintech conference, March 14 through 15 – featuring author Leda Glyptis’ keynote address on the afternoon of Day One.
In 2022, Finovate brought live demos back to London with dozens of innovative companies showcasing their latest technologies. Building on that momentum for FinovateEurope 2023, we’re excited to announce the first wave of demoers.
This first group covers the map on fintech themes. Learn how these companies can grow your business, and see a sneak peek of topics below.
This wave is just the beginning. The event will feature 35+ fintechs forging the future of fintech. Join us on March 14 and 15 to see them all first-hand. And check the website as the demo roster continues to expand with seed-stage startups, fast-growing scale-ups and established public companies.
It may be a fintech cliche that “every year is the Year of the Customer.” But the obsession over customer experience that is sweeping through financial services is showing no signs of slowing down.
Steven Van Belleghem, author of The Internet of Customer Value, How Web3 and the Metaverse Are Changing the Game in Customer Experience, will deliver a keynote address on Day One of FinovateEurope this year that tackles this topic head-on. An expert in the future of customer centricity, Van Belleghem emphasizes the relationship between enabling technologies, customer-centric thinking, and the human touch in his work. This work includes four international best-selling books, as well as co-founding inspiration agency Nexxworks and social media agency Snackbytes.
Find out more about how to attend FinovateEurope at the O2 in London and catch Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address live on Tuesday, March 14, at our FinovateEurope hub.
An engaging speaker and colorful writer, Van Belleghem has impressed audiences and readers with his insights into what it truly means to put the customer first – and why it is imperative for companies to do so in order to succeed. In a recent blog post, Van Belleghem explained how “customer culture” has “replaced technology as the holy grail” as a growing number of businesses recognize the value of “really try(ing) to understand what people want and then help them.” He wrote:
“Over the years, software has even become quite good at being creative, but empathy remains that last beacon, something that is typically human. And so a positive culture of being kind, of being human, of saying ‘yes’ to your customers will become a true differentiator. That’s what will bridge the most of that last 10% to get great CX.”
Read his full discussion, which includes Van Belleghem’s explanation of why this last 10% is always the most difficult to achieve, as well as a helpful strategy for keeping even the most promising of enabling technologies in the proper perspective.
Then stop by our FinovateEurope 2023 hub to save your spot at our upcoming fintech conference, March 14 through 15, featuring author Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address on Day One.
To close out 2022, we highlighted our upcoming FinovateEurope Alumni Alley showcase. This event, part of FinovateEurope in London, March 13 through 14, will feature the companies that made their Finovate debuts at our annual European conference. Find out more about Alumni Alley and how you and your company can take advantage of this unique opportunity.
We commemorated the announcement of Alumni Alley with this multi-part look back at some of FinovateEurope’s earliest alums. Click the image to enjoy a little stroll down fintech’s memory lane.
Many of Finovate’s most storied alumni made their Finovate debuts at our European conference, FinovateEurope. Next year at FinovateEurope (March 14 through 15) we will feature the event’s alums in a special showcase called Alumni Alley. For those companies that first demoed their innovations at FinovateEurope, Alumni Alley is a great opportunity to show the world their latest innovations and accomplishments.
Is Alumni Alley for you? Visit our Alumni Alley hub today and find out!
This week, we shine a light on another set of three companies that made their first Finovate appearances at our first FinovateEurope conference in 2011: a digital advertising platform for banks, an innovator in data-driven digital banking, and an e-billing/billpay pioneer.
Cardlytics Delivering Relevant Rewards Before it was Cool
Cardlytics was a young company when it made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2011. The Atlanta, Georgia-based firm already had gained significant traction for its technology: a transaction marketing platform that helped banks and retailers offer rewards to customers based on their individual buying behavior. During its demo, Cardlytics noted that its technology reached tens of millions of consumers via hundreds of retailers in the U.S. who were leveraging the platform to deliver what have now become table stakes in the loyalty and rewards business: precise targeting and highly relevant offers. Cardlytics returned to the FinovateEurope stage a year later, earning a Best of Show award for its latest loyalty management solution.
From a company with 100 employees and more than $27 million in funding in 2011, Cardlytics has grown into a leading advertising platform for banks and other financial institutions. The company boasts more than 184 million bank customers on its platform and more than $650 million in customer rewards paid. Cardlytics went public in 2018, and currently trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker CDLX. The company has a market capitalization of more than $169 million.
Scott Grimes and Lynne Laube, Cardlytics’ first and second CEOs, demonstrating the company’s technology at FinovateEurope.
“We delivered solid double-digit growth despite the serious challenges present in the economy,” Cardlytics CEO Karim Temsamani said in November when the company shared Q3 financials. “While the economy may be uncertain, I believe there is inherent resiliency in platforms that prove return on ad spend, and I am positive we can grow profitably.” Temsamani joined the company as CEO this summer, taking over from co-founder Lynne Laube who is retiring from the leadership post. Temsamani comes to Cardlytics from Stripe, where he worked as Head of Global Partnerships and, before that, Head of Banking and Financial Products.
Lodo Software, D3 Technology, and the Road from PFM to Data Driven Digital Banking
These days, the idea of fintechs coming from places other than Silicon Valley is increasingly commonplace. But in 2011, there was something more than a little novel about the fintech innovation that was coming out of places like Omaha, Nebraska – courtesy of startups like Lodo Software.
Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2011, Lodo Software demoed a cross-selling solution that helped banks leverage the data gathered by the PFM component of the platform to personalize offers and marketing campaigns. The product, OurCashFlow, organized and analyzed customer data to ensure that financial institutions are sending the right messages to the right customers at the right time. The platform’s messages and notifications are scheduled within the platform and are delivered to customers via their PFM dashboard.
D3 Technology CEO Mark Vipond demoing the company’s technology at FinovateEurope 2011 in London.
Lodo Software rebranded as D3 Technology in 2014 in a move that CEO Mark Vipond said reflected “the company’s evolution from a personal financial management software provider to the creator of one of the market’s only true omnichannel, data driven digital banking solution.” The company created D3 Banking to help financial institutions deliver a consistent, personalized, banking experience anywhere, at any time, and on any device. Five years later, in the summer of 2019 , fellow Finovate alum NCR announced that it would acquire the company.
“NCR is a great fit for D3 and the timing is right for us to combine forces to create a powerful digital transformation platform for large financial institutions,” Vipond said when the acquisition was announced. “This transaction enables us to capitalize on new market opportunities and bring top-tier capabilities to our mutual and future clients.”
AcceptEasy: A Pioneer in E-Billing and Billpay via Email
Enabling secure and straightforward e-billing and payments via email was the innovation championed by Netherlands-based fintech AcceptEmail at FinovateEurope in 2011. Founded in 2006 and launching its solution less than a year later, AcceptEmail offered a three-click process for customers to pay bills directly from their email accounts without requiring manual data entry and re(entry). The company’s technology brings convenience to the billpay process for consumers and helps billers realize lower DSO (days sales outstanding) due to more customers paying their bills faster as well as less collection activity. The platform also supports credit management (notifications and reminders) as well as smart SEPA Direct Debit notifications.
AcceptEmail (now AcceptEasy) CEO Peter Kwakernaak introducing his company to Finovate audiences at FinovateEurope 2011.
The company was acquired by Serrala in February 2020 for an undisclosed amount and announced a rebrand to AcceptEasy. The rebranding was designed to reflect the fact that the company had evolved beyond email to become a bill service provider that enables payments in all digital channels. “The flexibility and architecture of our technology is perfect for all sorts of transactional messaging,” AcceptEasy CEO Peter Kwakernaak explained. “The payment moment is becoming a personalized and interactive contact moment .. (it) is one of the most important steps in the customer journey.” He added, “Our services make it possible for enterprises to provide consumers and small businesses an optimized brand experience and save costs in the process.
