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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
FinovateSpring 2023 is only days away! If you have already registered for our annual spring fintech conference – May 23 through May 25 – great! We’re looking forward to showing you the latest innovations from many of fintech’s most exciting companies. We’re also happy to be returning to San Francisco, California – where there’s plenty of opportunity for both networking and leisure when the conference day is done.
And if you have not already registered, then there’s no better time than the present to visit our FinovateSpring 2023 hub and save your spot. To whet your appetite, here’s a look back at what the Best of Show winners from last year’s event have been up to in the time since taking home Finovate’s top prize.
Pictured: Leigh Gross, SVP, Sales and Business Development
Demoed Array’s financial enablement platform, specializing in embeddable tools and white label solutions, used by leading financial institutions. Demo video.
Updates since Spring 2022
Partnered with Jack Henry to offer consumers personalized credit and financial insights.
Teamed up with Alkami to helps banks boost digital engagement.
Integrated with Q2’s digital banking platform to offer products including My Credit Manager.
Demoed FinGoal’s insights platform that cleans, enriches, and analyzes personal financial data to better understand users and provide actionable insights. Demo video.
Pictured: Colm Bermingham, Director Sales | Steve Frook, SVP Global Sales
Demoed Horizn’s platform that helps banks globally accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption with both customers and employees. Demo video.
Updates since Spring 2022
Partnered with ebankIT to support digital transformation.
Won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.
Teamed up with Coventry Building Society to provide skill development for branch workers.
Pictured: Rob Frohwein, CEO | Troy Deus, Co-founder & Head of Experience
Demoed Keep Financial Technology’s innovation that solves the hiring and retention challenges of companies by introducing a new form of employee compensation called Cash Vesting Plans. Demo video.
Updates since Spring 2022
Raised $9 million in seed funding in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Launched its Keep compensation platform and initial Keep Vesting Cash Plans.
Introduced KEEP Performing, adding defined goals to its platform.
Finovate always goes to great lengths to scout and bring together the brightest minds for keynote presentations, showcasing the most thought-provoking ideas on the main stage.
FinovateSpring, which takes place in San Fransiscso May 23 to 25, is no different. We’re thrilled to host six keynote presentations from all-star speakers. Get ready to gain valuable insights, discover innovative strategies, and be inspired by these speakers as they delve into crucial topics shaping the future of finance and technology.
Check out our six main-stage keynotes below:
Capitalizing on Competitive Advantages, Avoiding Moat Mirages
Ben Clayman, Engineering Leader at Square, will offer his deep understanding of the fintech landscape to guide attendees through the intricacies of leveraging competitive advantages while avoiding the pitfalls of false market barriers. His insights and practical strategies will empower professionals to chart a course for sustainable success in the ever-evolving fintech industry.
The Global Economic & Geo-Political Outlook – What Next? What Are The Challenges & Hidden Icebergs Ahead?
John C. Hulsman, President & Managing Partner at John C. Hulsman Enterprises will offer up his knowledge of global economics and geopolitics. Hulsman will unravel the potential risks and opportunities that lie ahead for the fintech and financial sectors. Gain invaluable foresight into the intricate interplay of geopolitical factors and economic landscapes, which will equip you to navigate the challenges and seize emerging opportunities with confidence.
Understanding The Recent Banking Instability Through The Lens Of Geopolitical Risk – How This Impacts Central Bank Policy And What It Means For Fintechs & Financial Institutions
Manas Chawla, CEO at London Politica, will share his expertise in geopolitics and shed light on the correlation between political dynamics, central bank policies, and their impact on the stability of the banking sector, offering valuable perspectives for fintech professionals.
Quick-Fire Keynotes
Climate Change, ESG & Financial Services, What Do Wall Street & Your Customers Want? How Can Banks Avoid Greenwashing? Why Digitisation & Sustainability Go Hand In Hand
Cathryn Peirce, Founder & CEO at Carbon Zero Financial
Financial Inclusion & Financial Wellness – Harnessing Data and Segmentation To Help Your Customers To Achieve Long Term Financial Health In Tough Economic Times
Ashish Gupta, Chief Risk Officer at LendingPoint
The Intersection Of Financial Services And Commerce – How Embedded Finance Can Generate Over $100 Billion in Revenue for Banks
Sam Kilmer, Managing Director, Fintech Advisory at Cornerstone Advisers
Ever since Elon Musk purchased Twitter last October for $44 million, he has been hinting of spinning the social media giant into what he is calling “X, the everything app.” In fintech, “everything apps” are known as super apps, and they exist primarily in Asia.
One of the latest developments in transitioning Twitter into a super app is Musk’s move to change Twitter’s name to X Corp. But a super app is much more than a name. Here’s a look at what the social media app currently offers, what it’s working on, and what it still needs to become a fully fledged super app.
What it has
Social Social is most certainly Twitter’s strongest attribute. The micro-blogging platform was founded in 2006 and currently has around 450 monthly active users. While this is a considerable user base, however, it pales in comparison to well-known super app WeChat, which counts 1.3 billion monthly active users.
Investment tools Earlier this month, Twitter partnered with eToro to not only offer real-time pricing data for stocks, but also to facilitate trades. The trades, however, do not take place within Twitter’s interface. Instead, users are routed to eToro’s website for stock details and to make trades.
What it’s (publicly) working on
Generative AI Last week, Musk unveiled a new company called X.AI, The move confirmed rumors of his plans to launch a generative AI product after he purchased thousands of graphic processing units. X.AI is expected to compete with OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015 but left in 2018 to avoid a conflict of interest.
While most super apps do not boast their own generative AI tool, adding a powerful chatbot such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT would be a major differentiating factor
Payments Musk is publicly vociferous about his plan to add Venmo-like payments capabilities to Twitter. And it’s not just talk. Twitter filed with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and is also in the process of obtaining necessary state licenses, as well.
After Twitter begins facilitating peer-to-peer payments, it may begin offering more digital bank-like tools such as a high-yield savings account or even an X-branded payment card. This leads the conversation into what Twitter still needs to become a super app.
What’s missing
Personal finance Twitter already offers stock trading (through a third party) and it is working on offering peer-to-peer payments. There is more to personal finance, however, than just investing and spending. In order to truly become an “everything app,” Twitter must offer brick-and-mortar payments, as well as an in-app dashboard that helps users track their spending, savings, and investments.
Shopping This may end up being one of the most challenging aspects for Twitter to add in a way that would compete with the current top super app contenders in the U.S.– Walmart and PayPal. Currently, Walmart offers consumers access to goods from an Amazon-like supplier base, as well as to goods in their local Walmart store. PayPal’s shopping experience is less compelling, but offers deals from major service providers and retailers (including Walmart).
For Twitter to start a shopping experience from scratch wouldn’t be unfathomable, but it would take a long time. If it is seeking to compete with Walmart as a super app, it will likely need to find success via a partnership.
Transportation A few of the most well-known super apps– Grab, Gojek, and Ola– began as transportation apps. Adding transportation capabilities has the potential to draw users into the app on a daily basis because they not only facilitate commutes via ride-hailing or public transportation payments, they also facilitate hyper-local delivery, grocery delivery, and restaurant delivery. These aspects play major roles in the lives of consumers.
Health services Amazon, Walmart, and others have tackled the fragmented healthcare industry. Providing affordable health services, such as appointment booking, tele-health calls, records management, and ask-a-nurse services in a single place provides a lot of value for end users.
Health services will not be a primary driver bringing users into Twitter’s super app, but it will certainly help to keep them around and may even help target the app’s older users.
Insurance Similar to adding health services, insurance tools will not serve as a primary draw for users. However, offering tools such as a digital lock box with insurance cards, contact information, coverage options, and payment history is a valuable add-on and can help reach older users not necessarily seeking social or payment capabilities.
Government and public services To become a well-rounded super app, Twitter should add government and public services, such as public transportation payment and tracking, library cards, and tax preparation services. In the U.S. however, with the advent of FedNow and the potential addition of a CBDC, the government may end up beating Twitter to the punch with a super app of its own.
The Finovate Sustainability and Inclusion Scholarship Program is an opportunity to showcase innovative startups that are embracing strong ESG principles as a key part of their offering. To commemorate Earth Day this weekend – and the importance of the “E” in ESG – we’re highlighting three companies that have earned scholarships in the Environmental/Sustainability category.
Daizy
Founded in 2019, Daizy won the Sustainability category of our Finovate Scholarship program in FinovateFall 2022. The company’s technology leverages AI to help investors access the data-driven stories behind the biggest companies in the U.S. Daizy has combined its expertise in ESG, analytics, data visualization, and natural language processing to offer an app that enables users to link their brokerages accounts, build watchlists, as well as track and search for new investment ideas using Daizy’s NLP portfolio, stock, and crypto search functionality.
Daizy Chief Operating Officer Andrew Peddar at FinovateFall 2022.
Based in the U.K., Daizy has raised $3 million in funding. Deborah Yang is co-founder and CEO. Follow Daizy on Twitter. Connect with Daizy on LinkedIn.
Energy Shares
Energy Shares won the Environmental category of our Finovate Demo Scholarship program for FinovateFall 2022. The company is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer and equity crowdfunding platform for utility-scale renewable energy projects in the U.S. Energy Shares facilitates access to investment opportunities in renewable energy projects, opportunities that were previously only available to institutional, corporate, and select retail investors. Via the Energy Shares platform, investors and developers can connect and collaborate to support renewable energy initiatives and support the growth of the renewable energy industry.
Energy Shares Social Media and Community Manager Chloe Breau and CMO Mark Kapczynski at FinovateFall 2022
Energy Shares was founded in 2020. The company is headquartered in Pasadena, California. Follow Energy Shares on Twitter. Connect with Energy Shares on LinkedIn.
Little Blocks
Hyderabad, India-based Little Blocks won the Environmental category of the Finovate Demo Scholarship program for FinovateEurope 2023. The company leverages industrial IoT sensors and blockchain technology to foster access to risk capital for expenses like machinery purchases. Little Blocks’ technology tokenizes each machine and ownership is distributed among the token holders, each of whom has a stake in the underlying cash flows. This enables manufacturers to pay based on the actual use of the machine rather than a fixed monthly loan repayment.
Little Blocks co-founder and CEO Hanu Panchakarla at FinovateEurope 2023.
Little Blocks was founded in 2022 and is funded by a grant from the Startup India Seed Fund.
FinovateSpring is just over a month away, on May 23 through May 25, and we’re already excited to watch the stage fill with fresh fintech demos and discussions about the hottest industry topics.
Just as fintech is a constantly changing industry, so are the conversations, advice, and relevant themes. So when we hit the networking floor next month in San Francisco, here are the top 10 topics we can’t wait to talk about with everyone:
Metaverse When it comes to the metaverse and Web 3, it seems like you’re either in or you’re out. While a handful of banks have already jumped in with two feet by purchasing real estate in the metaverse, others are dismissing it as a passing fad.
ESG ESG discussions are happening around the globe, and formal ESG reporting strategies are on the verge of becoming more than just nice to have. With proposed regulation in the U.S. and beyond, now is the time to begin paying attention to this space.
Generative AI The topic of generative AI transcends Open AI’s ChatGPT. While organizations are leveraging the technology to save costs, it still bears risk if used improperly. If you’re not a first-mover in this space, however, you certainly don’t want to be the last.
Partnerships Regardless of whether you call them bank-fintech partnerships or fintech-bank partnerships, these tie-ups matter, and they are trickier than they seem. In many cases, keeping good partners can be just as difficult as finding good partners in the first place.
Digital acceleration We may be three years past the golden age of digitization, but we’re not going back. Whether you’re a bank or a fintech, if you haven’t digitized your offerings and back-end processes, you may be left behind.
Economic outlook Last year we were worried about a pending recession. This year, we’re sweating about the impact of bank failures. Does anyone know what we’re in for next?
Decentralized finance The concept of decentralized finance (DeFi) was tarnished last year after the FTX scandal took place, and U.S. regulators have been on high alert ever since. There is more to DeFi than cryptocurrency, however, and much of the industry has yet to embrace– or even explore– the possibilities.
VC investing and fintech valuations Venture capitalists are being much more careful with their dollars these days, and many are focusing their investments on early-stage companies. But how can mid-to-late stage startups get much-needed liquidity? Many have advised focusing on unit economics, saying that companies should focus on customer lifetime value and customer acquisition cost.
Embedded finance Non-fintech and banking companies such as retailers and service providers are looking to make it as easy as possible to make a sale, and embedded finance may be the answer. Fintechs can not only help remove the friction from the checkout flow, they can remove the “checkout” all together by moving the processes into the background.
Customer experience We’ve been talking about ways to win when it comes to the customer experience for almost a decade now, so the topic can seem a bit hackneyed. There’s a reason for that, however. Customers have a broad range of needs, and because their preferences are always changing, it can be difficult for banks and fintechs to keep up with their expectations.
Don’t want to miss out on any of these discussions? Be sure to register before April 21 to save $300 on your ticket.
Canadian Crypto Combo: A trio of Canada-based cryptocurrency exchanges announced plans to merge into a single entity. Vancouver-based WonderFi, along with Toronto-based Coinsquare and Coin Smart Financial, are the firms involved. Together, they represent more than $600 million CAD in assets under custody and more than 1.65 million users. The merger will create what the companies are calling “Canada’s largest regulated crypto asset trading platform.”
The road to the three-way union had its complications. At one point, Coinsquare had been poised to acquire CoinSmart. At another point, a merger with WonderFi was allegedly on the table. CoinSmart had been both cold and hot to an acquisition by Coinsquare and reportedly was prepared to seek monetary damages in court when the acquisition deal did not work out. But those days are gone, and the three companies have decided they are better off serving cryptocurrency customers together than they are on their own.
UAE and ANZ Get Busy with CBDCs: There have been a few CBDC-oriented stories in fintech and crypto headlines in recent days. First up is news that the UAE has selected technology and legal partners ahead of the launch of its CBDC strategy. The country’s central bank has picked Clifford Chance to provide legal oversight. R3 and G42 Cloud will serve as technology and infrastructure providers. This will enable the central bank to begin Phase 1 of its CBDC project. This initial phase has three components: initiating real-value cross-border CBDC transactions for international trade settlement, proof-of-concept work for bilateral CBDC bridges with India, and proof-of-concept work for domestic CBDC issuance covering wholesale and retail use. Phase 1 is expected to take place over the next 12 to 15 months.
Meanwhile in Australia, ANZ bank reported that it had concluded one of its projects in the country’s CBDC trials. The project involved using the ANZ stablecoin to settle tokenized carbon credit transactions. ANZ Bank is involved in four of the 15 use cases and projects in the country’s CBDC pilot. With regard to this specific use case – applying tokenization to the carbon markets – ANZ Banking Services Lead Nigel Dobson expressed optimism. He highlighted the potential to improve both efficiency and transparency, as well as “preserve the unique characteristics of underlying projects to incentivize investment in climate solutions.”
Speaking of the relationship between crypto and the climate, SEB and Crédit Agricole announced this week that they are jointly launching so|bond, a sustainable and open platform for digital bonds built on blockchain technology. The platform enables issuers in capital markets to issue digital bonds onto a blockchain network in an effort to enhance efficiency and support real-time data synchronization between participants. Additionally, the network is using a validation protocol, Proof of Climate awaReness, that encourages participants to minimize their carbon footprint.
“Crédit Agricole CIB is proud to contribute to the emerging market of digital assets,” Crédit Agricole CIB Head of Innovation and Digital Transformation Romaric Rollet said. “The platform’s innovative approach, both to the blockchain infrastructure and to the securities market, is coupled with the strong commitment to green and sustainable finance that is at the center of our Societal Project.”
And while on the topic of the blockchain use cases, we report that Acre, a blockchain-based mortgage platform, has raised $8.1 million (£6.5 million). The fundraising is the second major capital infusion for the London-based company and brings the firm’s total equity funding to $14.3 million (£14.3 million). The round was led by McPike, an investor in Starling Bank, as well as Aviva and Founders Factory.
Acre helps traditional brokers compete with their digital counterparts by using blockchain technology to enhance the mortgage and insurance application process for advisers. The company’s technology brings together all aspects of the process into a single “record of the transaction.” This, according to Acre founder and CEO Justus Brown, helps brokers deliver “speedy, efficient advice that meets the individual requirements of each case in a dynamic market.”
Acre was founded in 2017. Brown reports that the company grew by 10x in 2022, and processes £10 billion in annual mortgage volume. In the wake of the latest investment, Acre will focus on forging new partnerships with lenders and insurers to enable brokers to recommend the most competitive financial products and services for their clients.
Coinbase Announces Derivatives Exchange Upgrade: Last up for this edition of 5 Tales from the Crypto is news from one of the industry’s banner companies, Coinbase. The firm announced this week that it had partnered with Transaction Network Services (TNS). The partnership is designed to enable faster, more efficient transactions on its derivatives exchange (CDE).
“Crypto has witnessed both volatile and liquid markets, and with institutional adoption remaining strong, we believe the time is right for the offering that TNS brings to the table,” Coinbase Derivatives Exchange CEO Boris Ilyevsky said. “Dedicated cloud infrastructure connectivity coupled with our derivatives exchange represents a mission-critical step toward supporting and maintaining a vibrant and reliable crypto derivatives market.”
Coinbase launched its Derivatives Exchange in June of last year with the goal of attracting more retail traders to its platform. This week’s news shows that the company recognizes the potential attraction its exchange could have for institutional investors, as well. Regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the CDE will leverage its new TNS-provided financial trading infrastructure to enable institutional investors to grow their storage capabilities and process large data sets with less delay.
If you need a break from bank failure news, here’s something refreshing. OpenAI’s GPT-4 was released yesterday. The new model is the successor to GPT-3.5-turbo and promises to produce “safer” and “more useful” responses. But what does that mean exactly? And how do the two models compare?
We’ve broken down six things to know about GPT-4.
Processes both image and text input
GPT-4 accepts images as inputs and can analyze the contents of an image alongside text. As an example, users can upload a picture of a group of ingredients and ask the model what recipe they can make using the ingredients in the picture. Additionally, visually impaired users can screenshot a cluttered website and ask GPT-4 to decipher and summarize the text. Unlike DALL-E 2, however GPT-4 cannot generate images.
For banks and fintechs, GPT-4’s image processing could prove useful for helping customers who get stuck during the onboarding process. The bot could help decipher screenshots of the user experience and provide a walk-through for confused customers.
Less likely to respond to inappropriate requests
According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is 82% less likely than GPT-3.5 to respond to disallowed content. It is also 40% more likely to produce factual responses than GPT-3.5.
For the financial services industry, it means using GPT-4 to power a chatbot is less risky than before. The new model is less susceptible to ethical and security risks.
Handles around 25,000 words per query
OpenAI doesn’t measure its inputs and outputs in word count or character count. Rather, it measures text based on units called tokens. While the word-to-token ratio is not straightforward, OpenAI estimates that GPT-4 can handle around 25,000 words per query, compared to GPT-3.5-turbo’s capacity of 3,000 words per query.
This increase enables users to carry on extended conversations, create long form content, search text, and analyze documents. For banks and fintechs, the increased character limit could prove useful when searching and analyzing documents for underwriting purposes. It could also be used to flag compliance errors and fraud.
Performs higher on academic tests
While ChatGPT scored in the 10th percentile on the Uniform BAR Exam, GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile. Additionally, GPT-4 did well on other standardized tests, including the LSAT, GRE, and some of the AP tests.
While this specific capability won’t come in handy for banks, it signifies something important. It highlights the AI’s ability to retain and reproduce structured knowledge.
Already in-use
While GPT-4 was just released yesterday, it is already being employed by a handful of organizations. Be My Eyes, a technology platform that helps users who are blind or have low vision, is using the new model to analyze images.
The model is also being used in the financial services sector. Stripe is currently using GPT-4 to streamline its user experience and combat fraud. And J.P. Morgan is leveraging GPT-4 to organize its knowledge base. “You essentially have the knowledge of the most knowledgeable person in Wealth Management—instantly. We believe that is a transformative capability for our company,” said Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Head of Analytics, Data & Innovation Jeff McMillan.
Still messes up
One very human-like aspect of OpenAI’s GPT-4 is that it makes mistakes. In fact, OpenAI’s technical report about GPT-4 says that the model is sometimes “confidently wrong in its predictions.”
The New York Times provides a good example of this in its recent piece, 10 Ways GPT-4 Is Impressive but Still Flawed. The article describes a user who asked GPT-4 to help him learn the basics of the Spanish language. In its response, GPT-4 offered a handful of inaccuracies, including telling the user that “gracias” was pronounced like “grassy ass.”
Last week, to kick off Women’s History Month, we highlighted the women who will be representing their companies on Day One at FinovateEurope on March 14 next week in London.
Today, on International Women’s Day, we would like to introduce you to the women who will be taking center stage with keynote addresses, fireside chats, and more on Day Two of FinovateEurope.
Suraya Randawa
Head of Omnichannel Experience at Curinos, Panelist. Meet at the Cafe.
It’s the first day of March, which means FinovateEurope is officially taking place this month on March 14 through 15 at the Intercontinental O2 in London (there’s still time to register). As you preview the agenda and prepare your notes on must-see company demos, you’re probably also filling your schedule with meetings and after parties. Because, let’s face it– sometimes the networking is just as good as the on-stage content.
After 12 years of attending Finovate events, I’ve seen some unique attendees on the networking floor– including a dog and a baby. But who can you expect to see this year? Our audience is generally comprised of financial institution executives, startup representatives, industry analysts, and venture capitalists. However, everyone has a unique “conference personality.” Below, I’ve broken down these personalities into five categories.
The Front Row Fiend
This is the person that arrives extra early to secure their seat in the front row. They’re usually analysts or journalists in search of taking quality, up-close pictures of the on-stage discussions. As an added bonus, because they have their choice of auditorium seat, they usually secure a spot next to a much-coveted power outlet.
The Standing Room Only
Opposite in personality to the Front Row Fiend, the Standing Room Only person prefers the back row. They like being in the back so much that they forgo the luxury of sitting, even during the longest sessions. Whether they stand in the back because they are hoping to run into a colleague or because they enjoy watching the people in the audience, it is possible that the handful of people that stand in the back of the auditorium know something that the rest of us don’t.
The Demo Obsessed
Finovate was a pioneer of the tech demo model back in 2007, and many veteran attendees return each year just to watch the demos. This is where the Demo Obsessed personality comes from. These are the people that pay attention to every detail of every demo. They are both quick to applaud and quick to critique. This brings me to the next personality…
The Tweeter
This person is the perfect combination of someone who thinks quickly on their feet and who knows how to work a social platform. During every session, the Tweeter always has their two thumbs ready to type a comment, reply, critique, or a recently stated statistic into Twitter– and they always do so using the correct hashtags while tagging the proper username.
The Hallway Conference Caller
If you go to enough conferences, there’s no doubt you’ve been the Hallway Conference Caller at some point. This is the person huddled in a corner wearing ear pods and holding their computer so they can jump on a weekly scheduled call and quickly have their input before returning to the auditorium or networking floor.
There are plenty of reasons why FinovateEurope 2023 next month will be one of the year’s biggest fintech events. With just over a week left to take advantage of early-bird savings on your FinovateEurope ticket, we thought we’d share a handful of our favorite reasons why we hope to see you in London, March 14 and 15.
New Keynote Speakers!
FinovateEurope 2023 will feature the return of many of our favorite keynote speakers. But this year’s event will also showcase a number of newcomers. At the top of the list is Leda Glyptis, veteran banking professional and author of the book Bankers Like Us. With a mainstage keynote on Day One of FinovateEurope titled “The Problem with Digital Transformation Is You,” Glyptis will examine the key role that financial services professionals play in helping – or hindering – the process of digital transformation in their own businesses and institutions.
Also making their Finovate debuts as keynote speakers at FinovateEurope are John C. Hulsman, President and Managing Partner, John C. Hulsman Enterprises, who will speak on the global economy; and Adam Lowe, Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Arculus by CompoSecure, who will discuss securing digital platforms and optimizing the customer experience.
FinovateEurope will also present a series of Quick Fire Keynotes. Leading these 10-minute presentations are Matt Bullivant, Director of ESG Strategy, OakNorth, who will speak about climate change, ESG, and financial services; Martin Hyde, EMEA Payment Partnerships Lead, J.P. Morgan Payments, who will talk about the power of embedded payments in financial services; and Dhaksha Vivekanandan, founder of Daylight Robbery, who will discuss bitcoin and the relationship between traditional and decentralized finance.
New Demoing Companies!
Of the 30 fintech innovators demoing their latest solutions live on stage next month, nearly half will be making their Finovate debuts. Representing countries as diverse as Scotland, Austria, Estonia, India, Switzerland, Israel, Sweden, and Bulgaria – as well as the U.S. and U.K. – these newcomers include:
The official name of the session is “Pre-Event Briefing for Financial Institutions.” But we know a pre-funk when we see one! On March 13 – “FinovateEurope Eve” if you will – we are hosting a special, invite-only occasion featuring expert insights into top fintech trends, a special address, and a fireside chat with keynote speaker, Steven Van Belleghem. We’ll top off the evening with drinks and networking to allow attendees to spend quality time with fellow professionals from banks and other financial institutions.
Alumni Alley: How the Best Have Won
Alumni Alley is our opportunity to showcase some of the biggest brands in fintech that have demoed their innovations live on the Finovate stage. For our upcoming conference next month, the focus will be on FinovateEurope alums. Check out our coverage of some of FinovateEurope’s most storied alums.
If you’re working with a bank, an established fintech innovator, or a bold, new startup, Alumni Alley is a unique chance to gain insights and ideas that can help you grow your organization, improve partner relationships, and take your business to the next level.
“If You Start Me Up”: Finovate’s Startup Booster Program
Our Startup Booster program is designed to enable early-stage startups to take advantage of the full Finovate experience – at a price point appropriate for their early-stage status. Held on March 15, participants in our Startup Booster Program will hear from successful founders about partnership strategies, insights into the investment process, tips on how to land your first bank customer, and more.
Following the presentations, startups will have two hours of networking time with investors from across the U.K. and Europe.
What’s Hot? What’s Not? The GameShow!
Think you know what’s hot and what’s not among fintech’s competing trends and passions? Join us for our special event – What’s Hot? What’s Not? The Gameshow! – where we’ll pit veteran fintech analysts and insiders against the wisdom of the crowd to find out who really knows where fintech is headed!
Our unique gameshow format – in which you the audience get to play judge and jury – will bring a little lighthearted fun to the discussion of fintech trends, and add a little healthy competition to the endless debate: HOT? Or NOT!
Early-bird savings for FinovateEurope end on March 3rd. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your spot!
It’s the first day of Black History Month, and this year’s theme is Resistance. We’ll be serving up related coverage all month, and today’s piece sets the scene.
In an effort to highlight Black founders in our industry, we gathered a list of 70 fintechs with Black founders. This is far from an exhaustive list of fintechs with African American founders, but it is a good representation of diverse, relevant* companies.
Helps reduce delinquencies and increase revenue while helping people pay off debt sooner and with fewer penalties Founders: Diana Frappier, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Empowers general partners and limited partners to focus on building enduring relationships and investment opportunities Founders: Adam Ginsburg, Alex Robinson, Yonas Fisseha
Enables secure and seamless data transmission using the ultrasonic data technology Founders: Chris Ostoich, Chris Ridenour, Josh Glick, Nikki Ridenour, Rodney Williams
Provides a financial advice platform that powers SmartAdvisor, a marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors Founders: Michael Carvin, Philip Camilleri
Offers a social investing platform where you can talk about investments with friends and make trades on the market. Founders: Darian Bhathena, Jack Phifer, Michael Liu, Roger Cawdette
An all-in-one platform that offers financial tools to help creators grow their business Founders: Arabian Prince, Chris Mendez, Chris Schwartz, James Jones Jr.
Provides a community finance platform where members request and fund emergency needs Founders: Jarrel Carter, Rodney Williams, Taylor Bruno, Travis Holoway
Offers a lending platform that provides short-term financing to qualified TV and Film productions Founders: Janelle Alexander, Jon Gosier, Josh Harris, Mickey Vetter
Helps essential professionals buy homes and build financial security near the communities they serve Founded: Alex Lofton, Jesse Vaughan, Jonathan Asmis
Offers a relationship-based lending application that simplifies and automates loans between friends, family, and trusted relationships. Founders: Dennis Cail, Michael Seay
Provides a rewards and loyalty infrastructure for banks and businesses in Africa Founders: Harshal Gandole, Madonna Ononobi, Simeon Ononobi, Suraj Supekar
Offers an Automated Mortgage Advisor that simulates buying a home with multiple lenders to determine mortgage approval odds and affordability impact based on lifestyle Founders: Bryan Young, Steven Better, Tim Roberson
Provides an operating system for active investment management, powering investment products, and experiences for retail investors Founders: Clayton Gardner, Joe Percoco, Max Bernardy
Offers a global split payment platform built for co-creators on any project, anywhere Founders: Adam Clabaugh, Mangesh Bhamkar, Marcus Cobb, Rachel Knepp
Enables lenders to open more accounts by showing users the actions necessary to meet eligibility for their financial goals Founders: Abb Kapoor, David Potter
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If you’re not familiar with OpenAI’s newest technology, ChatGPT, now is the time to spend a few minutes to sign up and play with the chatbot that has captured the world’s attention. ChatGPT leverages Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), OpenAI’s language generation model, and it is poised to disrupt a lot more than the customer service.
While ChatGPT has a multitude of use cases in the fintech industry– from automating copywriting to crafting a job description– GPT-3 is even more powerful. Accessed through OpenAI’s API, it can be tailored to suit a range of natural language processing tasks and runs on 175 billion parameters. ChatGPT has only 20 billion parameters. More importantly, firms can use GPT-3 via an API in a compliant environment.
The applications for GPT-3 across fintech and banking are seemingly endless, but I’ve outlined a handful of ways banks and fintechs can use the technology without requiring additional resources to save costs and create a better user experience.
Automate customer service interactions
Banks and fintechs can integrate GPT-3 into a chatbot or virtual assistant to lessen the volume of phone inquiries into their customer service department. GPT-3 can handle common customer inquiries, such as account balance inquiries or loan application status updates.
Enhance fraud detection
Organizations can use historical transaction data to train GPT-3 to identify patterns and flag anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity.
Streamline document processing
GPT-3 can prove useful to firms that process a large number of documents and need to extract specific information from the paperwork. The technology can automatically extract information from financial documents, such as invoices or loan applications, which ultimately saves time by reducing manual data entry.
Create more personalized financial advice
Advisors can use GPT-3 to generate financial advice, such as investment recommendations, for their clients. In order to tailor the advice to the individual, GPT-3 will take into account customer demographics, risk tolerance, and investment goals.
Create sentiment analysis
From a marketing perspective, GPT-3 can be used to determine brand awareness and overall sentiment toward a company or brand. By analyzing customer feedback and social media interactions, companies can gain insight on new product deployments and measure customer satisfaction over time.
While many of these tools and capabilities have been available in the fintech and banking industry for over a decade, they are now even more powerful. What’s more, using GPT-3 may be more cost effective in the long run because of the range of use cases the technology presents.
