Global Money Transfer Firm Paysend Secures $25 Million in Funding
International money‑transfer platform Paysend secured a $25 million follow‑on investment from Claret Capital Partners. The cash will accelerate the rollout of its global payments infrastructure, broaden its product suite and expand its geographic footprint to better compete with Wise, Revolut and Airwallex. Paysend, founded in 2016, now supports cross‑border transfers in over 170 countries, serving more than 12 million customers and 25 billion endpoints. The funding also underpins its newly launched Paysend Enterprise service that offers direct payouts to Chinese wallets via Alipay and WeChat.
BetaNXT Wants to Move Wealth Management AI From Pilot to Production
BetaNXT unveiled InsightX, an enterprise AI platform that embeds automation, analytics, and insights directly into wealth‑management workflows via API and integrated tools. The solution combines domain‑specific data models with built‑in governance, transparency, and auditability to meet regulatory requirements. Alongside InsightX,...
Ohpen Forges Strategic Technology Partnership with ASN Bank
Dutch lender ASN Bank has entered a strategic technology partnership with cloud‑native core banking provider Ohpen. The deal will replace ASN Bank’s legacy mortgage systems with an integrated SaaS platform covering origination, servicing and credit management. Ohpen’s solution promises higher...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Finovate’s weekly roundup highlights a wave of strategic moves across fintech. nCino named Keith Kettell chief revenue officer, while Paymentology teamed with South Africa’s Bank Zero to broaden digital banking access. Derivative Path launched an FX payments solution with Wells Fargo,...
How Raiffeisen Bank International Is Thinking About Digital Catch-Up
Raiffeisen Bank International is tackling its digital lag by focusing on process redesign rather than chasing GenAI hype. Vanja Tokic, head of Digital Channels and Conversational AI, stresses the difficulty of moving AI from proof‑of‑concept to regulated production. The bank...
Tracking the Top Fintech Trends at FinovateSpring 2026
FinovateSpring 2026 will convene in San Diego May 5‑7, spotlighting eight fintech trends shaping the industry. Highlights include the rise of agentic AI, expanding stablecoin adoption, and banks leveraging embedded finance and hyper‑personalized customer experiences. Sessions also address US open‑banking...
Opentech Powers New Money Transfer Solution PayInit AG for Viseca, Cornèr Bank
Italian fintech Opentech will power PayInit AG, a new peer‑to‑peer money‑transfer platform being built by Viseca Payment Services and Cornèr Bank. The solution leverages Opentech’s OpenPay Send technology to move funds across Mastercard and Visa schemes, linking cards, digital wallets,...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Finovate’s weekly roundup highlights a wave of fintech innovations across payments, AI, and tokenized assets. European payments provider Mollie launched its Tap in‑person solution in the UK, while Splitit introduced Splitit Go to bring card‑linked installments to field sales. Agentic AI...
Express Wages Brings Earned Wage Access to Good Hands Home Care
Express Wages has teamed up with Good Hands Home Care to offer caregivers and staff on‑demand access to earned wages, allowing advances of up to $200 per day. The service uses a no‑fee Visa prepaid card, ACH, or instant debit...
How Gradient Labs Is Thinking About the Shift to Agentic Banking
At FinovateEurope 2026, Gradient Labs CEO Dimitri Masin outlined the industry’s move from mobile‑first interfaces to "agentic banking," where AI agents execute complex, judgment‑heavy tasks. He argued that traditional fintech apps still rely on large human back‑offices, creating friction for...
Token.io Unveils Account on File, Enhancing Pay by Bank
Token.io launched its Account on File feature, enabling Pay by Bank users to store a preferred bank and account as default for future transactions. The functionality removes up to two checkout steps, turning the experience into a one‑tap flow for...
PayQuicker Partners with Avalara to Launch New Tax Reporting Solution
PayQuicker, a payouts and treasury platform, has introduced a new 1099 tax reporting solution built on Avalara’s compliance technology. The offering automates W‑9 collection, real‑time TIN matching, and electronic filing of federal and state 1099 forms. By leveraging Avalara’s AI‑driven...
Embedded Finance Platform Array Acquires Penny Finance, Chimney, EarnUp
Array, the embedded‑finance platform, announced a rapid acquisition spree, buying Penny Finance, Chimney and EarnUp within weeks. The deals add financial‑education tools, real‑time property analytics and pay‑cycle‑aligned loan payment technology to Array’s modular suite. By integrating these capabilities, Array aims...
What BVNK’s Report Reveals About How Consumers Are Using Stablecoins
BVNK’s new report, based on a YouGov‑sponsored survey of 4,658 crypto and stablecoin holders across 15 countries, shows a sharp rise in stablecoin demand. Nearly half of respondents increased their holdings in the past year and 56% plan to acquire...
Squarespace Launches Balance to Bring Business Banking In-House
Squarespace announced Squarespace Balance, a native business‑banking account embedded within its Squarespace Payments platform. The service lets merchants view earnings, manage cash flow, access funds within hours, earn rewards, and spend via a Squarespace Visa Commercial card. By bringing banking...
Embedded Finance Innovator AAZZUR Forges Partnership with Wallester
Embedded finance platform AAZZUR announced a partnership with electronic money institution Wallester, integrating Wallester’s Visa‑principal card issuing infrastructure into AAZZUR’s regulated partner ecosystem. The collaboration enables AAZZUR’s clients across Europe to launch compliant card programs through a single integration, complementing...
Quantum Metric Launches Felix Agentic to Help Firms Turn Insights Into Action
Quantum Metric unveiled Felix Agentic, an autonomous insight engine that transforms digital experience data into actionable business intelligence. The solution includes Felix Chat, a conversational interface delivering quantified answers, and AI agents that monitor and explain metric changes in real...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Fintech week pivots to the TradFi‑DeFi bridge as stablecoin platform Kast announced an $80 million financing round, signaling a move from back‑office infrastructure to mainstream financial services. Irish banks launched an in‑app instant payment service, while Visa introduced an AI‑driven intelligent...
Tyfone Unveils New Loan Servicing Solution Loanovia for Credit Unions
Tyfone has launched Loanovia, a dedicated loan‑servicing and payments unit aimed at credit unions. Its three core tools—Skip‑A‑Pay, Quick Pay and Collect—are already live in more than 80 credit‑union applications across the United States. The suite automates payment handling, reduces operational...
The Pitfalls of the 95% Confidence Paradigm for Banking Data Quality
Bank executives often cite a 95% confidence level as the benchmark for data quality, yet studies show most banks operate at only 80‑90% confidence, which can erode to 50% as data moves through multiple systems. The shortfall has tangible costs:...
TAPP Engine’s 9Squid Launches Private Markets Platform for Credit Unions and CFIs
TAPP Engine’s subsidiary 9Squid Private Markets has launched an AI‑driven platform that lets credit unions and community financial institutions (CFIs) securitize loan portfolios. The solution embeds modern asset‑liability and liquidity management tools, turning securitization into a repeatable balance‑sheet strategy rather...
Cinareo Teams Up with Aspect to Boost Contact Center Performance
Cinareo has partnered with workforce‑management specialist Aspect to fuse scenario‑driven capacity planning with real‑time scheduling. The joint solution lets contact centers replace spreadsheet‑based forecasts with structured, what‑if modeling that aligns staffing, budgets, and service goals. Aspect’s AI‑powered platform will execute...
Ripple Payments Now Handles More of the Payments Lifecycle
Ripple has expanded its Ripple Payments platform into a single, end‑to‑end solution that unifies fiat and on‑chain payment flows. The expansion follows Ripple’s 2025 acquisitions of custody firm Palisade and stablecoin‑powered payments network Rail, adding virtual accounts, FX, and liquidity...
Quavo Enhances Fraud Dispute Operations for Apple FCU
Quavo Fraud & Disputes has partnered with Apple Federal Credit Union to deploy its AI‑driven QFD platform, automating the entire fraud dispute lifecycle. The solution, trained on more than 20 million real‑world cases, promises faster claim resolutions, reduced manual workload, and...
DriveWealth to Integrate Kalshi’s Event Contracts Into Its Brokerage Platform
DriveWealth is integrating Kalshi’s regulated prediction‑market event contracts into its brokerage‑as‑a‑service platform, allowing fintech clients to offer these contracts alongside stocks and ETFs. Kalshi processes more than $100 billion in annualized volume and sees the partnership as a way to broaden...
Mambu Expands Its Payments Hub Beyond Europe Into Asia and Latin America
Mambu is rolling its API‑first payments hub out of Europe into additional EMEA markets, Latin America and Asia‑Pacific. The move responds to rising demand from banks and fintechs that need unified access to diverse payment schemes and jurisdictions. Built on...
What Do Community Bankers Want? What Do Community Banks Need?
The 2025 CSBS Annual Survey reveals community banks are feeling heightened pressure from non‑bank competitors, especially in payments and wealth‑management services, while deposit‑rate volatility forces more aggressive pricing. Cybercrime emerges as the top internal risk, with card and identity fraud...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Finovate’s weekly roundup highlights a flurry of fintech activity as Flywire names a new CTO, MoneyHash teams with Wayl to enter Iraq, and Payabli partners with Huntington Bank to embed payments in digital banking. Worldline launches One Commerce for omnichannel...
Metropolitan Commercial Bank Forges Partnership with Finzly
Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB) has partnered with Finzly to replace its legacy ACH mainframe with a cloud‑native, API‑first payment platform that consolidates ACH, wires and real‑time payments on a single system. The bank is the first to adopt Finzly’s unified...
TreviPay Leverages AI to Help Businesses Anticipate Buyer Behavior
TreviPay unveiled its AI‑powered Growth Center, a module inside the client portal that flags early signs of buyer dormancy and suggests targeted incentives. In a pilot with a U.S. retailer, the system identified 60 previously inactive buyers who generated $103,946...
Successfully Implementing AI in Banking: Insights From Allica Bank CEO Richard Davies
Allica Bank CEO Richard Davies outlined how the UK fintech is scaling AI across its organization, emphasizing company‑wide adoption, engineering productivity, and cultural change. He highlighted that AI tools have delivered productivity improvements of two to ten times for engineers...
FinovateEurope 2026: From AI Hype to Operational Reality
FinovateEurope 2026 highlighted fintech’s transition from AI experimentation to real‑world deployment, emphasizing governed, trustworthy agentic AI. Banks are shifting from product‑centric models to embedded, predictive experiences, with personalization and frictionless onboarding now expected. Over 70% of new fintech products involve...
Bluefin and Basis Theory Offer Unified Token Strategy Across Digital and In-Person Payments
Bluefin and Basis Theory have formed a strategic partnership to deliver a unified token strategy that bridges digital and in‑person payment channels. By integrating Bluefin’s PointConex platform with Basis Theory’s API‑driven tokenization and vaulting, merchants can capture, tokenize, and reuse...
Equifax Unveils Credit Abuse Risk to Combat First-Party Fraud
Equifax introduced Credit Abuse Risk, a machine‑learning model that flags first‑party fraud tactics such as loan stacking and credit washing. The solution uses FCRA‑regulated data to deliver real‑time, behavior‑based risk scores during pre‑qualification, origination, and portfolio review. It complements the...
ThetaRay Launches Ray, An Agentic AI Investigation Suite
ThetaRay introduced Ray, an agentic AI investigation suite designed to automate and standardize AML transaction monitoring for banks and fintechs. The platform addresses rising alert volumes and stricter regulations such as the EU AMLR and US FinCEN AML/CFT directives by...
FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4
FinovateEurope 2026 will showcase three innovative fintech solutions. Elephant, from Pipl, offers GDPR‑compliant identity intelligence and fraud signals to streamline onboarding and compliance. Opentech’s OpenPay for Merchants embeds Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later into merchant checkout, creating a new credit distribution channel for banks....
FreeAgent and Fathom Partner to Help SMEs Better Manage Finances
UK accounting software provider FreeAgent has announced a partnership with Australian reporting platform Fathom, integrating real‑time profit‑and‑loss reporting, cash‑flow forecasting and KPI dashboards into its ecosystem. The automatic data sync enables small‑business owners and their accountants to generate interactive management...
Airwallex Acquires Paynuri to Move Into Korea
Airwallex announced the acquisition of South Korean payments firm Paynuri, securing a payment gateway, prepaid instrument, and foreign‑exchange licences. The deal gives Korean enterprises immediate access to Airwallex’s multi‑currency platform for international payments and expense management. Backed by a fresh...
Alloy Unveils Perpetual KYB and Customer Risk Assessment
Alloy, the identity orchestration platform, has introduced its first perpetual Know Your Business (pKYB) and Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) solution across the UK and Europe. The offering builds on its earlier perpetual KYC product and uses AI‑driven continuous monitoring to...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Fintech’s weekly roundup spotlights AI’s rising valuation and deployment, new payment partnerships, and record credit extensions. ElevenLabs is in talks that could push its valuation to $11 billion, while Synechron rolls out AI agents for workflow automation. dLocal teams with Honor...
FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 1
FinovateEurope 2026’s sneak‑peek highlights four innovators set to demo in London on February 10. AAZZUR offers a vendor‑agnostic, plug‑and‑play platform that can launch banking and card products in four to six months at a fraction of traditional costs. Francis delivers an...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to power agentic, AI‑driven commerce experiences. Early adopters include PayPal, which announced support for UCP‑enabled checkout, and Walmart, which partnered with Google to roll out agent‑led shopping. FIS introduced...
Bilt Embeds Loyalty at Checkout with Verifone
Bilt has partnered with Verifone to embed its loyalty and customer‑experience platform directly into Verifone Victa point‑of‑sale devices. The native integration requires no additional hardware and operates across multiple payment providers, simplifying merchant adoption. For Bilt, the deal opens a...
Transforming Business Banking with US Bank’s Shruti Patel
In a FinovateFall 2025 interview, US Bank EVP Shruti Patel outlined the bank’s aggressive push into small‑ and mid‑market business banking. The strategy emphasizes ultra‑simple operating, savings and money‑market accounts, rewarding credit cards, and especially small‑dollar access loans, where US...
FinovateEurope Best of Show Winner Finshape Introduces New CEO Neil Budd
Finshape, the Czech digital‑banking fintech that won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022, has named Neil Budd as its new chief executive. Budd succeeds founder Petr Koutný, who will become chairman of the board. The veteran brings more than 25...
Cobalt Credit Union Teams Up with Eltropy to Deploy AI Voice
Eltropy announced that Nebraska‑based Cobalt Credit Union has rolled out its AI Voice solution, dubbed “Coby,” across its contact center. The deployment delivered an 83% session containment rate, surpassing typical voice AI benchmarks of 60‑80% and maintaining strong member satisfaction....
Experian Integrates Corporate Commercial Data to Its Ascend Platform
Experian announced that its full commercial data suite is now integrated into the cloud‑based Ascend platform. The addition gives users access to over six years of granular credit information on more than eight million UK businesses, including risk scores and...
Where Are They Now? Highlights From FinovateEurope 2025 Best of Show Winners
FinovateEurope 2025 highlighted three Best of Show winners that have since accelerated growth. Keyless’s privacy‑preserving biometric login was acquired by Ping Identity, integrating zero‑knowledge authentication into enterprise IAM. R34DY expanded its ABLEMENTS platform with four new modules, eight proofs of...
11 Finovate Alums Raised More than $1.4 Billion in Q4; More Than $3.3 Billion in 2025
Finovate alumni secured more than $1.4 billion in Q4 2025, marking the strongest fourth‑quarter finish in over a decade. The 46 alums that raised capital this year amassed over $3.3 billion, the highest annual total since the 2021 boom. Notable deals included $500 million...
Socure Acquires BNPL Consumer Credit Database Qlarifi
Socure has acquired Qlarifi, the real‑time BNPL consumer credit database, to build a unified identity and anti‑fraud infrastructure for buy‑now‑pay‑later lending. The integration combines SocureID, its Identity Graph, and Qlarifi’s transaction history, giving lenders instant visibility into BNPL activity. This...