Financial Innovation Roundup e49
Here are 16 news stories you don’t want to miss from financial services last week (Feb 18 – 24, 2024)
#industryinsights
Up to 17 deals were recorded by FinTech Global this week in the FinTech sector, with a total of $225m being raised across all the deals.
Sector-wise, the deals were spread fairly evenly around different markets, with FinTechs accounting for seven deals, InsurTech for three, RegTech for two and ESG, CyberTech, PayTech and PropTech accounting for one.
#artificialintelligence #ai #dataanalytics
Vancouver-based FinTech startup Levr.ai has secured $1 million CAD in seed financing to continue scaling its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered loan software for small businesses.
The seed round comes a year after Levr.ai raised $1-million in pre-seed financing, co-led by British Columbia-based Mavan Capital Partners and Alberta-based Sprout. This new funding, which closed at the end of January, includes follow-on investments from Weave VC and Sprout, with participation from several new, undisclosed investors.
The latest investment brings Levr.ai’s funding to over $2.5 million. A Levr.ai spokesperson declined to disclose the startup’s valuation, but told BetaKit it has tripled since its last round.
Levr.ai has already facilitated over $15 million in loan offers, a significant jump from $2.5 million in early 2023.
Levr.ai offers an AI-driven loan platform that connects small businesses seeking capital to a wide range of funding options, aiming to hasten the process of looking and applying for loans.
Revolut is building a new product targeted at finance bosses to streamline accounts functions with the help of AI.
The fintech is building ‘Billpay’, which will allow businesses to automatically pull in invoices from their accounting platforms, extract the necessary information, and make transfers with necessary approvals, James Gibson, general manager of Revolut Business told Financial News.
“With Billpay, we're aiming to reduce the time our customers spend on accounts payable by more than 80%,” Gibson said.
The digital bank is planning to roll out Billpay to companies during the second half of 2024.
?#blockchain #crypto #cbdc
Digital bank Revolut is set to introduce a cryptocurrency exchange targeting "advanced traders," according to a customer email seen by CoinDesk.
Revolut currently offers basic crypto services to many of its 30 million customers. The exchange will offer lower fees and enhanced market analytics.
"We're launching a new crypto exchange, built with advanced traders in mind," the email, which asked the customer to test the new platform, read. "You'll find deeper analytical tools and lower fees than the app."
Januar ApS, the financial infrastructure provider for crypto businesses, has successfully closed a Seed Extension round, landing investments from prominent international investors including CMT Digital, Third Prime and Skyfall Ventures alongside Michael Gr?nager, Chainalysis Co-founder & CEO, and with follow-on from current investors.
The company also announced the launch of Januar Crypto - an institutional Wallet and Crypto Trading solution integrated alongside Januar’s proven fiat account and payment solutions. The combination of Januar Wallet and Januar Trade will allow businesses to easily convert fiat to crypto right on the Januar platform, a testament to the Company’s commitment to streamlining operations by reducing time-consuming, costly transaction processes currently plaguing businesses and user experiences.
Since its Seed Round in April 2022, the Company has obtained a full Payment Institutions license with the Danish FSA, which has been fully passported to permit service across all 30 EEA markets. Januar’s team of ex-Chainalysis compliance experts, crypto entrepreneurs, and banking veterans is now ramping up to meet demand across Europe and to expand its product with remarkable new features.
#digitalbanking ?#neobank #challengerbanks
Monzo is nearing a new round of funding that would value the British digital bank at about ￡4bn, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of investor confidence in its expanding business.
The UK fintech could finalise a deal as soon as the next two weeks to raise as much as ￡350mn from a mix of new and existing investors, the people said. The company would be valued at about ￡3.6bn on a so-called pre-money basis and about ￡4bn with the fresh capital taken into account.
Alphabet investment fund CapitalG is set to lead the round, with participation from investors including China’s Tencent and the US fintech investor Ribbit Capital. HongShan, the Chinese venture capital giant that split from Sequoia Capital last year, also plans to join the financing alongside others, the people said.
7.???? Griffin : launches foundations, an early access programme for uk companies to embed banking products
Griffin, the API-first UK bank and full-stack Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform, has announced that it is accepting applications for its early access programme, Foundations. This comes after a successful pilot programme for its first set of customers. Foundations are designed for companies in the UK who want to offer financial products to their customers and build directly on a full-stack BaaS provider.?
?As a licensed UK bank offering vertically integrated infrastructure and cutting-edge risk management via simple, modern APIs, Griffin is helping companies embed banking products like savings accounts, safeguarding accounts and accounts for holding client money, and creating value for industries that previously struggled with finding the right BaaS partners.
#digitalwealth ?#wealthtech #investing
Revolut has launched Robo-Advisor service in the EEA, to automate investing tailored to customer needs
The new product is advantageous for those who don't have the time to actively invest, or have limited or no trading experience
领英推荐
Revolut’s Robo-Advisor assigns a portfolio taking into account customers’ personal circumstances like risk tolerance and financial goals; the assigned portfolio will rebalance automatically as the market moves
Revolut has made investing more affordable and accessible by introducing a Robo-Advisor product with a minimum starting investment of just 100 euros.
Revolut, the global financial super-app with more than 35 million customers globally, has launched its own Robo-Advisor service in the EEA. The new product allows customers to save time and automate investing tailored to their needs.
Moneybox has doubled its ETF offering amid growing customer demand for thematic investing.
The expansion of its 24-strong ETF range comes as Moneybox said it wanted to increase its customers’ ability to diversify on the platform.
Customers with a stocks and shares ISA, lifetime ISA or general investment account can access the ETFs.
The 12 new ETFs cover artificial intelligence, carbon transition and blockchain technology alongside three fixed income products.
This includes four Vanguard ETFs as well as strategies from WisdomTree, JP Morgan Asset Management, UBS Asset Management, Invesco, VanEck, DWS and State Street Global Advisers (SSGA).
#esg #sustainability #climatetech
10.? NatWest and Cogo : create carbon toolkit for SMEs
NatWest and Cogo have joined forces to create a toolkit to help build carbon literacy among SMEs and guide them through the carbon disclosure process.
Free to access for anyone, the toolkit has been created to support all SMEs regardless of their level of carbon literacy.
Two-thirds of SMEs worry that they don’t have the skills to tackle the climate crisis*, yet despite this there is increasing pressure on supply-chain SMEs to disclose their carbon footprint to large corporations they supply to due to mandatory scope 3 emissions reporting**.?
#openbanking
11.? Wealthica and NayaOne : Adding to the marketplace
Canadian investment aggregation platform Wealthica has joined the NayaOne Tech Marketplace. With a network of over 150 financial institutions, Wealthica offers Canada’s largest banking, brokerage, and investment aggregator. Wealthica is known for its investment tracker with over 50,000 users and $33 billion in aggregated assets.
Partnering with NayaOne will help Wealthica make its technology accessible to banks as well as build the trust necessary to accelerate digital transformation and move projects forward. Moreover, with NayaOne’s extensive network, Wealthica will have access to an even greater number of Canadian financial institutions, expanding its own network and enhancing the quality of its offerings.
Data intelligence platform Bud Financial has teamed up with Fintech Galaxy to pioneer a new era of personalised financial services in the MENA region.
By combining advanced AI-powered data enrichment techniques with Fintech Galaxy’s ‘Open Finance FINX Platform’, Bud and Fintech Galaxy want to enable FIs to offer personalised financial management apps, loans, savings accounts, and investment plans, based on insights into customers’ financial behaviours and requirements.
#payments #spending #borrowing
Bootstrapped since 2019, Montréal-based FinTech startup Zūm Rails has now raised $10.5 million CAD in Series A financing for its payments platform that seeks to merge open banking with instant payments.
Founded around a kitchen table, co-founder and chief sales officer Miles Schwartz claims Zūm Rails now moves more than $1 billion in payments monthly. The all-equity Series A round, led by sole investor Arthur Ventures, will be used to scale Zūm Rails’ platform in the United States and grow its solution with new banking-as-a-service (BaaS) capabilities.
We’re making it easier for brokers to work with Fraction, with the goal to be the single most pleasant lender you ever interact with.
Introducing Fraction’s broker app, our new iPhone app (Android is coming at a later date). We’ve tried to bake in every interaction after submission you might need to have with Fraction as functionality for the app.
TD Bank announced the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone, enabling small and micro business owners across the U.S. to use their mobile phone for a seamless and secure point-of-sale (POS) experience.
With Tap to Pay and the TD Bank Mobile App, business owners can accept all types of in-person, contactless payments using only their iPhone – from contactless credit and debit card to digital wallet or wearable, Tap to Pay eliminates the need for additional POS hardware.
Business owners can also use Tap to Pay on iPhone as a complementary solution to their storefront POS systems, allowing them to accept payments on the move. Whether setting up as a vendor at a local market, running a food truck or landscaping business, or operating a pop-up shop, Tap to Pay on TD Bank Mobile App allows businesses of all sizes to transact and accept payments on the go directly from their mobile phone.
16.? Nova Credit : Introducing ‘Income Navigator,’ a New Leader in Income Verification Coverage, Flexibility, and Compliance?
Nova Credit bolsters its product offering to help more companies automate verification of income, significantly improving coverage, conversion and user experience.
Key takeaways:
·????? Income Navigator’s VOI waterfall provides broad coverage with 98%+ of the U.S. market, leveraging bank data, payroll systems, and pay stub data
·????? Partners have increased consumer conversion rates by up to 80% vs. previous solutions
·????? Over the past 12 months, Income Navigator has been used by over four thousand companies across consumer lending and tenant screening
Thank you Matthew Wilcox for the mention and it's great to be featured alongside remarkable fintechs.
Chief Strategy Officer at Packhelp | Marketplace, Retail & Digital experience | Entrepreneurial spirit
1 年Matthew Wilcox great summary! I'm particularly excited about Revolut's introduction of 'Billpay' and their upcoming crypto exchange aimed at advanced traders. It's refreshing to see a fintech company pushing the envelope on both fronts of traditional finance and cryptocurrency, making sophisticated financial tools more accessible to a broader audience.
Connecting the Middle East with Europe | ENTJ
1 年Great overview of the latest fintech innovation trends! Can't wait to read more. Matthew Wilcox
Thanks for the mention! ??