Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation

Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation

Document automation platform Ocrolus announced it has teamed up with financial data aggregation and account verification expert Envestnet | Yodlee this week.

Under the agreement, Envestnet | Yodlee will leverage Ocrolus’ technology to enhance digital document capabilities for its clients. Specifically, Envestnet | Yodlee’s 47 million customers will be able to improve their user experiences by offering their end-users the option to either submit documents or digitally connect bank accounts. Customers will also be able to automate the extraction of financial data from the documents that the end consumer uploads.

“While the financial services industry has undergone significant digital transformation, documents are still a critical source of data,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “We are thrilled to partner with Envestnet | Yodlee to provide a more comprehensive and smoother customer experience across a variety of financial services use cases.”

New York-based Ocrolus leverages AI to capture and analyze data from 1,000 different types of documents and digital forms and boasts an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The company counts more than 400 clients, including Enova, PayPal, Brex, CrossCountry Mortgage, Plaid, and SoFi, who use the solution to detect fraud, analyze cash flows and income, and streamline decisions.

With these capabilities Envestnet | Yodlee anticipates its clients will benefit from more efficient and confident decision-making. “With added document automation capabilities, Envestnet | Yodlee will improve and streamline the onboarding process for credit and lending use cases,” explained company Chief Operating Officer Arun Anur.

Envestnet | Yodlee’s client list includes more than 1,300 financial services and fintech companies, including 17 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The company was founded in 1999 as Yodlee, and changed its name to Envestnet | Yodlee after Envestnet acquired Yodlee for $660 million.

In a digital world, sharing documents can be a huge headache. However, automation platforms such as Ocrolus, this process has become much smoother. Today’s collaboration between Envestnet | Yodlee and Ocrolus marks a significant step forward in enhancing the customer experience.

Ocrolus Enhances its Mortgagetech

Ocrolus Enhances its Mortgagetech

Financial document automation platform Ocrolus has proven its technology as a useful tool in the mortgage industry. The New York-based company is augmenting its reputation today, after announcing this morning it has enhanced its dashboard for mortgage lenders.

The new capability enables both wholesale and direct mortgage lenders to enhance their loan origination workflow. It also automates complex income calculations for both traditional and self-employed borrowers, including those with non-traditional employment, multiple borrowers, or several employers. 

“Manual document processing and income analysis create a bottle neck in the origination process,” said Ocrolus COO Vik Dua. “With Ocrolus’ enhanced mortgage offering, we’re empowering lenders with accurate document analysis to help reduce processing time, mitigate risk, and maximize profit margin on every single loan. We provide lenders with a highly flexible and scalable back office so they can focus on their core business.”

Significant to the enhancement is the combination of three of Ocrolus’ tools: Classify, which enables lenders to speed up processing time with automated document indexing; Capture, which combines AI computer vision and human validation to extract key information from documents with over 99% accuracy; and Analyze, which enables lenders to streamline income calculation for both traditionally and self-employed borrowers with automated, transparent and flexible worksheets.

The technology also has positive implications for borrowers as it offers an objective and standardized approach to evaluating income and supports streamlined communication channels between the borrower and the lender.

Ocrolus was founded in 2014 and has gone on to raise $127 million for its AI-powered document automation platform. The company, which demoed its technology earlier this month at FinovateFall 2023 and won Best of Show honors at FinovateFall 2021, counts PayPal, Brex, SoFi, and Plaid among its clients.


Photo by RDNE Stock project

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Ocrolus plans to demo how a lender would use their full suite of capabilities end-to-end in an optimal way to be “the best SMB lender ever.”

Features

  • Delivers highly-accurate document capture data
  • Provides fraud detection with visual and programmatic identification of suspicious document edits
  • Includes cash flow analytics

Why it’s great

Ocrolus empowers lenders to digitize and automate their lending processes while making smarter decisions. Businesses can become “the best lender ever” with the company’s end-to-end capabilities.

Presenter

David Snitkof, SVP of Growth
Snitkof is an accomplished technology entrepreneur and data/analytics leader who leads Ocrolus’ growth team, overseeing the company’s product, growth and brand marketing efforts.
LinkedIn

Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall

Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall

These nine fintechs wowed our FinovateFall audiences last year with their innovations in embedded finance, payments, wealth management, and more. To whet your appetite for FinovateFall next month, September 12 through 14, here’s a look at what our FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show companies have been up to since taking home Finovate’s top prize last fall.

FinovateFall 2022 is only two weeks away. Register by September 2nd and take advantage of big early-bird savings!


Array

Won Best of Show for its API-based and embedded personalized consumer credit, identity, and financial wellness solutions. Headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2020.

Forged partnerships with fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry Associates and Alkami Technology. Won a second Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2022.

Autobooks

Won Best of Show for its small business digital invoicing and online payment acceptance solutions. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 2017.

Raised $50 million in funding. Named a finalist in the Best SMB/SME Banking Solution category in the 2022 Finovate awards.

Bambu

Won Best of Show for its technology designed to help financial institutions provide wealth management services. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2017 in Hong Kong and at FinovateAfrica 2018 in Cape Town. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Singapore.

Launched docuseries, Behind the Robo. Named a major player in the robo-advisory market by The Business Research Company. Worked with Standard Chartered Bank Kenya to help them launch their new money market fund offering.

Dreams

Won Best of Show for its engagement banking platform that offers a unique way to engage customers and responsibly expand revenues. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2021. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Awarded Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard to deliver sustainable banking products for financial institutions. Named to The Fintech 250.

Horizn

Won Best of Show for its platform that helps banks accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateFall Digital 2020 and FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2011.

Partnered with fellow Finovate alum ebankIT to support financial institutions undergoing digital transformation. Powered the new digital learning platform launched by Pacific Western Bank. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022.

Infocorp

Won Best of Show for its Mobile Native app that brings hyper-personalized experiences for every user in one single bank app. Founded in 1994. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Partnered with TESOBE to help banks in Latin America leverage open banking to build better, more customer-centric apps and services.

Long Game

Won Best of Show for its gamified finance app that helps banks acquire new customers and increase engagement with their Millennial and Gen Z customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2015.

Acquired by Truist Financial.

Ocrolus

Won Best of Show for its intelligent automation technology that transforms documents into data analytics, helping lenders make timely, high quality credit decisions. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in New York City.

Raised $80 million at a valuation of $500 million. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Blend to bring automation to the mortgage process.

PwC

Won Best of Show for its Customer Link solution that turns customer data into smarter action and provides a 360 degree view of your customers. Founded in 1845. Headquartered in New York City.

In partnership with Microsoft, teamed up with Finovate alum FintechOS to build a digital banking solution.


Who will take home the trophies this year at FinovateFall 2022? Join us in New York next month as we showcase upwards of 60 innovative fintech companies – all vying for the title of Best of Show.


Photo by Wendy Wei

FinovateFall 2022 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

FinovateFall 2022 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.

Ocrolus is a document automation platform that powers the digital lending ecosystem. They are debuting Detect, a powerful and innovative solution offering lenders superior fraud detection.

Features

  • Catch more instances of fraud and reduce your risk
  • Utilize detailed fraud signals and descriptions to power underwriting decisions
  • Reduce manual application review

Why it’s great

Detect will uncover what fraudsters want to stay hidden with the ability to view received and recovered documents side-by-side, highlighting altered content.

Presenters

David Snitkof, VP of Product, Analytics
David Snitkof is a technology entrepreneur and data/analytics leader with a successful track record of developing analytical systems, teams, and businesses from the ground up.
LinkedIn

Mindy Robins, Product Marketing Manager
Mindy Robins is a Product Marketing Manager at Ocrolus with extensive experience managing new product development to drive growth for financial services and fintech companies.
LinkedIn

Ocrolus and Blend Partner to Automate the Mortgage Process

Ocrolus and Blend Partner to Automate the Mortgage Process

Digital banking platform Blend and financial document automation platform Ocrolus are partnering this week to embed Ocrolus’ Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) document analysis solution into Blend’s digital mortgage application platform.

Blend expects that Ocrolus’ HITL technology will help accelerate digital mortgage applications for potential home loan borrowers. That’s because the document analysis solution will automate the classification of documents and capture data needed for mortgage applications.

“Blend is simplifying and streamlining the lending experience for consumers and bankers alike,” said Blend’s Manager of Business Development Jeff Braddock. “We’re enhancing the Blend platform with Ocrolus’ automated, accurate document classification and data extraction capabilities. Our partnership with Ocrolus enables us to swiftly deliver time-saving innovations to our customers.”

The partnership aligns well with Blend’s goal to automate all aspects of the loan origination process. The California-based company offers a cloud-based platform that powers end-to-end customer journeys for a range of banking-as-a-service lending products and deposit accounts.

Founded in 2012, Blend’s B2B tools also include a loan officer toolkit, a loan officer mobile app, and an income verification tool. The company enables its customers, including Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and more than 310 other financial services firms, to process an average of more than $5 billion in loans per day.

Ocrolus, which recently won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2021, provides automated document analysis to automate credit decisions across fintech, mortgage, and banking. The company is headquartered in New York and has raised $127 million since it was founded in 2014.


Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash

Digital Adoption, the Customer Experience, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast

Digital Adoption, the Customer Experience, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast

The latest round of Finovate Podcasts features four of the companies that won Best of Show awards at FinovateFall in September. A common theme in the conversations with most of these firms is the importance of customer engagement at a time in rapid digital adoption.

Below is a small sample of what Finovate VP and program host Greg Palmer and his guests are talking about. For more, be sure to check in for new episodes of the Finovate podcast every week.

Find the Finovate podcast at Soundcloud and follow Greg Palmer on Twitter for the latest in programming news and updates.


Corey Cederquist, Director of Customer Transformation & Data Science Advisory, and Brian Morris, Partner – Customer Analytics and Marketing, with PwC. Host Greg Palmer talks with Corey Cederquist and Brian Morris about “getting back to the basics” of understanding the customer.

“We often joke internally that we’re not your parent’s PwC and, as a collective customer transformation team, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to be more provocative in the way that we engage with technology, the experiences that we drive for our clients, and the insights that we deliver.”


Janice Diner, founder and CEO, and Steve Frook, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, with Horizn. Host Greg Palmer sits down with Janice Diner and Steve Frook to discuss digital adoption and how to prepare your customers – and yourself – for the wave.

“From a Horizn standpoint, we are absolutely focused on helping financial institutions to be able to achieve three key objectives: the first one is overachieving their digital growth goals, the second is successfully supporting mergers and new platform launches, and then the third component is driving mass adoption of new innovation and capabilities.”


Ana Echavarren, CEO of Infocorp. Host Greg Palmer and Ana Echavarren talk about user experience and “happy customers”.

“We’ve been doing this since 1994 through IC Banking, our digital channel platform that’s already implemented in more than 40 banks in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are helping people love their banks because we give them superior experiences with our digital channels. Today banks need to build loyalty through digital engagement. That’s why you need as a bank to have customers that love going to your application and your bank.”


David Snitkof, Head of Analytics at Ocrolus. Host Greg Palmer and David Snitkof discuss the future of lending.

“How fast could a mortgage be? At some point in the future, you’ll be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days. It’s harder to say when than to say what but, in theory, if you could process all of the information, and it’s all there available, you should be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days versus a month or more – what it takes today.”


Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

Ocrolus Raises $80 Million at $500 Million Valuation

Ocrolus Raises $80 Million at $500 Million Valuation

Financial document automation platform Ocrolus pulled in $80 million in Series C funding today. The round was led by Fin VC and included participation from Thomvest Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Oak HC/FT, FinTech Collective, QED Investors, Bullpen Capital, ValueStream Ventures, Laconia, RiverPark Ventures, Invicta Growth, Stage II Capital, and Cross River Bank.

The New York-based company now boasts $127 million in funding and is valued at over $500 million. Ocrolus plans to use the funds to expand U.S. operations and “more aggressively” build products for banking and mortgage lending.

“Our platform helps lenders automate underwriting and intelligently leverage cash flow and income data for credit scoring,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “By enabling lenders to more quickly analyze diverse sources of financial data, Ocrolus levels the playing field for every borrower, providing expanded access to credit at a lower cost.”

Ocrolus was founded in 2014 to create a document processing automation solution that helps lenders classify, capture, detect, and analyze financial documents to make better lending decisions. To accomplish this, the company leverages AI, machine learning, and human-in-the-loop (HITL) optimization. The HITL component serves as Ocrolus’ key ingredient to differentiation because it ensures an enhanced level of accuracy when analyzing data derived from documents.

The company, which won a Best of Show award at FinovateFall last week for its document analysis technology, has benefitted from the recent acceleration of digitization brought on by COVID. In today’s lending environment, FIs need to offer online options to compete. We spoke with Ocrolus’ VP of Solutions Nicole Newlin last year on the effects of this digitalization.

Ocrolus’ client list is as impressive as it is extensive, including firms such as Brex, Enova, Lending Club, PayPal, Plaid, and SoFi. Accommodating for a recent uptick in demand, the company added more than 75 employees this year and plans to boost its hiring efforts next year, focusing specifically on machine learning and data science professionals.


Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show Winners Announced

The Best of Show winners of FinovateFall this year featured both veterans and newcomers, established companies and bold, Millennial-led startups, fintech innovators from as far away as Europe and Latin America, as well as home-grown talent from right here in the U.S.A.

To be honest, we could not imagine a better way to celebrate Finovate’s return to New York!

So please join us in offering a hearty congratulations to the companies selected by our attendees as the FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show.

Array for its personalized consumer credit, identity, and financial wellness tools available via both API as well as embeddable components. Video.

AutoBooks for its small business digital invoicing and online payment acceptance tools for FIs. Video.

Bambu for its B2B robo-advisory platform for financial institutions and fintech disruptors. Video.

Dreams for its banking platform that leverages behavioral science to boost customer engagement and financial well-being. Video.

Horizn for its platform that helps banks accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption. Video.

Infocorp for its Mobile Native App, that brings hyper-personalized experiences for every user in one single bank app. Video.

Long Game for its gamified finance app that helps banks acquire new customers and increase engagement with their Millennial and Gen Z customers. Video.

Ocrolus for its intelligent automation technology that transforms documents into data analytics, helping lenders make timely, high quality credit decisions. Video.

PwC for its Customer Link solution that turns customer data into smarter action and provides a 360 degree view of your customers. Video.

Thanks to all the demoing companies, our sponsors and speakers, and our attendees for making our return to live fintech conferencing such a resounding success. Keep in touch with us via the Finovate blog for updates on our upcoming events next year in London for FinovateEurope, in San Francisco for FinovateSpring, and beyond!


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The nine companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2021 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Ocrolus

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Ocrolus is a human-in-the-loop intelligent automation company that transforms documents into data analytics, helping financial services companies make high-quality decisions with accurate, trusted data.

Features

  • Verify key borrower data including cash flow, income, address, employment, identity, assets and liabilities
  • Eliminate data entry
  • Accelerate underwriting decisions

Why it’s great
Ocrolus works as a transparent API call, ingesting documents, identifying potential fraud, and providing actionable insights directly into your loan origination system.

Presenter

David Snitkof, VP Analytics
Snitkof is a technology entrepreneur and data and analytics leader with a successful track record of developing analytical systems, teams, and businesses from the ground.
LinkedIn

Ocrolus’ Nicole Newlin On Digitization, Visualization, and the Age of Partnerships

Ocrolus’ Nicole Newlin On Digitization, Visualization, and the Age of Partnerships
Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

One of the clearest messages from our conversations with fintech analysts and observers this year has been the importance of RegTech. Whether the challenge is financial inclusion, open banking, or simply making ever-more complex business processes less cumbersome, less error-prone, and less expensive, RegTech is increasingly seen as a critical component of financial technology.

We caught up with Nicole Newlin, VP of Solutions for Ocrolus, to talk about how the company leverages artificial intelligence to automate critical business tasks like underwriting for lenders. Via a combination of patttern recognition, crowdsourced data verification, and fraud detection, Ocrolus’ technology brings both transparent analysis and rigorous documentation to the credit decisioning process.

We also thought this would be a great opportunity to revisit and wrap up our celebration of Women’s History Month. To this end, we asked Ms. Newlin about her work with NYC Fintech Women, as well as her thoughts on how women are faring in the world of fintech and financial services.

Finovate: I would be remiss not to ask how Ocrolus is coping with the current global crisis with regard to the COVID-19 outbreak. How has this affected the company and the work it does?

VP of Solutions for Ocrolus Nicole Newlin

Nicole Newlin: The COVID-19 outbreak has caused companies around the world to change the way that they do business, and prepare for the long-term. Planning for the unpredictable is an oxymoron, but we’re certainly seeing the difference between companies built for scalability – those able to flex up/down with demand – and those with a less agile workforce.  In volatile times like these, scalability is key to success.

We see digitization and virtualization particularly impacting the financial markets that Ocrolus serves. If we zoom in on the state of lending, it’s a historically low rate, quarantined world, with more than 3,000 borrowers per day seeking mortgages and refinancing online. In parallel, many lenders are more bandwidth-constrained than ever, creating a gap between rising demand and lenders’ ability to meet that demand.

A key factor in lender scalability is the elimination of data entry bottlenecks. Our customers don’t have underwriters keying in borrower information or performing “stare and compare” analysis of income, asset and identification documents. Instead, they are using document digitization services and data aggregators to provide underwriters with actionable data. Replacing manual data entry and review with API-called data connectivity enables our customers to accommodate fluctuating loan volume on-call rather than scrambling to add, subtract, or redeploy human resources.

For these reasons, our customers are better able to flex up/down with the markets.

We’re also seeing new customers expedite their Ocrolus integrations to lessen the gap between demand and their ability to meet demand without needing to bring on additional resources.

Finovate: And if I may ask, how has it affected you as a professional? Have you had to make dramatic changes to the way you work, or the way you work with your team?

Newlin: Moving to a fully remote workforce is a new muscle for most of us. Fortunately, Ocrolus has always embraced a flexible work from home policy, so our team is able to adapt to working remotely with relative ease.

That said, without the built-in face time of being in an office, communication is critical, so we’re relying heavily on Slack and Zoom video calls to ensure ongoing communication. We’re also spending more time clarifying objectives and expectations so that we can continue to work towards our shared goals remotely.

To maintain culture and morale, we’re experimenting with virtual events. Our first-ever Virtual Happy Hour was a big hit!

Finovate: Ocrolus finished 2019 with the introduction of a new extension to its platform. Ocrolus+, which offers advanced document-based data extraction. Can you tell us a little bit about this feature, perhaps by way of introducing the company to our readers?

Newlin: While Ocrolus transforms documents into actionable data with over 99% accuracy, Ocrolus+ is an advanced version of our fintech infrastructure platform for capturing financial information, validating the veracity of data, and performing cash flow analytics. Ocrolus+ is the first turnkey solution for ingesting documents and digital data streams through a single API. The platform enables lenders to corroborate data retrieved from submitted documents with source data from financial institutions through a partnership with Plaid. Moreover, our partnership with SentiLink enhances our fraud capabilities by enabling us to detect use of synthetic identities.

Finovate: What markets does Ocrolus serve primarily?

Newlin: Ocrolus primarily serves a broad array of lending businesses – including small business lenders, consumer lenders, and mortgage lenders – with some analyzing different sets of documents based on application requirements. Regardless of asset class, Ocrolus has become a critical part of the modern lending infrastructure.

Finovate: Ocrolus interestingly has partnered with a number of other Finovate alums like Plaid and BlueVine in recent years. In fact, you spent some time at Plaid/Quovo, if I read correctly. Why are partnerships important in your industry? What makes for a productive relationship between fintechs?

Newlin: We are in an age of partnerships and collaboration. With technology and market conditions changing  at such a fast pace, it’s virtually impossible to build everything internally. Competition is growing, and we’ve seen tech behemoths like Google, Amazon, and Apple making moves to break into financial services. Partnerships are key to staying ahead in a competitive market. By partnering with best of breed companies, you can save resources, accelerate time to market, and hijack otherwise steep learning curves. However, it’s important to note that partnerships must be aligned with the company’s strategy and values. And they should benefit both organizations in order to ensure long-term alignment.

Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley and Director of Business Development Kevin Bailey demonstrating PerfectAudit at FinovateFall 2018.

Finovate: You came to Ocrolus after being a founder and president of a fintech/financial services consultancy. What drew you to Ocrolus? And now that you’re here, can you tell us a little about the work you do for the company as VP of Solutions?

Newlin: I was introduced to Ocrolus via a few current board members that had also supported my previous employer, Quovo (acquired by Plaid). Once I met with the leadership team and learned more about what Ocrolus offered, I was intrigued. The opportunity to work at a company that could cross many verticals with its offering was interesting to me, because that spoke to the flexibility and endless possibilities of staying nimble and being relevant. Of course, that has been proven out even faster than expected with COVID-19 as we see new opportunities in a challenging environment!

When I joined Ocrolus, my primary focus was to build out a strong Solutions team that would support all sales activities via sales engineering/implementation, which includes all aspects of client onboarding and API integrations. As I’ve built out the team and developed those functions, we also work closely with our Product/Operations team in piloting new verticals/services. Lastly, a big focus today is ensuring we promote strong client relationships via our account management and client success teams. In a nutshell, our team is the client-facing division of our firm in the entire customer lifecycle.

Finovate: You’ve recently joined the NYC Fintech Women’s Leadership team. Can you tell us about the organization and its goals? How did you come to the decision to work with them?

Newlin: NYC Fintech Women is a community of women fintech executives, founders, and engineers, who are opening the doors of Wall Street by facilitating access to education, community, and coaching. I want to contribute by supporting and mentoring these women. Additionally, given my path into fintech and the number of talented women transitioning from traditional firms, I feel a strong sense of duty to support their efforts.

Finovate: What are the two or three steps that would do the most good to promote women’s leadership in fintech and financial services in general? And what are the greatest challenges or obstacles to pursuing these steps?

Newlin: I think women have a hard time breaking into financial services because there have never been that many in the space. The reality is that there are still fewer women in tech positions, senior positions, on boards, etc. There isn’t a magic button to press for greater equality – we have to take the initiative to create diversity in the industry.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Ability is of little account without opportunity,” by Lucille Ball. In that spirit, here are three things we can do to promote women’s leadership in financial services:

  1. We must give women the chance to succeed. I look to leadership in all companies of all types to consider how they are offering opportunity across a wide and diverse employee and candidate pool. Look at your organization and consider who is the next to move forward in their career and how leadership must mentor their employees. Don’t let great team members slip away because they see no career path.
  2. Consider how diversity in hiring grows market share, promotes creativity and stimulates fresh ideas.
  3. Finally, think strategically about how you are building teams and providing thoughtful professional development.

Ocrolus was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in New York City. Sam Bobley is CEO and co-founder. With more than $33 million in funding, Ocrolus includes Oak HC/FT, Laconia, and Bullpen Capital among its investors.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Passport Raises $65 Million for Mobile Payment for Parking.

Around the web

  • CustomerXPs honored on the RegTech 100 list for second consecutive year.
  • Ixaris forms agreement with Sabre to tap into new European markets.
  • Ocrolus introduces Ocrolus+, a turnkey solution for ingesting documents and digital data streams through a single API.
  • Bitbond partners with KlickOwn to expand into real estate.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.