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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
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.
FinovateEurope in London was a veritable bonfire of fireside chats! And now, courtesy of Finovate TV, you can check out many of the conversations we had with leading fintech entrepreneurs and technologists.
Here’s our Fireside Chat conversation with Bianca Zwart, Chief of Staff to the CEO of Dutch neobank bunq. We talked about the innovative fintech’s origins in the wake of the financial crisis, the challenge and opportunity of “borderlessness” in Europe, and bunq’s goal of being the “global neobank for digital nomads and international people and businesses.”
On the origins of bunq
Zwart: We were founded just after the financial crisis of 2008. Our founder and CEO Ali Niknam looked around and he saw a lot of people hurt by what was happening. A lot of his friends couldn’t get a mortgage. They were forced to sell their houses – or they couldn’t get a loan as an entrepreneur. He looked around and he saw that people were just pointing fingers, blaming each other and nobody was actually fixing the problem.
On the uniqueness of bunq’s business model
Zwart: We were completely self-funded by our founder for nearly a decade, which gave us the independence to focus on what we wanted to focus on: building a product that people love to use, to bring a service model back to the banking industry. We were the first to introduce a subscription-based model because we were convinced that if you build a product that people love to use, they are willing to pay a fair price for it. By doing so, your commercial reality is directly linked to user happiness.
On the challenge of Europe’s borderless Millennial and Gen Z consumers
Zwart: We all look at Europe as a continent, but it’s just a mixture of so many different countries. Banking is super personal, super cultural. Consider the difference, for example, between the Netherlands and Germany in terms of how we look at money, how we deal with money payment infrastructure. It’s a completely different ballgame and we want our users to have access to financial services wherever they go without having to worry about that.
Today is the final day of Women’s History Month. At Finovate, we have spent the past 30+ days highlighting the accomplishments of women in our industry. We began our commemoration with a look at the women who would demo their companies’ latest technologies at FinovateEurope. We followed up on International Women’s Day, showcasing the women who would deliver mainstage keynote addresses at the conference. And just this week, we featured the winners of the “Female Founded/Owned” category of our Finovate Demo Scholarship program for fintech startups.
Today we share insights from Maggie O’Toole, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at TabaPay. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, and founded in 2017, TabaPay is a specialist in real-time money movement. The company facilitates one million transactions every day, has more than 2,000 clients, and is the number seven ranked CNP (card-not-present) acquirer in the U.S.
We caught up with Ms. O’Toole to discuss her work at TabaPay, her experience as a female leader in fintech and financial services, and what needs to be done in order to enable more women to secure leadership roles in our industry.
Tell us about your background and current position at TabaPay.
Maggie O’Toole: When I graduated college and moved to the United States from Poland, I faced some of the biggest challenges of my life. Being an immigrant in a new country without speaking the language was a difficult experience, but it also ignited a fire in me to prove that I could succeed.
Over the past decade, I’ve dedicated myself to the payments industry, focusing on strategic partnerships that help businesses thrive. My time at Onbe was particularly impactful; I had the opportunity to lead the charge on launching new products and forging partnerships that enabled real-time payments. I’m proud to say that I played a pivotal role in helping Onbe grow from a startup to a scaled enterprise, while completing a successful M&A strategy.
Today, at TabaPay, I focus on maximizing value for our clients and positioning the company for long-term growth. Building solid relationships with clients, networks, and banks is at the heart of everything I do. I take pride in the fact that I’ve been able to establish a partner management department from scratch, which is set to quadruple in size by the end of the year.
My journey has been anything but easy, but it has shaped me into the leader I am today. I’m passionate about the payments industry and helping businesses succeed, and I’m excited to see where my journey will take me next.
What challenges have you faced as a woman in fintech, and how have you overcome them?
O’Toole: As a woman in fintech, I have faced various challenges throughout my career. I’m still amazed by the vast underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in the industry. This has made it more difficult to find role models or mentors who share similar experiences and can provide guidance and support.
Another challenge I have faced is the pervasive gender bias that exists in many aspects of the industry. This bias can manifest in subtle ways, such as being interrupted or talked over in meetings, or in more overt ways, such as being passed over for promotions or opportunities.
To overcome these challenges, I have sought out supportive networks of women in fintech and other industries. These networks have provided me with invaluable mentorship, advice, and opportunities for growth. I have also worked hard to advocate for myself and my accomplishments, and to challenge gender bias whenever I encounter it.
Furthermore, I have always prioritized my personal and professional development. I have sought training and education opportunities to improve my skills and knowledge, allowing me to excel in my role and advance my career despite these challenges.
How have these challenges shaped your leadership style?
O’Toole: My experiences as a woman in fintech have influenced my leadership style. I believe overcoming challenges and facing obstacles head-on has helped me become a stronger and more effective leader. By persevering through difficult times, I have developed a resilient and adaptable leadership style; I’m always ready to take on new challenges.
One way these challenges have shaped my leadership style is by making me a better communicator. I have learned the importance of clearly articulating the company’s vision and plan to my team, so everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals. Additionally, I have become more empathetic and understanding of my team’s needs, providing them with the support and guidance they need to be successful. I truly believe that sound, repeatable, positive business results are a natural outcome of prioritizing our employees, clients, and partners through building trusted and safe relationships.
Finally, setbacks and failures have taught me to view them as learning opportunities and growth. I encourage my team to adopt a similar mindset and not to be afraid to take risks and make mistakes. I believe that taking pauses periodically and reflecting on where we are and where we’re headed as a team is essential for long-term success.
Overall, my experiences have made me a more effective and compassionate leader, and I am grateful for the lessons they have taught me.
What is your approach to building work environments and teams?
O’Toole: My approach to building work environments and teams is rooted in building strong relationships. As a leader, I believe it’s essential to take the time to understand the backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of each team member to foster a culture of trust and mutual respect. By investing in these relationships, I aim to create an environment that empowers individuals to be their best selves and feel supported in their growth and development.
I strive to create a work environment that encourages collaboration, creativity, and innovation. This includes providing opportunities for open communication and feedback, as well as recognizing and celebrating individual and team achievements. Ultimately, I aim to build a team united by a common purpose and inspired to work towards a shared vision.
What are the most important qualities for women in leadership positions in fintech, and how can they develop these qualities?
O’Toole: As women in leadership positions in fintech, we have unique perspectives and valuable insights to bring to the table. We must have confidence in our abilities and not let anyone else define us or hold us back. We should proudly tell our stories, embrace our individuality, and be intentional with our time and energy.
To develop the necessary qualities for leadership, we should constantly be growing and learning, personally and professionally. We can bring new skills and lessons from our personal lives into our work and vice versa and remain open to new perspectives and opportunities for growth.
As leaders, we must be intentional about what we say “yes” to, knowing that every decision comes with trade-offs. We should prioritize our strengths and areas of expertise and allocate our time strategically to make the most significant impact on our teams and organizations. By doing so, we can create a more fulfilling and rewarding work environment for ourselves and those around us.
How do you see the role of women in fintech evolving over the next five years, and what are your thoughts on the industry’s progress toward gender parity?
O’Toole: The fintech industry has come a long way regarding gender parity, but much more work remains to be done. As a female leader in fintech, I’m confident that women will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the industry over the next five years, and beyond.
Companies need to recognize the value of diversity and make a concerted effort to hire and promote female leaders. This is not about meeting quotas, but about creating a genuinely inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve. By empowering women to take risks, dream big, and believe in themselves, we can develop a culture of success that benefits everyone.
At TabaPay, I’m proud to be part of a team committed to diversity and inclusion. With 55% of our employees and 65% of our leadership identifying as women or non-binary, we’re setting a powerful example for the rest of the industry. In the years to come, I believe we’ll see even more significant progress as more companies recognize the critical importance of gender parity in fintech and beyond.
In 2022, Finovate launched its Demo Scholarship Program. The goal of the program is to highlight fintech founders from underrepresented communities, as well as fintech startups that are tackling issues of climate change, diversity, and financial inclusion. At each event, starting with FinovateFall in 2022, Finovate grants five scholarships in the categories of Environment, Social, Governance, Person of Color Founded/Owned, and Female Founded/Owned.
With Women’s History Month drawing to a close this week, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the scholarship winners in our Female Founded/Owned category since our scholarship program was launched last year.
Pave
FinovateSpring 2023 Scholarship Winner – Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Pave enables credit risk teams to identify healthy borrowers, optimize credit limits, and improve collections outcomes. Pave’s technology provides access to a unified view of end customers’ cash flow and financial profile to help power a range of use cases including cash advances, credit building, overdraft protection, and more.
Pave was co-founded by Ema Rouf in 2020. Previously, Rouf co-founded Adazza – a company that built integrations with telecoms and mobile money operators in emerging markets including Africa and Central Asia in order to collect and analyze data for analytics and machine learning applications.
Quoroom
FinovateEurope 2023 Scholarship Winner – Headquartered in London, U.K., and founded in 2018, Quoroom offers an end-to-end fundraising and cap table management software solution for private companies. The firm’s technology enables users to raise capital up to four times faster thanks for Quoroom’s investment workflows. Quoroom supports a range of functions including building an investor pipeline and conducting investor matchmaking and outreach, as well as legal completion and cap table management.
Ulyana Shtybel is co-founder and CEO. Shtybel was named to the Inspiring Fifty Europe’s roster of the Top Fifty Women in European Tech for 2022.
TAZI AI
FinovateEurope 2023 Scholarship Winner – Based in San Francisco, California and founded in 2017, TAZI AI is a machine learning platform that enables businesses and data scientists to develop ML models for agile decision-making. The company earned recognition from Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Core AI Technologies for its continuous learning, explainable AI, and human-in-the-loop technology. TAZI AI won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope this year.
Zehra Cataltepe is co-founder and CEO. A former professor of computer engineering for 17 years, Cataltepe is a member of the Forbes Technology Council, and an alum of the Alchemist Accelerator, Class 26.
Debbie
FinovateFall 2022 Scholarship Winner – Based in Miami, Florida and founded in 2021, Debbie is the Noom for debt loss. The company leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off 3x more debt and enable lenders to recession-proof borrowers. Debbie won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022 for its app that guides borrowers in a curriculum based on actionable financial assignments, offers rewards for successful goal achievement, and makes it easier for borrowers to connect and track all of their debt accounts.
Co-founder Frida Leibowitz is CEO. A member of the inaugural class of On Deck’s fellowship program in 2021, Leibowitz spent more than two and a half years working for Marcus by Goldman Sachs.
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.
This week starts the official commemoration of Women’s History Month. And with FinovateEurope less than two weeks away, we thought the two occasions provided a great opportunity to showcase some of the women who will take center stage on March 14 at the Intercontinental O2 in London to demo their company’s latest fintech innovation.
Gerlinde Berghofer, COO and Co-Founder, BehaviorQuant
FinovateEurope starts on March 14 and continues through March 15. Tickets are still available – and early-bird savings end this week. So visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your spot!
The number of female entrepreneurs and founders in fintech and financial services has grown significantly in recent years. Nevertheless, there is still some distance between where we are now and the kind of gender-neutral future that so many are fighting for.
As of 2019 women in finance are better represented in many C-suite leadership positions – including CIO, CTO, CMO, and CHRO – than they are in most other industries. Only in the CEO and CFO roles does female representation lag behind that of other industries. Overall, according to analysis by Korn Ferry, women in finance have outperformed their peers in other industries in achieving executive leadership – and it’s not especially close.
At the same time, according to the Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum, women make up more than 50% of the entry-level finance workforce in the United States. Yet only 6% of the “top financial institutions” in the country have women in senior positions.
On the morning of Day Two of FinovateEurope next month, we will host our Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing to discuss how women and their allies can work together to help close this gender gap. Moderated by Magdalena Krön (LinkedIn), Global Head of Rise Digital Innovation & CTO Group Innovation for Barclays Bank, our special morning session will discuss the key questions on the state of gender diversity in fintech and financial services: How much progress has been made? What can we do to pave the way for the next generation of female founders and executives in our industry?
Joining Magdalena Krön are a distinguished panel of industry professionals including:
Martha Mghendi-Fisher, Founder, European Women Payments Network (EWPN). Mghendi-Fisher is a fintech and payments professional, social entrepreneur and philanthropist with years of experience in cards and payments, NGOs, and entrepreneurship. LinkedIn.
Veronique Steiner, Head of High Growth Tech and Head of Technology, Media, and Telecom for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), J.P. Morgan. Steiner represents J.P. Morgan across the global payment industry, positioning the institution as a leading bank for the tech companies in EMEA. LinkedIn.
Nitzan Solomon, Head of Transaction Monitoring, AML, and Fraud, Revolut. Passionate about regtech and financial crime, Solomon was named 2020 best regtech practitioner and one of the U.K. Top 100 Women in Tech. LinkedIn.
Chantal Swainston, Founder, The Heard. Launched in 2022, The Heard profiles and showcases women and non-binary talent in the fintech industry. Swainston brings nearly a decade of experience in journalism and public relations covering both fintech startups and established companies. LinkedIn.
The FinovateEurope 2023 Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 15 from 8:15am – 9:00am. To learn more visit our FinovateEurope hub. Take advantage of big savings by registering by March 3rd.
What are the biggest obstacles to digital transformation in banking and financial services? For Leda Glyptis, self-described “recovering banker” and author of the new book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, the fault lies not in the stars, but in bankers themselves.
Fortunately, Glyptis sees bankers as the solution, as well.
“For years I have been blogging and speaking about how the biggest obstacle to progress inside banks is people. And that the only hope for change are also people,” Glyptis told Fintech Futures as the date of the world premier of her book was announced earlier this month. “What is so often approached as a technology journey often falls down or triumphs around the humans that keep on keeping on, the dreamers, the builders, the plumbers, and the storytellers of banking transformation.”
Leda Glyptis will discuss her experiences and insights as a veteran of the banking business in an afternoon keynote address on Day One of FinovateEurope, March 14 through 15 in London. Titled “The Problem With Digital Transformation is You,” Glyptis will discuss the human and structural obstacles to digital transformation with a focus on the kind of mentality and leadership bankers need to embrace in order to bring about the changes in banking and financial services that consumers increasingly demand.
For Glyptis, there is no reason – and no time – to wait for the rise of a younger, more digitally-native generation to do the work of transforming financial services. The time to act is now, and the ones to act are bankers — with “grit, determination and energy to drive change,” Glyptis insists. “Like us.”
Bankers Like Us will be available for pre-order on Friday, January 20th, and is expected to ship after February 10th. This provides plenty of time to get your copy of the book ahead of Glyptis’ keynote at FinovateEurope in March. At the event, after Glyptis’ afternoon keynote address, we will also host a special Networking Break & Book Signing with the author.
In addition to her work as an author, Glyptis is the Chief Client Officer at 10x Banking, a cloud-native core banking platform provider based in London. She is also a Non-Executive Director at leading U.K. cash deposit platform, Flagstone. Glyptis has a PhD in Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and shares her thoughts on banking and financial services as a columnist – and “resident thought provocateur” – with Fintech Futures. Her latest columns have tackled topics such as the importance of preparation, the role of pain in learning, and the challenge of maintaining the courage of convictions.
Be sure to visit our FinovateEurope 2023 hub to save your spot at our upcoming fintech conference, March 14 through 15 – featuring author Leda Glyptis’ keynote address on the afternoon of Day One.
One of the areas of fintech that has benefitted significantly from the rise of enabling technologies like AI and machine learning is compliance. From reducing the role of manual labor via automation to streamlining complex processes to make rules easier for companies to follow, both regtech firms and compliance teams alike play a major role in ensuring the fintech innovations we enjoy are safe, do what they say they’ll do, and are as available to as many eligible consumers as possible.
We caught up with Sarah Murray, who leads the Deposit Product Team at Compliance Systems. She talked about the impact technology is having on the field of compliance, and discussed the key challenges that Compliance Systems is helping its 1,800 financial institution clients overcome.
How did you get started in fintech? What has led you to where you are today in your career?
Sarah Murray: Before fintech, I was practicing law in private practice, and I just knew I was ready to be out of the courtroom and do something different with my legal career. I started at Compliance Systems eight years ago as a product specialist and counsel; now I am happy to have led the product team for the last five years. I love my job because no two days are the same. I never thought I would spend some days researching legal topics and reviewing regulations, and other days reviewing code and testing software, but I love the challenge each day brings.
Tell us about the work you do for Compliance Systems.
Murray: I lead our deposit product team at Compliance Systems, which consists of attorneys, business analysts, software developers, and quality control specialists who all work toward the common goal of delivering compliant and innovative products to our 1,800 financial institution clients. I love the mixture of technology with the law and getting to keep my legal hat that I went to school for by delivering compliance solutions through technology to our clients.
What are your thoughts on the way technology is helping companies keep up with the changing regulatory environment?
Murray: Overall, I think it’s the job of technology to streamline and simplify, regardless of which industry we’re talking about. In the case of fintech and regulatory compliance, that means automating repetitive and high-risk compliance processes. It also means demystifying regulations where we can for the benefit of the consumers that those regulations are intended to protect.
Our proprietary research engine tool enables us to provide proactive and update-to-date compliance, and our team is constantly monitoring and tracking what is happening in the legal and regulatory spaces in real-time to ensure we can deliver timely compliance solutions to our clients. Our software provides updates through our cloud-hosted solutions, and our compliance safety net tool also provides interactive features that help our clients complete compliant transactions and provide a better level of customer service.
How has this evolved and how do you see it continuing to evolve leading into 2023?
Murray: The market has evolved through financial institutions rethinking compliance and needing to deliver a solution that meets their customers [and] members where they are: on their phones. We deliver compliance in a way that makes sense in a mobile-first environment and develop content with that in mind. This model isn’t necessarily what financial institutions are used to, but it is what customers [and] members strongly prefer: easily navigable, mobile-friendly content.
Financial institutions are telling us they want a single, streamlined approach for a customer, regardless of the channel (e.g. whether it be in branch or online). So, we’ve created a solution that satisfies the requests of both parties. You can open accounts through the same process as you would in a branch location, but on a mobile device with ease.
What challenges are you hearing in conversations with clients? What technologies are resonating most?
Murray: Our Simplicity Mobile, a mobile-first account opening solution, has been highly successful because it has helped address some of the main pain points for our clients. They communicated that they are looking to have a more streamlined, efficient, and consumer-friendly workflow to open accounts and to reduce friction in that process to avoid abandonment. This solution completed that challenge by offering native HTML content that a financial institution can include within their account opening workflow, and by supporting “click to sign” functionality.
Another challenge we are hearing from clients involves their treasury management solutions. Treasury management operations are a vital component of a bank or credit union’s commercial services, but the content needed to properly document this business can require costly outside counsel or consume internal resources that put a strain on operations. Also, financial institutions are looking for a better, more streamlined way to sign up their customers for their treasury services. They don’t want to have to create and maintain separate contracts for each treasury service and are looking to avoid inundating customers with multiple contracts and documents.
Our delivery model ensures that our clients will always be in compliance and our technology delivers the configurability needed for a treasury management solution, as many aren’t looking for a “one size fits all” fix. Our solution helps minimize operational and compliance risks for our clients while also providing a central hub for all compliance-related updates and content within our solution. Furthermore, our solution offers one master services agreement for treasury services to help improve a customer’s enrollment experience.
Are there any tips you would like to share on providing strong leadership in a male-dominated industry?
Murray: A few tips I have are to be passionate about what you do and work with integrity; work hard to deliver what you say you will do when you say you will do it; don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo and be an advocate for yourself and others. A big thing at Compliance Systems is that we believe in reinvesting in our products based on what we have learned from our clients and the industry. I would say it is important to have that mentality yourself as you grow. Learn from mistakes. Learn from what works. Learn from your colleagues and clients. Together as an industry, we can elevate the banking experience for all.
From Open Banking to Embedded Finance, there are more ways than ever for financial institutions and financial services providers to embrace digital technology and bring better, more personalized, and easier to use financial products to market.
One company that is playing a role in helping businesses make the most of the latest innovations in financial technology is ASA. The company, headquartered in Utah and making its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall, facilitates collaborations between financial institutions and fintechs. An embedded solution, ASA’s technology helps community banks and credit unions offer their customers the same quality of innovative digital services offered by their larger rivals.
We caught up with Lisa Gold Schier, Chief Strategy Officer with ASA, to talk about the opportunity of collaborative banking, how to make bank/fintech partnerships work, and what financial institutions are focused on right now.
Tell me about your time in the industry and your new role at ASA. Why did you make the switch from banking to fintech?
Lisa Gold Schier: I started my financial services career with a bank, then worked with banks and fintechs. However, I had never worked directly for a fintech. Prior to joining ASA, I served as a leader at the American Bankers Association (ABA), where I led product evaluation and served as a strategic advisor to bankers, technology providers, and consultants across areas such as technology trends, digital transformation, and the customer experience. I helped establish and spearhead the only industry committee focused on guiding strategic direction for industry innovation with an emphasis on bank/technology partnerships and core processor engagement.
I evaluated hundreds of fintech solutions during my years at ABA. When I discovered ASA, I knew it was something unique. I realized ASA’s technology and framework changes and improves how financial institutions, fintechs, and customers access technology and work together. By joining the team, I help financial institutions and fintechs meet the needs of their account holders. I am now Chief Strategy Officer at ASA, driving the strategy of collaborative banking and creating a clear path to innovation, scale, and customer financial empowerment through embedded fintech.
Who is ASA and what is collaborative banking? What makes it different than Open Banking or Banking as a Service?
Schier: While OpenBanking and Banking as a Service each have their place in the market, challenges exist with each. Banking as a Service requires fintechs to jump through regulatory hoops and open banking puts banks and fintechs against each other in competition for customers’ finances. Collaborative banking, on the other hand, is a model that allows financial institutions and fintechs to work together, sharing revenue and business opportunities. Collaborative banking takes the spirit of open banking and mitigates the pitfalls, allowing institutions and fintechs to partner in a mutually beneficial way by removing the regulatory risk traditionally associated with partnerships.
ASA, the pioneer of collaborative banking, is an embedded fintech solution that connects financial institutions with customer-facing fintechs in a secure, compliant, and easy to implement marketplace, powering growth and opportunity for all. Account holders select and instantly download the apps that meet their individual needs, and link their accounts without giving the fintech access to any personal information. With ASA and collaborative banking, financial institutions are the hub of financial choice, maintaining the account holder relationship and providing financial empowerment through individualized choice.
Lisa Gold Schier introducing ASA’s demo at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.
What challenges have traditionally made bank/fintech partnerships difficult, and how is the ASA model helping to overcome them?
Schier: There are many challenges, some of the largest include developing an innovation strategy and the team to implement and follow through, researching and vetting all the fintechs and determining which ones will solve the majority of customers’ needs, contracts, core integrations, and balancing innovation with liability and risk. These roadblocks can be especially challenging for community institutions, who lack the large tech budgets of regional and national players.
ASA addresses these issues by acting as a single integration point between financial institutions and fintechs, either through the institution’s core, online provider, or data aggregator. Fintechs never interface with institution’s core, and ASA normalizes, tokenizes, and anonymizes customer PII data, ensuring fintechs can’t access personal accountholder data.
By solving the one-to-one integration pain point, ASA is enabling personalization at scale by allowing customers to choose and download the niche apps they crave without diluting the relationship with the bank or credit union. ASA creates a trusted closed network between financial institutions and fintechs, making partnerships easier, more affordable, and more secure than ever before.
How do you mentor and support women in the industry?
Schier: I strongly believe in having diverse views around the table, and part of doing so means proactively seeking out those different perspectives. This often looks like creating networks, whether within my organization or within the industry, and then supporting each other. It’s important to foster relationships with junior and senior women and share advice and insights.
I also support women through social media and speaking opportunities, looking at and creating diversity in promotional and advertising materials. It’s disappointing to see panels and conference sessions that lack diversity. So, when I am working with conference coordinators, I make it a priority to seek diverse representation, which includes recommending industry leaders and women that may not be tied in with the conference circuit. This also includes working with and supporting diverse communities. Since so many have supported me, I want to continue to give back to the industry.
What is top of mind for financial institutions and fintechs now and over the next 12 months?
Schier: To quote Ron Shevlin, our industry is at a hard fork in the road, and it’s critical for banks and credit unions to move toward the collaborative future of banking. Doing so will enable them to keep up with all of the new technology apps, grow business, and remain relevant. Financial institutions and fintechs that embrace embedded fintech and lean into secure consumer choice, providing consumers with more authority over who has access to their data and under what circumstances, will gain a strong competitive advantage. Moving forward, financial institutions and fintechs should prepare to embrace self-sovereign identities more fully, enabling consumer ownership of their data in new, innovative ways.
Customers increasingly need easier, quicker access to a range of financial education and wellness resources, especially given current market volatility. Those financial institutions that proactively offer more choice, providing customers with simpler, more secure, wider access to the tools needed to develop their financial health and education, will be well positioned to promote financial empowerment and equity.
Yesterday we shared the announcement that FinovateFall 2022 is on track to be our biggest event to date. Today we have great news from the other side of the Finovate stage: fully 50% of the speakers at FinovateFall in New York next month will be women.
“This definitely contributes to our DEI initiatives and effort to inject diversity into our events and portfolio as a whole,” Finovate Brand Strategy Director Adela Knox said.
Here are just a few of the women who will share their insights into fintech and the future of financial services at FinovateFall, September 12 through 14.
Remember that early-bird savings for FinovateFall 2022 end soon! Be sure to stop by the FinovateFall registration hub today to take advantage of special discounted ticket prices through Friday, September 2nd.
SC Moatti
SC Moatti will deliver a keynote address titled: Winter Is Coming: Now’s the Time to Hire That Chief Product Officer. Moatti is the founding Managing Partner of Mighty Capital; and the founding CEO of product acceleration platform, Products That Count.
In her address, Moatti will explain the consequences of not heeding the “product call” and why, if there’s one role companies should keep on their list of new hires this season, then it should be a Chief Product Officer.
As part of FinovateFall’s Payments stream, Wells Fargo Head of Enterprise Payments Ulrike Guigui will give a keynote address, Has the Pandemic Changed Payments Forever? 90% of Bank’s Useful Customer Data Comes from Payments – How Can They Ensure They Stay in the Game?
Alyson Clarke
Also in our Payments stream, Bernadette Ksepka, AVP and Deputy Head of Product Development, FedNowSM Service, Federal Reserve System, will sit down with PayGen co-founder and Chief Product Officer Robin LoGiudice to discuss The Continued Evolution of Faster, Cheaper, and Better Payments – Where Next with Instant Payments.
Alyson Clarke, Principal Analyst with Forrester, will deliver a keynote address titled Hybrid Banking – Why the Future is a Blend of Physical and Digital, as part of our Customer Experience stream.
Also in our Customer Experience stream, Symend co-founder and Chief Impact Officer Tiffany Kaminsky will share her insights in an address titled Upping the Ante: Using the Science of Decision-Making for Effective Customer Engagement.
What is venture capital doing to help promote fintech innovators who come from underrepresented groups and communities?
We caught up with Elizabeth McCluskey, Director of The Discovery Fund at CMFG Ventures, to talk about her work in supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs that are building solutions to drive financial inclusion.
We discussed her own extensive experience in financial services, working in both investment banking and wealth management before moving to venture capital. We also learned why she believes it is important to invest in female founders and founders from communities that are underserved by traditional financial institutions.
Why did you decide to transition from investment banking and wealth management to venture capital? What do you enjoy about working at a venture capital firm?
ElizabethMcCluskey: Investment banking is transactional. I enjoyed being part of transformational deals for companies but missed being there for the long-term impact. When I pivoted to wealth management, I was able to develop more longevity in client relationships, but the investments were focused on public equities with which I had minimal connection. These experiences led me to find the ideal balance in venture capital. Now I can build more intimate relationships with portfolio companies and invest in people and ideas that are meaningful and important to me. It brings joy and satisfaction to support their long-term growth and success.
Tell me more about your current role at CMFG Ventures and the Discovery Fund.
McCluskey:CMFG Ventures is the venture capital arm of CUNA Mutual Group. CMFG Ventures invests in fintechs to help financial institutions grow and provide a brighter financial future for all. The firm adds value to fintechs by leveraging its well-established network of over 6,000 financial institutions and suite of complimentary technology solutions. Since 2016, CMFG Ventures has invested in nearly 50 fintech companies and its Discovery Fund has invested in 14 additional early-stage companies led by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women founders.
I am the director of the Discovery Fund. The Discovery Fund was created to support underrepresented entrepreneurs who are building solutions for financial inclusion. We plan to invest $15 million over the next three years in early-stage fintech companies. Through my role, I’m able to see the full scope of venture capital investing, including but not limited to:
Sourcing deals and meeting entrepreneurs
Conducting due diligence
Negotiating the terms of the deal
Providing long-term support for entrepreneurs’ journeys by helping them scale, network, and find the resources they need to continue to succeed.
Why is it important to invest in diverse founders, especially women-led businesses? And what qualities you look for when investing in these companies?
McCluskey: Women entrepreneurs receive less than 3% of venture capital funding. This staggering number demands that we take a step back and focus on supporting diverse founders, especially women-led businesses, to improve equity in the venture capital space. This is not just the right thing to do – it’s good business. A 2018 BCG study concluded that women-founded businesses yielded two times as much revenue per dollar invested as those founded by men.
Women and diverse founders who have been historically underserved by traditional financial services are working hard to create the financial inclusion they wish they had. We are investing in entrepreneurs like them who are deeply connected to the problems they’re solving. Empowering underrepresented leaders is already creating new opportunities for liquidity management, wealth management, credit access, asset protection, and more.
Can you share more about the women-led businesses that CMFG Ventures invests in and supports? How are they helping make the financial services industry more inclusive?
McCluskey: CMFG Ventures has made investments in multiple women-led companies, such as The Beans, Climb, Caribou, and Frich to help the financial services industry become more inclusive.
The Beans simplifies the path to financial balance through evidence-based design and cutting-edge technology, so consumers stress less about money and focus on what they love.
Climb is a student lending and payments platform intended to make career education more affordable and accessible.
Caribou enables financial advisers to engage their clients in healthcare planning to support life transitions and build stronger financial futures.
Frich makes money social. It helps Gen Z develop better financial habits leveraging the power of community and benchmarking.
These female-driven fintechs are transforming the financial services space and improving the financial lives of everyday Americans.
What advice do you typically share with women founders? What about those looking to break into the VC space?
McCluskey: I would give the same advice to women founders as I do with men: always ask for feedback, especially to better understand why someone is telling them “no”. Founders who send updates over time allow me to track their progress, including growth and consistency of their business plans. In several cases, I’ve ended up investing in companies that I passed on in earlier rounds. And even if someone says “no” to doing business together, they can still be a valuable ally. Attempt to stay in touch and leverage their networks. People are often willing to share their connections and provide valuable guidance.
As for those looking to break into the VC space, I believe it is slowly becoming more inclusive and representative, yet it is still a very network-based profession. Similar to my advice for entrepreneurs, start with one person you know (or cold outreach via alumni networks, common interest groups, etc.). From there, ask every person you talk to for an introduction to at least one other person. Focus on growing your network with the goal of building genuine relationships, not necessarily getting a job right away. This is a long-term investment in your career.
We’re more than halfway through the 2022, what do you predict for the rest of the year?
McCluskey: After record levels of investments in 2021, we all knew things had to cool off. However, I believe the pace at which this has happened surprised VCs and entrepreneurs alike.
In fact, startup funding has fallen by 23% over the last 3 months, bringing us back to 2019 levels. For many, it probably feels like the sky is falling, but there is still a significant amount of money in circulation. Venture capitalists today, and by extension founders, are more focused on “real” metrics versus vanity metrics when deciding which companies to fund. The companies that will do well in the second half of the year will have measurable revenues, not just wait lists, and will be managing costs and runway to drive profitability, not endless cash burn.
