Moven

The Conversation Continues: Catching Up with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast

The Conversation Continues: Catching Up with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, Help With My Loan, Long Game, Moven, Podcasting

Miss an episode of the Finovate Podcast during the holiday rush? No need to fear; the Finovate blog has got your back.

From insights into the rise of embedded finance and prospects for “technosocialism” to discussions with innovators in the field of personal finance and roboadvisory, the Finovate Podcast is your one-stop-shop for fascinating, in-depth conversations between Finovate VP Greg Palmer and fintech’s finest analysts and entrepreneurs. Today we’re sharing some end-of-year episodes of the podcast that might have slipped beneath your radar as 2021 drew to a close.

Find the Finovate podcast at Soundcloud and follow Greg Palmer on Twitter for the latest in programming news and updates.

Chris Karageuzian, CEO and Co-founder, Help With My Loan. Host Greg Palmer and Chris Karageuzian talk about how the Finovate newcomer is making the lending process more pleasant for borrowers.

“I was in the industry for 20+ years so I felt the frustration – that’s why I left and created this company. (There’s a) lack of technology and fragmented software – you have to use almost seven to ten pieces of software just to deal with one file. That’s really not productive in my opinion. We closely work with banks right now. We have 300+ banks signed up in our database and in our software. So deals get automated and matched and we are within an earshot of every deal.”

Vivek Krishnamurthy, Principal, Commerce Ventures. Host Greg Palmer sits down with Vivek Krishnamurthy for a conversation on “embedded finance” and an overview of the field’s opportunities and pitfalls.

“There’s a split between the infrastructure layers that enable third parties to launch financial services products. And then there are the instances in which financial services products are launched inside of other ecosystems. We think that latter aspect, that latter space of being able to turn on a financial services product in the customer journey inside of a non-financial services ecosystem, that’s what we think about as ’embedded finance.'”

Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO, and Mike Larsen, Head of Sales, Bambu. Host Greg Palmer talks about the challenges facing the automated investment business with Ned Phillips and Mike Larsen of Best of Show winning roboadvisor Bambu.

“We are a B2B wealthtech. So what does that mean? We design, build, and deploy those roboadvisor, savings and investment apps for financial institutions. So if a financial institution wants its own Betterment or its own Wealthfront, they come to us for the tech and we build it. And at Finovate, we built one on stage in seven minutes!”

Will Graylin, Chairman and CEO, OV Loop; CEO, Indigo Technologies. Host Greg Palmer chats with serial entrepreneur Will Graylin about contactless payment adoption, super apps, and the future of mobile payments.

“Why haven’t we adopted (contactless payments) in much more mass given that Apple Pay has been out for over seven years, and Samsung Pay has been out for six years, and Google Pay has been out there for seven years – eight years now? Why haven’t we adopted en masse? (Our situation is) unlike China’s WeChat/WeChat Pay/AliPay. For those solutions, they are adopted to the order of about 83% of all consumer transactions, whereas we’re still in single digits in the United States. Why?”

Brett King, Author, The Rise of Technosocialism; Founder of Moven. Host Greg Palmer and Brett King talk about King’s latest book, The Rise of Technosocialism: How Inequality, AI, and Climate Will Usher in a New World.

“When you think about why it is that we haven’t been able to tackle (climate change) and get agreement on this, part of the core problem is that we tend to be quite short-term focused in our planning as a species. We’re focused on the next quarter, the next year, in terms of financial reporting, or maybe the next two years or four years in terms of political cycles. But when it comes to planning out things for 20 years in our future or 30 years in our future, the big problem is we just ask ‘who’s going to pay for it?'”

Lindsay Holden, Co-founder and CEO, Long Game. Host Greg Palmer discusses loyalty, education, Millennials, and gamification with Lindsay Holden, founder of FinovateFall Best of Show winner, Long Game.

“Long Game is a mobile game. It’s an app that sits on top of your bank account and rewards customers for learning about financial literacy and for positive financial behaviors like saving. For banks, we are helping them have a branded experience that’s super-fun for customers, they can acquire new customers with us, and also increase their customer LTV through promoting their products, increasing savings, and increasing direct deposits.”

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Moven Teams up with Apex Edge to Bring Bill Negotiation to Financial Wellness

Moven Teams up with Apex Edge to Bring Bill Negotiation to Financial Wellness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven

Partner-enablement platform ApexEdge will bring new savings opportunities to Moven’s financial wellness platform courtesy of a partnership announced this week.

“We’re excited to help the financial services industry find new ways to help consumers save, while living within their means,” Moven CRO Bryan Clagett said. “Banks and credit unions particularly, can differentiate by offering services that have immediate impact to consumers’ bottom line, while supporting their brand ambitions of acting as a financial advocate.”

ApexEdge uses actionable intelligence to spot and secure savings opportunities for consumers. Via its BillShark bill negotiation service, ApexEdge enables management and negotiation of a wide range of monthly bills including cable television, Internet, wireless, home security. The company says that it has provided more than 350,000 customers with a savings success rate of 85% and an average savings of $295. The partnership with ApexEdge only enhances the value that Moven offers its clients. The technology helps move financial wellness beyond turning data into actionable insights to tangibly saving customers money via cost savings not traditionally available through banks and credit unions.

“It is exciting to play a role in the financial wellness movement that the retail banking industry is embracing,” ApexEdge CEO Steven McKean said. “By partnering with innovative companies like Moven, banks and credit unions have access to the tools and technology to affect real, meaningful positive change in the daily lives of their customers and members.”

Moven’s bank-in-a-box solution enables banks and fintechs to launch a fully functional digital challenger bank in 90 days. The company’s platform uses both proprietary bank and third-party data to give institutions the ability to offer real-time insights for their digital banking customers. The platform’s features – such as Spend Meter, Savings Stash, and Spend by Category – further help customers get a more holistic view of their finances. The technology leverages open APIs and SDKs to provide scalability, optimize speed to market, and ensure an integration and launch that is both customizable and quick.

Moven founder Brett King joined Q2 VP of Strategic Solutions Rahm McDaniel in a demonstration of CorePro, the core processing platform behind Moven’s digital bank-in-a-box, at FinovateSpring 2021 in May. The technology is geared toward enabling community and regional banks, as well as credit unions, to compete with the digital-native offerings from challenger and neobanks.

Winner of Best Embedded Finance Solution at this year’s 2021 Finovate Awards, ApexEdge was founded in 2020. Earlier this fall, the company announced that a new, financial wellness mobile app Upwise, offered by MetLife, would offer Billshark bill negotiation services among its initial suite of capabilities.

Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Moven, Q2 Partner with Community Banks to Help Deliver Financial Wellness Solutions

Moven, Q2 Partner with Community Banks to Help Deliver Financial Wellness Solutions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven, Movenbank, Q2

Moven’s transition to a financial wellness platform received a big boost this week as the company announced that a pair of community banks – b1 BANK and Citizens Bank of Edmond will leverage its technology to power their own personalized digital banking offerings.

Moven’s platform is powered by core processing technology from fellow Finovate alum Q2. CorePro, as the technology is named, will give these community banks the ability to build a solution with a front-end based on financial wellness and a backend able to interact with a variety of legacy core systems.

Keith Mansfield, Chief Operating Officer with the Louisiana-based b1 BANK, underscored how the partnership with Moven will enable the institution to offer its customers new tools to enhance their financial wellness. Mansfield added that working with Moven will also help the $3.9 billion AUM bank gain the kind of customer insights that will enable it to “compete with both larger banks and fintech competitors.”

Citizens Bank of Edmond ($350 million in assets) CEO and President Jill Castilla was even more direct, highlighting both the importance of “deliver(ing) exceptional products and exceptional customer service in an increasingly digital manner” as well as the key role that community banks play in the financial lives of a sizable number of individuals and families.

“No one is more skilled at developing relationships and meeting customer needs than community banks,” Castilla explained. She praised both Moven and Q2 as companies that not only understood this reality but also were “committed to bringing a first-class digital experience to underbanked and underserved communities in need.”

The initiative announced this week is not the first time Moven and Q2 have collaborated. Most recently, in the fall of 2020, the two companies teamed up to offer a turn-key digital bank-in-a-box that can be deployed by financial institutions in as few as 30 days. Combining financial data aggregation and savings tools from Moven with Q2’s CorePro cloud processing technology, the new offering provides real-time alerts and notifications, the ability to issue savings and demand deposit accounts, as well as instant external account verification, wishlist savings, and an emergency account.

“Community financial institutions are frustrated with their legacy core provider(s) and want flexibility and affordability in delivering solutions that empower the consumer,” said Bryan Clagett, industry expert and advisor who helped bring Moven and Q2 together for the project. “Digital banking, as we know it, is evolving quickly and bringing together fintech organizations that have complementary competencies is key to the future of the financial services industry.”

Photo by Summer Li from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership

MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Bambu, Dwolla, Moven, MX

From the partnership between Best of Show winners MX and Dwolla that will enhance and automate account verification to the news of a strategic partnership between roboadvisor Bambu and Moven, collaborations between Finovate alums are filling the fintech headlines to start the week.

With MX and Dwolla, the partnership extends instant account verification coverage to 4,000+ institutions, making it easier for MX customers to connect securely to any deposit account. The integration also enables account verification through micro-deposits, which makes it possible for MX to offer verification for “nearly 100 percent” of deposit accounts in the U.S.

Enabling better access to micro-deposits by improving the verification experience is a key component of the integration. MX co-founder and CTO Brandon Dewitt underscored the importance of these deposits and the role they play in financial inclusion and serving the underbanked. “Micro-deposits have gotten a bad reputation in the industry, but the truth is for some of the population who bank with community credit unions or mid-sized institutions, it comes down to either using a micro-deposit or not having the ability to connect them to their accounts,” Dewitt said.

MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage two years ago at FinovateFall. The Lehi, Utah-based company won Best of Show for a live demo of its MX Enabled platform that helps financial institutions add to their offerings via connections with fintechs through MX’s API ecosystem. Earlier this month, MX launched a new suite of financial insights APIs and embeddable user interfaces to enable companies to pursue opportunities in open finance.

Dwolla won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2011 at FinovateSpring. The company announced just last week that it had raised $21 million in funding in a round led by Foundry Group that will help it continue to innovate in the B2B payments space.

“Partnering with MX will automate the verification experience and make it that much easier to verify a bank account,” Dwolla President and COO Dave Glaser said. “Together with Dwolla, MX has configured a new solution to ensure that millions of payments occur smoothly and easily each day. We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership and the impact it will have on millions of Americans.”

Giving average retail banking customers the kind of support typically available only to high net worth individuals is part of the motive behind the strategic partnership announced early this week between roboadvisor technology solution company Bambu and financial wellness technology platform Moven.

“Adding Bambu’s capabilities to Moven’s mobile-centric experience is well in-line with the needs of banks and fintechs to provide consumers with personalized, automatic investing to their product offerings,” Moven Chief Revenue Officer Bryan Clagett said. He noted that traditional banks still have a major impact and influence on their customers and, as such, they can and should do more – beyond banking – to enable their customers to better manage the entirety of their financial lives.

The new offering is designed to empower bank customers by allowing them to manage and plan their finances and investments more holistically. The goal is to provide customers with the equivalent of a digital CFO to help them better understand their spending patterns in order to increase savings and better manage their investments. This is a critical aspect of the new solution, which moves beyond simple robo-investing to give customers a more comprehensive view – and greater control – over their finances.

“We look forward to working closely with Moven as wealth and digital banking become more seamlessly connected,” Bambu co-founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “Moven’s long history in digital banking and Bambu’s intelligent wealth APIs will provide a perfect platform for any financial institution focused on digital banking and wealth.”

Singapore-based Bambu made its most recent Finovate appearance last year at FinovateEurope in Berlin where the company demonstrated its BambuGo white label financial roboadvisor platform. Earlier this month, Bambu announced that it had acquired investment management technology company Tradesocio.

Making its Finovate debut more than eight years ago, Moven famously pivoted from a direct-to-consumer/neobank model to a focus on “smart banking and financial wellness” a little over a year ago. The company has teamed up since with fellow Finovate alums Q2 and Digital Onboarding, as well as with intelligent billpay company Blip Labs and digital asset manager NYDIG, to help them better engage their customers with actionable insights to enhance financial health.

Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Europe’s Robinhood Brings in the Bucks with $80 Million Investment

Europe’s Robinhood Brings in the Bucks with $80 Million Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud, Finovate Global, Fintech OS, Moven, Revolut, Tinkoff Bank, VISA

In a round led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent, Amsterdam-based fintech BUX has secured $80 million in funding that will fuel both international expansion and new product development. The investment also featured a change in the leadership ranks at the company, with founder Nick Bortot handing over the CEO reins to COO Yorick Naeff.

“With this new funding round, BUX will continue to spearhead innovation by implementing advanced features to further shape the future of how Europeans invest,” Naeff said. We are extremely grateful to have top tier investors like Prosus Ventures and Tencent onboard to support us in our mission.”

With half a million customers in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, France, and Germany, BUX enables investors to buy and sell shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), without having to pay commissions. Dubbed the “Robinhood of Europe”, BUX is a response to what Naeff said is a growing awareness of the importance of investing by younger Europeans. Naeff underscored financial uncertainty as a major concern among the younger generation and credited them for realizing that investing is “one of the few viable ways left” to manage that uncertainty. The self-directed nature of investing on BUX’s platform – for shares and ETFs, as well as cryptocurrencies on its BUX Crypto app, and CFDs on its BUX X solution – is another appealing aspect, Naeff said.

“Traditional financial market investing comes with a lot of friction and we firmly believe in the democratization of access to financial services for the next generation of investors,” Head of Europe Investments for Prosus Ventures Sandeep Bakshi said. “The existing solutions are expensive, complex and not designed for younger generations.” Alex Leung, Assistant GM at Tencent, Strategic Development, noted that Bux’s business model does not depend on some of the revenue-raising strategies that have been criticized at rivals like Robinhood. “BUX is the only neo-broker in Europe that offers zero commission investing without being dependent on kickbacks or payments for order flow,” Leung said. “This ensures that its interests are fully aligned with its customers.”

No valuation information was provided as part of the funding announcement. The company noted that its signature BUX Zero solution “has more than doubled its assets under management” in the past three months.

Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by HoliHo from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Still Moven: Digital Onboarding Alliance Underscores Financial Wellness Pivot

Still Moven: Digital Onboarding Alliance Underscores Financial Wellness Pivot
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Digital Onboarding, Moven

In a world of rebrands, reintroductions, and redirections, it is always impressive to see a pivot that sticks.

Moven, which announced its transition toward financial wellness and distributed smart banking a year ago this month, has teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Digital Onboarding. Together, the two fintechs will support user adoption of a turn-key digital bank-in-a-box, making it easier for banks and financial institutions to improve customer engagement on digital platforms.

“The pace of digital disruption in the banking industry is only going to quicken, and financial institutions have to rethink how they leverage digital channels,” Moven founder and Executive Chairman Brett King said. “Providing a new channel is one thing; getting existing and new customers to embrace that channel is an entirely different challenge, and frankly a tremendous opportunity for bankers.”

The partnership brings together Moven’s ability to provide users with data-driven, actionable insights into their financial health with Digital Onboarding’s digital messaging, personalized microsites, and proprietary action widgets to make account-related services more accessible and streamlined. The collaboration recognizes the challenge that digital banks represent to traditional banks and credit unions, and seeks to give them the tools to keep their own customers and better engage new, more digitally-demanding, ones.

“Neobanks are raising billions of dollars and investing heavily in advertising to lure U.S, consumers away from traditional financial institutions,” Digital Onboarding CEO Ted Brown said. “Now is the time for banks and credit unions to double down on investing in their existing customer and member bases. I am excited to collaborate with Moven to help banks and credit unions build long-lasting relationships by motivating financially health behaviors.”

The collaboration between Moven and Digital Onboarding is the most recent, big partnership Moven has entered into since its pivot. Late last year, the company announced that it was working on a turnkey digital bank-in-a-box project with another Finovate alum, Q2. Picking up its second patent for its financial wellness technology in January, Moven also has worked recently with New York-based digital asset manager NYDIG and Japan-based Kyushu Financial Group.

Speaking of NYDIG, the company secured $200 million in funding earlier this week in a round led by Stone Ridge Holdings Group and other strategic partners.

Moven will leverage its relationship with NYDIG to offer banks plugins that will enable them to offer bitcoin-related products. Moven CEO and CRO Kesh Talwar put the NYDIG partnership in the broader context of fintech and cryptocurrency’s parallel, but distinct paths toward prominence. “The growth of fintech platforms and of cryptocurrencies have both been striking, but the two worlds have largely been separate.” And because consumers are most likely to try new technologies when they are introduced by institutions they trust, Talwar sees a clear path to boosting cryptocurrency adoption by enabling banks to play a bigger part.

NYDIG Head of Bank Solutions Patrick Sells concurred. “Many banks have felt left behind with the rise of fintech, but today, banks have the opportunity to capitalize on the fact that their customers strongly prefer them to be in the lead when it comes to Bitcoin.”

Photo by Budgeron Bach from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bryan Clagett Joins Moven as Chief Revenue Officer

Bryan Clagett Joins Moven as Chief Revenue Officer
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven

Fintech veteran Bryan Clagett is making moves within Moven this year. Clagett was recently appointed Chief Revenue Officer of Moven after serving as an advisor to the New York-based company for six months.

“Bringing on Bryan was an essential next step in expanding our business maturity as we look to expand our U.S. market presence,” said Moven Founder Brett King. “Having worked on and off with Bryan for 10 years, I’m glad we finally snagged him at a time when our U.S. operations are accelerating rapidly and where COVID has created an extraordinary demand for digital differentiation in the retail digital banking space.”

Clagett’s fintech career started three decades ago, his most notable position being Chief Marketing Officer and Investor at Geezeo, where he served for ten years until the digital banking company was acquired by Jack Henry in 2019. During his tenure, Clagett helped Geezeo grow to more than 550 clients and achieve profitability.

Since his time at Geezeo, Clagett has served as an advisor to Conotext, Blip Labs, Procurity, and StrategyCorps.

“I’m extremely excited to join Moven to lead sales, marketing and partnership strategy as we evolve the company’s growth trajectory. Moven’s client-centric philosophy and emphasis on helping financial services via flexible and innovative, data-driven solutions made this a great fit for me. I’m looking forward to expanding into new markets, strengthening our relationships with our partners, and building the leading GTM function in our space,” said Clagett.

Moven’s appointment of Clagett comes after Moven made a major pivot in March of last year, dropping its B2C offering to focus on its enterprise arm that serves financial institutions. The new B2B approach has been flourishing in recent months, as banking-as-a-service tools have been gaining traction thanks to firms’ heightened focus on their digital presence.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Moven and Q2 Team Up on Bank-in-a-Box Initiative

Moven and Q2 Team Up on Bank-in-a-Box Initiative
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Moven, Q2

A turnkey digital bank-in-a-box that can be deployed in as little as 30 days? That’s the product of a new partnership announced this week between a pair of Finovate alums: data-driven financial wellness innovator Moven and digital banking services provider Q2.

“Working with Q2 allows banks of all sizes to accelerate their consumer facing digital offering,” Moven CEO and CRO Kesh Talwar explained. “Having a complete view of customer financial behavior, along with Moven’s data analytics, will increase contextual customer engagement. He added that better customer engagement will lead to “lower attrition rates, increased revenues and acquiring new customers digitally at a lower cost.”

Initially, the collaboration will focus on the integration of Moven’s data aggregation and savings tools with Q2’s cloud-based core processor, CorePro. This will enable them to offer banks and credit unions an instant deployment solution with real-time alerts and notifications, as well as account issuance for savings and demand deposits accounts. The offering also includes features such as instant external account verification, wishlist savings, and an emergency account.

“We are thrilled that Q2’s CorePro system was selected by Moven to power this initiative,” GM of Q2 BaaS Paul Walker said. “Now any bank can have its own Marcus or Chime in a matter of a few weeks.”

The partnership is the latest evidence of Moven’s shift toward leveraging its financial wellness and behavioral data technology and away from the direct to consumer / neobank model of years past. Fintech expert and advisor Bryan Clagett, who approached both Moven and Q2 over the summer to discuss compatibilities between the two firms, underscored the importance of this strategy. “Digital banking, as we know it, is evolving quickly,” he said “and bringing together fintechs organizations that have complementary competencies is key to the future of the financial services industry.”

Founded in 2011 and becoming a Finovate alum after its debut at FinovateEurope two years later, Moven announced a partnership with Saudi Arabia’s STC Pay this spring. The New York-based company has raised more than $47 million in funding, and includes TD Bank and SBI Group among its investors. Brett King is founder and executive chairman. In a statement, King highlighted the significance of his company’s partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Q2.

“We started as a challenger bank in the U.S. market before collaborating with banks and FIs around the world, so we understand what it takes in the post-COVID digital world to stand out,” King said. “The Q2 alliance is our first major core partnership in the U.S., and no doubt will set a steep benchmark for other providers in the space.”

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has become one of the leaders in the embedded finance movement, offering a range of digital financial solutions for consumers, business clients, and fellow fintechs. The company won a Best of Show award at FinovateFall in September for its Partner Marketplace, an app store that is integrated within the client’s digital banking platform.

Q2 is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $5 billion. See them next week as the company returns to the Finovate stage to demo its latest technology at FinovateWest Digital.

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Varo Gets Moven: Transition to Enterprise Sends Customers to Digital Banking Upstart

Varo Gets Moven: Transition to Enterprise Sends Customers to Digital Banking Upstart
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven

When Moven announced a transition away from being a provider of consumer banking services and toward business partnerships, few questioned the company’s capacity to win with enterprise customers. Founded in 2010 by Brett King, Moven has secured partnerships with financial institutions around the world, including Westpac in New Zealand, BCA in Indonesia, TD Bank in Canada, and, most recently, STC Pay in Saudi Arabia.

But there was some question as to what would happen with Moven’s customer accounts, which the company announced it would close by April 30, 2020.

We now have our answer: Moven will transition its customers to San Francisco, California-based Varo Money, which is in the process of securing its status as a challenger bank in the U.S.

“Moven has been a pioneer in the digital banking space and a long-time inspiration,” Varo Money CEO Colin Walsh said. “We are excited to welcome their customers and deliver on the types of technology and features they have grown to love.”

Moven CEO Marek Forysiak said the decision to choose Varo stemmed in part from compatibility with the company’s commitment to fostering financial wellness. The two companies are also looking into ways that Varo can leverage not just Moven’s former customers but also the business’ current and future digital banking technology as Varo continues on the path toward full bankhood.

“We are excited to partner with Varo ahead of their official national charter,” Walsh said. “Our patented financial wellness technology aligns with Varo’s efforts to help everyday Americans gain access to better financial insights and opportunities.”

Founded in 2015, Varo Money offers a mobile banking app, products such as a high-yield savings account, and services including early direct deposit. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, and charging no fees, Varo Money earned regulatory approval from the FDIC in February, insuring the firm’s deposits and giving Varo a major boost in its effort to become a full-fledged bank. To this point, the company has leveraged its partnership with Bancorp as its custodian; Bancorp is slated to transfer those customer deposits to Varo this quarter.

Named one of the 9 Best Checking Accounts for April 2020 by NerdWallet, Varo has raised more than $178 million in funding from investors such as Warburg Pincus and The Rise Fund. The company has an estimated valuation of $418 million.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Moven Minds its Business in B2B Pivot

Moven Minds its Business in B2B Pivot
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

Blame it on the ‘rona? In a transition announced earlier this week, Moven – which made headlines recently with its partnership with Saudi Arabia’s STC Pay – is moving away from the direct to consumer / neobank model to focus on what founder Brett King summed up as “our distributed smart banking and financial wellness capabilities.”

“It has become patently clear we need to focus our energies and our resources on the segment of our business where we can reach the most consumers moving forward,” King said.

The company specifically noted the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Moven’s funding pipeline as a leading factor in the decision. The company emphasized that its Enterprise business remains healthy and well-funded.

“The Moven brand now has the opportunity to represent patented financial well-being, available to enterprises of all types,” Head of Moven’s U.S. Strategy Denny Brandt said. “Our patent gives us competitive strength in a rapidly evolving B2B environment. We continue to be involved in ventures in multiple geographies where we power direct-to-consumer banking services.”

Moven announced that it will close customer accounts at the end of April. The company has begun to communicate with accountholders to let them know what to expect as well as to ensure a smooth transition.

Founded in 2011, Moven made its Finovate debut a few years later at FinovateEurope in London, earning a Best of Show award. The New York-based company, among the first to combine smartphone apps, debit cards, and bank accounts as part of a unified strategy for managing personal finances, launched Moven Enterprise in 2016 to license its technology to banks and other financial institutions. Moven Enterprise debuted on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in 2017, showing how its engagement platform brings value to customers while producing measurable, positive business outcomes for banks.

Notably, Moven’s partnership with STC Pay is not the company’s first foray into the MENA region. A little over a year ago, Moven announced that it was teaming up with Bahrain-based Almoayad Technologies, which is leveraging the company’s technology to help fulfill the open banking mandate from the country’s central bank.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Moven Powers KSA-Based Neobank; Nigerian Fintech Scores $10 Million

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Daily news, Finovate Global, Moven

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Dusseldorf, Germany-based apoBank partners with Avaloq.
  • German challenger bank N26 announces withdrawal from the U.K. market.
  • Sifted highlights the “fastest growing fintech startups in Germany.”

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • A partnership between Moven and STC Pay seeks to launch a new challenger bank in Saudi Arabia.
  • The biggest bank in the country by assets, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), has joined the RippleNet payment network.
  • Wamda interviews more than 600 startups as part of its examination of pre-seed startups in the MENA region.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Uber establishes its Uber Money team at India’s Hyderabad Tech Centre.
  • Deal Street Asia looks at how fintechs in India are re-invigorating banking.
  • BusinessWorld reviews ways fintech in India can help “bridge the gap” between banks and the public.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • In a round led by DOMO Invest, Brazilian P2P marketplace IOUU locks in $1.3 million in its latest funding round.
  • Chile-based investment platform Fintual teams up with Invermerica in new foray into Mexican market.
  • Brazilian fintech Bloxs Investimentos raises $690,000 in new funding to build out its collective investment platform.

Asia-Pacific

  • Vietnam’s central bank refuses to cap foreign ownership of e-payment companies at 49%.
  • Fintech News Singapore features “6 Agri-Fintech Startups in Asia to Follow in 2020.”
  • Thailand-based “crowdfunding bonds” fintech PeerPower announces pre-Series A round funding.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian fintech Aella Credit secures $10 million in debt financing.
  • CNBC Africa looks at how fintechs can help South African consumers avoid “credit traps.”
  • VentureBurn highlights the work of South African financial inclusion specialist Meerkat.

Top image designed by Freepik

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: arnexa, Compliy, Fiserv, Kreditech, MasterCard, Moven, Overbond, PaySend, PearlPay, Strivve, SWITCH, The WAAY, Worldline, Xen

On Finovate.com

  • Kreditech Raises $24 Million to Fuel Global Expansion.
  • Fiserv Delivers DNA to Duca Financial Services Credit Union.

Around the web

  • Overbond unveils COBI Sandbox to enable clients to test and build business use cases and prototypes.
  • In collaboration with open banking solution provider Crassula, Paysend launches its new business account Paysend Connect.
  • Worldline closes 36.4% stake acquisition in equens Worldline.
  • Moven parent company receives patent for financial wellness product.
  • Mastercard launches Threat Scan to assess bank fraud exposure.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook