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Real-Time Data Platform Hazelcast Introduces New Chief Technology Officer Adrian Soars

Real-Time Data Platform Hazelcast Introduces New Chief Technology Officer Adrian Soars
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Hazelcast

Real-time data platform Hazelcast has appointed a new Chief Technology Officer. Adrian Soars, a professional with more than 25 years of experience in financial services, will bring to the company his expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and the implementation of high-performance data platforms.

“Adrian’s passion for solving complex problems and his experience designing real-time architectures for some of the world’s largest tech programs is a wealth of information we cannot wait to share with our customers,” Hazelcast CEO Kelly Herrell said.

Soars comes to Hazelcast after serving as Chief Technology Officer of AI company Napier. Previously, Soars held senior leadership positions at major investment banks and financial services companies. These firms include TD Securities, Standard Chartered Bank, and Deutsche Bank, among others. At Hazelcast, Soars will lead research and development (R&D) efforts to ensure the company’s continued strong technical leadership, as well as its ability to deliver competitive advantage to the firm’s customers. Soars will also lead enhancement initiatives on the Hazelcast’s platform. One major goal will be to lower the total cost of ownership of building, deploying, and maintaining real-time apps.

“The Hazelcast Platform is seriously impressive software and delivers true, real-time capabilities for enterprises,” Soars said. “And, when you factor in the platform’s unified architecture, it will make life easier for application development teams by mitigating the headaches all too common with a do-it-yourself approach,”

Hazelcast made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateEurope 2022. At the event, the company showed how its real-time data platform enables businesses to leverage a resilient and elastic memory resource for both data at rest and data in motion. Hazelcast’s technology provides real-time inventory and shipping data, detects fraud, and derives insights that enable innovations in products or services in microseconds – among many other use cases.

Founded in 2012, Hazelcast is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. This fall, the company was recognized in the Gartner Market Guide for Event Stream Processing (ESP) as a unified, real-time data platform. The recognition comes in a new category for Gartner, within the cohort of event stream processing technologies.

Hazelcast has raised more than $63 million in funding. Bain Capital Ventures and Earlybird Venture Capital are among the company’s investors.

Looking to demo your latest fintech innovation before an audience of bankers, investors, and financial services professionals? The application window for demoing companies for FinovateEurope 2024 is now open. Visit our FinovateEurope 2024 hub for more information.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger

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Cloud Payments Firm Volante Raises $66 Million in Strategic Funding

Cloud Payments Firm Volante Raises $66 Million in Strategic Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Cloud payments modernization specialist Volante Technologies raised $66 million in debt and equity financing.
  • The round was led by Sixth Street Growth. Wavecrest Growth Partners and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital also participated.
  • Volante Technologies will use the capital to accelerate its product roadmap, especially with regards to real-time payments solutions.

Cloud payments modernization company Volante Technologies has raised $66 million in combined debt and equity financing. The round was led by Sixth Street Growth. Wavecrest Growth Partners and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital also participated in the investment. Today’s funding brings the company’s total outside capital raised to $116 million.

Vijay Oddiraju, Volante Technologies CEO, said that the investment will help “accelerate” the company’s product roadmap. This includes the company’s initiatives in global real-time payments, the UK New Payments Architecture (NPA), as well as domestic and cross-border ISO 20022 modernization. Oddiraju added that the funding will help Volante Technologies bring its Payments-as-a-Service solution to mid-tier banks in the U.S. and Europe. Oddiraju pointed to FedNow Instant Payments, The Clearing House RTP, and SEPA Instant Payments as developments that are driving opportunity in and adoption of “modern payments technology.”

Volante helps financial institutions modernize payments. This enables them to focus on executing their business models, pursue new opportunities, and scale their operations. The company offers real-time/instant payments connectivity, embedded preprocessing that works with existing technology to enhance customer service, as well as U.S. wire payments. Volante’s low-code financial integration platform enables users to leverage visual modeling to integrate with and orchestrate workflows to build a variety of financial, transaction-based services.

Nari Ansari, Managing Director at Sixth Street Growth, praised both the the company’s PaaS and low-code payments platform as offering “a compelling value proposition.” Ansari added that it was a good time for Volante to look to scale its operations in order to take advantage of FIs that are “increasingly prioritizing both investment in payments modernization and partnerships with fintech companies.”

Founded in 2001, Volante Technologies is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. The company’s Payments-as-a-Service and low-code platform process millions of transactions and trillions in value every day. Four of the top five global corporate banks and two of the world’s largest card networks rely on Volante Technologies’ payments solutions.

Last month, the company was named to The IDC FinTech Rankings Top 100 for 2023. This marked the third year Volante had earned a spot in the IDC’s Fintech Top 100. In September, the company introduced new Chief Operating Officer David Weber.

Photo by Karol D

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Plaid Launches Consumer Reporting Agency to Leverage Cash Flow Data for Credit Risk Insights

Plaid Launches Consumer Reporting Agency to Leverage Cash Flow Data for Credit Risk Insights
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Plaid
  • Open banking innovator Plaid announced a new initiative to enable lenders to leverage consumer-permissioned cash flow data on prospective borrowers.
  • The new entity will serve as a consumer reporting agency that will build solutions that deliver ready-made credit risk insights using this information.
  • Founded in 2013, Plaid made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr, in 2014.

Is cash flow data the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to completing the picture of a person’s creditworthiness? A new initiative from open banking innovator Plaid suggests that the answer is “yes.”

“Lenders and consumers alike know that traditional credit scores don’t tell the full story of someone’s financial life,” Plaid Head of Credit Mike Saunders noted at the Plaid blog on Monday. “Information on savings, income, or on-time rent payments is often left out of the picture, even though this data is critical to understanding someone’s ability to pay back a loan.”

The new entity, announced by Plaid today, will create solutions for customers who want to leverage consumer-permissioned cash flow data to access ready-made credit risk insights. It will serve as a consumer reporting agency, according to Saunders, that will help Plaid’s customers make smarter decisions on risk throughout the lending process.

Plaid is joining a growing cohort of fintechs that have determined that while there remains a place for traditional credit scores, there is much that these scores leave out. This undermines the ability of lenders to serve otherwise qualified borrowers. It also creates hurdles for potential customers – from the “thin-file” recently-arrived immigrant professional to the young adult struggling to rebuild their credit. “Putting cash flow insights to work unlocks opportunities for lenders to grow their business while managing risk,” Saunders wrote. “This fosters inclusion, expands credit access, and serves a broader set of consumer needs.”

The new initiative is still being fleshed out. But Plaid is confident that it can make a significant difference with cash flow data in two specific ways: availability and usability. With regard to making consumer-permissioned cash flow data available, Saunders pointed to Plaid’s existing relationships with lenders and property management companies like Mission Lane and Funnel, respectively. These firms have leveraged Plaid’s technology to source clean income and assets data on prospective borrowers.

Usability, the ability of businesses to integrate data into their decision models, is the second component. And this is where the new entity in particular comes in, building solutions that enable lenders to leverage cash flow data for credit risk insights. “Many lenders simply don’t have the time, money, or technical resources to develop insights on top of this detailed, transaction-level data by themselves,” Saunders wrote.

The company admits that it is still “in the early innings” of what Saunders called “the future of cash flow underwriting.” To this end, Plaid presently is offering its new cash flow insights as part of a limited release via the consumer reporting company.

News of Plaid’s new entity comes just days after the company reported that it was working with European payments company Adyen. The partnership will enable Adyen to introduce its pay-by-bank offering in North America by early next year. Last month, Plaid announced partnerships with cryptocurrency infrastructure platform Zero Hash and fraud and risk intelligence specialist Riskified. Plaid also introduced its first Chief Financial Officer last month: former Expedia CFO and Chief Strategy Officer Eric Hart.

Photo by Pixabay

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More PFM Shakeup: Status Money Shuts its Doors

More PFM Shakeup: Status Money Shuts its Doors
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Status Money
  • Peer comparison PFM Status Money is shutting down and has transferred its users to Quicken Simplifi.
  • Starting November 10, the Status Money website and app will no longer be available.
  • Status Money’s closing comes a week after Mint announced it will close its doors at the end of the year.

While many in the fintech industry are still processing Mint’s departure from the fintech scene, there appears to be more shakeup in the PFM world this morning. Budgeting service and social personal finance app Status Money has notified its users that it is shutting down.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to providing you with the tools you need to get ahead financially, we will be transitioning our member accounts, including yours, over to Quicken Simplifi,” the company said in an announcement on its website.

Status Money was founded in 2016 to help users aggregate, track, and manage their entire financial lives and compare their financial standing with their peers. This peer comparison capability stood out as Status Money’s differentiating factor. The feature allowed users to compare their spending in specific categories to others by age, zip code, and income level.

The New York-based company’s other tools allowed users to set goals and participate in discussions with other users. In 2020, the company launched a $20 per month premium tier that allowed users to chat with a financial advisor on a monthly basis.

Starting November 10, however, the Status Money website and app will no longer be available, but users will be able to use their existing credentials to log into Quicken’s Simplifi budgeting tool, which costs around $3 per month. Status Money has transferred each user’s personal information and data associated with their account to Quicken. The Status Money Rewards program, which paid users in cash and Bitcoin for referrals and for engaging in product recommendations, is no longer available.

Status Money, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2019, hasn’t released much more information regarding the transition. There is currently no word on whether Quicken acquired the entire company or just its users, nor has Status Money disclosed transaction details.

One thing is clear, however. This appears to be yet another nail in the coffin of PFM. In his recent piece in Forbes titled The Demise of Intuit Mint and Personal Financial Management, Cornerstone Advisor’s Ron Shevlin goes into detail of why PFM is a dying fintech subsector. He notes that consumers are looking for more than just tracking, but are instead drawn toward tools such as those that help them optimize the return on their savings, save money, and mitigate monthly bills.

As someone who still uses an offline Excel spreadsheet to budget each month, I would argue that there may still be a market for simple PFM tools. However, the consumer-facing fintech market is crowded. In order to survive, standalone PFM companies may fare better with a B2B approach by embedding their tracking tools within larger fintechs or financial services organizations. This meets the consumer where they are already are instead of imposing an additional app to keep track of.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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Better.com Helps Homeowners Shop for Insurance with the Launch of Better Insurance

Better.com Helps Homeowners Shop for Insurance with the Launch of Better Insurance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Better.com launched a new insurance shopping marketplace, Better Insurance.
  • The new shopping tool is available through Better’s insurance arm, Better Cover, which was launched in 2019.
  • Better is collaborating with insurance technology company Sure and Farmers Insurance-owned Toggle for the launch.

Homeownership platform Better.com unveiled a new insurance shopping marketplace. The new tool, Better Insurance, allows customers to purchase homeowners insurance completely online, with no brokers or in-person meetings.

Better Insurance is available through Better.com’s insurance arm, Better Cover, which the company launched in 2019 to offer a transparent insurance shopping experience.

“Insurance is a key component of the homebuying process that comes with its own unique set of risks and challenges. At Better, we are focused on leveraging technology to make products available that can reduce pain points across all facets of the homebuying experience, and insurance is no exception,” said Better CEO and Founder Vishal Garg. “As a public company, we are more motivated than ever to continue addressing timely issues for homeowners through our robust product offerings, and the Better Cover team is leading the charge with the launch of a more seamless, consumer-first insurance product.”

Better is leveraging two partnerships for the launch of Better Insurance. The New York-based company has white-labeled the tool in collaboration with insurance technology company Sure and Farmers Insurance-owned Toggle. Better is using Sure’s APIs to integrate embedded insurance infrastructure into Better Insurance, and has tapped Toggle for underwriting and help with designing and building the product.

At launch Better Insurance is available in three U.S. states: Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois. The company plans to roll out to more regions within the U.S. “in the coming months.”

Better.com was founded in 2016 to create a fully digital way for borrowers to shop for, apply for, and ultimately obtain a mortgage. Earlier this year, Better.com launched the One Day Mortgage, allowing borrowers to apply for and obtain a mortgage within 24-hours.

Photo by Klaus Nielsen

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The Closing of Mint Marks the End of an Era

The Closing of Mint Marks the End of an Era
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Credit Karma, Daily news, Mint
  • Intuit is closing down Mint, which it acquired in 2009.
  • Mint users are being directed to sign up for a Credit Karma account.
  • Founded in 2006, Mint is one of the oldest B2C fintechs.

For those of us who have grown up and grown old with fintech, January 1, 2024 will go down in history. That’s because Mint– which is arguably the first-ever direct-to-consumer fintech– is shutting its doors on that day.

Mint parent company Intuit announced earlier this week that it is folding Mint into Credit Karma and is inviting all Mint users to open an account at Credit Karma. “We know the most active Minters use Mint to monitor their cash flow and track their spending, and not only does Credit Karma offer these capabilities, but we’re able to take things even further for our members,” Intuit announced in a blog post.

As a bit of history, Intuit acquired Mint in 2009 for $170 million and purchased Credit Karma in 2020 for $4.7 billion. After acquiring Credit Karma, there was likely a bit of internal unrest at Intuit, since Mint and Credit Karma are essentially rivals. Both companies rely on advertiser spend via product referrals, and growing one brand would hurt the other.

Rolling Mint into Credit Karma will help Intuit double-down on sponsored advertisement revenue. The move will also build Credit Karma into a more robust competitor in the PFM space. Credit Karma was founded in 2007 to offer a flagship credit tracking and credit card comparison service and has since expanded to offer a tax filing service, checking account, savings account, credit-building credit card, and more.

It’s not surprising to see Mint’s demise. Intuit already started to cannibalize the brand earlier this year when it pulled Mint’s team in to build Credit Karma’s new Net Worth feature, a tool that enables users to view and track their net worth in a single place. Also, in a way, Mint died a long time ago. The company, which claimed 3.6 million monthly active users in 2021 but as of this year has had no material revenue, hasn’t released any new features or made any significant announcements in recent years. In fact, my last blog post about the company was titled, “Mint Brings User Interface into 2018.” Meanwhile, the company’s competitors in the PFM space were releasing their own banking tools, lending services, and investment tools. 

In the grand scheme of today’s fintech landscape, this announcement will have little impact. However, the news is worth noting for the sake of history. Mint– a company that at one point owned the entire fintech category– stood still while watching the entire fintech industry evolve around it. The company even demoed at the first-ever Finovate conference in 2007. Mint may have been able to keep up had it not been acquired by Intuit, but we’ll never know. Rest in peace, Mint (2006- 2023), and say hello to all of the other fintech ghosts on the other side for me.

Photo by Brett Sayles

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BNP Paribas Partners with Factoring and Asset-Based Lending Solution Provider Lenvi

BNP Paribas Partners with Factoring and Asset-Based Lending Solution Provider Lenvi
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Lenvi
  • French bank BNP Paribas announced a partnership with factoring and asset-based lending solution provider Lenvi.
  • BNP Paribas will leverage Lenvi’s Riskfactor platform to help mitigate risk and enhance operational efficiencies.
  • Lenvi made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in March.

BNP Paribas announced last week that it is partnering with risk management solution provider for factoring and asset-based lending Lenvi. The French bank will deploy Lenvi’s Riskfactor as part of a multi-year contract to help the financial institution mitigate risk and improve operational efficiencies.

“Riskfactor allows businesses to harmonize responses and operations across jurisdictions, resulting in significant improvement in overall operations efficiency,” Lenvi CEO Richard Carter said. “We look forward to working together with BNP Paribas to support them in optimizing their risk management capabilities, while preventing fraud and improving overall efficiency. BNP Paribas’ commitment to risk management ensures a future-proof business.”

Riskfactor’s risk metrics analyze portfolios to identify unusual behavior, enabling users to investigate and take action on the highest risk accounts. Riskfactor automates risk processes and workflows, assigns follow up tasks for further investigation, and provides schedules to facilitate managing audits, debt verification, client and debtor reviews, and more. The platform oversees $63.4 billion (€60 billion) in lending and monitors more than 60,000 accounts worldwide. With deployments in 17 territories around the world, Lenvi notes that 90% of the receivables market in the U.K. use Riskfactor. BNP Paribas stated that it will deploy the complete Riskfactor product portfolio in eight countries in Europe.

“We are confident that Riskfactor will deliver on its promise and we are happy to have Lenvi’s support in implementing the solution,” BNP Paribas Global Head of Factoring Lionel Joubaud said.

BNP Paribas was founded in 2000 as the product of a merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and Paribas. The ninth-largest banking group in the world by assets, BNP Paribas is the largest banking group in Europe. As of 2022, BNP Paribas had total assets of $2.8 trillion (€2.67 trillion).

Headquartered in Leeds, U.K. and founded in 1988, Lenvi demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope earlier this year. Last month, the company announced partnerships with financial data provider Validis and secured finance technology company Lendscape.

Photo by Paul Deetman

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Cybersecurity Firm Adlumin Raises $70 Million in Series B Funding

Cybersecurity Firm Adlumin Raises $70 Million in Series B Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Adlumin, Alumni News, Daily news, Funding
  • Cybersecurity company Adlumin has raised $70 million in Series B funding.
  • Adlumin offers a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform that provides enterprise-grade security to small and middle-market organizations.
  • Founded in 2016, Adlumin made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019.

Washington, D.C.-based cybersecurity company Adlumin closed a $70 million Series B funding round last week. The company, which made its Finovate debut four years ago at FinovateFall, offers a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform that provides continuous threat detection and response. Adlumin’s technology also provides cybersecurity teams with the tools they need for threat hunting, incident response, vulnerability management, darknet exposure monitoring, and compliance support.

The investment was led by SYN Ventures. First In Ventures, Washington Harbour Partners, and BankTech Ventures also participated. The investment boosts Adlumin’s total equity funding raised since inception to $83 million.

Adlumin will use the capital to accelerate growth. The funding will also help the company meet the demand of the 200,000 middle market businesses in the U.S. for enterprise-grade cybersecurity technology. Adlumin enables businesses to leverage one license and one platform that serve as a command center for security operations. The platform enhances collaboration with service providers with pre-integrated solutions that augment the platform’s capabilities and enhance existing systems and processes.

Adlumin founder and CEO Robert Johnston underscored the importance of helping small and middle market organizations not just access the necessary technology, but also the necessary talent. “With a significant cybersecurity skills gap, hiring the right people is an expensive, challenging and sometimes impossible task for small and mid-sized organizations who are competing with big government and businesses for talent,” Johnston explained. “This is why empowering service providers – whose expertise can be multiplied across several organizations – will be essential to securing mid-market organizations, and why we built a platform that does exactly that.”

Adlumin’s platform also ensures visibility into the organization’s security posture. This transparency is complete and available in real-time. Adlumin’s customers can see why an alert was issued and how it was resolved; access investigation data, reporting, and threat intelligence on-demand; and more – whether they are running the platform themselves or having a third-party run it for them.

The company’s investment announcement after the launch of a pair of new security solutions for middle-market organizations. These new offerings were a subscription-based incident response service and no-cost warranty and discounted cyberinsurance policies. Earlier this month, Adlumin announced a partnership and integration with cloud native security pioneer Aqua Security. Over the summer, Adlumin announced a partnership with IT services provider MNJ Technologies.

Photo by Mark Stebnicki

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AlphaPoint Partners with Blockchain Protection Firm Coincover

AlphaPoint Partners with Blockchain Protection Firm Coincover
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news
  • Digital asset infrastructure platform AlphaPoint announced a partnership with Coincover.
  • A blockchain protection firm, Coincover will provide enhanced security for AlphaPoint customers.
  • AlphaPoint made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2015 and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateFall.

AlphaPoint, a digital asset infrastructure platform, has turned to blockchain protection firm Coincover to provide its customers with enhanced security. Courtesy of the partnership, AlphaPoint customers will be able to access Coincover’s Asset Protection solution which helps mitigate a variety of security threats including hacking, human error, and scams.

Coincover secures its clients against hacking and theft by proactively screening and protecting transactions. The company’s crypto threat intelligence and machine learning models continuously monitor activity across millions of digital wallets and transactions, flagging potentially malicious behavior. Coincover’s technology delivers proactive alerts that enable users to take action when abnormal patterns are spotted. The company has more than 300 partners worldwide, protects five million crypto wallets, and has checked $30 billion in transactions. David Janczewski is co-founder and CEO.

“By collaborating with Coincover, a top innovator in asset protection, we’re providing our customers with leading-edge insurance to safeguard their assets,” AlphaPoint CEO and co-founder Igor Telyatnikov said. “This partnership demonstrates our commitment to delivering complete peace of mind through institutional-grade security and infrastructure.”

AlphaPoint made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2015. The company returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateFall in New York. In the years since then, AlphaPoint has grown into leading digital asset infrastructure company with more than 150 customers in 35 countries. The company’s platform supports more than 10 million registered accounts, more than one trillion in trading volume, and billions in assets. AlphaPoint counts CME Group and XP Securites among its clients. El Salvador chose AlphaPoint to operate its Chivo Bitcoin wallet in 2022 as part of the country’s experiment in mass bitcoin adoption.

Earlier this month, AlphaPoint launched AlphaPoint Labs. The new entity provides advisory, development, and implementation services for FIs, exchanges, and businesses seeking to integrate digital assets and blockchain technology. This spring, the company forged a new partnership with cryptoasset risk management company Elliptic. Over the summer, AlphaPoint teamed up with verification platform Sumsub.

AlphaPoint is headquartered in New York. The company has raised more than $23 million in funding.

Photo by Lex Photography

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Flywheel Sells to Omnicom for $835 Million

Flywheel Sells to Omnicom for $835 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Digital commerce solutions provider Flywheel is being acquired by marketing and advertising company Omnicom.
  • The deal is expected to close for $835 million in the first quarter of next year.
  • Omnicom plans to integrate Flywheel’s Commerce Cloud product and transaction data into its audience and behavioral data.

Digital commerce solutions provider Flywheel has agreed to be acquired by marketing and advertising company Omnicom for $835 million. The deal is set to close in the first quarter of next year.

Owned by data and e-commerce optimization company Ascential, Flywheel was founded in 2014 and offers a suite of tools to help companies grow their digital commerce operations by selling more efficiently on marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba. Among the tools in the Flywheel Commerce Cloud are AI-powered content recommendations, automated fee recovery, retail performance analytics, and more.

Switzerland-based Omnicom offers services for advertising, strategic media planning and buying, precision marketing, commerce and branding, customer relationship marketing, public relations, healthcare marketing, and other sectors. The company has more than 5,000 clients spread across 70+ countries.

“The acquisition of Flywheel significantly broadens our reach and influence in the rapidly expanding digital commerce and retail media sectors, two of the fastest-growing parts of the industry,” said Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren. “Together, we will seamlessly integrate our offerings across retail and brand media, digital and in-store commerce, and CRM, ultimately delivering superior results for our clients.”

With 4,500 brands as customers, Flywheel and its Commerce Cloud manage “tens of billions”of dollars in product sales and “billions” of dollars in advertising spend on an annual basis across digital marketplaces. Once the acquisition is complete, Flywheel Commerce Cloud’s product and transaction data will be connected to Omnicom’s audience and behavioral data. Logistically, Flywheel will serve as what Omnicom is calling a “Practice Area.” Ascential CEO Duncan Painter will lead the newly created division.

Today’s deal is an example of how data-driven decision making has infiltrated the world of retail and ecommerce. Banks and fintechs can take note: leveraging data-driven insights is becoming tablestakes across multiple sectors, and is something consumers are growing to expect.

Photo by Jeremy Perkins

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Payments Platform Paysend Partners with Western Union

Payments Platform Paysend Partners with Western Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, PaySend, Western Union
  • Payments platform Paysend announced a partnership with Western Union this week.
  • The partnership will enable consumers to send money via Western Union directly to Visa and Mastercard debit cards.
  • Paysend made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateEurope.

International payments platform Paysend inked an agreement with Western Union today. The partnership will enable consumers to send money via Western Union’s branded digital solution directly to both Visa and Mastercard debit cards. Paysend will provide a single API that ensures seamless processing of these Western Union customer payments at live FX rates, 24/7, 365 days a year.

“Paysend’s mission is to make money transfer easier for everyone,” Paysend Executive Chairman and co-founder Abdul Abdulkerimov said. “We are thrilled to join forces with Western Union, a company known for its global reach and commitment to financial inclusion. Together, we will empower millions with accessible cross-border money transfer services.”

The remittance market continues to be a major source of economic growth for communities around the world. The World Bank estimated that remittances grew 5% to more than $800 billion last year. This week’s partnership comes in the wake of a pilot program recently launched by the two companies. The program will help customers send money from the U.S. and U.K. to Pakistan, the U.K., and Spain easier -with additional locations coming soon. The news also follows strategic collaborations between Paysend and Visa and between Paysend and Mastercard that were announced last month. These partnerships are part of the company’s effort to expand its ability to improve cross-border payments for SMEs and individuals. “Our mission at Paysend is simple,” Abdulkerimov said, “to deliver the world’s simplest money transfer service.”

Founded in 1851, Western Union today serves as one of the largest money transfer businesses in the world. The company is active in more than 200 countries and territories, and facilitates fund transfers in nearly 130 currencies. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Western Union offers wire transfer, mobile money transfer, and other fund transfer services. These offerings include Western Union Connect, which facilitates fund transfers between the U.S. and China. Last week, Western Union reported Q3 results that, according to company President and Chief Executive Officer Devin McGranahan, “exceeded our expectations and demonstrate a continued positive trajectory against our ‘Evolve 2025’ goals.”

Paysend made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateEurope, and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateSpring. Headquartered in London, the company this year has forged partnerships with global onboarding and payroll platform RemotePass, payroll platform Ontop, and Spanish-language content and media company, TelevisaUnivision.

Paysend has raised more than $272 million in funding. Global PayTech Ventures and InfraVia Capital Partners are among the company’s investors.

Photo by Pixabay

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Twinco Capital Raises $53 Million for Supply Chain Financing

Twinco Capital Raises $53 Million for Supply Chain Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Supply chain financing company Twinco Capital has received $53 million in debt financing from BBVA Spark.
  • The funds boost Twinco Capital’s total combined debt and equity to $71.3 million.
  • Twinco Capital works with more than 150 suppliers and has grown 3x in the past four years.

Supply chain finance company Twinco Capital announced it has landed $53 million (€50 million) in debt financing. The funds come from BBVA’s BBVA Spark. The funds boost Twinco Capital’s total combined debt and equity funding to $71.3 million.

The Spain-based company offers financing to suppliers of large corporations working in retail and apparel. To help free up working capital, Twinco advances up to 60% of the order value within 48 hours after the retailer places the order. Twinco then pays the remaining percentage after the goods have been delivered. The company leverages business performance and ESG data combined with machine learning to assess and mitigate risk, therefore minimizing losses.

“The value added Twinco is providing to customers stems from the combination of its unique funding solution with business intelligence that provides a holistic overview of supply chain risk,” said Twinco COO Carmen Marin. “Technology and machine learning provide invaluable data insights on commercial, financial and ESG suppliers’ performance, giving our customers a state-of-the-art supply chain risk management tool.”

BBVA Spark was launched in 2022 as an investment arm to provide venture debt and growth loans to what it calls “high-impact” companies. The firm currently has more than 800 clients and has facilitated $265 million (€250 million) in financing.

Launched in 2019, Twinco has received equity funds from Quona Capital, Working Capital Fund, Mundi Ventures, and Finch Capital. The company works with more than 150 suppliers located across 13 different countries. Twinco has grown 3x in the past four years.

“We are very pleased to support Sandra and Carmen, two entrepreneurs who, with Twinco, have reinvented the way supply chains are financed on a global scale and who have also incorporated innovative environmental and social criteria into their supplier financing model,” said BBVA Spark Head Roberto Albaladejo.

Photo by Felix Haumann

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