Wise

Finovate Global Germany: Sustainable Investing for Families and Embedded Lending for SMEs

Finovate Global Germany: Sustainable Investing for Families and Embedded Lending for SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Klarna, Nubank, Token, Wise

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments in Germany.

German fintech Bling launched its SavingsTrees solution this week. The new offering helps German families invest sustainably starting with as little as €1 a month. The solution is offered in partnership with wealthtech Evergreen, and represents an evolution in Bling’s product line, expanding from its origins as a family money management educational app and prepaid card.

“Simplicity and sustainability were paramount in the development of our investment offering,” Bling CEO and co-founder Nils Feigenwinter explained. “We prioritize families in our product development to offer a tailored solution that meets their needs. Everyone underestimates the market potential of families, which is why banks have neglected this area for decades. With Bling, we are addressing this.”

Cost savings was one of the reasons why Bling reached out to Evergreen. Cost is also one of the main reasons why more than 80% of German parents do not invest in the country’s capital markets, according to Bling. The complexity of investing and a lack of knowledge about investment products also have contributed to this lack of participation. To this end, Bling leverages visualizations and explanations from finance experts to make the investment process easier to understand.

Funds invested in SavingsTrees are globally diversified and are allocated specifically to sustainable investments. Direct investments in sustainable projects and companies, are available, as are investments in funds that support sustainability initiatives.

Read more about Bling in this TechCrunch profile from December.

Banxware, an embedded lending technology provider headquartered in Germany, has teamed up with Netherlands-based Rabobank to help SMEs secure the financing they need in order to grow. Rabobank will take advantage of Banxware’s embedded lending solution, which enables businesses to apply for short-term financing in as little as 15 minutes. After approval, funds can be available in the borrower’s account within 24 hours.

“This partnership brings Embedded Financing products tailored to the need of SMEs to popular business platforms,” Banxware CEO Miriam Wohlfarth said. “Together with Rabobank we now provide the full financing supply chain, including funds and end-to-end loan management to bridge cash flow shortfalls before they become an issue.”

The deployment will let business founders and owners apply for financing in familiar, everyday digital environments such as e-commerce platforms and booking software. Each firm will focus initially on marketing the solution in their home markets of Germany and the Netherlands, respectively.

Banxware’s partnership announcement follows news that the Berlin-based fintech had teamed up with liquidity management and financial planning company Agicap. Based in France, Agicap helps businesses automate, manage, and forecast their cash flows. Via its strategic partnership with Banxware, Agicap will add access to quick and tailored growth capital to its liquidity management offering.

“From now on, (SMEs) can not only see and manage their cash flows in a centered way, but they can also get new money when there are opportunities for growth,” Agicap Country Manager DE Stephan Krehl said.

Founded in 2020, Banxware is headquartered in Berlin. The company has raised $15 million (€14 million) in funding from investors including Varengold Bank and Element Ventures.

Finovate is proud to showcase fintech innovations from companies headquartered in Germany. This includes hosting our annual European fintech conference in Berlin in 2020.

Here’s a quick list of some of the Germany-based companies that have demoed their fintech innovations on the Finovate stage over the years.

  • aixigo
  • ayondo
  • Bitbond
  • BörseGo 
  • Cash Payment Solutions
  • Coconet
  • collectAI
  • Device Ident
  • Ecolytiq
  • figo
  • Fincite
  • FinTecSystems
  • Fintura
  • HAWK:AI
  • iBrokr
  • IND Group
  • Kreditech
  • Mambu
  • Modifi
  • NDGIT
  • Nextmarkets
  • Open Bank Project (OBP)
  • payever
  • Payworks
  • Pockets United
  • Risk Ident
  • Scalable Capital
  • Smartify.it
  • SOFORT
  • SwipeStox
  • TeamViewer
  • TESOBE
  • Vaamo
  • YUKKA Lab

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Egypt-based fintech Axis launched its new digital payments platform, AxisPay
  • Dubai Islamic Bank launched its DIB ‘alt’ product, a new digital umbrella brand for the bank’s digital offerings.
  • UAE-based B2B fintech solutions provider FOO introduced its prepaid travel card and white label digital wallet.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India-based digital lender Lentra raised $27 million in a Series B extension round.
  • BNE Intellinews profiled Uzbekistani SME lender, Oasis.
  • India’s PayU partnered with Visa and Yes Bank to launch its Business Payment Solution Provider program.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Argentina-based mobile banking company Uala launched a new saving account offering in Mexico.
  • Brazil’s Nubank reached one million accounts in Mexico milestone in one month.
  • Lanistar introduced crypto trading on its app for users in Brazil.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based B2B payment infrastructure platform Thunes raised $60 million in Series C funding.
  • International payments software provider OpenWay launched a second hub in Vietnam.
  • Wise platform inked its first Japanese partnership, teaming up with GMO Aozora Net Bank.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian fintech Flutterwave forged a partnership with account-to-account (A2A) payments company Token.io.
  • International payment solutions company Unlimit secured license to operate in Kenya two months after expanding to Nigeria.
  • Harvard Business Review asked and answered the question “What African Fintech Startups Can Teach Silicon Valley About Longevity?”

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Klarna brought its Pay in 3 offering to Romania this week.
  • German identity verification company IDnow added automated document liveness capabilities, financial risk checks, and more to its platform.
  • International development agency USAID partnered with Albanian business solutions provider CBS to launch, Lores Plus, a platform to help Albanian SMEs get access to financing.

Photo by javier gonzalez

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Wise Launches Two New Products, Undergoes Rebrand

Wise Launches Two New Products, Undergoes Rebrand
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransferWise, Wise
  • Wise is unveiling a new look and feel, as well as two new products.
  • The company anticipates its “visual makeover” will create a more consistent user experience.
  • The two new products include the Wise Business Card and a money transfer link.

It can be tough for a legacy fintech to make noise among the onslaught of new competing digital tools released on a weekly basis. Despite the challenge, cross-border money transfer product Wise is finding a way.

The U.K.-based company has swapped its color scheme from blue to green. But that’s not all that has changed. As Wise described in a press announcement, “The complete visual makeover features a fresh green palette and a bold new font, and draws from global currencies, languages, alphabets and places around the world.”

Interestingly, Wise changed its name from Transferwise two years ago in an effort to broaden its image from a money transfer company to a more holistic global banking services provider. Today’s change could be seen as a next step in that process. Wise explained that the new look and feel will make its customer experience consistent regardless of the customer’s geographical location or language. This new experience reinforces Wise’s mission to “build money without borders.”

Describing the visual change, Wise Co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann said, “Our new look is inspired by the millions of people and businesses worldwide that use Wise today. It draws from where they come from, but also represents the excitement of the world open for them to conquer.”

Today’s announcement also highlighted two new products for the global money firm. The first is the Wise Business Card, which is an extension of the company’s Wise Account. The card is currently available to U.S. customers. The second new product– also for U.S. users– enables users to transfer money to recipients via a link. Instead of requiring the sender to know the recipient’s bank details, the recipient can securely enters their bank credentials after clicking on the link.

Despite today’s progress, Käärmann says the company still has a long road ahead. “People and businesses are still being duped by hidden fees, and losing over £180 billion each year to their banks,” he explained. “This is money they could have otherwise used to pay bills, expand their businesses or even save for a rainy day. We don’t accept it and we’re committed to solving this for everyone, everywhere.”

Wise also celebrated a new milestone in today’s announcement. The company has reached 16 million customers since launching in 2011. Wise’s technology enables people and businesses to hold funds in more than 50 currencies, as well as move money between countries and spend money across international borders. The company went public in mid-2021 and now trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker WISE with a current market capitalization of $5.94 billion.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Globalization Partners Taps Wise to Lower the Cost of Global Contractor Payments

Globalization Partners Taps Wise to Lower the Cost of Global Contractor Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransferWise, Wise
  • International hiring and employment platform Global Partners (G-P) has tapped cross-border money transfer company Wise for its payment tools.
  • Under the agreement, G-P will embed Wise’s international payment tool in its Contractor platform with an aim to simplify worker disbursements.
  • With Wise, businesses will be able to use their payment method of choice to pay contract workers, while the contractors will be able to select their preferred payout method.

International hiring and employment platform Global Partners (G-P) has turned to cross-border money transfer company Wise to help its business clients to pay some of their workforce.

G-P was founded in 2012 to help businesses quickly hire contract and freelance workers across borders in a compliant manner while solving for legal, tax, and HR issues. Under the partnership, Wise will enable G-P’s business customers to access Wise’s payment solution directly from the G-P Contractor platform. As a result of the integration, G-P will offer their customers more flexible payment options, as well as more transparency into the payments process.

“Together with Wise we are creating a world that is unhindered by traditional financial systems, providing customers and contractors an ethical and transparent employment and payment process for all talent through our Global Employment Platform,” said G-P Chief Product and Strategy Officer Nat Rajesh Natarajan. “At G-P, our mission is to create a borderless and equitable world of work. Delivering flexible payment options is critical to delivering on that mission and meeting the needs of today’s professionals.”

Wise was founded in 2011 under the name TransferWise and has since helped 13 million people and businesses send money across international borders. The company offers a multi-currency account that enables users to hold up to 50 currencies and get account details to receive money in 10 currencies. TransferWise prides itself on its transparency by showing fees up front and charging the mid-market rate for money transfers.

With Wise, G-P Contractor clients will be able to use their payment method of choice. They’ll also benefit from batch payments for invoices in the same or different currencies, and will be able to see payment summaries that show a breakdown of costs. Additionally, contract and freelance workers receiving payment via G-P’s platform will have their choice of payout method, including bank transfer, virtual card, digital wallet, ACH, wire and international wire.

Photo by Markus Spiske

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

AvidXchange Taps Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments Solution

AvidXchange Taps Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransferWise, Wise
  • AvidXchange partnered with Wise this week.
  • The partnership enables AvidXchange to expand on the global payments capabilities it launched last month.
  • The partnership will help AvidXchange offer its U.S.-based clients an embedded payment experience, creating a more convenient payment process.

Payment automation solutions company AvidXchange announced this week it has selected international money transfer company Wise (formerly known as Transferwise) to expand its international payment capabilities.

“Partnering with Wise to provide our customers with best-in-class international payment capabilities was an easy decision because of their market-leading platform and seamless integration capabilities,” said AvidXchange Chief Growth Officer Dan Drees. “Together, we stand firm as leaders and remain dedicated to making our customers’ payments process more efficient regardless of country lines.”

AvidXchange launched its global payments last month to create an embedded cross-border payment solution for its middle market business clients and their suppliers. Piloting the launch is Oracle NetSuite. The company will enable its clients to access the tool using AvidXchange’s SuiteApp within NetSuite’s SuiteCloud platform.

AvidXchange offers a range of payment automation products, which include invoicing, electronic bill payment, accounts payable automation software, purchase order requisitions, and more. The company serves a range of industries, including real estate, construction, financial services, hospitality, healthcare, and more.

Today’s partnership with Wise helps AvidXchange offer its U.S.-based clients an embedded payment experience that creates a more convenient payment process. The integration enables users to pay both domestic and international suppliers, all within the AvidXchange platform. Wise also offers AvidXchange clients more visibility into fees, gains, and losses to help them better control costs and view cash flow.

“Current systems don’t allow businesses to easily send, spend, or receive money internationally,” said Wise Platform Head Steve Naude. “Through our collaboration with AvidXchange, Wise is helping businesses gain access to a faster, more cost-effective and seamless way to manage finances with domestic and international suppliers in multiple currencies and countries. With 50% of transfers sent instantly, always at the mid-market rate, AvidXchange customers can now have confidence knowing they are saving time and money with each transaction.”

With more than 50 bank and business clients, Wise is one of the best-known players in the international remittance market. The London-based company was founded in 2010 with a simple mission: money without borders.

AvidXchange was founded in 2000 and currently processes over $140 billion transactions annually across its network of more than 680,000 suppliers. Despite its long tenure in the space, AvidXchange has only been a public company for a little over a year. The company debuted on the NASDAQ in October of 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion.

Photo by Cup of Couple

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech-as-a-Service Platform Solid Secures $63 Million in Series B Funding

Fintech-as-a-Service Platform Solid Secures $63 Million in Series B Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding, Solid, Wise
  • Fintech-as-a-service innovator Solid raised $63 million in Series B funding this week.
  • Solid offers a platform that enables businesses to build and scale embedded fintech products into their own solutions.
  • The company, which made its Finovate debut in 2019 as “Wise,” will use the investment to accelerate its expansion into “fintech-ready” verticals such as travel, health care, and the gig economy.

Fintech-as-a-service company Solid has raised $63 million in Series B funding. The company offers infrastructure to enable companies to launch and bring to scale embedded fintech solutions. The round was led by FTV Capital. Existing investor Headline also participated.

“We built the most comprehensive fintech infrastructure from the ground up, so others don’t have to,” Solid co-founder and CEO Arjun Thyagarajan said. “Now, any company can quickly spin up bank accounts, crypto wallets, send payments, and issue cards to their end users, right into their product experience, while Solid does the heavy lifting of building and maintaining compliant fintech infrastructure.”

Solid made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 as “Wise.” At the conference, the company demonstrated its small business banking-in-a-box offering that included a checking account, payments, invoicing, cards, and point-of-sale solutions. The company rebranded as Solid last year as part of a pivot to highlight the modern banking platform they had used to launch their Wise business banking solution.

“We went from powering the Wise app to powering other products and ecosystems,” Thyagarajan and company co-founder and President Raghav Lal wrote at the Solid website last spring. “Along the way, we realized our brand and our positioning needed to change, too. And today, we are making the change and excited to share that Wise is now Solid.”

Solid will use the new capital to help fuel the company’s accelerated expansion into what it calls “fintech-ready” verticals like travel, construction, healthcare, and the gig economy. The company’s fully abstracted fintech-as-a-service platform gives developers the tools they need to easily embed fintech products into their offerings. Solid reports that fintech programs that build and launch on its platform own the experience and have little or no regulatory overhead. Solid’s technology also leverages modern APIs and a minimal-code approach to make integration easier. Companies that have used Solid’s platform include fellow Finovate alums like Paystand, as well as SaaS companies such as Everflow and emerging startups like Starlight.

Founded in 2018, Solid is headquartered in San Mateo, California. This week’s investment brings the company’s total funding to more than $80 million according to Crunchbase. Solid reported a 10x growth in revenues, customer base, and transactions processed last year. More than 100 fintech programs and $2 billion in transactions have been processed on the company’s infrastructure year to date.

Photo by David Bartus

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Brazil’s Creditas Earns $4.8 Billion Valuation After Securing $260 Million in New Funding

Brazil’s Creditas Earns $4.8 Billion Valuation After Securing $260 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Modularbank, TransferWise, Tuum, Wise

A $260 million Series F funding round has given Brazilian secured lending platform Creditas a valuation of $4.8 billion. The new capital will help the company expand its operations and provide a “one-stop solution for those seeking a digital-first experience in everything related to their houses, cars, motorcycles, and salary-based benefits.”

The round was led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and featured participation from a sizable number of investors including Actyus, Greentrail Capital, QED Investors, VEF, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Lightrock, Headline, Wellington Management, and Advent International by way of its affiliate Sunley House Capital.

The Series F brings Creditas’ total capital raised to $854 million, according to Crunchbase.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Creditas announced a significant boost in revenues in the third quarter of 2021 compared to Q3 of 2020 – from $46.8 million to $14 million. Creditas founder and CEO Sergio Furio projects that the company will realize annualized revenues of $200 million for the year that just ended. Creditas also saw its credit portfolio grow from $189.3 million in Q3 2020 to $532 million in Q3 2021.

“We plan to continue growing by nurturing and expanding our ecosystem, such as providing financial solutions to our marketplace customers, launching new products, extending our geographic reach (including our recent successful entry into Mexico and the expansion of our tech hub in Valencia, Spain) and selectively pursuing strategic M&A opportunities,” Furio said in a statement.

Last fall, Creditas announced a partnership with fellow Brazilian fintech – and Finovate alum – Nubank, that will enable Nubank customers to secure loans and other services from the Creditas platform. Months earlier, Creditas acquired used car buying and selling platform Volanty. The move will help buttress Creditas’ automotive division, Creditas Auto. Also last summer, Creditas acquired multi-channel insurance brokerage company Minuto Seguros, which was also part of the company’s project to enhance its auto financing business.

FinovateEurope 2022 is right around the corner. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then there’s no better time than now and no better forum than FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22-23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacfic

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by William Brand from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

eBankIT Teams Up with Wise to Enable Banks to Offer Faster, Cheaper Money Transfers

eBankIT Teams Up with Wise to Enable Banks to Offer Faster, Cheaper Money Transfers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT, Wise

A pair of long-time Finovate alums have teamed up to give banks and other financial institutions access to faster, more affordable international money transfers.

Bank software innovator ebankIT and worldwide money transfer platform Wise (formerly Transferwise) announced today that Wise’s international money transfer service will be the first solution of its kind to be made available on the ebankIT platform marketplace. Relied upon by financial institutions to build up their digital banking service options, the marketplace will enable these firms to add the money transfer service to their offerings without having to integrate it separately on their own.

“We believe in a better future for banking with true omnichannel capabilities – and international transfers are an essential part of this,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said. “By bringing together Wise, ebankIT, and our clients, we are changing international transfers for everyday people across the world. We’re delighted to offer Wise platform to our clients, so they can instantly tap into Wise’s world-leading infrastructure.”

Wise Platform has 12 distribution partners and 18 banks in 11 countries using the technology, along with seven enterprises. The company notes that 40% of its transfers are delivered in less than 20 seconds, and Wise charges no hidden fees by way of exchange rate mark-ups or other calculations. On average, Wise’s international money transfers are as much as eight times less expensive than those offered by traditional money service firms and other providers.

“For too long, international transfers have been slow, inconvenient, and blighted by traditional providers charging high, hidden fees,” Wise Head of Product Steve Naudé said. “It’s time for change. We aim to set a new global standard for international transfers across the industry. We’re thrilled to be working with ebankIT, a company that shares our vision. Together, along with ebankIT’s network of banks and financial institutions, we can help drag international transfers into the twenty-first century.”

Rebranding as Wise in February, the company formerly known as Transferwise has been a Finovate alum since its appearance on stage at FinovateEurope in 2013. In the years since, the London-based company has reached more than eight million customers worldwide and transfers more than $7.5 billion in customer funds every month. Wise’s technology currently comes pre-integrated in a number of core banking platforms including those from Temenos, Mambu, and Thought Machine.

The company went public on the London Stock Exchange this summer, earning a market valuation of $11 billion. Last month, Wise announced an integration with The Orchard, a subsidiary of Sony Music that specializes in music distribution and artist services. The partnership offers the company a more streamlined way for music labels to make royalty payments to musicians in multiple countries and currencies.

A Finovate Best of Show winner in 2019, ebankIT was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Porto, Portugal. The company’s core-agnostic Omnichannel Digital Banking platform was recognized last year in both Gartner’s Market Guide for Multichannel Digital Banking Solutions and its Market Guide for Digital Banking Platforms. In partnership with Celero, a Canada-based solutions integrator for credit unions and other financial institutions, ebankIT’s technology this year has powered digital transformations at institutions such as Swan Valley Credit Union, 1st Choice Savings and Credit Union, and Entegra Credit Union.

Photo by Paul IJsendoorn from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Nutmeg Acquired, OCR Labs Raises Capital, and Mortgagetech on the Rise in Mexico

Nutmeg Acquired, OCR Labs Raises Capital, and Mortgagetech on the Rise in Mexico
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Compass Plus, Finovate Global, VISA, Wise

The fact that venture capital has been pouring into Latin America of late has been hard to ignore. This week’s news that Kredi, a Mexican company that hopes to become the “Rocket Mortgage” of Latin America, had raised $3.1 million in funding was a reminder that fintech funding in the region is as diverse as is it abundant.

With many investment dollars in Latin America flowing toward everything from digital banking to cryptocurrencies, the fundraising success of a company like Kredi, which seeks to make it easier for the average, middle-class Mexican family to own a home, suggests a healthy fintech market is continuing to develop in the country. Mortgage-related fintechs are not as common in Mexico as fintechs involved in SME financing, digital banking, cross-border fund transfer, and even financial inclusion. Adding a mortgagetech like Kredi to the country’s ranks of funded fintechs could open the door for other entrepreneurs to innovate in the space.

Founded by Javier Aldape, Fernando Nader, Hernán Belden, and Juan Carlos Mercado, Kredi provides Mexican homebuyers with a marketplace where they can find the financing product that suits their needs best. The company sees itself as part of the trend toward greater digitization in financial services in general, as well as a way to help overcome the inefficiencies and expense of mortgage financing in Mexico in specific.

Finovate alums in a number of countries made the news this week. In the U.K., digital wealth management company Nutmeg agreed to be acquired by JPMorgan. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a “source close to the transaction” said that Nutmeg was valued at more than $972 million. On the other side of the world, OCR Labs, an identity verification specialist based in Australia, announced that it has secured an investment of $15 million in a round led by Turkish firm Oyak Group. OCR Labs is an alum of both our developers conference, FinDEVr, and our fintech conference FinovateAsia, where it took home a Best of Show award for a demonstration of its technology.

Another Finovate Best of Show winner from outside of the United States made fintech headlines this week. Conversational AI specialist Finn AI, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, announced a set of new additions to its platform to give banks and credit unions greater flexibility in their embrace of chatbot technology. Salt Edge, a Finovate alum that specializes in open banking APIs that also hails from Canada, announced this week that it would help Cyprus based electronic money institution (EMI) OROPAY become PSD2 compliant.

Also too: Be sure to check out our latest guest post from Adam Goulston of Scize Group. Goulston looks at recent fintech trends in Asia and projects what those trends mean for fintech in the region going forward.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Los Muertos Crew from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Thought Machine Integrates with Wise

Thought Machine Integrates with Wise
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Thought Machine, TransferWise, Wise

Cloud native core banking technology innovator Thought Machine has partnered with international payments company Wise (formerly Transferwise) in a deal that will enable banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions that are using ThoughtMachine’s core banking engine, Vault, to take advantage of the low-cost international fund transfer services provided by Wise.

“We have built a world-class financial technology partner ecosystem which our clients can tap into as they build a future-proof bank,” Thought Machine CEO Paul Taylor explained. “The firms we choose to partner with are those that have built meaningful, ultra-reliable products that ultimately improve the banking experience for customers. We look forward to working with Wise to bring its industry-leading payments solution to many more financial institutions, and customers, around the world.” 

To ensure cross-system interoperability, Thought Machine and Wise have built an integration layer that cuts down on the amount of development work needed to plug into Wise’s API by as much as 60%. The partnership is a response to the growing demand for faster, more affordable, and transparent multi-currency banking, and comes amid a broadening trend away from reliance on legacy core banking technology and traditional correspondent banking networks.

“Though the internet has transformed much of the economy, the global banking system has lagged behind and moving money internationally has remained slow, difficult, and expensive for most,” Wise Platform & Wise Business Managing Director Stuart Gregory said. “Our mission is to change this 一 a goal we share with Thought Machine. Our integration today makes it quicker and easier for financial institutions and banks to enable faster and cheaper payments for their customers and brings us one step closer to our mission of building money without borders.”

Wise is actually the second money transfer company that Thought Machine has teamed up with in the first half of 2021. In February, the company announced that it was working with TransferGo, who will use Thought Machine’s Vault to provide advanced platform capabilities that will enhance the customer experience. The company also recently forged partnerships with German software engineering company GFT to launch challenger bank BankLiteX, and with full-stack fintech solution provider Vacuumlabs, which leveraged ThoughtMachine’s Vault to power a virtual bank in Hong Kong. An alum of FinovateEurope, London-based Thought Machine has raised more than $148 million in funding.

A Finovate alum since 2013, Wise moves more than $6 billion every month, saving its 10 million customers $1.5 billion in hidden fees every year. Rebranding as Wise in February, the company unveiled its product roadmap earlier this month, highlighting new initiatives in customer experience, spending and cards, expansion, small business services, and security. The company offers a multi-currency account that enables individual users to take advantage of real exchange rates in more than 50 international currencies. Wise Business provides payment services including invoice payments, debit cards, P2P payments, and cash management to more than 400 businesses. The firm includes companies ranging from fellow Finovate alum Xero to challenger bank N26 among its customers.

Photo by Aphiwat Chuangchoem from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Embedded Banking Specialist Wise Raises $12 Million

Embedded Banking Specialist Wise Raises $12 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Wise

Embedded banking-as-a-service platform Wise secured $12 million in funding this week. The investment is its second one this year – Wise announced a $5.7 million seed round in April – and was led by e.ventures with participation from Grishin Robotics. The company, which made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall, said in a statement that the capital will be used to help fuel growth and accelerate partnership-building in a number of verticals. Wise now has raised a total of $18 million in equity financing.

“We built banking so our partners don’t have to,” Wise CEO and co-founder Arjun Thyagarajan said. “By embedding banking, Wise unlocks deep product offerings and better customer experiences for our partners. e.ventures built a thesis on exactly this, and we agree 100%.”

Wise offers an embedded banking experience that gives small businesses a seamless way to bank, as well as make and accept payments. Companies partner with Wise and leverage its all-in-one business banking solution to offer accounts to their own clients such as e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. In addition to providing a fully-hosted and fully-serviced banking experience, Wise helps companies bridge the gap between what they have traditionally received from banking services and what e.ventures partner Brendan Wales called “an Apple-like experience” brought to the world of business banking.

“Business banking has been broken for far too long. Poor user interfaces, payments delays, unnecessary fees, a lack of integrations, the list goes on and on,” Wales said. Now, cloud-based B2B companies can offer banking services in a matter of days with no coding involved and have the entire operation managed and maintained by Wise.

Wise demonstrated its small business-banking-in-a-box solution at FinovateFall 2019. A Techstars NYC company based in San Mateo, California, Wise was founded in 2018. Check out our profile of the company from earlier this year.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Get Wise: Business Banking Gains a New Challenger

Get Wise: Business Banking Gains a New Challenger
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Wise

Whatever benefits the challenger bank revolution may bring to retail banking customers, the opportunities these neobanks provide to small businesses may be even more significant. In fact, there is a growing cadre of digital-first challengers who have decided to put innovating on behalf of small business banking at the top of their priorities.

One such company is Wise, a BBVA-backed challenger based in San Mateo, California, that announced the release of its premium checking account in the U.S. this week. The new offering, available for $10 a month, enables businesses to earn up to 1% APY on deposits through a combination of a 0.5% base APY and an additional 0.1% for every $1,000 purchase using a Wise debit card. Accountholders get 25 free ACH deposits and 25 free outgoing bank transfers a month, as well as additional payments services. Among the functionalities to be added are remote check deposit, the ability to send digital checks and international wires, and support for Quickbooks.

The new offering comes in the wake of the company’s first major fundraising: a $5.7 million seed round in April led by Base10 Partners and featuring the participation of several other investors including Abstract Ventures and Backend Capital. The company told TechCrunch earlier this year that it has 1,000 business customers, with average workforces ranging from 2 to 10 employees, and “between $500,000 and $5 million in ARR (annual recurring revenue).”

Finovate audiences met Wise last year when the company made its Finovate debut at our September conference in New York. At the event, Wise co-founders Arjun Thyagarajan (CEO) and Suresh Venkatraman (CTO) demonstrated the company’s “small business banking-in-a-box” solution, and previewed additional products and services for small businesses including payments and invoicing.

From left: Wise co-founders Arjun Thyagarajan (CEO) and Suresh Venkatraman (CTO) at FinovateFall 2019.

Thyagarajan founded Wise after a stint managing product for Mojio, a platform for connected cars. Before that he was a classic serial entrepreneur, launching a personal organizer (LivingOrganized), and a pair of password management platforms (TeamsID and Gpass). But a sense that he wasn’t “doing what I really wanted to do” led him to leave the “hot startup” in search of what he called “problems that needed solving.”

“My explorations led me to FinTech and I was pleasantly surprised with the rapid advancements in technology transforming the financial industry, especially in banking and payments,” Thyagarajan wrote on the company blog last summer, looking back on his decision to launch Wise. “It got me thinking: what if we could build a banking product that can deliver on the promise of putting the customer first … And solving real world problems.”

Thyagarajan’s reflections are similar to those his co-founder Venkatraman, who in a companion post observed that Wise’s own experience as a small business trying to secure quality banking services was vindication of the company’s mission.

“The day started innocently enough as we walked into a local bank with all our paperwork in hand,” he wrote. “That was the beginning of a chase around Silicon Valley to find a bank that would take our money and open up an account. Banks would reject us for all sorts of reasons or just ignore us.”

These days, with an new offering, a big investment and a major banking partner in BBVA in hand, it looks like the fintech world might be ready to wise up.

Photo by Jean van der Meulen from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Wise

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Wise
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2019, FinovateFall 2019 Sneak Peek, Wise

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.

Wise offers banking and payments services for the small business ecosystem.

Features

  • Unified small business banking + payments experience
  • High Interest Checking (2% APY)
  • Instant funding on receiving payments
  • Push to debit payments
  • Business debit, credit, and virtual cards

Why it’s great
Get paid instantly and put money in the bank. No more waiting for transactions to clear.

Presenters

Arjun Thyagarajan, Co-Founder and CEO
Thyagarajan is the co-founder and CEO at Wise, bringing product and technology leadership with over 15 years of experience in building and launching successful consumer and SMB products.
LinkedIn.

Suresh Venkatraman, Co-Founder and CTO
Venkatraman is the co-founder and CTO at Wise. He is a full stack technologist and product architect bringing over 20 years of experience building software products with over 9 years at Microsoft.
LinkedIn.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook