Stratyfy

Best of Show Winner Stratyfy Brings Next Gen Risk Decisioning to the Fight for Fair Credit

Best of Show Winner Stratyfy Brings Next Gen Risk Decisioning to the Fight for Fair Credit
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stratyfy

A partnership between credit and risk decisions company Stratyfy and Beneficial State Foundation is designed to combat ethnic and racial disparities in lending. The partnership was formed under the auspices of the Foundation’s Underwriting for Racial Justice (URJ) program. URJ consists of a team of financial institutions and “equity champions” tasked with identifying ways to improve access to credit for underserved communities and individuals.

The partnership has kicked off a two-year pilot program that will resource capital for people of color with the goal of stimulating wealth-building in their communities. To this end, 20 lenders will use Stratyfy’s technology, including its credit risk and decision optimization solutions, to remove bias from the credit decisioning process and encourage the fairest possible outcomes. Beneficial State Foundation Executive Director and Chief Impact Officer Erin Kilmer Neel called Stratyfy a “key partner” in the effort. Stratyfy co-founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser praised the institutions who are supporting the initiative.

“The innovative lenders selected for the URJ program are redefining how people of color in their communities are able to access credit,” Kornhauser said. “And Stratyfy is the technology chosen to deliver the collective insights and recommended actions to make it happen.”

The selected lenders are:

  • Beneficial State Bank
  • Berkshire Bank
  • BetterFi
  • Chehalis Tribal Loan Fund
  • Community Vision
  • Eastern Bank
  • Enterprise Community Loan Fund (ECLF)
  • Leech Lake Financial Services
  • LISC
  • Montecito Bank & Trust
  • NBT Bank, N.A.
  • New Orleans Fireman’s Federal Credit Union
  • REDF Impact Investing Fund
  • Rivermark Community Credit Union
  • Texas National Bank
  • Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Lending, Inc.
  • Urban Redevelopment Authority
  • Vermont Community Loan Fund
  • Working Solutions CDFI
  • Washington State Employees Credit Union

Leaders from both the Vermont Community Loan Fund and NBT Bank underscored the opportunity to work together on behalf of greater financial inclusion. “Our team looks forward to collaborating with the 20-lender cohort to enhance our individual and collective impact on racial equity in lending,” NBT EVP and Consumer Lending Executive Shauna M. Hyle said. Forbes named NBT Bank to its World’s Best Banks roster this year, making NBT Bank the highest rated bank in the state.

Founded in 2017, Stratyfy made its Finovate debut in 2018. The company won Best of Show in its return to the Finovate stage last September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company demoed its UnBias solution. Unbias enables financial institutions and fintechs to uncover and undo bias in complex financial decisions. The API-delivered technology is one of many transparent, machine learning tools Stratyfy offers to help companies minimize bias and improve risk-adjusted returns.

New York-based Stratyfy raised more than $10 million in funding this spring. Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners co-led the round.

Photo by fauxels

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Stratyfy Secures $10 Million to Deliver AI-Enabled Data-Driven Decision-Making via API

Stratyfy Secures $10 Million to Deliver AI-Enabled Data-Driven Decision-Making via API
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Stratyfy
  • Stratyfy raised $10 million in funding last week in a round co-led by Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners.
  • The capital takes the company’s total equity funding to $11.8 million, according to Crunchbase. Stratyfy will use the investment to fuel innovation on its technology that leverages AI and ML to help financial institutions make better, data-driven decisions.
  • Stratyfy won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022 with a demo of its UnBias solution.

Stratyfy, which leverages AI to enable financial institutions to make better decisions at scale and drive greater financial inclusion, has raised $10 million in funding. The round was co-led by Truist Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners. Also participating were Mendon Venture Partners, The 98, FIS, and serial entrepreneur Barry J. Glick.

The New York-based company will use the funding to continue innovating its technology that helps financial institutions use AI-driven decision-making to enhance credit risk decisioning, fraud detection, bias mitigation, and more. The investment takes Stratyfy’s total equity funding to $11.8 million, according to Crunchbase.

“Stratyfy is growing fast as financial institutions recognize the urgent need to improve transparency and reduce bias in their decision processes,” Stratyfy co-founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser said. “With the increased adoption of AI and machine learning, transparency and controls around these solutions are essential so that the biases of our past do not encode into our future.”

Stratyfy made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2018. The company returned to the Finovate stage four years later and took home a Best of Show award for a live demo of its UnBias solution. Delivered via API, UnBias enables users to continuously identify and address sources of bias in complex financial decisions. UnBias is part of Stratyfy’s suite of transparent machine learning tools developed to help financial institutions minimize bias, promote financial inclusion, and drive risk-adjusted returns.

Founded in 2017, Stratyfy has helped customers like Aflac boost their fraud flagging ability by 2.6x, and detect fraud 28 weeks faster on average, while simultaneously reducing the effort and resources needed to identify fraud by 66%.

“Our investment in Stratyfy is an opportunity to learn about innovative technologies, commercialize impactful solutions, and positively support our communities,” Truist Ventures Head of Corporate Development Tarun Mehta said. “Our platform of senior executives and technical experts look forward to being a part of the development and growth of this mission-driven, disruptive company.”

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The Conversation Continues: Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast with Debbie, Stratyfy, Lemonade, and Deciens Capital

The Conversation Continues: Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast with Debbie, Stratyfy, Lemonade, and Deciens Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Debbie, LemonadeLXP, Podcasting, Stratyfy

Interviews with Best of Show winners and an update from the venture capital world were the conversations Finovate VP Greg Palmer shared with listeners of the Finovate podcast during the month of October. Palmer interviewed CEOs from three FinovateFall’s Best of Show winners – Debbie, Stratyfy, and Lemonade LXP last month – and checked in with Decien Capital’s Dan Kimerling on the state of fintech funding.

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

Frida Liebowitz, CEO and Co-Founder, Debbie

Finovate VP Greg Palmer talks with Debbie CEO Frida Liebowitz on the importance of offering a more effective, human-centric debt recovery solution. Episode 151.

Our mission with Debbie is to help people break the behavioral cycle of debt for good. We are building the first rewards platform for debt payoff that is entirely behavioral driven. We reward people for building up better habits, paying off debt, and eventually making their way to long term debt freedom.

Laura Kornhauser, CEO and Co-Founder, Stratyfy

Stratyfy CEO and co-founder Laura Kornhauser discusses the issue of bias-mitigation in lending with podcast host Greg Palmer. Episode 150.

What we do at Stratyfy is help credit and risk teams better assess risk through what we say is real transparency. We also have a real focus on driving greater financial inclusion, and doing that by helping financial institutions provide greater access to fairly priced financial products to a wider group of individuals than historically have had that access in the past.

John Findlay, CEO, Lemonade LXP

Greg Palmer catches up with Lemonade LXP CEO John Findlay to discuss boosting digital adoption through intelligent, front-line training. Episode 149.

Lemonade is a digital growth platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs maximize the ROI on their technology investments. There are two sides to our platform. One side is a learning experience platform that is designed to turn frontline staff into digital experts so they can promote and support your technology. And then the other side is a digital enablement or digital adoption platform.

Dan Kimerling, Founder and Managing Partner, Deciens Capital

Deciens Capital founder and managing partner Dan Kimerling provides a VC perspective on inclusion-based opportunity in conversation with podcast host Greg Palmer. Episode 148.

What I would say is we haven’t seen a slow down in the level of entrepreneurial behavior and activity. It seems, broadly speaking, like people are excited to start new businesses and, if you go back to at least the 1970s, there seems to be relatively little relationship between macroeconomic behavior and entrepreneurial dynamism.

Photo by Pixabay

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FinovateFall 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateFall 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Best of Show, Debbie, FinovateFall 2022, Horizn, LemonadeLXP, Quilo, Stratyfy, Themis

With hundreds of ballots officially cast and carefully counted – here are the winners of Best of Show for FinovateFall 2022!

Debbie for its technology that leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off 3x more debt and help lenders recession-proof members. Demo.

Horizn for its platform that helps financial institutions maximize the impact of digital and accelerate returns on digital investments with customers and employees. Demo.

LemonadeLXP for its digital growth platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs turn staff into digital experts and support digital customers. Demo.

Quilo for its technology that empowers lenders to digitally syndicate an individual personal loan at the time of underwriting, enabling them to provide more loans to more people. Demo.

Stratyfy for its technology that increases access to financial services by bringing true transparency and less risk to critical financial decisions that impact millions. Demo.

Themis for its collaboration platform designed for risk and compliance requirements to help accelerate partnerships between banks and fintechs. Demo.

We are grateful to all of our demoing companies for being a part of our biggest FinovateFall to date. Thanks as well to our sponsors, our partners, and – last but not least – our awesome attendees who continue to make our conferences among the most anticipated events on the fintech calendar each and every year. We look forward to seeing you again next fall!

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their six favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2022 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022

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FinovateFall 2022 Sneak Peek: Stratyfy

FinovateFall 2022 Sneak Peek: Stratyfy
By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2022, FinovateFall 2022 Sneak Peek, Stratyfy

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.

Stratyfy’s UnBias allows financial institutions and fintechs to uncover, understand, and undo bias in complex financial decisions that impact the lives of millions.

Features

  • Proprietary next generation transparent ML
  • Detailed reports with actionable recommendations
  • Results in as little as two weeks

Why it’s great

Addressing bias proactively means less risk, more diverse customers, and increased returns.

Presenter

Laura Kornhauser, CEO & Co-Founder
Laura Kornhauser is the Co-Founder/CEO of Stratyfy. Previously, Kornhauser spent 12 years at JPMorgan, building and delivering risk and credit products. She has a BSE from Princeton & an MBA from Columbia.
LinkedIn

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Stratyfy Earns Spot in FIS Fintech Accelerator Incoming Cohort

Stratyfy Earns Spot in FIS Fintech Accelerator Incoming Cohort
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, FIS, Stratyfy

Predictive analytics innovator Stratyfy is one of ten companies selected to participate in the incoming cohort of FIS’ 2020 Fintech Accelerator program.

“The ten companies selected for the fifth year of FIS’ Accelerator program bring a wealth of promising ideas and technologies,” FIS Chief Growth Officer Asif Ramji said. “We look forward to working with these firms to bring their ideas to life.”

Joining Stratyfy in the program are:

  • Cirrus Secure
  • Cobbler Technologies
  • Dasceq
  • Mall IQ
  • Sequretek
  • Silot
  • Surfly
  • TrustStamp
  • XpenseOne

Seven of the companies in the cohort have headquarters in the United States. Of the others, Sequretek is based in Mumbai, India; Silot in Singapore; and Surfly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. And after four years in operation, the accelerator, in partnership with The Venture Center, will conduct its fifth program virtually due to the challenges of the global public health crisis.

In addition to being entirely virtual, this year’s program will run for 18 weeks instead of the usual 12 weeks to allow for increased mentoring and training time. The program will culminate with a Demo Day technology presentation on October 14th. Participating startups will also receive a monetary investment; the amount was not disclosed.

Executive Director for The Venture Center, Wayne Miller, pointed to the program’s success in empowering startup companies and helping improve access to financial services and technology. “With our partners at FIS and the State of Arkansas, we’re honored to be a part of bringing cutting-edge technologies to the places and people who need them, particularly in this moment of monumental technological advancement,” Miller said.

The news comes in the wake of Strayfy’s announcement of a new strategic partnership with Innovesta Technologies. The two companies are collaborating on a machine learning solution that will help businesses better measure the risk of and opportunity in non-public companies. The partnership combines Stratyfy’s decision engine and advanced machine learning technology with Innovesta’s comprehensive data assets to deliver real-time insights into the forces that impact business performance.

“Models built from historical data offer little help during an unprecedented health and economic crisis like the current global pandemic,” Stratyfy co-founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser said when the partnership was announced in May. “Achieving an inclusive global financial recovery requires robust risk management strategies, and those strategies necessitate an understanding of the unique challenges being faced by every business. Stratyfy’s decision management solutions will leverage Innovesta’s trustworthy data to directly address this need.”

Founded in 2016, Stratyfy is headquartered in New York City. The company was named one of the world’s 100 most promising startups to watch last year by CNBC.

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MassChallenge’s 2020 Fintech Accelerator Class Features Finovate Alums

MassChallenge’s 2020 Fintech Accelerator Class Features Finovate Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cinchy, Hydrogen, InterGen Data, LendingFront, Overbond, Stratyfy

Six Finovate alums innovating in fields ranging from life event planning to small business lending are among the 34 startups that will participate in the upcoming 2020 MassChallenge FinTech program. In addition to mentorship from and collaboration with leading enterprise partners, startups will get access to free office space and the opportunity to compete for equity-free cash prizes as part of their six-month engagement.

Calling this year’s cohort part of the “exciting future of fintech,” MassChallenge Fintech Managing Director Devon Sherman said the incoming class “represents a revolutionary approach to financial services” and added that his team was “blown away by the vision of these entrepreneurs.”

Making the cut among Finovate alums are:

See the full roster of incoming startups to the 2020 cohort.

“Thanks for including Hydrogen in MassChallenge 2020,” the company wrote on Twitter. “It is a great honor. We look forward to working with all of the enterprise partners and startups in the program.”

“LendingFront is proud to be participating in the 2020 MassChallenge Fintech program,” the company tweeted. “We will be working with the City of Boston and several New England financial institutions to use our technology to improve how small businesses get access to capital.”

And from InterGen Data, one of our newest alums, company CEO Robert Kirk expressed his enthusiasm for the opportunity as well. “I believe that by working with our enterprise partner, we will be able to redefine the client experience, improve the lives of their clients, and deliver on the promise of how artificial intelligence and machine learning can vastly improve their financial journey,” Kirk said.

The MassChallenge accelerator program is supported by a public-private partnership including founding partners Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, Citizens Bank, John Hancock, and the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), as well as numerous challenge partners.

The program runs from January to June, and focuses on one-on-one “outcome-driven” partnerships between program participants and program partners. Together, the startup and the partnering company work to develop solutions for specific challenges while helping the startup coming scale its business.

Now in its second year, MassChallenge’s fintech program produced a 2019 cohort in which 70% of participants launched a pilot or proof of concept within a year. “Our inaugural year achieved promising results in driving international partnerships between fintech startups and our enterprise partners,” Sherman said. He added that he was excited “to build on that success in 2020.”

Founded in 2010, and offering an accelerator in healthtech as well, MassChallenge has worked with more than 2,000 startups, who have raised collectively more than $5 billion in funding and generated more than $2.7 billion in revenue. MassChallenge is U.S.-based, with offices in Boston, Rhode Island, and Texas, as well as Israel and Mexico.

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Stratyfy

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Stratyfy
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek, Stratyfy
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.
Stratyfy is where AI meets IQ, empowering industry experts with a solution that combines the best of both worlds – human knowledge and AI.
Features
  • Combine the accuracy of AI with the usability of a rule engine
  • Scale and adapt easily and automatically
  • Leverage cutting edge AI without coding or data scientists
Why it’s great
Stratyfy is not selling off-the-shelf models to replace humans. We empower experts and allow them to combine their IQ with AI to achieve safe growth.
Presenters
Michael Cherkassky, CEO, Co-founder
Cherkassky is the CEO of Stratyfy, where he continues to do what he does best – delivering lasting customer impact through both enterprise-grade products and exceptional service.
LinkedIn
Laura Kornhauser, President & COO
Kornhauser spent 12 years in JPMorgan’s Investment Bank, in corporate lending and derivatives. She was focused on helping institutional customers build and deploy risk management strategies.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BILLSHARK, CAN Capital, Entrust Datacard, Flybits, Insuritas, NTT Data, Onfido, ProfitStars, Revolut, Stratyfy, Swych, Temenos, Twilio, Zuma

On Finovate.com

  • BillShark Lands Funding and Advisory Backing from Mark Cuban.
  • Revolut Unveils New Savings Solution, Vaults.

Around the web

  • Openbank, Santander Group’s digital bank, to deploy WealthSuite from Temenos.
  • The Victory Bank chooses ProfitStars‘ Commercial Lending Center Suite to support commercial loan growth.
  • Identity verification provider Onfido names David Clarke as new CFO.
  • First National Bank of Eagle Lake in Texas partners with Insuritas to launch bank-owned insurance agency.
  • NTT Data announces successful completion of PoC data analysis trial for Bank of England, Join NTT Data at FinovateSpring, May 8-11.
  • CAN Capital hires Tom Davidson as Chief Financial Officer.
  • Entrust Datacard’s IntelliTrust Authentication Solution wins Frost & Sullivan’s 2018 North American Technology Leadership Award.
  • TechCrunch: Twilio’s wireless platform hits general availability.

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.

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