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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
FIS has partnered with online lending marketplace Lendio.
Under the agreement, FIS will leverage Lendio’s technology to fuel its new Digital Lending solution.
FIS’ Digital Lending tool aims to streamline and automate the lending process for financial institutions.
Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS has teamed up with online lending marketplace Lendio. The core banking giant is leveraging Lendio’s technology to launch its new SMB Digital Lending solution.
FIS’ new SMB Digital Lending solution seeks to offer small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) easier access to capital by streamlining and automating the lending process for financial institutions. The new lending tool provides fully automated decisioning by combining big data and machine learning with underwriting expertise.
Leveraging Lendio’s technology, FIS’ Digital Lending solution will help banks source, underwrite, and fund SMB loans, making them more affordable for the borrower. By leveraging embedded transaction analytics, FIS’ Digital Lending will also offer lenders a holistic view of borrower health, pre-qualify SMB depositors, and help them create targeted marketing and sales campaigns.
“By partnering with Lendio, we are leveraging our unmatched scale and reach in the banking industry plus Lendio’s advanced small business underwriting technology and empowering financial institutions to profitably serve their small business customers,” said FIS Lending SVP Division Executive Steve Sabin. “The expansion of our digital banking capabilities illustrates FIS’ commitment to serving the entire money lifecycle—whether at rest, in motion, or at work—and I look forward to seeing the positive impact the solution brings.”
Adding a lending solution to its portfolio that focuses specifically on SMBs will complement FIS’ existing banking tools that cover both retail lending and commercial lending. FIS may be most well-known for its core banking services, but the firm also supports digital banking, payment processing, merchant acquiring services, consulting services, and more. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS has a current market capitalization of $42.8 billion.
“We are thrilled to partner with FIS, a global leader in financial technology, to help bring this SMB lending platform to banks across the country,” said Lendio CEO and Co-founder Brock Blake. “Our mission at Lendio is to fuel the dreams of small business owners by simplifying small business lending. FIS SMB Digital Lending is a perfect fit for that mission, as it enables banks to offer a fast, easy, and transparent loan process to their small business clients. Together with FIS, we are creating a win-win situation for banks and small businesses, and we look forward to expanding our reach and impact through this partnership.”
Lendio was founded in 2011, and has since helped to match small businesses seeking capital with suitable lenders. Businesses in need of funds can submit a single loan application to Lendio, tapping into its network of over 75 lenders. The platform then pairs each business with a suitable lender from the company’s in-house network.
FIS unveiled its embedded finance platform, Atelio by FIS, this week.
The platform leverages FIS’ existing technology to enable businesses to embed a variety of financial products and services into their offerings.
FIS made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2013. Stephanie Ferris is CEO and President.
FIS is the latest company to introduce a platform to make it easier for businesses and software developers to embed financial services and fintech solutions into their products and services. Atelio by FIS, launched this week, is one of the first banking-as-a-service offerings from a major core provider. The technology will serve B2C fintechs and enable financial and non-financial services companies alike to implement embedded finance into their existing offerings
“Welcome to the future of financial services,” FIS President of Platform and Enterprise Products Tarun Bhatnagar said. “Atelio by FIS is our vision to lead where fintech is going, which is outside the boundaries of how businesses enable, and their customers consume, financial services today.”
Atelio leverages FIS existing technology by way of easily embeddable and consumable components. The platform enables non-financial companies to offer their customers a wide variety of financial experiences: collecting deposits, moving money, issuing cards, sending invoices, and more. Atelio also provides tools to help companies fight fraud, anticipate cash flows, and gain insights into consumer preferences and behaviors.
FIS’ latest offering comes at a time when growth in embedded finance is expected to soar. In its product announcement, the company pointed to research from Bain Capital that indicated that embedded finance will represent 10% of all transactions by 2026. The firm values these transactions at $7 trillion, or more than $50 billion in total revenue. Additionally, research from S&P Global Intelligence showed that banks that offered embedded finance solutions outperformed their peers in terms of deposit growth.
“More than just a new solution, Atelio is built to lend the expertise, tools, and distribution so that our users and clients can focus on creating,” Bhatnagar said. “Our scale, distribution and continued investment in technology have given us the foundation to unlock our financial capabilities to a wider audience and power the next generation of financial innovation.”
Three FIS clients – KeyBank, private student loan provider College Ave, and payment system and billing platform Royal Pay – have already deployed Atelio and are building solutions on the platform.
Jacksonville, Florida-based FIS made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2013. Currently, the company enables 95% of the world’s banks, moves more than $1 trillion a month, and processes $50 trillion via its asset management technology every year. The company’s new product announcement came one day after FIS announced first quarter 2024 results which included the firm’s “fifth straight quarter of exceeding our financial outlook,” according to FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris.
Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FISannounced today that it is partnering with Stratyfy to bolster the capabilities of its SecurLOCK card fraud management solution.
After testing the new SecurLOCK capabilities with customers, FIS anticipates that the updated tool will increase accurately identified card transactions and help prevent fraud. This will reduce friction for end consumers by minimizing fraud and disruption experienced because of false positives.
“With sophisticated fraudsters using new technologies to increase fraud attacks, both businesses and consumers are facing more risk than ever before,” said FIS Head of Fraud Services Eric Kraus. “This new collaboration is a continuation of a commitment to implement new technologies, helping businesses prevent fraudulent behavior to protect the consumers they serve.”
Founded in 2017, Stratyfy provides predictive analytics and decision management solutions for financial institutions. The company demoed one of its solutions, UnBias, at FinovateFall 2022, and won a Best of Show award for its presentation. Among the company’s other solutions are Credit Risk Assessment and Fraud Detection. Stratyfy is one of 80 graduates of FIS’ Fintech Accelerator, having completed the 12-week program in 2020.
“It’s rewarding to see how our unique machine learning approach can enable better outcomes through this solution,” said Stratyfy CEO, and co-founder Laura Kornhauser. “Our relationship with FIS showcases the tremendous value that is possible through partnerships, and we’re thrilled to continue to build upon this important work.”
Banking technology company FIS was founded in 1968, and has a current market capitalization of $40 billion. Earlier this year, the Florida-based company acquired post-trade SaaS platform Torstone Technology to enhance its own capital markets offering. According to Crunchbase, the purchase marks FIS’ 26th acquisition.
Shift4partners with Atlante to provide payments solution for electric vehicle charging.
Cryptocurrency / Blockchain
African-based blockchain payments network Zoneraises $8.5 million in seed funding.
Figure TechnologiesunveilsFigure Markets, a single platform where investors can trade a wide range of blockchain-native assets from crypto to stocks to alternative investments.
Financial inclusion
Building society Nationwideintroduces new digital service using British Sign Language (BSL) for deaf and hearing-challenged customers.
Insurtech
iPipeline, a digital solutions provider for the insurance industry, launched its OneView solution that tracks the progress and status of annuity orders in real-time.
Taxation / Accounting
Free Agentexpands its smart tax calculation functionality to all NatWest Group customers via their business banking app.
We’re already well into the second month of 2024, and while funding has slowed down a bit, news in the decentralized finance world has picked up. Take a look at some of the top headlines in fintech and banking this week.
Digital Banking
Israel-based digital bank oneZerounveils its new GenAI-powered assistant, Ella.
This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.
Our final Finovate Global column of 2023 celebrates the conversations we’ve had this year with fintech innovators from around the world.
Stay tuned in 2024 for more interviews with some of the most interesting founders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in fintech and financial services.
“We developed BehaviorQuant because every financial decision is ultimately made by a person or a team. BehaviorQuant solves a core problem that underlies the entire investment industry: we don’t have systematic knowledge about the people and teams behind investment decisions. And that’s true for financial professionals and clients alike.” Dr. Thomas Oberlechner, founder and CEO of BehaviorQuant. Interview.
“Moniepoint solves the problem of fragmented, inaccessible, and low-quality financial services for businesses in emerging markets. It is a full-service business banking platform seeking to provide all the digital financial services a typical business needs.” Tosin Eniolorunda, founder and CEO of Moniepoint. Interview.
“Eight hundred million voice conversations are recorded daily in Europe and many more worldwide. A tiny 1% of these conversations are checked for quality control, employee training, and business results improvement. Ender Turing is a conversations intelligence and automation platform to close 99% of the conversation gap for business growth.” Olena Iosifova, CEO of Ender Turing. Interview.
“Capital raising is broken. Private companies spend months and even years in the fundraising process, learning how to raise capital and repeating the same mistakes, approaching the wrong investors and often spamming them with irrelevant investment opportunities.” Ulyana Shtybel, CEO of Quoroom. Interview.
“At Refine intelligence, our mission is to help banks regain that superpower of really knowing their customers’ life stories, so their financial crime teams can quickly clear AML or scam alerts triggered by legitimate customer activity. We work with Risk, Financial Crime, BSA and AML teams. Fraud teams look at our technology to help with scam operations.” Uri Rivner, co-founder and CEO of Refine Intelligence. Interview.
“It was an honor to be ranked by CB Insights in its Fintech 250 list and, as one of only seven African start-ups featured, it speaks to the pioneering approach we are introducing to the world – revolutionizing payments and creating a financial services ecosystem for Africa.”
“As sub-Saharan Africa gains recognition on the global stage, we are seeing innovative and pioneering products emerge and rise in popularity amongst consumers, diversifying the products they can choose from.” Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga. Interview.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Singaporean fiat-to-crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay forged a partnership with Worldpay from FIS.
Indonesian P2P fintech JULO added insurance coverage with the launch of its JULO Cares solution.
Hungary’s OTP Bank partnered with Intellect Global Consumer banking (iGCB), the consumer banking arm of Indian banking technology copany Intelltect Design Arena.
FIS-owned Worldpay is integrating Alipay+ to broaden the payment acceptance tools it offers merchants.
The rollout will begin with AlipayHK, a standalone e-wallet that is limited to Hong Kong dollars.
“By tapping into Worldpay’s market leading footprint, together we can help more merchants globally accelerate their growth journeys and expansion into strategic markets,” said General Manager of Ant Group in Europe and the Middle East Guoming Cheng.
Worldpay revealed its latest partnership today. The FIS-owned electronic payment and banking company announced it will integrate Alipay+ as an option among its e-commerce and POS offerings.
To initiate the rollout, Worldpay will start by enabling its merchant clients to support Alipay’s AlipayHK e-wallet. AlipayHK will be available to Worldpay’s clients in phases. Alipay launched AlipayHK as a standalone app in 2017. The AlipayHK wallet differs from Alipay because, as the name suggests, it is limited to transactions that are made and settled in local Hong Kong dollars.
“To stay competitive, merchants must understand and offer the payment methods that their customers prefer. Local wallet providers are extending their dominance in several APAC markets,” said Worldpay from FIS General Manager for Global E-commerce, APAC Phil Pomford. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Ant Group to provide our global merchants access to the Alipay+ platform starting with the AlipayHK wallet.”
Developed by Ant Group, the wider Alipay+ brand provides global cross-border mobile payment tools that help merchants enable Alipay’s one billion active consumers to pay with apps they’re already using, including MPay, Kakao Pay, GCash, and more. Alipay+ also offers merchants digital marketing tools to better target and serve customers.
“The collaborative effort with Worldpay will empower merchants to sell globally and contribute to our mission of providing more open, digitalized, and inclusive financial services to global audiences,” said General Manager of Ant Group in Europe and the Middle East Guoming Cheng. “Alipay+’s suite of innovation solutions is connected with more than one billion consumers worldwide. By tapping into Worldpay’s market leading footprint, together we can help more merchants globally accelerate their growth journeys and expansion into strategic markets.”
Originally acquired in 1971, Worldpay now processes $130 million daily for more than one million merchants across the 146 countries. FISacquired the company in 2019 for an estimated $34 billion. Earlier this year, FIS sold a majority stake in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR.
Fintech giant FIS announced that it will sell a majority stake in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR.
The move comes just over four years after FIS acquired Worldpay in a deal valued at $43 billion.
The transaction is the largest to date for GTCR and the biggest leveraged buyout of 2023.
Four years after acquiring payments company Worldpay, fintech titan FIS has announced plans to sell a majority stake in the firm. Private equity company GTCR is the purchaser, and will gain 55% of Worldpay, which is currently valued at $18.5 billion. Note that when FIS acquired the company in 2019, Worldpay was valued at $43 billion.
The sale is expected to close by the first quarter of 2023. Former Worldpay CEO Charles Drucker will be re-appointed as Chief Executive.
The transaction is the largest to date for the PE firm. The deal is also the largest leveraged buyout of the year. GTCR will finance half of the transaction with equity financing and the other half via borrowed capital. GTCR also has committed to an additional investment of as much as $1.25 billion in Worldpay to facilitate future acquisitions. According to Reuters, GTCR was able to outbid Advent International, a rival firm that was also interested in a major stake in Worldpay.
FIS will use the capital raised from the sale to retire debt and buy back shares from its current shareholders. The sale comes after months of strategic review and pressure from activist investors concerned with what they have referred to as “underinvestment,” “operational missteps,” and an overall “unsuccessful integration” of Worldpay into FIS. The acquisition will help Worldpay reduce its debt from $20 billion at the end of March to $10 billion when the deal closes next year. The strategic review, led by FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris, is designed to help the firm cut costs by $1.25 billion.
Sans Worldpay, FIS will continue to operate its core processing systems business for banks and FIs, as well as its capital markets division for investment firms. FIS’ capital markets business represents just under 25% of the company’s revenues. The company’s banking technology division provides 46% of revenues and its merchants business accounts representing approximately 30%.
Founded in 1968, FIS has been a Finovate alum since 2010. Worldpay is an alum of our developers conference, presenting its technology to FinDEVr audiences in 2015 and again in 2016.
A number of sources are reporting that FIS has acquired Bond Financial Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition was first reported by Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula, who subsequently shared an internal note from FIS describing the acquisition.
Neither company has commented publicly about the acquisition reports.
Both FIS and Bond Financial Technologies are being discreet about the news. But a growing number of sources – from TechCrunch to Twitter – are reporting that FIS has acquired the embedded finance company for an undisclosed sum. The news broke on June 1 via a tweet from Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula. TechCrunch confirmed the story days later, citing unnamed sources. But neither FIS nor Bond has issued an official statement on the news. Mikula followed up his initial tweet with a tweet on Friday sharing an internal communication from FIS president of platform and enterprise products, Tarun Bhatnagar, that provided additional details.
What do we know? In his tweet, Bhatnagar said that FIS was “welcoming 30 Bond colleagues to the FIS team” and that Bond co-founder and CEO Roy Ng will stay on, reporting to Bhatnagar. Bhatnagar noted that the acquisition makes sense for FIS insofar as it brings both banking-as-a-service and embedded finance talent and experience to the company. Bhatnagar added that the acquisition will “close a gap” when it comes to FIS’ embedded finance capabilities, and accelerate time-to-market for the company’s new embedded finance projects.
Founded in 2019, Bond has raised $49 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company’s embedded finance platform enables program management teams to build, launch, and operate their own financial products. Account verification solutions, deposit accounts, virtual and physical cards, and money movement tools are among the products that Bond’s technology helps companies create. With modern APIs and a robust integration layer, Bond simplifies the process of building and launching new products without having to partner with multiple institutions and vendors. Bond also manages the programs so that companies do not need to worry about securing banking licenses or staffing their own compliance teams.
Earlier this year, Bond announced a partnership with College Ave Student Loans. The collaboration will enable the private student loan provider, one of the top three in the U.S., to develop financial solutions for students and their families. Ng praised the company for its refinancing program and loan products for undergraduates, graduates, and parents, alike. “We look forward to partnering with College Ave to help millions of young adults build a strong financial future,” Ng said.
CardRates published an extensive profile of Bond and its founders at the beginning of the year.
FIS is letting go of its Merchant Solutions business, along with the Worldpay brand, which it originally acquired for $34 billion in 2019.
The company states that Worldpay needs a different capital allocation strategy to enable the brand “to pursue more aggressive investment opportunities, including M&A.”
The spin-off is expected to take 12 months.
FISacquiredWorldpay for $34 billion in 2019, and after rumors of a break-up swirled last week, the Florida-based firm announced plans to let go of and restore the Worldpay brand. Specifically, FIS is spinning out the Merchant Solutions business it created from the Worldpay acquisition.
Jeffrey A. Goldstein, FIS Chairman of the Board, said that “… the spin-off of Worldpay will unlock shareholder value by improving both companies’ performance, enhancing client services, and simplifying operational management. We are confident that this is the right time for the separation of Worldpay.” Goldstein added that the Merchant Solutions business requires “increased investment in growth and a different capital allocation strategy” than FIS.
In its press release announcing the change, FIS explained that this different capital allocation strategy will enable Worldpay “to pursue more aggressive investment opportunities, including M&A.” The long-term goal of the spin-off is for Worldpay to expand geographic coverage of its eCommerce tools, strengthen its enterprise offerings, and shift toward software-led payments.
After the split, which is expected to be completed in the next 12 months, FIS and Worldpay will retain strong ties. As a result, FIS’ Merchant Solutions business will take on the Worldpay brand, which will be restored. Originally founded in 1971, Worldpay conducted $2 trillion in payments volume in 2022. Charles Drucker, who was Worldpay CEO from 2004 until the acquisition in 2019, will oversee the spin-off and will once again serve as the company’s CEO when the separation is finalized.
Founded in 1968, banking technology company FIS has acquired a total of 17 companies, two of which were purchased after the Worldpay acquisition in 2019. The company offers 450+ solutions and processes more than 110 million transactions each day. FIS is publicly listed on the NYSE and has a current market capitalization of almost $40 billion.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments in Germany where green banking, embedded finance, and open banking are the themes at the top of this week’s fintech headlines.
First up, Berlin-based Sustainability-as-a-Service innovator ecolytiqannounced that it was teaming up with Slovakian financial institution Tatra Banka. The climate engagement fintech will provide Tatra Banka with the technology the firm needs in order to launch new green banking functionality on its online banking brand, Blue Planet. The new feature, which will be made available to Tatra Banka’s more than 600,000 customers, will enable users to monitor the impact their transactions may have on the environment (for example, with CO2 emissions), provide users with ideas on how to reduce their environmental impact, and offer rewards for spending that is environmentally friendly.
Founded in 2020, ecolytiq demonstrated its technology at Finovate’s developer event, FinDEVr 2021, which was held as a part of FinovateSpring that year. Putting accurate data at the center of the ability to move toward greater environmental sustainability, ecolytiq demonstrated how its open knowledge graph and streaming technology keep its data relevant and current. More recently, the company announced a strategic partnership with exceet Card Group, makers of sustainable payment cards made from wood and, the following month, teamed up with French sustainable neobank Green-Got.
Peter Golha, a director at Tatra Banka said that the institution believed it had a a role to play in the transition toward a more environmentally sustainable economy. “Not only have we a chance to change our own trajectory, but also a chance to live the topic of sustainability alongside our clients,” Golha said.
Founded in 1990, Tatra Banka was the first private bank to be established in Slovakia. Winner of the TREND Bank of the Year award for two years in a row, Tatra Banka announced this spring that it had achieved its greatest profit to date, reporting $164 million (EUR 162.1) in consolidated profits for the financial year 2021.
Second, German financial management platform for businesses Airbank inked a deal with Klarna Kosma this week. Klarna Kosma is an open banking platform launched by Swedish e-commerce innovator Klarna this spring. Seen as a rival to fellow Finovate alum Tink and its open banking platform, Klarna Kosma offers financial institutions, fintechs, and merchants connectivity to more than 15,000 banks in 24 countries around the world via a single API. Kosma was made possible in many ways by Klarna’s acquisition of direct, bank-to-bank payments company SOFORT in 2014, and Klarna has been developing and expanding the service ever since.
“Over the past year, the demand for Open Banking services from financial institutions and fintech startups has reached a tipping point,” Klarna Kosma VP Wilko Klaassen said. “(This) is why we have built a dedicated business unit which brings together engineering, product management, sales and marketing all together in the same team to focus on this $15 billion, fast-growing market.”
Airbank will leverage its new relationship with Klarna Kosma to “accelerate” its expansion into European markets and beyond. Airbank enables businesses to consolidate their bank accounts in a single location, allowing them to more easily automate bill management, make payments, and manage their finances. Companies also can use Airbank’s platform to track their financial transactions and forecast future liquidity. The partnership with Klarna Kosma will make it possible for Airbank to securely access account information from thousands of banks around the world, expand more aggressively, and better serve its SME customers that have global requirements.
“By the end of this year, we will serve over 50 counties, making Airbank the most comprehensive global banking solution for SMEs in the industry, with the ability to connect bank accounts from almost anywhere in the world,” Airbank founder and CEO Christopher Zemina said. “We are delighted to have Klarna Kosma as an experienced and dynamic partner that shares our ambition to shape the future of B2B financial management.”
Lastly, early in the week we learned that Berlin-based embedded finance startup Monite had teamed up with Codat, a U.K. firm that offers a universal API to enable access to consented business data from banking, accounting, and ecommerce platforms. The partnership will enable both SaaS platforms and financial institutions to integrate invoicing and billing functionality into their apps. This will allow platforms and institutions to offer businesses a unified solution for managing their financial operations.
In a statement, the CEOs of both Monite and Codat praised the great variety of financial apps and platforms dedicated to serving SMEs. The challenge, according to both Monite CEO Ivan Maryasin and Codat CEO Pete Lord, is that the variety can be overwhelming for many small businesses. “What’s still missing are the ‘super apps’ that bring everything together,” Maryasin said. “It can be time-consuming to manage and get the most out of them all,” concurred Lord.
Founded in 2020, Monite has raised $7.8 million in funding for its technology that empowers financial institutions and platforms to offer financial services such as multi-banking, AP automation, invoicing, and more to their customers. London, U.K.-based Codat neared unicorn status last month upon raising $100 million in Series C funding. The investment took the company’s total funding to more than $176 million and gave Codat a valuation of $825 million. The round was led by JPMorgan Partners, and featured participation from Plaid and Shopify.
