Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Fresh Faces at FinovateSpring

Fresh Faces at FinovateSpring
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2023

With new challenges come new opportunities, and fintech has always been at the forefront of creating tools to help consumers, businesses, and traditional financial institutions overcome their obstacles. And given all of the changes taking place in financial services, there’s never been a better time for fintechs to shine. That’s why at FinovateSpring next month, we’ll showcase 50+ fintechs as they demo their newest developments from the Finovate stage.

So far this year, we have 25 new demoing companies. We wanted to highlight them because we figured they might be new to you, as well. Here’s a rundown of the new-to-Finovate demo companies currently on the roster:

1kosmos
1Kosmos automates user onboarding for workers and customers, protecting against stolen and synthetic identities while eliminating ATO and fraud.

9Spokes
9Spokes unlocks the potential of open data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage business customers.

AI Squared
AI Squared simplifies and accelerates AI integration to provide increased adoption of AI to impact organizations and lives.

AutoCloud
AutoCloud offers risk management for multi-cloud infrastructure as code.

Bankable Fintech
Bankable Fintech offers an unbiased source for financial technology partnerships, vendors, and service providers.

bluCongnition
bluCognition provides machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and big data services.

Cloverly
Cloverly provides tools for businesses and organizations to become carbon neutral by connecting online buyers to local renewable energy through its Sustainability-as-a-Service platform. 

Curinos
Curinos’ machine-learning, AI-driven engine, Amplero, allows financial institutions to break free from rules-based marketing and achieve true personalization.

Deception and Data Truth Analysis
D.A.T.A. provides lightning fast and highly accurate analysis of due-diligence documents for their level of deceptiveness and truthfulness.

Deserve
Deserve’s mobile-first credit card platform is fully-configurable and offers cutting-edge card issuing, processing, and underwriting technologies.

FINTEQ & Smart Faktor
Smart Faktor’s FINTEQ is an Early Payments Platform that factors in sustainability. The company’s supply chain financing turns a business’ working capital into profits. 

Finturf
Finturf brings point-of-sale financing to brick-and-mortar retailers and service providers like home improvement contractors and medical offices.

Front Financial
Front Financial offers users real-time, aggregated data from their third party accounts. The company authenticates into over 300 banks, brokerages, CeFi exchanges, or DeFi wallets without screen scraping.

Hyperswitch
Hyperswitch is a payment facilitator-as-a-service that helps merchants connect to any number of and a wide variety of payment processors.

IDMERIT
IDMERIT is the one-stop shop for customer and business verification, helping companies fight fraud and meet KYC and AML regulations.

Kani Payments
Kani Payments offers transaction reporting and reconciliation as well as business intelligence that helps businesses make informed decisions.

ModernTax
ModernTax is API platform that democratizes access to tax records for business services companies.

Pangea Technologies
Pangea’s FX hedging platform powered by AI addresses FX risk and global currency volatility for companies that have global costs, revenue, or employees.

pave.dev
Pave helps credit risk teams to identify healthy borrowers, optimize credit limits, and improve collections outcomes.

PayTic
PayTic offers software-as-a-service that helps card issuers and fintech businesses control risk and compliance through digitizing the payments back-office functions.

Savana
Savana is a core-agnostic digital delivery platform that enables truly frictionless interactions between banks and their customers across channels.

Setuply
Setuply offers a client onboarding automation platform that delivers innovation and experiences for clients and vendors.

The Lazu Group
The Lazu Group is an equity, diversity, and inclusion firm that helps organizations move from intention to impact and future-proof their business model.

Total CollectR
Total CollectR is a white-label solution that leverages AI to help customers resolve delinquent accounts using the communication channels they prefer. 

Wink
Wink enables any institution to offer identity and payments experiences through biometrics.

Be sure to keep an eye out for demo updates leading up to the event, which takes place May 23 through 25 at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Don’t miss your chance to register!

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

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Super.com Raises $85 Million for Savings Super App

Super.com Raises $85 Million for Savings Super App
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Super.com raised $85 million in a Series C funding round led by Inovia Capital.
  • Super.com did not disclose its current valuation but said that it has “increased significantly” since 2021.
  • Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year.

Super.com is bringing in an $85 million investment today in a Series C fundraising round that boosts the company’s total funding to $186 million. While there is no update on Super.com’s current valuation, the company noted that it has “increased significantly” since it closed its Series B round in March of 2021.

The round was led by Inovia Capital with contributions from new investors Harley Finkelstein, Deb Liu, Allen Shim, Josh Proctor, Chris Best, Neha Narkhede, and Mike Lee. Existing investors Telstra Ventures, Acrew, Lion Capital, Full In Partners, NBA star Steph Curry, and others also contributed.

“Raising our Series C is proof of investor confidence in our ability to scale the business responsibly. This will allow us to both continue investing in growth while driving improving margins,” said company CFO Daniel Weisenfeld.

Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year and offers a savings app to help users save money, access credit, and find travel experiences. In 2022, the company launched SuperCash, a secured credit card product that offers cashback while helping users build their credit.

In addition to helping consumers track their SuperCash transactions, the Super.com app also offers deals and savings opportunities when purchasing travel experiences and shopping major brands. Since the company was founded in 2016, it has helped its five million customers save more than $150 million.

“Super.com’s diversified business model now drives savings across all facets of our customers’ lives, from travel to fintech. It’s great to see market excitement match our own as we rapidly build the first savings super app focused on everyday Americans,” said Super.com CEO Hussein Fazal.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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TransUnion Brings Credit Scoring to the Blockchain

TransUnion Brings Credit Scoring to the Blockchain
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransUnion
  • TransUnion has partnered with Spring Labs and Quadrata to bring credit scoring to the blockchain.
  • Spring Labs’ technology will deliver TransUnion-powered data to Quadrata’s Web3 digital passport.
  • TransUnion EVP of Financial Services Jason Laky said the move will “allow for DeFi lenders to have access to this critical information when making their lending decisions with confidence, ultimately minimizing their risk and providing borrowers more opportunity for better terms.”

TransUnion has partnered with two firms to bring credit scores onto the blockchain. The Illinois-based company has tapped data security firm Spring Labs and decentralized networks expert Quadrata to ultimately help lenders make data-driven decisions on credit applications submitted via the blockchain.

The partnership will enable TransUnion to– upon the customer’s request– provide credit data that is not stored on a blockchain to decentralized finance applications (DApps). TransUnion, which holds the consumer credit data off-chain, will leverage Spring Labs’ patented technology that delivers credit scoring data while keeping the consumer’s identity on blockchain secure. Quadrata will leverage its digital passport, a Web3 identity solution that will automatically sync the credit scoring data across the blockchain.

“Credit scoring is an important tool for lenders to help mitigate risk regardless of the platform being used,” said TransUnion EVP of Financial Services Jason Laky. “This partnership with Spring Labs and Quadrata will allow for DeFi lenders to have access to this critical information when making their lending decisions with confidence, ultimately minimizing their risk and providing borrowers more opportunity for better terms.”

DeFi lending platforms have the potential to reach a more diverse set of consumers than traditional lending platforms. Not only do they offer more flexibility when compared to traditional lenders, but they also allow the borrower to customize their loan. Borrowers choose the collateral they provide, the duration of their loan, and the interest rate they are willing to pay.

Bringing credit scoring to the Web3 space will facilitate DeFi lending, lower the risk for DeFi lenders, and increase opportunities for borrowers. “As more consumers and lenders move to blockchain to conduct business, it’s important to ensure that the balance is struck between the information that lenders need to assess risk and the privacy and anonymity expected by users of the technology,” said Spring Labs CEO John Sun. “This new product featuring TransUnion’s identity and credit data at its core is a big step toward achieving that balance and allowing more lending opportunities on blockchain while minimizing risk.”

Photo by Joey Kyber

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FinovateEurope Talks: Open Banking and Open Finance

FinovateEurope Talks: Open Banking and Open Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2023, Marketing

Europe is a leading region in open banking and open finance, and the region’s fintech experts have a lot to say about both topics. While we were at FinovateEurope in London last month, our team set out to gather thoughts on the open banking and open finance environment in Europe and beyond.

In this five-minute video, we feature nine industry leaders who talk about the overall purpose of open banking and open finance, why they are important, and monetization strategies. The clip also addresses customer sentiment– are end users really on board?

Photo by Jill Burrow

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ESG Regulations May Bring Investing’s Green Future

ESG Regulations May Bring Investing’s Green Future
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Thought Leadership

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing has been gaining traction across the globe. PwC reports that ESG is “soaring”, and anticipates that ESG institutional investment will climb 84% to $33.9 trillion in 2026.

The firm states that by 2026, ESG assets under management (AUM) in the U.S. will more than double to total $10.5 trillion. In Europe, PwC expects the amount of ESG AUM will see an increase of 53% to $19.6 trillion. And in APAC, the firm estimates that ESG AUM will more than triple to $3.3 trillion.

What will help drive that change? Regulation.

Regulation

Though the concept of ESG investing has been around for more than a decade, there have only recently been efforts to formalize regulation surrounding ESG disclosure, investment, and ESG practices and financial products. Europe, for instance, has come up with its European Green Deal, a set of proposals to stem climate change, support sustainable innovation, and transition Europe into a climate-neutral continent by 2050.

Europe isn’t the only region with a “green” vision. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of key measures some countries are taking:

Australia
The Australian Government plans to introduce mandatory sustainability and ESG reporting requirements for large businesses and financial institutions based in Australia. The requirements will be put in place in stages and will begin as soon as next year.

The U.K.
The U.K.’s Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) requires U.K. companies to disclose energy use, carbon footprint, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within their annual financial reporting. In 2021, The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released Greening Finance: a Roadmap to Sustainable Investing in 2021.

At the start of 2023, the European Parliament implemented The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), policy aimed to enhance transparency in sustainable investing and ultimately prevent greenwashing. Also going live in January 2023 is The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), an initiative put into place by the European Parliament to broaden the Non-Financial Reporting Directive’s (NFRD) and fix weaknesses surrounding ESG regulation and reporting.

India
By the end of March 2023, India’s top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalization were required to begin filing a Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) to the Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) of India. In addition to general disclosures, companies need to document their compliance with National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBCs) and submit metrics on nine ESG factors, including ethics, sustainability, and human rights.

The U.S.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a plan to issue a set of reporting standards for ESG in March of last year. As part of the plan, the SEC would require firms to report their climate risks, risk management, ESG governance, and GHG emissions. While the ruling on these proposed mandatory climate risk disclosures is expected to occur this month, SEC Chair Gary Gensler may be considering changes to the plan before it goes into effect.

Also notable is Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule that requires companies listed on Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange to publicly disclose board-level diversity statistics each year. If companies fall short of expectations, they are required to explain why they do not have diverse directors.

Canada
Currently, Canadian firms are not subject to mandatory ESG reporting. However, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) issued a notice last year stating plans to require large Canadian financial institutions and insurance companies to disclosed ESG efforts and climate impacts starting in 2024.

ESG fintechs

Though some fintechs do not fit the requirements of ESG reporting, many have either incorporated ESG elements into their business or structured their whole business around an ESG element. In fact, according to Crunchbase, there are 300 fintechs with an ESG focus. Check out Finovate’s ESG scholarship winners or take a look at the following notable fintechs emphasizing ESG:

  • Spiral allows banks to increase customer engagement by embedding sustainability and social impact capabilities.
  • Enfuce offers payment, open banking, and sustainability services to banks, fintechs, financial operators, and merchants.
  • Treecard is a green finance platform that allows consumers to spend, save, and invest responsibly.
  • Connect Earth connects carbon data to drive sustainable finance.
  • Single.Earth is a fintech startup tokenizing nature to make it the new gold.
  • Datia is a data platform for sustainable finance, working with forward-thinking financial institutions to automate their ESG workflows.
  • The Upright Project develops an AI-enabled quantification model to measure the net impact of companies and funds.
  • SparkChange provides specialist carbon data that empowers better ESG investment products, risk management, and financial reporting.

Photo by Artem Podrez

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SmartAsset Acquires DeftSales to Help Advisors Grow their Practices

SmartAsset Acquires DeftSales to Help Advisors Grow their Practices
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, SmartAsset
  • Financial advice platform SmartAsset has acquired advisor prospect engagement company DeftSales.
  • The company has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset.
  • The new tool helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.

Financial advice platform SmartAsset is acquiring prospect engagement company DeftSales this week for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2020, DeftSales offers tools that integrate with a range of CRM platforms to automate financial advisors’ business development outreach and provide analytics insights on client engagement. The technology helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.

“We are enormously excited to announce the acquisition of DeftSales and we look forward to integrating their solutions with our own SmartAdvisor platform,” said company CEO and Founder Michael Carvin. “The feedback from advisors using DeftSales has been incredibly clear – by automating many tasks, it dramatically decreases the work required to be successful in converting SmartAdvisor prospects into clients.”

SmartAsset has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset. The new solution integrates SmartAsset’s compliant user interface with DeftSales’ automated campaigns and analytics. DeftSales by SmartAsset offers automated emails and text messages, FastCall technology that enables advisors to follow-up on leads while they are busy with a current client, and an analytics dashboard to monitor engagement efforts.

DeftSales Co-Founder and COO James Fason will join the SmartAsset team as Director of Engineering.

SmartAsset has a mission to help people make smart financial decisions. The company’s educational content, calculators, and tools reach 75 million people each month. In 2021, the New York-based company raised $110 million in funding, boosting its total funding to more than $161 million. And the company is still growing. SmartAsset has brought on 27 new hires so far this year.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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Techcombank Taps Personetics for Money Management Capabilities

Techcombank Taps Personetics for Money Management Capabilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Personetics

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank, also known as Techcombank, has tapped data-driven personalization expert Personetics to facilitate AI-powered money management capabilities for its clients.

Techcombank is leveraging the partnership to help promote financial wellness among its nearly 11 million customers. Personetics’ expertise in providing personalized banking experiences will bring the bank’s customers personalized, automated money management capabilities. For example, Personetics will help Techcombank analyze customers’ financial transactions, aggregate bank accounts, and provide valuable insights about unexpected payments, excessive spending, and insufficient account balances. As a result, customers will receive tailored suggestions on savings, asset growth, and card usage to help achieve their goals.

“At Techcombank, our mission is to revolutionize the way our customers manage their finances to achieve more in life,” said Techcombank Chief Digital Officer Pranav Seth. “We believe that data-led insights and personalized financial solutions are the key to unlocking true financial wellness and will enable our customers to make smarter financial decisions that align with their unique goals and challenges. From identifying new savings opportunities to proactively monitoring spend, our ultimate goal is to empower our customers with unprecedented convenience and control. Our partnership with Personetics marks a significant milestone in our long-term vision of enhancing our customers’ lives by making banking hyper-personal to each and every customer.”

Techcombank has already undergone a beta testing period with Personetics that included 10,000 end customers. After three weeks, the bank saw savings balances increase 9%, had average log-in rates increase from 14.2 times per month to 77.3 times per month, experienced a 43.7% increase in installments volume, and a 32% increase in total installment value.

Headquartered in New York, and with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Singapore, Personetics counts more than 135 million bank customers across the globe. The fintech was founded in 2010 and strives to help banks create “self-driving finance” experiences for its customers. Under this concept, banks leverage AI to proactively act on behalf of their clients to help them achieve their financial goals.

Last November United Overseas Bank tapped Personetics for its Auto-Save feature that finds “safe-to-save” funds by analyzing a user’s spending habits over time. The fintech partnered with sustainability-as-a-service company Ecolytiq after Earth Day last year to launch Sustainability Insights, a tool that analyzes consumers spending to show them the carbon emissions of their spending and investments.

An alum of FinovateFall 2016, Personetics has raised $178 million from investors including Thoma Bravo, Warburg Pincus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and more. David Sosna is CEO.

Photo by Phil Nguyen

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Q2 Now Helps Firms Navigate Real Time Payment Rails

Q2 Now Helps Firms Navigate Real Time Payment Rails
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Q2, Q2 Holdings
Q2 payment rails
  • Q2 is launching the Q2 Instant Payments Manager.
  • The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
  • The Instant Payments Manager supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.

Digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdings unveiled its Q2 Instant Payments Manager this week. The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.

The Clearing House has offered its real-time payment (RTP) rails since 2017 and the U.S. Federal Reserve is planning to launch its FedNow RTP solution this summer. The new capabilities have many U.S. firms seeking to integrate real-time payment flows into their systems to not only keep up with competing banks, but also with customer expectations. For both of these instant payment message sets, Q2’s new solution supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.

“Q2 Instant Payments Manager solves the challenges many businesses face around partial B2B payments and exchanging invoice data between billers and payers,” said Q2 SVP of Product Management Dallas Wells. “The new solution will modernize B2B payment flows and provide a competitive advantage for banks and credit unions striving for operating account deposits in a crowded commercial banking market.”

The Q2 Instant Payments Manager is a part of the company’s Q2 Catalyst, a set of commercial banking solutions. Q2 anticipates today’s offering will help banks improve their accounts receivable and payable processes by reducing the times to post and reconcile B2B payments.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 offers a range of digital financial solutions for consumers, business clients, and fellow fintechs. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $1.36 billion.

The topic of RTP among banks and fintechs has gained major headway in the U.S. this year. Earlier this week, Plaid unveiled its Instant Payouts solution. The multi-rail payout tool enables a range of financial services firms– including verticals like personal lending, marketplaces, insurance, brokerages, and digital investment platforms– to send funds instantly, 24/7 within Plaid’s Transfer product. 

Photo by Albin Berlin

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Can Apple Card’s New Savings Account Improve Americans’ Savings Habits?

Can Apple Card’s New Savings Account Improve Americans’ Savings Habits?
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

As someone who is passionate about personal finance, I was excited to see Apple Card unveil its Savings account today, especially during financial literacy month. The launch comes three-and-a-half years after Apple first debuted the Apple Card in partnership with Goldman Sachs in 2019.

Launching today, the new Savings account enables Apple Card users to set up and manage their funds from within their Apple Wallet. With the high-yield savings account, users will earn 4.15% APY with no minimum deposits and no minimum balance requirements.

The accounts build on Apple Card’s Daily Cash, the credit card’s cashback rewards feature. When a user sets up their Savings account in the Apple Wallet, the Daily Cash they earn on purchases is automatically deposited into their Savings account. In addition to saving their Daily Cash, users can deposit funds through a linked bank account or from their balance in Apple Cash.

“Savings helps our users get even more value out of their favorite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while providing them with an easy way to save money every day,” said Apple VP of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet Jennifer Bailey. “Our goal is to build tools that help users lead healthier financial lives, and building Savings into Apple Card in Wallet enables them to spend, send, and save Daily Cash directly and seamlessly — all from one place.”

Apple Card’s Savings account also comes with a dashboard to enable users to track their account balance and the interest they’ve earned over time. The account, which is powered by Goldman Sachs, does not charge fees for account origination, maintenance, or withdraws.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised rates consistently since March 2022. Despite many incumbent banks holding the rates on their savings accounts near zero, it’s nice that a handful of fintechs are passing the positive impacts of the higher rates down to consumers.

But with the rising cost of living, many consumers may not take advantage of such high rates. Credit Karma issued the results of a survey today that details the impact of Americans’ poor savings habits and inadequate financial literacy. The survey targeted Americans’ knowledge (or lack thereof) of their own net worth, and took a look into their retirement savings. Here’s an overview of some of the survey results:

  • 51% of Americans don’t know how to calculate their net worth
  • 31% of Americans have a net worth of $0 or less
  • 21% of respondents aged 59+ report they have a net worth of $0 or less
  • 30% of Gen Z care more about celebrities’ net worth than their own 
  • 27% of respondents (including 25% of Gen X and 27% aged 59+) say they don’t have any money saved for retirement right now.
  • 67% of Americans say they don’t currently track their net worth
  • 22% of Americans believe the term “net worth” only applies to wealthy people

For me, these statistics are eye-opening, and the lack of savings are disheartening. Can fintech fix this? My guess is that, even with enticingly high rates, Americans’ poor savings habits will die hard. And the American Dream may die harder.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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GoDaddy Teams with Apple to Offer Contactless Payments

GoDaddy Teams with Apple to Offer Contactless Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • GoDaddy has added a contactless payments option for its merchant clients.
  • By leveraging Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone, GoDaddy enables entrepreneurs to accept in-person, contactless payments without a card reader.
  • The transaction capabilities are powered by GoDaddy Payments, which the company launched in 2021 after acquiring Poynt.

Internet domain registrar and online business facilitator GoDaddy unveiled its latest small business tool today. The Arizona-based company is leveraging Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone to enable entrepreneurs accept in-person, contactless payments without a card reader.

Apple launched Tap to Pay in February 2022 to allow merchants to use their iPhone to accept Apple Pay, contactless payment cards, and other digital wallets by tapping it to their iPhone. “As more and more consumers are tapping to pay with digital wallets and credit cards, Tap to Pay on iPhone will provide businesses with a secure, private, and easy way to accept contactless payments and unlock new checkout experiences using the power, security, and convenience of iPhone,” Apple Vice President of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet Jennifer Bailey said at the launch.

With the integration of Apple’s Tap to Pay technology into the GoDaddy mobile app, GoDaddy said that it takes merchants just “a couple of minutes” to accept contactless payments on their phone. After downloading the GoDaddy Mobile App on their iPhone, they log in, and choose Tap to Pay on iPhone. Customers can pay using contactless debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, or other digital wallets.

“Based on our data, more than half of all in-store purchases are now contactless, making it a favorite way for consumers to make payments in-store,” said GoDaddy Commerce President Osama Bedier. “Many of our U.S. customers already have an iPhone. By adding Tap to Pay on iPhone to the GoDaddy Mobile App, we will enable millions of small businesses to accept in-person payments without having to purchase additional hardware. That matters in this climate. It’s part of GoDaddy’s mission to put merchants first by making user-friendly, connected commerce tools accessible to all businesses, no matter their size.”

The contactless transactions are powered by GoDaddy Payments, which launched in 2021 after the company acquired payment terminal operating system Poynt for $320 million. Prior to the acquisition, Poynt handled more than $16 billion in gross merchandise volume each year for its 100,000+ merchant clients.

Founded in 1997, GoDaddy is best known for its domain name registration service and website building tools. The company has slowly been expanding its expertise to better serve its small business clients, having added email and marketing tools, as well as online marketplace tools and sales dashboards. GoDaddy is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $11.8 billion. Aman Bhutani is CEO.

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Affirm Launches Adaptive Checkout for Canadian Stripe Users

Affirm Launches Adaptive Checkout for Canadian Stripe Users
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • BNPL company Affirm and payments infrastructure company Stripe are expanding their relationship.
  • The move will make Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout tool available to businesses using Stripe in Canada.
  • The two began working together in May of 2022, when the payments company added the Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout tool as an option for U.S. businesses.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Affirm announced it is doubling down on its relationship with payments infrastructure company Stripe this week.

Under the agreement, Affirm is making its Adaptive Checkout tool available to eligible Canadian Stripe users. Launched in 2021, Adaptive Checkout offers more personalized payment options in the checkout flow. The checkout tool offers shoppers BNPL options, including four interest-free biweekly payments, monthly payments, or both.

Stripe Product Lead for Payment Methods Sophie Sakellariadis said that the addition of the tool will help Canadian businesses “continue to scale and adapt with changing consumer preferences.”

Stripe began working with Affirm in May of 2022. The payments company added the BNPL provider’s Adaptive Checkout tool as an option for U.S. business customers to add into their checkout flows. After the partnership, Stripe saw users increase their average order value by 41% when leveraging Affirm’s flexible payment plans

“Since launching in the U.S. with Stripe, we’ve helped many businesses better serve their customers and drive growth by providing transparent and flexible payment options,” said Affirm Chief Revenue Officer Wayne Pommen. “We are excited to expand our partnership and strengthen our position as one of the leading providers in Canada. By providing consumers with greater choice to select the custom payment plan that is right for them, Adaptive Checkout has been proven to increase sales and conversion, and is now available to Stripe’s Canadian users.”

A BNPL pioneer, Affirm was founded in 2012. The company now enables 240,000 merchants and platforms to offer flexible payment options. Affirm’s other Canadian partnerships include Apple, Hudson’s Bay, Browns Shoes, and Samsung. 

Founded in 2010, Stripe processes hundreds of billions of dollars each year and offers a range of products– including a suite of global payments solutions, banking-as-a-service offerings, and revenue and financial management tools. Last month, the company landed $6.5 billion in Series I funding to provide liquidity to employees and address employee equity awards withholding tax obligations. Stripe is currently valued at $50 billion, which is less than half of the company’s peak valuation of $95 billion in March of 2021.

Photo by Andre Furtado

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FinovateEurope Talks: Payments

FinovateEurope Talks: Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2023, Marketing

It’s impossible for anyone to avoid payments. And it’s impossible for banks to avoid payments technology. That’s why our team spent time at FinovateEurope last month interviewing industry experts on the topic of payments.

In the six-minute video below, Starling Bank CEO Sam Everington shared his view on why banks are in the technology business. Other panelists share payments sector trends– including embedded finance and super apps– pain points, and what to expect in the future. The video also addresses CBDCs and the role of crypto and digital assets and explores the role of banks.

Photo by Kampus Production

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