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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
There’s still one more day to enjoy FinovateSpring. But as far as the live demo portion of our program is concerned, the Best of Show celebrations have begun. With that in mind, please join us in congratulating the winners of Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2023.
1Kosmos for its technology that automates user onboarding for workers and customers, protecting against stolen and synthetic identities while eliminating ATO and fraud.
9Spokes for its technology that unlocks the potential of open data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage business customers.
Flybits for its personalization platform that enables financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences.
QuickFi for its 100% digital, self-service equipment financing platform that enables business equipment financing in minutes.
SAVVI AI for its technology that helps any FinCo team build and deploy AI apps in minutes. No data scientists, pre-existing data, or custom infrastructure required.
Wink for its biometric payments and identity platform that enables users to say goodbye to passwords and fraud – and say hello to secure and simple authentication.
On behalf of the entire Finovate team, we want to thank all of our demoing companies, our partners, and our sponsors. We also want to express our gratitude toward our attendees in the fintech and financial services industry who bring so much positive energy to our events. We look forward to seeing you again next year right here in San Francisco for FinovateSpring 2024!
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 2023 conferences are below:
With FinovateSpring only days away (May 23 through May 25), this week’s edition of Finovate Global will showcase those innovators demoing at the event that are headquartered outside the United States.
There’s still time to register and join us in San Francisco, California for our annual Spring fintech conference. Visit our FinovateSpring 2023 hub today and get your ticket today!
9Spokes
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New Zealand, 9Spokes unlocks open banking and data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage SMB customers. LinkedIn.
FinTech Insights by Scientia
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, U.K., FinTech Insights by Scientia offers a competitive analysis tool for banks and fintechs to help them create compelling digital banking experiences. LinkedIn.
FINTEQ
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Poland, FINTEQ removes credit risk from the supply chain, giving suppliers a healthy and sustainable trade finance alternative. LinkedIn.
Flybits
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Flybits offers a personalization platform that enables financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences. LinkedIn.
Fundica
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Fundica is a government funding platform used by some of the largest financial institutions in North America to acquire clients at scale. LinkedIn.
Horizn
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Horizn helps financial institutions maximize the impact of digital and accelerate returns on digital investments with customers and employees. LinkedIn.
HyperSwitch
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in India, HyperSwitch is an open source payments switch designed to make payments fast, reliable, and affordable. LinkedIn.
Kani
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Newcastle, U.K., Kani offers end-to-end reconciliation and reporting, automating the back office for payments companies and fintechs, and ensuring accuracy and compliance. LinkedIn.
Lucinity
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, Lucinity combats financial crime with innovative GenAI technology for smarter and faster FinCrime compliance. LinkedIn.
PayTic
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Charlottetown, Canada, PayTic is a SaaS platform that automates and manages all key aspects of program management: network fees, reconciliation, reporting, and fraud. LinkedIn.
SESAMm
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Metz, France, SESAMm specializes in big data and artificial intelligence, providing analytics from more than 20 billion articles and messages using NLP. LinkedIn.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Flybits is an award-winning personalization platform, enabling financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences across mobile, web, and the metaverse.
Features
Deliver hyper-personalized experiences
Bring the person back into personalization by contextualizing digital touchpoints and interactions
Create interactive VR experiences in a secure environment
Why it’s great
Flybits’ Open Dome enables users to deepen their relationship with their customers by interacting with them in a secure VR environment using advanced capabilities.
Presenters
Hossein Rahnama, CEO & Founder Rahnama is the Founder of Flybits, a data intelligence company with over $60M in funding and global offices. He’s a visiting MIT professor, co-founded the DMZ, and has 40+ publications/patents. LinkedIn
Chris Pinkerton, CGO Pinkerton has over 15 years of experience working with companies like Google and Microsoft to apply insight to their acquisition and monetization models. LinkedIn
Canada Day is this week, July 1st. The holiday – colloquially considered by some to be Canada’s “birthday” – celebrates the decision of three provinces in 1867 – modern-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec – to unify and form the country we now know and love as Canada.
Last year, we launched our inaugural recognition of fintech companies – Finovate alums all – who were founded in or operate out of Canada. From Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal to Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, Canadian fintechs have gained a reputation for cutting-edge innovation in everything from helping small businesses secure critical financing during the COVID pandemic to advancing new use cases for the latest cryptocraze: non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Today, we honor Canada Day with a salute to those Canadian fintechs that have joined the Finovate family since our last reporting from the Great White North.
Boss Insights (Toronto, Ontario) – demo – Business-data-as-a-service innovator bridging the data gap between banks and their business customers.
Coconut Software (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) – demo – Customer engagement platform for financial institutions to enhance the digital and physical engagement of both staff and customers.
Dbilia (Vancouver, British Colombia) – demo – A digital memorabilia marketplace that leverages Blockchain technology and NFTs to empower creatives and enable fans to purchase their work. Best of Show winner.
FormHero (Toronto, Ontario) – demo – A low-code SaaS platform that helps enterprises build intuitive, digital front-end experiences to help them manage and orchestrate complex data collection.
JUDI.ai (Vancouver, British Colombia) – demo – An AI-driven analytics platform to enhance small business lenders’ loan origination processes with instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, as well as continuous monthly monitoring and real-time reporting.
We also saw the return of Flybitsthis spring. The Toronto-based company demonstrated its MyCard solution that consolidates all of a bank’s products and services on the bank’s existing mobile app and provides dynamic recommendations tailored to the customer’s needs.
Looking to FinovateFall in September, what can we expect from fintech’s Canadian contingent? This week we introduced the first wave of demoing companies for our annual fall fintech event and were happy to see that Finovate veteran Cinchy, from Toronto, Ontario, will be back. With FinovateFall marking the return of live demos after more than a year in a digital-only format, we can’t wait to see what other innovative Canadian fintechs will join in the fun.
Two of the biggest themes in fintech – digital identity and the rise of fintech in Central and Eastern Europe – meet in the latest announcement from biometric authentication specialist and Finovate Best of Show winner iProov. The company’s facial recognition technology now makes it easier for users of SK ID Solutions’ Smart-ID Service in countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to renew their accounts without having to visit a physical bank branch.
“This is a major development for all digital identity providers,” iProov CEO Andrew Bud said. “Estonia has proved, for the first time, that a remote, automated, biometric ID verification service can deliver the highest possible levels of security.”
Recognized as equal to a handwritten signature throughout Europe, Smart-IDs enable users to authenticate themselves and provide permissions online using a smartphone app. iProov’s facial recognition technology adds a three-second scan to compare the image of the user to the image on their presented ID document to help defend against fraud and identity theft.
Smart-ID also leverages NFC-based ReadID document verification technology from InnoValor.
Financial crime risk management innovator Featurespace will be helping Enfuce combat fraud and money laundering courtesy of a newly announced partnership. Enfuce, a financial services firm based in Finland, will use Featurespace’s ARIC Risk Hub to enhance its ability to protect its customers from fraud and financial crime.
“Our clients deserve industry-leading services that allow them to freely and fully concentrate on the success of their core business, without worrying about ever-evolving fraud,” Enfuce co-founder and chair Monika Liikamaa said.
ARIC Risk Hub offers real-time transaction monitoring for fraud and financial crime, enabling institutions to identify and act against anomalous and potentially dangerous behavior as it occurs. The technology also reduces the number of false positives by as much as 70%, keeping anti-fraud processes efficient. Featurespace introduced its fraud-fighting technology to Finovate audiences at FinovateEurope 2016.
Here is a round up of recent news from our Finovate alumni.
Sezzleunveils new logo along with its first annual report.
Flybitsexpands its executive team in New York, Toronto, the U.K., and Dubai.
Yseop and Automation Anywhere join forces to scale intelligent automation.
Lighter Capitalappoints Kevin Fink at CTO and Patricia Elliott as CSO.
InCommlaunches Roblox gift cards in France and Germany.
Finovate Alum Features and Profiles
Revolut’s $500 Million Round Boosts Valuation to $5.5 Billion – Global financial platform Revolut has secured its place as the U.K.’s most valuable fintech.
Dealing with Deepfakes in Fintech – The fintech industry is ripe with security firms, such as iProov, that use AI to combat both video and audio deepfakes with anti-spoofing technologies.
Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Indian Data Aggregator FinBit.io – Envestnet | Yodlee has acquired another asset in its strategy to further grow and develop its data aggregation and analytics business.
Meet Sonect: Cash Network Builder, Finovate Newcomer, Best of Show Winner – What’s better than having a large pizza with all your favorite toppings delivered to your front door? How about a side order of cash, saving you a trip to the ATM or bank branch?
Azimo Taps Ripple for Cross-Border Payments to the Philippines – Fueling these payment transfers is Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution that uses XRP to source liquidity and complete money transfers within three seconds.
Lendio Lands $55 Million to Match Small Businesses with Lenders – The investment more than doubles the company’s previous funding, bringing its total to $108.5 million.
SheerID Expands Identity Marketing Platform – The move enables brands to identify and acquire new customers across the globe.
The newly-released Fintech Power 50 for 2020 features ten Finovate alums. The roster is produced every December and bills itself as “meant to be controversial and provoke debate” while at the same time providing “inspiration to the rest of the industry.”
“Throughout its first year the Fintech Power 50 has seen consistent success for our members and we are very proud of the opportunities that being a member of the Power 50 has offered the companies involved,” Fintech Power 50 Managing Director and co-founder Jason Williams said. “We look forward to continuing the traction we have made this year with the 2020 cohort, with a more ambitious and exciting programme.”
The Fintech Power 50 aims to help fintechs reach a broader audience around the world. Over the course of 2020, the program will offer media partnerships and networking, business development and branding support, and investment and talent acquisition. This year marks the third edition of the program; coincidentally, the 2019 Power 50 featured ten Finovate alums, as well.
“We’re incredibly excited at this announcement, which is clear recognition of Keepabl’s value to customers, and to trusted advisers alike, and our potential to keep disrupting compliance-as-a-service,” wrote Keepabl CEO Robert Baugh in an email.
CREALOGIX CEO David Joyce added that he was “looking forward to exchanging ideas with the renowned digital leaders in this unique group.” He praised the way the roster reflected “the breadth, diversity, and creativity of the global fintech scene.”
The Fintech Power 50 2020 also features ten fintech thought leaders whose names will be familiar to Finovate veterans. Nine of the ten – David Birch, Ghela Boskovich, Theo Lau, Brett King, Jim Marous, Devie Mohan, David Parker, and Ruth Wandhofer – have made major contributions to our Finovate conferences since we expanded our format in 2017. We’ll have to get Mr. Lawrence Wintermeyer, co-founder of Global Digital Finance and the tenth thought leader on this year’s Fintech Power 50, to a Finovate stage sooner than later!
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateMiddleEast on November 20 and 21, 2019 in Dubai. Register today and save your spot.
Flybits enables financial institutions to deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences, leveraging contextual intelligence and AI.
Features
Transform your mobile app into a sales channel
Assemble proprietary, public, and device data to deliver contextual experiences
Lower marketing costs and raise conversion rates
Why it’s great Flybits powers mobile, in-app marketing and sales for banks.
Presenters
Amir Yazdanpanah, Managing Director (MENA Region) Yazdanpanah is an entrepreneurial IT executive with extensive experience in software product development, product sales and marketing, business operations, and P/L management. LinkedIn
Rebecca Engelberg, Market Intelligence Manager Engelberg specializes in Market Intelligence, monitoring industry trends and translating them into actionable insights for sales, marketing and product strategy. LinkedIn
Experianlaunches a new Open Data solution: Experian Commercial Acumen.
Mambu’s composable banking solution to help new SME bank Recognise enhance the customer experience.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 23 through 25, 2019 in New York City. Register today and save your spot.
Flybits enables financial institutions to deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences, leveraging contextual intelligence and AI.
Features
Target the consumer journey beyond traditional financial touchpoints
Leverage real time insights on consumer experiences
Trigger new use cases based on prior experience insights
Why it’s great Flybits helps financial institutions become leaders in engaging consumers by providing a robust feedback loop to deploy, learn, and innovate on digital consumer journeys.
Presenters
Jason Davies, VP of Enterprise Innovation Davies has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, digital payments, and fintech. LinkedIn.
Katrina Shiu, Product Manager Shiu is passionate about helping financial institutions build consumer experiences into their digital strategies in order to drive business results. LinkedIn.
CashDirectorearns a spot in Plug and Play’s Fintech Europe innovation platform.
Trustlypartners with ECOMMPAY to fuel online banking payments across Europe.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
NestReady to Enhance the Homebuying Experience at West Community Credit Union.
Around the web
Tearsheet interviewsFlybits CEO Hossein Rahnama on the challenge of digital transformation.
Facebook partners with HackerOne to launch bug bounty for its Libra Project.
Crowdfund Insider quotesUnison CEO Thomas Sponholtz and Lending Club CEO Scott Sanborn on the trend of fintechs considering a move from the San Francisco area.
Hanscom Federal Credit Union selectsDigital Onboarding to facilitate account activation.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
SumUpto power card payments for Fleximize members.
Wiproteams up with Blue Prism to launch new automation lab in Australia.
AiThority talks withDataSine CEO Igor Volzhanin on the role of machine learning and AI in marketing technology.
IdentityMindpicks up new patent for digital identity-based automated review.
Tinkurges regulators to “be flexible” when it comes to the implementation deadline of September 14 for PSD2.
Flybitsnamed to the Digital Finance Institute’s list of Canada’s Top 50 Fintech Companies for 2019.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.