Flybits has launched its Agentic Banking capability, using agentic AI to create “human-centered” banking journeys that guide customers through major life events. The AI agents unify products like cards, loans, deposits, and insurance into seamless experiences, such as financing and maintaining a car. Flybits is backed by strong venture funs and is supported by its research and development arm Flybits Labs, that partners with academic institutions and industry innovators to prototype future banking experiences. Agentic AI-powered banking may still feel like a futuristic scenario, but customer experience platform Flybits is making it a reality. The company recently unveiled the launch of its Agentic Banking capability. Flybits is leveraging agentic AI to create a new interface for banking that will help financial institutions provide “human-centered” experiences that guide their customers through life events. The new agents will help customers unify cards, loans, deposits and other banking activities into customer experiences that feel more connected. The agents will, for example, be able to help customers during a car purchasing experience. When the customer uploads a photo of the vehicle they plan to purchase, the bank’s agent will help them calculate affordability, show them financing options, and help them compare insurance coverage with offering the customer contextual card benefits like savings on fuel service expenses. The agent streamlines the entire experience around the vehicle, saving them from having to open multiple apps for loans, cards, and insurance. “This isn’t about another chatbot or rewards app,” said Flybits Founder and CEO Dr. Hossein Rahnama. “It’s about helping banks build intelligent agents that integrate their products and services into life-based journeys—delivering outcomes that resonate, while ensuring trust, compliance, and explainability.” Flybits’ AI agents have a natural language interface, can be integrated across banks’ internal systems and their partners, and offer end-to-end auditability and transparency. While the new agentic capabilities look very seamless, two challenges stand out. First, some consumers may hesitate to trust their bank with such a deep level of personal data sharing, especially when it includes lifestyle information. More importantly, banks will face an uphill battle convincing customers to use these tools in place of the platforms they already rely on, such as ChatGPT for advice, or Pinterest for planning life events. The technology is compelling, but driving adoption will require overcoming both trust and usability hurdles. Flybits was founded in 2013 as a spin-off from a university research project. Today, the Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based company helps financial institutions leverage their data to create multidimensional customer experiences that ultimately drive loyalty and business results. Backed by Point72 Ventures, Information Venture Partners, Bosch Ventures, and others, Flybits also has an applied R&D division, Flybits Labs, that partners with academic institutions and industry innovators to prototype future banking experiences such as Perspective-Aware AI, human-centered UX, and immersive design. Photo by Tara Winstead The post Flybits Launches its Agentic Banking Capability  appeared first on Finovate.       

Today marks the official start of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to the wealth of fintech news out of Saudi Arabia (!) in recent days, we’re seeing a number of new partnerships and some big investment rounds in Europe, Asia, and the States as the week begins. Be sure to check back here at the Fintech Rundown for the latest updates. Payments International money movement firm TerraPay announces partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Sharia-compliant D360 Bank. Europe-based TrustPay rebrands to finby. Global payments processor Thredd extends its card partnership with cross-border payments platform Reap. Wealth management and investing Fidelity International launches its innovative AI conversational interface, Freya, for its Personal Investing platform. Open banking Payment-linked advertising innovator Sientia teams up with global gift card platform Tillo. Crypto and Defi LINE NEXT and Kaia partner to launch a stablecoin superapp, Unify, in Asia. Digital banking B2B digital banking firm VersaBank implements new AI capabilities within its proprietary core banking technology. Business management UK-based business management platform Tide raised $120 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Lending Dublin, Ireland-based AI-native orchestration platform for credit decisioning Rekord secures $2.1 million in pre-seed funding. Embedded finance Cross River Bank introduces its Advanced Authorization model to enhance the transaction approval process for fintechs and enterprises. Fraud prevention Hungarian cybersecurity firm SEON secured $80 million in Series C funding. Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

Walmart for Business has partnered with TreviPay to expand its Pay-by-Invoice program that gives eligible business customers 30-day credit terms for online and in-store purchases. TreviPay’s AI-powered receivables technology enables faster dispute resolution, reduces errors, and improves conversion by automating underwriting and invoicing. The program has launched with select Walmart Business customers and will expand in the coming months, aiming to capture growing demand in B2B retail payments. Walmart for Business, an ecommerce site tailored to suit business needs, announced this week it has partnered with global transaction management company TreviPay this week. Walmart has tapped TreviPay to launch the next phase of its Pay-by-Invoice program that enables eligible business customers to access a line of credit with a 30-day term for online and in-store purchases. The new program will be powered by TreviPay’s payments and accounts receivable automation technology. TreviPay was founded in 1980 and helps business buyers across industries stop chasing payments. The company’s accounts receivable automation technology optimizes order-to-cash and integrates with all channels and ERPs. In 2020, TreviPay was acquired by Corsair Capital for an undisclosed amount. Today, TreviPay processes over $8 billion in global money movement. TreviPay’s Pay-by-Invoice product leverages AI-enhanced underwriting and smart invoicing to deliver a guaranteed number of days of sales outstanding (DSO) and ultimately improve conversion. When compared to manually managing accounts receivable, Pay-by-Invoice speeds business growth, decreases errors, and reduces friction at the point of purchase. “The biggest opportunity in retail now is in B2B. Companies that capture this valuable segment will win with flexible payment options that integrate directly into the buying experience and maintain efficiency and control for the buyer,” said TreviPay CEO Brandon Spear. “Pay-by-Invoice helps companies purchase and pay in a convenient, effortless way.” At launch, Walmart Business’ Pay-by-Invoice offering is available to a select group of Walmart Business customers. The company plans to expand access to more customers in the coming months. Photo by Kindel Media The post Walmart Business Taps TreviPay for Pay-by-Invoice appeared first on Finovate.       

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Saudi fintech HALA raises $157 million to fuel embedded finance Saudi Arabia-based fintech and embedded financial services provider HALA has raised $157 million in Series B funding. The round is being billed as one of the largest fintech Series B rounds to date for a company based in the Middle East. Led by The Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments, the investment will be used to enhance HALA’s position in the Saudi market. This includes empowering the company to launch more embedded financial services and lending products to support micro, small, and medium-sized (MSM) enterprises, as well as freelancers, in the region. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Riyadh, HALA offers a comprehensive embedded financial services including business accounts; card issuance, payment and transfer services; POS solutions, financing, and corporate cards. To date, HALA has supported more than 150,000 businesses and processed more than $8 billion in annual transactions. “This landmark investment is a turning point for HALA, reflecting on our relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence in serving small businesses,” HALA Co-founder and Chairman Esam Alnahdi said. “We are honored that our new investors recognize the potential of our vision and the impact we aspire to make in the MSME landscape. Our journey is just beginning, and this support fuels our drive to create meaningful change.” Also participating in the investment were QED, Raed Ventures, Impact46, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Isometry Capital, Arzan VC, BNVT Capital, Kaltaire Investments, Endeavor Catalyst, Nour Nouf Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, and Wamda Capital. Paymentology teams up with Enjaz to enhance digital payments in Saudi Arabia A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between international card issuer processor Paymentology and payments solutions company Enjaz is designed to bring advanced digital payments to consumers in Saudi Arabia. “At Enjaz, our focus has always been on giving our customers speed, convenience, and security, whether they are transferring money abroad or making everyday payments,” Enjaz CEO Bassam AlEidy said. “By collaborating with Paymentology, we can now extend our card services that expand choice and enhance financial freedom. This partnership represents a major step in shaping the future of payments in Saudi Arabia, delivering innovation that is inclusive, dynamic, and tailored to the needs of our market.” Integrating Paymentology’s issuing and processing platform will enable Enjaz to offer prepaid, debit, and virtual cards, all of which will seamlessly integrate with the company’s current services. The partnership will also bring functionalities such as international and domestic scheme enablement; tokenization for Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Mada Pay, as well as tools to boost security and enable real-time decisioning. Enjaz will also be able to leverage its new relationship with Paymentology to offer features such as loyalty programs and multi-currency wallets. “Saudi Arabia is building one of the world’s most dynamic payments ecosystems under Vision 2030. Enjaz’s ambition adds to that momentum, and Paymentology’s role is to power innovators with secure, scalable issuing. Together with Enjaz, we’ll expand choice, accelerate time-to-market, and raise the bar for customer experience in the region,” Paymentology CEO Jeff Parker said. Enjaz was established in 2022 as a wholly-owned payments arm of Bank Albilad. The firm is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank as a Major Electronic Money Institution (EMI). The partnership with Paymentology comes at a time when the Saudi Central Bank is reporting that electronic payments represented 79% of total retail transactions in 2024, up from 70% in the previous year. Riyadh-based financial services enabler Abwab.ai forges strategic partnership with Tuum Abwab.ai, a financial services company that specializes in credit decisioning, risk management, and customer engagement solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with core banking platform provider and Finovate Best of Show winner Tuum. The partnership will enable Abwab.ai to deliver a seamless, end-to-end digital lending solution for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “SMEs are the backbone of every economy, yet they remain underserved by traditional lenders,” Abwab.ai Founder and CEO Baraa Koshak said. “By combining Abwab.ai’s AI-driven intelligence with Tuum’s next-generation core banking capabilities, we are empowering financial institutions to unlock SME growth at scale.” Founded in 2022 by a team that includes technology veterans from companies like NVIDIA and HALA, Abwab.ai offers an underwriting automation platform that helps lenders make better decisions by transforming unstructured data into actionable insights. The combination of Abwab.ai’s credit decisioning and analytics capabilities with Tuum’s modular core banking and lending platform will help financial institutions launch, scale, and optimize their SME lending products faster, more efficiently, and with greater transparency. “Our mission at Tuum is to modernize financial services with modular technology,” Tuum Chief Revenue Officer Miljan Stamenkovic said. “Partnering with Abwab.ai allows us to bring a truly end-to-end, AI-enhanced SME lending solution to the region, one that addresses a real market need and accelerates digital transformation.” UK-based Tuum won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company showed how its modular, cloud-native, API-first banking platform leveraged its microservices architecture to deliver high scalability and flexibility, as well as lower maintenance costs. Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world. Asia-Pacific Tech in Asia discussed the profitability of a trio of South Korean fintechs: KakaoPay, Naver Financial, and Toss. UnionPay International (UPI) piloted a cross-border QR payment connection between China and Indonesia. Philippine credit-led fintech Salmon announced an additional $50 million raised in an oversubscribed Nordic bond issue. Sub-Saharan Africa Premier Credit Uganda raised $1.5 million from Swiss-based investor, Enabling Qapital. EBANX announced an integration with South Africa-based, real-time, open banking payment method, Capitec Pay South African fintech Street Wallet acquired Digitip, a South African startup that enabled informal works to receive tips digitally. Central and Eastern Europe A strategic partnership between Mastercard and Redington will bring advanced cybersecurity solutions to companies in Azerbaijan. German fintech Trade Republic has launched operations in Poland. Estonian fintech Creem locked in €1.8 million in pre-seed funding as it builds its financial infrastructure for AI-focused startups. Middle East and Northern Africa valU introduced Egypt’s first licensed Buy Now, Pay Later service, on digital marketplace Noon. MENA-based financial infrastructure provider Lean Technologies teamed up with Know Your Payee (KYP) solutions company iPiD. UAE-based fintech Kamel Pay secured In-Principle Approval from the country’s central bank for both Stored Value Facilities (SVF) and Retail Payment Services (RPS) licenses. Central and Southern Asia TechCrunch profiled Jar, an India-based fintech that enables its users to invest in gold via its app, that recently announced reaching profitability. Kazakhstan’s third-largest bank, Bank CenterCredit (BCC) turned to core banking provider Tuum to power its new Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) proposition. Bank of India launched its BOI Trade Easy instant loan offering in partnership with Cashinvoice. Latin America and the Caribbean Mexican fintech Klar acquired digital bank Bineo from Grupo Financiero Banorte. Mercado Pago, the financial arm of Latin American e-commerce company Mercado Libre, acquired Brazil-based distributor of investment products Nikos DTVM. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched its Mexican entity Medá to help advance demand for the company’s services throughout Latin America. Photo by backer Sha on Unsplash The post Finovate Global Saudi Arabia: Embedded Finance, Digital Payments, and Lending appeared first on Finovate.       

Banking and payments software company Compass Plus Technologies has launched FraudAxis, its new fraud management platform. The new offering will help financial institutions better detect, prevent, and anticipate fraud attacks in real time across payment channels. Founded in 2005, Compass Plus Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2012. Banking and payments software provider Compass Plus Technologies launched its new fraud management platform, FraudAxis, this week. The technology is designed to enable financial institutions to detect, prevent, and predict fraud in real time across payment channels. FraudAxis is a hybrid solution that blends rule-based analysis with adaptive machine learning models to enable banks, processors, and payment services providers to use a proactive approach to fraud management. Built on a modern, microservices architecture, FraudAxis analyzes customer behavior, anomalies, and risk patterns in real time to reduce the number of false positives, accelerate fraud detection, and safeguard customer trust. The solution does all of this without bringing additional friction to the user experience. FraudAxis will enable financial institutions to respond sooner and faster to new fraud threats, anticipate and prevent more fraud before it occurs, and reduce false positives at scale. The solution also provides cross-channel analytics to help defend against fraud across digital and physical channels. Customizable workspaces and real-time dashboards provide 360° visibility and control, as well as access to actionable insights that enable fraud management teams to continuously evaluate and enhance performance. “Fraud is becoming more sophisticated and coordinated, making it harder to fight with traditional tools,” Compass Plus Technologies Managing Director and Founder Maria Nottingham said. “FraudAxis combines the power of AI with proven rules-based analysis to give our customers a smarter way forward. It adapts in real time, reduces false positives, and protects the people who trust them—all without slowing down operations or sacrificing the user experience.” Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Nottingham, UK, Compass Plus Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2012. In the years since, the company has successfully migrated its customers from more than 30 global platforms, and notes that 43% of its customers have been with Compass Plus Technologies for more than a decade. With its flagship offering, TranzAxis, Compass Plus Technologies offers a cloud-native, API-first, token-based alternative to legacy card-based payments infrastructures. Compass Plus Technologies’ FraudAxis launch comes in the wake of the company’s announcement of an expanded strategic partnership with enterprise-class data security solutions provider Futurex. This agreement will enable Compass Plus Technologies’ Payment Gateway and Access Control Server (ACS) solutions to support Futurex’s VirtuCrypt Payment Cloud HSM (Hardware Security Module). Photo by Jordan Madrid on Unsplash The post Compass Plus Technologies Launches FraudAxis appeared first on Finovate.       

Each year at FinovateFall we look for new and exciting ways to showcase the breadth of fintech innovation that lies just below the radar of the mainstream fintech conversation. This year, we introduced The Impact Zone: a special program for fintech startups that gives them access to highly curated content and demos; unlimited high-level meetings with financial institutions, banks, credit unions, and venture capital firms; and a strategically located table outside the plenary hall to facilitate networking and maximum visibility. “The Impact Zone debuted at FinovateFall this year, spotlighting eight startups with AI-driven solutions in bill management, wealth management, digital lending, and more,” Finovate VP and Director of Fintech Demos Heather Stowell explained. “Focused on growth and scaling, these innovators are ones to watch—expect to see them on the Finovate stage soon!” Let’s meet the companies from FinovateFall 2025’s Impact Zone. AiVantage Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, AiVantage provides credit unions, banks, and financial institutions with AI-powered solutions that help them improve efficiency, enable personalized customer engagement, and drive growth. The company’s flagship solution, InteractiveAI, helps construct each customer interaction uniquely at scale to help financial institutions innovate and stay competitive. Karan Bhalla (LinkedIn) is CEO. In June, AiVantage announced that it had secured a large strategic investment from Our Community Credit Union (OURCU). The amount of the funding was not disclosed. As part of the investment, OURCU will take a seat on the AiVantage CUSO board of directors. Blue Street Data Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Blue Street Data facilitates the process of finding, evaluating, and purchasing third-party data. The company’s PQC Engine is an intelligent search platform that enables businesses to discover, compare, and buy high-quality datasets at the optimal price. Including use cases such as personalization, risk modeling, and market analysis, Blue Street Data’s technology helps financial institutions derive greater value from external data. Andy Hannah (LinkedIn) is CEO. Earlier this year, Blue Street Data announced that it had joined the Sourcing Industry Group, also known as SIG|ORG, an international network for sourcing, procurement, and risk professionals. The company hopes its engagement with the group will elevate the standard for how organizations and businesses evaluate and transact with external data. CloudBankin CloudBankin offers an end-to-end cloud-based loan software solution to enhance digital lending. CloudBankin’s Loan Origination System enables a variety of financial institutions—including banks, NBFCs, and MFIs—to disburse loans in less than 10 minutes. The company’s AI-powered lending agents monitor risk, improve decisioning, and enhance customer engagement across credit underwriting, fraud detection, document intelligence, repayment prediction, and collections. Mani Parthasarathy (LinkedIn) is CEO. CloudBankin’s Loan Management System has delivered 97% operational efficiency, 50% reduction in time-to-market for product launch, 90% decrease in the data entry error, and 100% compliance with industry regulations. Founded in India, the company’s US headquarters is in Delaware. Hansa Hansa helps lenders report commercial payment data to business credit bureaus. The company serves as a single connection point to all major commercial bureaus and consortia to make it easier for businesses to access the best underwriting data and remain compliant. Hansa’s technology automates many of the pain points of credit reporting to help reduce delinquencies and support credit-building for small business borrowers. Henry Magun (LinkedIn) is Founder and CEO. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Hansa began this year with the launch of its enterprise solution for commercial loan payment reporting. The new offering consists of two key components: a data reporting system that simplifies reporting by transforming and transmitting CSV file and API request data to credit bureaus, and a borrower dashboard that gives borrowers greater transparency on how their payments affect their credit. Moneylab Moneylab offers an AI-powered platform that enables banks and credit unions to optimize the way they manage their assets and liabilities. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Moneylab gives Chief Financial Officers a solution that consists of a collection of AI agents and expert systems that specialize on specific processes such as compiling and writing variance reports, monitoring loan portfolios, and pricing securities assets in real time. Vincent Wong (LinkedIn) is Moneylab Co-Founder and Chairman. Founded in 2019, Moneylab announced this spring that it had acquired strategic intellectual property from Carfang Group. The all-share transaction will complement Moneylab’s platform offering by providing historical and current data points and analytical processes. Netswitch Technologies Netswitch offers a prepaid and debit card processing solution with a built-in ledger that is specially designed for fintechs and sponsor banks. The company’s platform features pre-configured card controls and compliance workflows. Its custom Large Language Model (LLM) supports quick configuration and faster UI development to ensure rapid onboarding. Kris Lakshmanan (LinkedIn) is CEO. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas, Netswitch supports the issuance and processing of debit, virtual, corporate, and employee cards, as well as travel and gift cards. Nextvestment Nextvestment offers an AI-native engagement layer for wealth management teams. The platform’s conversational co-pilots transform client questions into trusted conversations, actionable insights, and portfolio guidance. The technology enables financial advisors to better engage with clients and provide personalized service at scale. At the same time, Nextvestment empowers clients to examine and explore their portfolio and the markets on their own, with a seamless handoff to professional advisors when they need guidance the most. Michael Davies (LinkedIn) is CEO and Founder. Launched in 2024 and headquartered in Singapore, Nextvestment announced earlier this year that it had joined the NVIDIA Inception Program. The free, virtual accelerator enables startups innovating in AI, data science, and high-performing computing to access NVIDIA developer resources and technical training, go-to market support and expertise, and exposure to venture capital firms via the NVIDIA Inception VC Alliance. TrieveTech TrieveTech offers an AI-powered, multi-tenant, white-label platform that sits at the intersection of bill aggregation, payments, analytics, insights and customer experience enhancement to enable Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to easily and quickly brand, customize, launch, and integrate new products and solutions. John Mulcahy is President. Launched in 2020, TrieveTech is headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company’s technology helps firms lower overhead costs, reduce customer care needs, and increase customer retention, leading to greater profit margins. The post The Impactful Eight: FinovateFall’s Impact Zone Showcases the Future of Fintech appeared first on Finovate.       

Anti-scam solution provider Scamnetic has unveiled the latest edition of its flagship KnowScam 2.0 fraud protection solution. KnowScam 2.0 features a variety of enhancements including a new Auto Scan feature and deepfake detection. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Scamnetic made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage last week for FinovateFall 2025. Scam protection and digital identity verification company Scamnetic recently introduced its new KnowScam 2.0 offering. The latest edition of the firm’s flagship solution features significant upgrades, including a new three-point scoring system, an Auto Scan feature for Microsoft Outlook and Android RCS, and new deepfake detection and ID verification functionality. Offering holistic scam-detection, KnowScam 2.0 consists of four major components. Scan & Score automatically scans email and text messages—including QR codes, links, and images—to assess the level of risk from incoming communication. IDeveryone provides defense against dating scams, Facebook marketing scams, crypto scams, and more by identifying the identity of any counterparty whether the interaction is via video, audio, or text. KnowScam 2.0’s Scam Intervention feature helps restore assets and support scam victims as they re-establish their digital security. Lastly, Scam Education provides users with the latest tips and resources on how to protect themselves from scams. “KnowScam 2.0 marks a major leap forward in proactive scam protection by combining broader platform coverage, automated detection, and instant identity verification—features not offered together by any other consumer-facing anti-scam solution. KnowScam 2.0 advances our goal to provide the most trusted, consumer-first platform for scam detection and digital identity verification, and our mission to make digital interactions safe and secure, providing peace of mind in an increasingly complex digital world,” Scamnetic Chief Operating Officer John Evans said. KnowScam 2.0 features built-in explainability to inform users of the factors used to produce a scam score and provides highly tailored recommendations based on the type of scam and the overall risk level of the threat. The solution leverages automation and customized machine learning to both remove the potential for human error, as well as avoid relying on third-party LLMs. KnowScam 2.0 instead leverages its own customized machine learning and proprietary technology to spot nine out of every 10 scams. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida and founded in 2023, Scamnetic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its technology enables consumers to detect all types of scams in real-time. Scamnetic’s technology can be integrated directly into enterprise platforms, empowering service providers to take a greater role in helping their customers avoid scams. The company returned to the Finovate stage last week for FinovateFall 2025. Scamnetic’s product update comes at the same time that the company announced that it had been selected to participate in Mastercard’s StartPath Security Solutions program, along with four other security-based startups including fellow Finovate alum OneID. The first cohort of Mastercard’s new security-oriented startup engagement program, Scamnetic, OneID, and three other fintechs will gain access to Mastercard’s network, resources, and market experience. The startups will also benefit from the program’s partnership with organizations such as the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) which raises awareness and provides enabling tools for both consumers and law enforcement to help facilitate knowledge sharing and the development of best practices against scams and their perpetrators around the world. Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash The post Scamnetic Unveils KnowScam 2.0 for Real-Time Anti-Fraud Protection appeared first on Finovate.       

PayNearMe raises $50 million in Series E funding, bringing its total funding to $168 million since its founding in 2009. The company is rebranding its platform as PayXM, signaling a shift from payment processing to Payment Experience Management. The shift shows PayNearMe’s focus on the customer experience in which it aims to make payments seamless, strategic, and embedded across industries. Payments innovator PayNearMe is raking in $50 million in Series E funding from Atlantic Vantage Point (AVP). The investment brings PayNearMe’s total raised to $168 million since it was founded in 2009. The California-based company will use today’s funds to expand into new markets and fuel its product offerings. As part of this, PayNearMe is renaming its platform PayXM, recognizing its product evolution in what it calls Payment Experience Management. The company aims to use PayXM to enable businesses to manage the entire payment journey with a single platform and integration. “PayNearMe has redefined what it means to deliver a modern payment experience. The company is uniquely positioned to solve challenges in a space long underserved and overlooked,” said AVP General Partner and Head of Growth Fund, North America Elizabeth de Saint-Aignan. “PayNearMe’s vision and proven execution are changing how non-commerce businesses approach payments, and we’re excited to support them in this next stage of growth.” PayNearMe was founded in 2009 to enable unbanked individuals to transact online by paying with cash at brick-and-mortar retailers. Today, the California-based company offers payment processing, exception management, and diverse payment options for banks, toll companies, mortgage servicing companies, online gaming, auto lenders, and buy here pay here payment collectors. The move from a pure payments processor to a Payment Experience Management provider reflects PayNearMe’s effort to position its payments offering as a strategic driver of customer experience, not just a back-office function. “For too long, payments have been treated only as a cost of doing business,” said PayNearMe CEO Danny Shader. “We see improving payments as a powerful opportunity to help businesses differentiate, drive customer satisfaction, and improve business results. AVP’s funding will allow us to deliver the benefits of Payment Experience Management to more clients and in new markets.” Today’s $50 million investment shows that investors see opportunity in rethinking payments not as plumbing, but as an experience. In launching PayXM, PayNearMe is betting that the next wave of fintech will come from embedding payments to make them invisible, seamless, and integrated into the customer experience. Photo by mingche lee The post PayNearMe Lands $50 Million to Expand into New Markets appeared first on Finovate.       

Late yesterday, JPMorgan Chase and Plaid announced that they have mutually agreed to renew their data access agreement that dictates how Plaid is able to pull data on their shared customers from JPMC. The renewed agreement’s most notable feature is a new pricing structure. Plaid will now pay JPMC to facilitate data access for its fintech clients. Aside from the financial terms, the deal also sets commitments from both sides to ensure consumers can access their data securely. Additionally, the firms have pledged joint investment in innovation and technology to make data sharing faster, safer, and more efficient. Plaid’s take Since JPMC initially signaled in July that it plans to charge aggregators to access consumer data, there have been many conversations on both sides of the debate regarding why or why not banks should charge for data access. Given the multiple stakeholders involved, including banks, fintechs, aggregators (like Plaid), and end consumers, there are multiple viewpoints on what charging for data access should look like. As a central player in this debate, Plaid has a lot to lose (or win) depending on how fees are assessed. To that end, Plaid COO Eric Sager emphasized the firm’s willingness to collaborate with JPMC to preserve the consumer experience: “We have always believed consumers should have the right to access and share their own financial data, and JPMorganChase has been a partner in that effort,” said Sager. “This extended agreement ensures ongoing access for the millions of Chase customers who rely on Plaid every day to connect with the products and services they trust.” To back up those assurances, Plaid outlined three key takeaways from the renewed agreement: Continuity is guaranteed Plaid says existing JPMC customers can keep accessing fintech services without disruption. No pricing changes for now Current contracts and customer fees remain unchanged. Advocacy continues Plaid will keep pushing for consumer data rights in the CFPB’s 1033 rulemaking. Regardless of the kumbaya moment, the conversation is far from over. Data access is only part of the equation. Nearly half of Plaid’s business is made up of account access for payments, such as Venmo and other payment initiation services, which are not addressed in this agreement. That leaves open questions about whether payment-related data will eventually carry its own fee structure, and how those costs might ripple through to fintechs and, ultimately filter down to consumers. In the meantime, regulators are working to rewrite the 1033 rulemaking and many banks are seeking to monetize data flows. Given all of the moving and missing pieces, today’s deal between Plaid and JPMC looks less like a conclusion and more like a preview of the next stage in the battle over who pays when financial data changes hands. Photo by Pixabay The post JPMorgan’s Data Access Agreement: Plaid’s Perspective appeared first on Finovate.       

UK-based Starling Bank is bringing its SaaS banking platform, Engine, to North America with a $50 million investment, a new New York headquarters, and new leadership under Jody Bhagat. With 4,000+ US banks and credit unions weighed down by legacy cores, Engine aims to deliver modular, API-based, cloud-native tech proven in Europe and Australia. Starling’s move positions it not just as a digital bank, but as a banking technology competitor to legacy core providers. UK-based Starling Bank announced last week that it is bringing its digital banking platform, Engine by Starling, to North America. The move marks the next step in Starling’s transformation from a digital bank into a global technology provider. Starling launched Engine in 2022 to take its technology stack that powered Starling’s own growth in the UK and package it as a SaaS solution for other financial institutions. Expanding into North America signals Starling’s ambition to compete in one of the world’s most crowded banking technology markets. Behind the launch are both a new regional headquarters in New York and a new leader. Starling appointed former Personetics President of Global Banking Jody Bhagat to bring Engine into the new region. Bhagat now serves as President of North America for Engine by Starling, and has been tasked with building a team to bring Engine to North American financial institutions. The company sees the move as a natural addition, given the new market opportunities with the region’s 4,000+ mid-tier banks and credit unions. “The North American market is highly competitive, and many banks and credit unions feel constrained by legacy technology,” said Bhagat. “Digital-forward financial institutions are seeking a partner that can deliver technology transformation that drives real business results. Tried and tested in Europe and Australia, Engine by Starling has strong proof points demonstrating how the platform helps banks better acquire and serve customers. I’m incredibly excited by the opportunity to bring Engine’s proven, cloud-based banking tech to North America. Progressive mid-tier banks and credit unions are seeking ways to operate more efficiently, to serve their customers digitally in a more intuitive way, and to innovate more rapidly. Engine’s distinctive platform and capabilities will enable them to do just that.” Starling is fueling the move into North America by investing $50+ million in its North American footprint, including its New York office, local hires, employees brought in from Starling’s UK-based team, and a Toronto-based Canadian team. The move into New York isn’t Starling’s only new office supporting Engine this month. The bank also opened offices in Dubai, UAE, and Sydney, Australia to work with the digital banking tool’s international clients and partners Starling was founded in 2014 and launched Engine to bring Starling’s tech stack to financial institutions overseas. Engine provides SaaS banking technology to bring modern banking to banks around the world in a modular, API-based, cloud-native, and scalable way. In 2024, the company’s first customer, Salt Bank, became Romania’s first digital-native bank and has since captured 4% of the country’s banking market. Starling’s push into North America highlights the rise of banks evolving into technology providers. By turning its in-house tech into a SaaS platform, Starling is positioning itself not just as a challenger bank, but as a challenger to the core banking vendors that dominate the US market. For mid-tier banks and credit unions struggling with legacy cores, the arrival of Engine creates both pressure and opportunity to modernize quickly. Photo by Mike Bird The post Starling to Bring its Digital Banking Platform to North America appeared first on Finovate.       

At a time of uncertainty in both politics and policy, an entreaty to think about “what’s possible” might sound naive—if not terrifying. Yet, at the onset of FinovateFall 2025, which just wrapped up last week, thinking about “what’s possible” was the challenge laid down by Finovate VP and Master of Ceremonies Greg Palmer. And to the delight of our FinovateFall audience, it was a challenge that our demoing companies, keynote speakers, and insightful panelists were more than ready to accept. What we heard from the experts What’s possible … AI as a tool to empower and augment human action was an especially persistent theme over the three days of FinovateFall. In fact, even our pre-conference, invitation-only, Leaders+ event on Sunday evening featured a reminder that AI was increasingly the tool of choice for those under 30 when it came to a range of financial tasks from establishing a budget to making better credit decisions. Crucially, as J.D. Power’s Jennifer White pointed out, Gen Z is using AI for answers to more immediate questions, not exclusively for long-term planning. For them, AI is a co-pilot rather than a forecasting or projecting tool. This sentiment was elaborated on by Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes in his Analyst All Stars presentation Tuesday morning. Johnson took on the notion of AI as a tool for automation, suggesting instead that AI—and Large Language Models (LLMs) more specifically—be thought of as ways to augment human activity rather than replace it outright. Johnson underscored LLMs as “probabilistic guessing machines” rather than “determinist systems,” and explained that to the extent that the latter is what’s required in financial services, LLMs alone can fall short. That said, Johnson noted that by applying LLMs in ways that maximize what they are good at, financial institutions can leverage processes like mortgage servicing to better understand the diverse and even niche preferences of their customers. This data can be used not only to introduce new products and services, but also to scale up entire new businesses built around these edge cases. No conversation about AI at FinovateFall would be complete without a reference to Jon Lakefish’s return to the Finovate stage for another mind-bending conversation on the latest AI tools. His Wednesday morning keynote—Creating Trust and Loyalty through AI-Enhanced CX—helped attendees understand the powerful resources available to not only build new products, but also to discover what new solutions are possible given a deeper, AI-enabled analysis of a business, its customers, and goals. In less than five minutes, Lakefish showed how a variety of readily available AI tools could enable, say, a Finovate sponsor, to uncover and pursue a new niche product line. From the latest innovations in ChatGPT—”the LLM platform for almost everything”—to Manus.AI, the first publicly available Agentic AI platform Lakefish has felt comfortable showcasing, the message was clear: the world of what’s possible is becoming larger every day and AI is a primary resource for navigating and creating within it. One telling insight shared during our Investor All Star panel at the end of Day Three underscored the power and potential for AI when it comes to emerging fintechs, in particular. During a discussion on which trends investors were most drawn to, our panelists cited fraud prevention and compliance technology among the most attractive areas for investment, with personal finance management (PFM)-related solutions increasingly less so. Nevertheless, panelist Lindsey Fitzgerald of Vesey Ventures noted that even within this group, it was possible for truly innovative startups to stand out if they are able to deploy enabling technologies like AI in new and novel ways. “AI changes the possibility of a startup being 10x better (than its rivals) in any category,” she explained. What we saw from the innovators I have long contended that the roster of companies that win Best of Show at Finovate conferences in any given year is as good a heat check on the state of fintech innovation as you’re likely to find. This year’s batch of FinovateFall Best of Show winners was no exception. By theme, FinovateFall attendees were impressed by innovations in a wide range of areas. Nevertheless companies innovating in the fraud prevention space probably experienced the greatest amount of on-stage competition—a point I’ll return to. Kudos to Casap for standing out from an impressive pack with its technology that helps combat fraud, including an especially pernicious form of e-commerce crime called “first-party fraud.” Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Casap recently raised $25 million in Series A funding for its payment dispute resolution solution. Arguably the most compelling case for financial institutions to offer services like investments came from Eko CEO Mart Vos. His company, now a two-time Finovate Best of Show winner, provides a solution that enables financial institutions to integrate digital investing functionality directly into their platforms. Vos warned banks and credit unions not to be complacent as their customers open investment accounts with innovative brokerages like Robinhood. While mere brokerages today, many of these firms are looking at ways of expanding their banking offerings, or obtaining banking licenses outright. By integrating investment services into their platforms and making them seamlessly accessible, financial institutions incentivize customers and members to keep their funds “at home.” Enabling more qualified borrowers to secure funding is a cause championed by many innovative fintechs and it is no surprise to see two such companies among this year’s Best of Show winners. This year at FinovateFall, New York-based Krida demonstrated its AI intelligence layer for business lending. The company’s solution leverages AI to provide bankers with automated workflows for document collection, lead tracking, and data management. This enables new bankers to be more effective sooner and empowers all bankers to spend more time with their client relationships and less time with paperwork. Hailing from the other side of the country, Irvine, California-based LendAPI is a super orchestration platform that enables CTOs, CROs, and CCOs to work together to build enterprise platforms. At FinovateFall, LendAPI CEO Timothy Li demonstrated how to use the technology to launch a 1003 mortgage application in minutes. Both Krida and LendAPI are newcomers to the Finovate stage. Another Finovate newcomer to take home Best of Show honors from FinovateFall last week was VerticeAI. The Atlanta, Georgia-based fintech provides credit unions and community banks with tools for predictive analytics, AI-powered marketing content, and targeted customer acquisition. The company began the year announcing new partnerships with Texas-based Education Credit Union and North Carolina-based Duke University Federal Credit Union. Last but certainly not least, it was great to see the positive impression LemonadeLXP made on our FinovateFall audience last week. A Finovate alum since 2022 and, like Eko, now a two-time Best of Show winner, LemonadeLXP offers a learning experience and digital adoption platform for both the staff and customers of financial institutions. At the conference, the Ottawa, Canada-based company demoed its InsightAI solution which enables firms to develop and deploy their own employee training programs. Where we go from here This year I was struck by the number and quality of solutions on display that were dedicated to fighting fraud and dealing with related concerns like dispute management and chargebacks. Fraud prevention may not be the most glamorous corner of fintech. Fraud in the digital space is a persistent, if not growing, threat to all of us; someone very close to me lost their life savings in a phishing scam earlier this year. But it’s not something that we like to talk about very much. Victims feel shame. Institutions suffer reputational damage. Providers scramble to offer their own proprietary solutions. The fraud lifecycle, so to speak, is silent and siloed. And this makes fraud harder to fight. Perhaps this is why some of the most novel technology innovations and business strategies are found among those engaged in the fight against fraud. Consider the aggressive deployment of AI to combat deepfakes or the increasingly common collaborations between institutions—particularly credit unions and community banks—to share best practices to keep their members and customers safe. At a time when personal security concerns are paramount—in financial services and beyond—it is heartening to know that so many of fintech’s best and brightest are on the case. The post FinovateFall 2025: AI, Fraud Prevention, and the Art of What’s Possible appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateFall 2025 Best of Show Winners AnnouncedFinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 9FinovateFall: Advanced Authentication, AI in Lending, and the Fate of Open Banking 

Quinte Financial Technologies launched its dispute and fraud case management platform CaseHUB this week. The new offering is built for banks, credit unions, fintechs, and credit union service organizations (CUSOs) to help them manage more cases faster and more accurately. Founded in 2019, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California. New York-based Quinte Financial Technologies has unveiled its next-generation fraud and dispute management solution, CaseHUB. Designed for financial institutions ranging from banks and fintechs to credit unions and credit union service organizations (CUSOs), CaseHUB combines data, workflows, and analytics into a single intelligence interface to help FIs manage more cases faster and more accurately. CaseHUB empowers financial institutions with pre-built workflows and built-in compliance features that help them avoid repetitive, manual tasks as well as ensure adherence to shifting regulatory policies and mandates. With pragmatic AI, configurable processes, and end-to-end auditability, the platform accelerates dispute resolution via an auto-decisioning capability and leverages alert signals and adaptive analytics to identify fraud patterns. Built-in workflows and compliance rules make case management seamless across payments, channels, and functions, enabling fraud and dispute management teams to work more efficiently. “Financial institutions are under growing pressure to respond to disputes and fraud cases swiftly, without sacrificing accuracy,” Quinte Financial Technologies President Sriram Natarajan said. “With CaseHUB, we are giving them a smarter, more scalable way to manage risk and build trust with accountholders.” Founded in 2019 and headquartered in New York, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Advanced Dispute Manager (ADM), which provides a comprehensive dispute resolution approach that automates the management of customer and merchant disputes across ACH, POS, ATM, checks, wire transfers, and Zelle. With seamless case documentation and communication to ensure full Reg E compliance, ADM lowers risk, limits losses, boosts productivity, and streamlines operations. This month, Quinte Financial Technologies has announced partnerships with OrboGraph to modernize check fraud detection and case management for financial institutions, and with Mountain America Credit Union to “transform fraud prevention and (the) member experience.” With more than 1.2 million members, Mountain America Credit Union has 100+ branches across five states and is recognized as the eighth largest credit union in the US. Photo by Tara Winstead The post Quinte Financial Technologies Launches CaseHub to Enhance Fraud Management appeared first on Finovate.       

FinovateFall may have wrapped up last week, but the fintech news cycle continues to roll on. Check out the latest happenings in banking and fintech below. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned! Crypto and DeFi Reliance Global Group (RELI) expands into cryptocurrency and blockchain-enabled insurance-linked assets. Tether unveils USA₮, its US-regulated dollar-backed stablecoin. Lending Mobilization Funding launches Maximus, an all-in-one loan management platform for contractors and manufacturers. Lendbuzz files for IPO. Payments HALA raises $157 million in Series B rounds led by TPG and Sanabil Investments. Business financial management DianaHR raises Seed round to bring HR-as-a-Service to SMBs. Wealth management SigFig rebrands as Tandems; rolls out AI-embedded tools. Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

Congratulations to the six companies that won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2025 this week! This year’s roster of FinovateFall Best of Show winners includes proven veterans that have earned Best of Show awards from Finovate audiences in the past, as well as companies new to Finovate who impressed our attendees with their live demonstrations of problem-solving innovations in fields ranging from digital banking and wealth management to financial education and AI-enabled data management. Please join us in congratulating all of the companies that demoed their latest fintech innovations at FinovateFall this week. And with that, meet the winners of Best of Show for FinovateFall 2025! Casap for its technology that helps financial institutions and fintechs lower operational costs and lift, curb fraud-related losses, accelerate resolution times, and strengthen customer relationships at scale. Eko for its solution that enables clients to increase logins into digital banking by 4x and bank deposits by 11%, while reducing the likelihood of customers leaving their financial institution by 6x. Krida for its technology that reduces cycle times, manual tasks, and borrower drop-off, giving banks a faster path to funded loans, higher throughput, and stronger community relationships. LemonadeLXP for its InsightAI that improves staff and customer education and access to knowledge while driving significant operational efficiencies. LendAPI for its cross-organizational collaboration tool where CTOs, CROs, and CCOs can all build an enterprise platform together. Vertice AI for its innovation that leverages AI to translate data into personalized product and service recommendations, helping teams boost engagement, acquisition, and retention through smarter, hyper-targeted outreach. We’d like to thank everyone who made FinovateFall 2025 such a great success: our sponsors, speakers and delegates who continue to make Finovate conferences must-attend events on the fintech calendar. The next stop on the Finovate tour is sunny San Diego for FinovateSpring 2026. We look forward to seeing you there! 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 six 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 2025 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 FinovateEurope 2022 FinovateSpring 2022 FinovateFall 2022 FinovateEurope 2023 FinovateSpring 2023 FinovateFall 2023 FinovateEurope 2024 FinovateSpring 2024 FinovateFall 2024 FinovateEurope 2025 FinovateSpring 2025 The post FinovateFall 2025 Best of Show Winners Announced appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 8FinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 7FinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 9 

We are thrilled to unveil the winners of the 2025 Finovate Awards! This is our opportunity to recognize companies driving fintech innovation forward and individuals bringing new ideas to life across 26 categories. The finalists This year’s Finovate Awards brought together leading banks, fintech firms, and individuals across 26 categories. After reviewing hundreds of applications, we first announced our finalists last month. Now, after weeks of deliberation, our expert judging panel has selected the winners. The judges Our awards are meaningful because they are decided by a panel of industry experts, representing a diverse range of perspectives across banking, fintech, investing, and technology. This group of fintech experts has had the difficult task of selecting the final winners, and their work is now complete. The winners Without further ado, here are the 26 winning companies of the 2025 Finovate Awards. Congratulations to all! These companies and leaders represent the best of fintech innovation today. Which winner are you most excited about? Join the conversation and share your thoughts on social. Best Alternative Investment SolutionInvestiFiBest Anti-Fraud/AML SolutionOscilarBest Back-Office/Core Services SolutionSAP FioneerBest Banking as a Service ProviderZindigiBest Consumer Lending SolutionWisetackBest Consumer-Facing Payments SolutionEngage PeopleBest Corporate Payments SolutionTransferMateBest Customer Experience SolutionMillennium bcpBest Digital BankNubankBest Embedded Finance SolutionUnion CreditBest Enterprise Payments SolutionCheckout.comBest Financial Mobile AppDBS BankBest Fintech PartnershipEngine by Starling, GFT Technologies & SaltBest Generative AI SolutionDataVisorBest ID Management/KYC SolutionIncode TechnologiesBest Insurtech SolutionClearwater AnalyticsBest Marketing/Customer Acquisition SolutionBMOBest RegTech SolutionFinScanBest SMB/SME Banking SolutionApitureBest Wealth Management SolutionFlourishExcellence in Financial InclusionPayJoyExcellence in SustainabilityVyStarExecutive of the YearRaj SeshadriInnovator of the YearChandini JainMost Impactful AI-Based SolutionTalkdeskTop Emerging Fintech CompanyWinnow Photo by Designecologist The post Congrats to the 2025 Finovate Awards Winners! appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesCongrats to the 2024 Finovate Awards Winners!Congrats to the 2023 Finovate Awards Winners!Congrats to the 2022 Finovate Awards Winners! 

Eleven of the more than 60 companies that will be demoing their latest fintech innovations live on stage at FinovateFall next week are headquartered in countries other than the US. This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights these fintechs from the Middle East, Western and Central Europe, Canada, India, the UK, and Ireland. With innovations in fields ranging from wealth management and digital banking to fraud prevention and lending, this year’s roster of international alums is a reminder of the robustness of fintech innovation around the world. FinovateFall 2025 comes to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, September 8 through September 19. Tickets are still available. Visit our FinovateFall hub and save your spot today! Aurem – Abu Dhabi, UAE Founded in 2022, Aurem offers an intelligent operating system for retirement and wealth providers. Their platform helps institutions unify and optimize their products, processes, and data and deliver them globally in days. Dimply – Ireland Founded in 2020, Dimply enables organizations to optimize operations, enhance customer engagement, uncover growth opportunities, and accelerate digital transformation. ebankIT – Porto, Portugal Founded in 2014, ebankIT empowers financial institutions to innovate quickly, reduce costs, and deliver personalized services across all channels, accelerating growth and future-proofing their digital strategy. FintechOS– London, England Founded in 2017, FintechOS enables banks and credit unions to launch any product faster, modernize customer experiences, and adapt quickly to market and regulatory changes—without replacing their core systems. ID-Pal – Dublin, Ireland ID-Pal facilitates business growth with AI-powered identity verification and AML screening, increasing operational efficiency and customer trust. Keyless – London, England Founded in 2019, Keyless replaces outdated MFA with biometrics, improving UX and saving millions. One bank saved $3.5 million by eliminating call centers for OTP-based recovery. LemonadeLXP – Ottawa, Canada Founded in 2018, LemonadeLXP’s InsightAI improves staff and customer education and access to knowledge, while driving significant operational efficiencies. MoneyPlanned – Bengaluru, India Founded in 2021, MoneyPlanned empowers institutions to offer intelligent, automated financial planning—boosting advisor efficiency, reducing cost-to-serve, and delivering personalized client experiences at scale. OPL – Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Founded in 2015, OPL’s cash-flow-based lending helps banks transform their operations through agile lending, AI-driven insights, and intelligent credit underwriting—expanding credit access to SMEs. R34DY – Budapest, Hungary Founded in 2019, R34DY helps organizations transform their business by taking the pain out of integrations and making it easy for business owners to create use cases and reduce time to market. Sequretek – Mumbai, India Founded in 2013, Sequretek provides AI-powered, continuous threat exposure management ensuring compliance, governance, and holistic threat visibility across cloud and on-premises systems. Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world. Latin America and the Caribbean Mexico-based SME platform Kapital doubled its valuation to $1.3 billion upon securing up to $100 million in Series C funding. Latin America’s largest insurtech, 180 Seguros, raised $9 million in funding. Evertec acquired 75% stake in Brazilian fintech Tecnobank. Asia-Pacific Hong Kong-based stablecoin-powered cross-border payments infrastructure provider Obita announced $10 million in new funding. Stripe Terminal launched in Japan. International payment solutions provider dtcpay inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the People’s Committee of Da Nang during Vietnam Blockchain Day. Sub-Saharan Africa Tanzania-based fintech NALA expanded into Kenya courtesy of a partnership with Equity Bank and Pesalink. Ripple partnered with Chipper Cash, VALR, and Yellow Card to make its USD-backed stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) available to institutions in Africa. Congolese fintech Maishapay earned a spot in Visa’s Africa Fintech Accelerator program. Central and Eastern Europe JPMorgan Chase announced plans to launch a digital bank in Germany. Payments network TrueLayer went live in Poland this week. Tietoevry Banking signed a SaaS agreement with IC Cash Services, its first foray into the German ATM market. Middle East and Northern Africa Israel-based fraud prevention innovator BioCatch and Nasdaq Verafin partnered to fight payment fraud. Mastercard and Zain Cash teamed up to advance digital payments in Jordan. Egyptian cross-border digital solutions provider Munify raised $3 million in seed funding. Central and Southern Asia Amazon announced completion of its acquisition of India-based lender Axio. Mongolia-based fintech AND Global locked in $21.4 million in Series B funding. Fintech Alif Uzbekistan reported that it is preparing to apply for a banking license from the country’s Central Bank. Photo by Gaël Gaborel – OrbisTerrae on Unsplash The post Finovate Global: Meet the International Alums of FinovateFall 2025! appeared first on Finovate.       

ID.me raised $340 million in a Series E investment plus a credit facility, which boosts its valuation to over $2 billion and brings its total funding to $1.1 billion. The funding will accelerate secure, reusable digital identity solutions and combat AI-driven fraud, which cost the US up to $521 billion annually. ID.me now counts 152 million users, totaling 60% of US adults, with adoption across 20 federal agencies, 45 states, and 600+ brands. Digital identity network ID.me revealed this week that it has raised $340 million in a Series E financing round plus a credit facility. The round values ID.me at more than $2 billion.  Ribbit Capital led the investment, while existing investors Ares Credit Funds and Moonshots Capital, as well as new investors, including Positive Sum, also participated. ID.me will use the funding to accelerate its mission to expand access to secure, reusable digital identity and to stop AI-driven fraud. The funds, which bring ID.me’s total raised to $1.1 billion, come at a time of rising fraud across the globe. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US government lost up to $521 billion annually to fraud between 2018 and 2022. The increase in fraud is fueled by stolen identities and deepfakes, both of which are increasing vulnerabilities faster than ever. “Fraud is evolving at the speed of AI—and so are we,” said ID.me Founder and CEO Blake Hall. “Secure identity is foundational to AI ecosystems that will depend on memory, context, and authentication, and ID.me is leading the charge. This funding strengthens our ability to expand secure digital access, protect privacy, and innovate faster to stay ahead of criminal networks.” ID.me was founded in 2010 to serve as a digital identity wallet that helps users prove and share their identities online without disclosing additional personal information. The company maintains a digital identity network that includes 20 federal agencies, 45 state agencies, and 600+ retail brands, all of which use ID.me to verify customers’ identities and affiliations. ID.me’s ID wallet helps users prove they belong to certain affiliated groups, such as teachers, students, first responders, or military veterans. Last year, ID.me added 20.4 million new wallets, which breaks down to over 55,000 each day. That same year, it also powered more than 409 million successful logins, representing a 44% increase year-over-year. In total, ID.me counts 152 million users, representing nearly 60% of adults in the US. “We believe the AI revolution will reshape the global economy, and identity will be its foundation,” said Ribbit Capital General Partner Justin Saslaw. “As AI agents become ubiquitous, trusted identity tokens will enable secure, seamless interactions between people, organizations, and machines. ID.me has built one of the most advanced and widely adopted digital identity wallets in the world, giving it a durable advantage in creating and scaling the identity tokens that will power this new era. We’re excited to partner with Blake and the ID.me team as they expand their leadership in the token-driven AI economy.” The post ID.me Raises $340 Million at a $2 Billion Valuation appeared first on Finovate.       

Banking solutions provider nCino announced the general availability of ProBanker by FullCircl. The new offering, developed in partnership with Experian, gives banks and other financial institutions visibility into credit status, affordability, and liquidity. nCino was founded in 2012. The company acquired FullCircl in October 2024. Less than a year after acquiring Client Lifecycle Intelligence platform FullCircl, banking solutions provider nCino has announced the general availability of ProBanker by FullCircl. Developed in collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Experian and part of a suite of Smart Solutions, ProBanker provides near real-time visibility into commercial credit status, affordability, and liquidity across the UK lending landscape. This enables banks and other financial institutions to follow and observe potential opportunities and risks at both the portfolio and individual level. “This isn’t theoretical—it’s about solving the fundamental problem every commercial lender faces: How do you assess true customer risk and identify opportunity when you only see part of their financial picture?” nCino Associate Director, Product Management, Immy Tugcu said. “ProBanker represents a timely and transformational capability for both traditional and alternative funding providers looking to improve portfolio performance, retain market share, and meet growing expectations around speed, compliance, and customer experience.” ProBanker leverages a rich dataset of approximately 18 million UK commercial credit accounts, as well as business current account data beyond the mandated Competition and Markets Authority 9 (CMA9) banks. The solution empowers lenders with a multi-bank, total market view of a customer’s credit exposure, and enables them to track both affordability and liquidity in near real-time. ProBanker helps strengthen portfolio health by spotting early warning signs of financial distress, and enhances customer outcomes through proactive engagement and personalized outreach. In a statement, nCino noted that, in an initial pilot with a major UK bank, the financial institution observed that ProBanker helped them identify potential credit risks six months earlier on average compared to its current processes. The bank also said ProBanker helped them support customers who were eligible for extended or new funding products. “In today’s fast-paced and increasingly complex lending environment, real-time, high-quality data and insight are the bedrock of being able to make confident, informed decisions at speed,” said David Gallihawk, Experian UK&I Chief Product Officer, Business Information Services. “ProBanker delivers exactly that. Our collaboration with nCino will bring greater transparency and help modernize lending opportunities, allowing clients to unlock deeper value from their portfolios.” Founded in 2012, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017 in London. The company’s ProBanker with FullCircl launch comes a little over a month after the company announced that Japanese bank group SBI Credit Guarantee Co., Ltd. had gone live with nCino as the platform for its mortgage guarantee business. In May, nCino unveiled a range of new platform enhancements designed to help banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions secure a competitive advantage via intelligence-driven automation. Photo by Pixabay The post nCino Launches ProBanker by FullCircl appeared first on Finovate.       

What are you looking forward to most at FinovateFall next week (September 8 through September 10; New York Marriott Marquis Times Square)? Is it the 60+ live fintech demos that will hit the stage first thing Monday morning? Maybe it’s our keynote address on banks and stablecoins, or one of our executive briefings on community banking or AI in financial services? Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones invited to our special Leaders+ event Sunday evening? Whatever you’ve got your sights set on, we’re thrilled to have you join us in New York for our annual fall conference. And to further whet your appetite for all things FinovateFall, here are a few exciting options to add to your agenda that Finovate attendees over the years have cited as among their favorites. Tickets to the show are still available! Visit our FinovateFall registration hub and save your spot today! Analyst All Stars: How financial services have been changed forever FinovateFall always kicks off Day Two with our Analyst All Stars session. One of our most popular features, Finovate’s Analyst All Stars showcases three leading fintech analysts who take the stage for just seven minutes each to focus on a specific issue in our industry. Our expert analysts will share their insights on the trends that are impacting fintech today and driving the innovations of tomorrow. Tue, Sept 9. 9:05 am. Tech Trends That Will Define Financial Services & Fintech into the Next Decade The Bank of 2030—How to Move from a Product Centric Design to Life Stage Banking Beyond the Application: Making Customer Onboarding More Effortless Featuring: Alex Johnson, Founder, Fintech Takes Tiffani Montez, Financial Service Practice Lead, EMARKETER Suraya Randawa, General Manager—Digital, Curinos Speaker-Led Lunch Discussions: A Taxing Time for Fintech: JPMorgan Data Fees & What it Means for Open Banking in the US Our Speaker-Led Lunch Discussions are a great way to network and share insights with leading fintech analysts, founders, and executives on some of the most topical issues in fintech and financial services. This year, we’re focusing on the challenges that open banking is facing in the US—from JPMorgan’s threat to charge for access to consumer data to the regulatory battles in Washington, DC and in the courts. Tue, Sept 9. 12:40 pm. Featuring: Phil Goldfeder, CEO, American Fintech Council (AFC) Michelle Beyo, CEO & Founder, Finavator Alex Johnson, Founder, Fintech Takes Investor All Stars: In turbulent times, what is the outlook for the market & what does it mean for funding levels, valuations & the future of financial services? Looking to the future, how can niche product fintechs be turned into platform companies? What is the current state of fintech funding? How will the policies of the Trump administration impact investment in growing fintechs? What can we expect in the M&A space? What areas of fintech are seeing the strongest investment and where are fintechs most vulnerable to funding shortfalls? Our Investor All Stars panel will tackle all these questions and more! Wed, Sept 10. 3:35 pm. Featuring: Josh Tanenbaum, Managing Partner, Rebalance Capital (moderator) Lindsay Fitzgerald, General Partner & Co-Founder, Vesey Ventures Boyang Li, Principal, Framework Venture Partners Mary Joseph, Senior Vice President, Strategic Investments, Citi The post 3 Can’t-Miss Sessions at FinovateFall: All Stars, Investment Trends, and Open Banking appeared first on Finovate.       

FinovateFall 2025 is just over a week away. Coming to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, this year’s fall conference begins on Monday, September 8 and continues through Wednesday, September 10. With more than 2,000 senior decision-makers, 60+ live fintech demos, and 475+ financial institutions represented—including all of the top 20 US banks—FinovateFall 2025 is set to be one of our biggest events to date. If you haven’t registered, there’s still time! Visit our FinovateFall hub and save your spot today. To help you make the most of your visit, here’s a quick checklist of things-to-do and need-to-knows. Get Connected Be sure to download the ConnectMe app and set up your profile. You’ll be able to review the agenda, set your schedule for the week, and start networking. For live updates, follow #FinovateFall on LinkedIn and X/Twitter. FinovateFall 2025 will feature more than 10 hours of dedicated networking time. Keep an eye out for our interactive discussion tables, which are a great way to connect with peers and share insights on issues ranging from AI in financial services to the battle for deposits. At the Event The week begins with our invitation-only Leaders+ VIP banking session. Sunday, September 7 at 6 pm. Registration opens each conference morning (Monday through Wednesday) at 8 am. Continental breakfast and coffee will be available in the networking area. General sessions begin at 9 am each morning. Highlights Our live demos begin Monday morning and continue through Tuesday afternoon. The Best of Show awards presentation will take place Tuesday evening at 5:50 pm in the networking hall. Be sure to check out some of our perennial attendee favorites including Analyst All-Stars on Tuesday morning at 9:05 am, our industry stages on Wednesday morning starting at 10:45 am, and our Investor All-Stars Panel on Wednesday afternoon at 3:35 pm. Join us for book signings with Ben Feller, Jason Mikula, and Theodora Lau. And have a little fun in our networking area with a portrait from our onsite caricaturist or a magic trick from our award-winning strolling magician and mentalist! Final notes Please remember to bring—and wear—your badge every conference day. You’ll need it to enter the event. Dress code is business casual to business formal. Questions? Visit our team at the registration booth on site, or ask a Finovate team member for assistance. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you this year! See you in NYC! The post Know Before You Go: A FinovateFall Checklist for Delegates appeared first on Finovate.