FintechOS announced 40% year-over-year revenue growth in 2023, with the company expecting to achieve profitability in the first half of 2024. Growth has been driven by winning new customers in strategic markets, including the US, UK, Continental Europe, and most recently Asia-Pacific.

In a challenging year for the wider fintech industry, FintechOS was able to both enter new markets and unlock new vertical segments, by enabling banks, credit unions, and insurers to modernize and innovate in multiple business/product lines. In the banking sector, the FintechOS platform enabled solutions, such as embedded finance, point-of-sale lending, digital account opening, and mortgage automation. In insurance, the FintechOS platform was used to transform P&C, health, and life insurance solutions.

Notable projects in 2023 include:

• Tier 1 North American Bank: A Tier 1 Bank selected the FintechOS platform to aggregate and better secure disparate data and automate back-end processes related to customer onboarding.
• Top UK/Ireland Financial Institutions: Two top Financial Institutions, based in the UK/Ireland, selected the FintechOS platform to deploy their digital mortgages solutions.
• Admiral Group: Admiral, a top-20 UK insurance provider, successfully launched its digital pet insurance product built in-house with FintechOS.
• Benenden Health: Using FintechOS, Benenden Health transformed its health policy platform to create a more cohesive experience for customers and employees alike. 
• First Bank: FirstBank developed an end-to-end digital mortgage journey with FintechOS that has boosted the bank’s mortgage conversion rate to 25%.
• Sunsave: Advancing its mission to make solar power accessible to all UK households, Sunsave is using the FintechOS platform to offer FCA-authorized finance plans.
• Vibrant Credit Union: Using the FintechOS platform, Vibrant Credit Union launched a point-of-sale lending solution that achieved $40 million in new loans in its first year.
• Tower Community Bank: Tower Community Banked leveraged FintechOS to enable a point-of-sale lending platform that empowers local businesses to provide bespoke financing options directly to their customers

FintechOS unveiled FintechOS 24 in December 2023, the fifth major release of its fintech enablement platform. This latest version streamlines the definition, creation, distribution, and management of financial products for banks, credit unions, and insurers, leveraging no-code/low-code, generative AI (GAI), and cloud technologies. In particular, the release included the first language-driven, GAI-enabled product designer. It allows any company, no matter its technical team or legacy technology infrastructure, to get innovative financial products to market at speed.

Moreover, FintechOS demonstrated its commitment to advancing GAI technology trends with the launch of its research report, GAI: The Technology Polarizing the Financial Services Industry. Based on insights from a Censuswide survey of over 500 C-level decision-makers in banking and insurance, the paper delves into financial institutions' perceptions of GAI.

Acknowledging FintechOS's contributions to the industry, the company also received plenty of recognition last year, including:

• Named a Top 200 Global Fintech Company by CNBC.
• Awarded the Insurtech Company of the Year at the Fintech Awards London.
• Named a Representative Vendor in the 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Commercial Loan Origination Solutions.
• Named a Technology Standout by Celent in its 2023 EMEA Life Policy Administration Systems Report.

"We are pleased to report 40% YoY revenue growth in 2023, reflecting FintechOS's commitment to innovation and strategic market expansion,” said Teo Blidarus, CEO and Co-Founder at FintechOS. “As we achieve profitability in 2024, we become one of the fortunate few fintech scale ups in today’s market who can claim both business growth and self-sustainability. Our success is driven by our continuous efforts to provide cutting-edge technology and solutions, expand into key markets, and forge valuable partnerships. The achievements of the past year reaffirm FintechOS's position as a leading player in the financial technology sector. We remain dedicated to enabling best-in-class solutions with our platform and empowering our clients to navigate the evolving landscape with agility and efficiency.”

Tuum, the leading next-generation core banking provider, today announces that it has raised EUR25m, in a series B financing round led by CommerzVentures, with participation from Speedinvest alongside existing investors.

Tuum has expanded rapidly since signing its first client partnership in February 2019, working with banks to ease their digital transition onto cheaper, flexible systems that can free them up to develop new products and enter new verticals. The company now boasts a customer base across 10 countries, with a pronounced presence in the UK, and Nordics. Over the last three years, Tuum's revenues have soared, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate of over 250%.

Andreas Kitter, co-CEO of LHV UK, a Banking-as-a-Service provider working with over 200 fintechs, commented: “Bank executives are put off doing core replacements because of the costs and risks involved. With Tuum, we migrated millions of customers accounts in 2 months. We are now running a state-of-the-art core system with a small team and spending 75% of our IT budget on innovation.”

The fresh infusion of capital will bolster Tuum’s international presence, allowing it to target new territories in the DACH region, Southern Europe, and the Middle East, where it is opening a new office. The company plans to enhance its direct sales and marketing operations, while also fortifying its partner channel with key managed service relationships to amplify sales reach and implementation scalability.

The fundraise will also be used to deepen Tuum’s key competitive differentiators. The company will increase investment into its “smart migration” capabilities, which are making complex core migrations possible in as little as two months. Further investments will refine Tuum’s 'Business Builder', a platform designed for significant customisation through configuration, providing a compelling alternative to the generic 'one size fits all' or 'toolbox' approaches of other cloud-native cores. Finally, Tuum will invest funds into expanding its comprehensive suite of modules and rich functionality, which currently include accounts, lending, payments, and card services, catering to both corporate and banking sectors.

Commenting on the fundraise, Myles Bertrand, CEO of Tuum, said: “I joined Tuum in the summer of last year because I saw the gap in the market for its proposition. Everyone knows that banks need to replace their ageing core banking systems if they are going to successfully adapt their business models for digital banking. However, no core banking vendor has to date made core migration simple and predictable, which is what Tuum is now doing through a combination of smart migrations, a modular and functionality rich core, massive extensibility, and a broad ecosystem of partners. With this Series B funding, we're not just expanding our reach: we're redefining the very essence of core banking for a digital-first future.”

Heiko Schwender, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures, added: “At CommerzVentures, we have been following and investing in the core banking market for a long time. While it’s hard to break into, this is a huge, highly attractive space, with over USD15bn in annual spending. Tuum’s standout modular approach is particularly suited to today’s ever-changing environment, offering a mature, yet flexible solution to a real pain point.

Tier 2 to 5 banks around the world will have to replace their ageing core systems smoothly and cost-effectively. Tuum has developed an impressively mature and differentiated offering that can help them do just this. We are delighted to be leading this series B and we look forward to working with the Tuum team to help realise the company’s massive potential.”

The majority of wealth managers are either dissatisfied with or indifferent to their current technology systems according to new research from Avaloq, a global leader in digital banking solutions and wealth management technology.

The study was conducted among 200 wealth managers across Europe and Asia, and includes contributions from firms such as BlackRock, which has a strategic partnership with Avaloq. The research revealed that just 31% are satisfied their technology is up to date, versus 45% who say their systems are outdated and 25% that are indifferent. Meanwhile, just 29% believe their technology is designed to suit their needs and 38% say they can easily find the information they need. 

Just over half of wealth managers globally (54%) use investment advisory technology in client meetings. Of those not yet using their advisory systems in client meetings, two thirds (67%) would like to, indicating a significant opportunity to integrate systems that are up to the task. The biggest barriers to using advisory tools in client meetings, cited by overwhelming majorities, are user interfaces that are not optimised (69%) and technologies that are too confusing to use with clients (60%). For UK wealth managers, while a similar amount (55%) use investment advisory tools in client meetings, just 44% of those who don’t say they would like to, suggesting it is even more important to overcome key barriers around usability.

More than half of wealth managers globally identified similar challenges plaguing their broader use of technology, with unintuitive navigation (58%) and the requirement to use too many different systems (54%) the most commonly cited. The latter complaint is compounded by Avaloq’s finding that almost a fifth of wealth managers (17%) currently rely on over ten technology systems to conduct their daily tasks, while half (50%) of respondents use between four and six.

Despite this, Avaloq found widespread enthusiasm and demand for well-functioning technology systems. Enhanced data visualisation (66%), automated regulatory checks (58%) and automated portfolio monitoring (57%) emerged as the top three functionalities offering a major improvement for wealth management professionals, with and enhanced data analytics (57%) and automatic summary-creation of client meetings (54%) also in high demand.

Suman Rao, Managing Director for the UK and Ireland at Avaloq, says: “Our research reveals that too many wealth management professionals are burdened with complex, outdated technology systems that do not provide them with the support they need in client meetings. Despite this, they are well aware of the potential benefits a well-functioning technology system can provide to their day-to-day operations, so it is important that providers step up to deliver the analytics, automation and visualization that they need.

“Often, wealth management professionals use too many different systems and would benefit from simplifying or consolidating their technology ecosystem. Finding the right partner will help them to streamline their operations and better use their technology to improve client service.”

Britney Lewis, Head of Advisory Product for Aladdin Wealth Tech at BlackRock, says: “A streamlined, user-friendly advisory platform designed for real-time client interactions can address these concerns. Deploying an end-to-end platform is all about scaling the personalized proposal generation process with effective and compliant investment proposals that are easy to execute. Features like instant proposal guides or suitability checks give wealth managers the much-needed time back in their day while also equipping them to still have solid interactions with their clients.”

Quant, the blockchain for finance pioneer, has secured a new patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent, titled ‘Blockchain Communications and Ordering’, recognises that Quant has invented a unique method for chronologically ordering transactions from different blockchains. 

Having also secured a patent from the Japanese Patent Office last year, this represents another significant milestone in Quant’s ongoing mission to make distributed ledger technology simple, trusted and future-proof.  

Prior to Quant’s research and development, different ‘block times’ (the average time taken to generate a new block) across blockchains meant that finding a definitive transaction ordering method over multiple blockchains, that a consortium could agree on, was a disjointed and inconsistent process. This hindered firms from integrating multi-blockchain-based projects into existing systems or using more than one type of blockchain in their operations.  

The grant of US patent 11842335 recognises that Quant has introduced a method to agree on a universal time zone for all blockchains, so that enterprises and smaller businesses can produce reliable, consensus-based records. 

Helen Kemmitt, Quant’s general counsel, comments: “As blockchain adoption grows, patents are vital in protecting the fruits of research and development, and act as a catalyst for ongoing innovation. At Quant we view patents as a key way of solidifying our market position as a pioneer in blockchain for finance.” 

Quant has a proven track record of supporting large institutions in the digitisation of financial markets, including collaborating with the Bank of England and Bank of International Settlements on Project Rosalind to explore how APIs could be used for digital currency systems. It is also making blockchain more accessible to firms of all sizes via its low-code platform, Overledger. Other elements of Overledger’s technology are also patent pending in various jurisdictions. 

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Basware, a global leader in AP automation and invoice processing, has appointed Markus Hornburg as its Senior Vice President, Global Compliance. It strengthens the company’s compliance offering to help customers through upcoming e-invoicing requirements.

Many countries such as France, Poland, Spain, and Germany, are introducing legislation to enforce e-invoicing, while many existing countries around the world including Latin America continue to revise their requirements. This complexity will require businesses trading in those countries to send and receive invoices electronically, to clamp down on issues such as VAT fraud.

However, regulations concerning invoice formats, systems, tax rules, and timelines can be challenging and differ across countries. Basware supports global enterprises automate their accounts payable (AP) function by seamlessly matching, approving and processing invoices at scale. Hornburg will lead Basware’s strategy to provide an answer to this ever-more complex compliance challenge, which integrates the different rules required in each country in terms of invoice formats, signatures and archiving into its AP automation and e-invoicing platform.

With over 25 years in product, trade and tax compliance, Hornburg has worked with governments and private sector companies globally, bringing a wealth of experience defining and delivering digitalisation efforts. Before joining Basware, he served as VP of Global Product Compliance for Coupa Software and VP of Compliance at Tungsten Network.

Markus Hornburg, Head of Compliance at Basware, said:

“I’m excited to join Basware to continue furthering compliance in financial processes. Over the years many so-called ‘disruptors’ have tried to enter the market, but Basware has a very long track record of delivering meaningful value to customers. With so many complex and evolving e-invoicing regulations expected over the coming years, Basware is strengthening its position as a trusted and reliable partner for all businesses, supporting finance teams and the office of the CFO. With Basware, digitisation processes will be projects customers want to do rather than something they have to do.”

Basware supports customers with e-invoice compliance in more than 100 countries with extensive experience with mandates, laws, and requirements tailored to each market through its Global E-invoicing Compliance Map. Basware’s solution is already connected to several government platforms as well as interoperability networks such as Peppol - the common global framework for the cross-border exchange of electronic business documents. Basware has the world’s largest open network, with the ability to integrate with more than 250 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems across more than 175 countries. In 2023, Basware launched its Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP) application to facilitate digital invoicing businesses in France.

Based in Germany, Hornburg will report to Basware’s CEO, Jason Kurtz.

Jason Kurtz, CEO at Basware, commented:

“Basware is committed to support its customers through e-invoicing mandates. The appointment of Markus reaffirms our commitment to be the choice of the customer for global compliance. Compliance is a priority for our customers but is ever-changing and can be complex to adopt and implement. Markus will help ensure complete coverage of financial processes for our customers that are navigating differing mandates across the world.”

British Patient Capital announces today a £20m commitment to the third fund by Episode 1, a specialist early-stage technology investor. The £76m fund will back a new generation of B2B innovators at the pre-seed and seed stages, as well as deepen their reputation as an innovative early-stage investor.

Launched in 2013, Episode 1 has backed over 69 portfolio companies to date, including Carwow, Huboo, CloudNC, Raft, Robin AI, Fatmap and Omnipresent. The team has also overseen high-profile exits including Fatmap (acquired by Strava), Passfort (Moody’s), Feedr (Compass Group), Touch Surgery (Medtronic), and Atlas (Meta).

Episode 1 will be making investments of between £250k and £3m in pre-seed and seed-stage startups, with capital also allocated for follow-on investments. The firm’s focus is in software-led companies operating primarily in the UK which focus on key areas including AI, TechBio, open-source, software infrastructure, healthtech and marketplaces.

British Patient Capital is joined by a range of additional institutional investors, including Molten.

Christine Hockley, Managing Director, Funds at British Patient Capital, said: “Episode 1 have a track record of investing in UK B2B tech start-ups through a team of investment professionals with operational expertise. We are pleased to partner with them in supporting the next generation of home grown tech start-ups to scale into the leading businesses of tomorrow.” 

Hector Mason, General Partner at Episode 1, said: “This new fund, our biggest yet, is really a testament to the work of our portfolio founders who are building some of the fastest growing companies in Europe. It’s their tenacity, creativity, and vision which has enabled our fund to go from strength to strength and made this new fund possible.

“As a team, we never sit still. This fund gives us the ability to double down on our team and the proprietary tech that’s got us to where we are today, as well as providing more firepower to invest in the next generation of extraordinary founders.”

The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds program, which helps develop and maintain effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers, backed Episode 1’s Fund I in 2013 and Fund II in 2017.

Temenos today announced that Puerto Rico-headquartered Segura Bank International, Corp. (“SBI”) has gone live with Temenos core banking platform deployed in the cloud to power a new digital bank for mid to high-earners in Latin America.

Temenos’ cloud-native platform will enable SBI, which is licensed by Puerto Rico's financial services regulator, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), as an “International Financial Entity” (IFE), to launch banking products faster and scale efficiently as it expands across the continent.

With Temenos banking capabilities for Multicurrency Accounts and Deposits, SBI will offer US dollar financial products, helping its customers protect their savings from potential currency fluctuations and devaluation and enabling easier international transactions and access to global markets denominated in US dollars.

SBI will leverage the cloud-native core banking capabilities of the Temenos platform for fast and efficient transaction processing and managing customer accounts, as well as supporting the bank’s compliance. SBI is also benefiting from Temenos’ model bank and pre-configured banking processes, which improve operational efficiency and accelerate time to market with increased automation and digitized workflows.

The implementation, supported by delivery partner ITSS, was completed in just six months, with Temenos’ cloud-native, API-first architecture also making it easier for SBI to build an ecosystem to meet its growing requirements.

Juan Zambrano, Chief Executive Officer, Segura Bank International, Corp., commented: “We are delighted to be running our multicurrency accounts and deposits on the world’s most trusted banking platform. Temenos offers a market-leading cloud-native banking platform and proven expertise across the LATAM region. This will allow us to grow our new digital bank with confidence, as we offer the stability of US dollars to more customers across Latin America.”

Rodrigo Silva, Executive Vice President – Americas, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to Segura Bank International on this successful launch. By running our banking platform on the public cloud, the bank benefits from greater agility, higher performance, scalability, and security to grow its operations and provide banking services across the rapidly growing markets of Latin America.”

Kin, the pioneering digital, direct-to-consumer home insurance company, today announced the closing of $15 million in financing from new investor Activate Capital, a growth-stage VC firm focused on the sustainable, resilient transformation of the global economy.

Raising at an increased valuation, greater than $1 billion, is an achievement that’s becoming increasingly rare as other technology companies continue to have trouble securing capital. Kin has maintained systematic, capital-efficient growth, increasing revenue by more than 50% year-over-year and maintaining positive net income in 2023. With this incremental capital, Kin can accelerate its growth investments, including multiple new markets and products, which will widen the gap with legacy insurers that aren’t able to quickly respond to changes in climate, technology, and consumer preferences.

“Investors appreciate our focus on the fundamentals – maintaining positive unit economics, using technology for accurate pricing and better underwriting, and eliminating unnecessary steps in the insurance journey,” said Sean Harper, CEO of Kin. “We ended the year with approximately $85 million in cash, which doesn’t include the cash in the reciprocal exchanges we manage. But in this environment, having a strong balance sheet is particularly beneficial, which is why we’re excited to partner with Activate on the investment.”

Activate invests in companies building category-defining platforms that address disruptive global forces like climate change. Sustainability and resiliency are at the heart of Activate’s investment strategy, where its portfolio companies are accelerating decarbonization and strengthening shared systems of energy, production, transportation, trade, and infrastructure.

“As millions of homeowners seek to protect themselves against growing risks from climate change, reliable and affordable insurance grows as a socioeconomic imperative,” said Eric Meyer, principal at Activate. “We believe that Kin’s unique approach to homeowners insurance unlocks new levels of agility in adapting to market challenges and providing necessary coverage in many underserved regions.”

Kin operates in eight states where it serves approximately 115,000 policyholders, and its reciprocal exchanges have nearly $345 million of premium in force.

AffiniPay, a leading provider of professional technology solutions, announced today the launch of next-generation In-Person-Payment options for professionals. The new functionality of In-Person Payments maximizes a firm's efficiency by leveraging state-of-art in-person payment devices that integrate seamlessly across products and interfaces. This initiative modernizes the client experience with on-the-go and in-office payments and with the latest “tap-to-phone” technology for mobile.

This new technology will be rolling out to AffiniPay’s leading professional payment solutions LawPay, CPACharge, ClientPay, and AffiniPay for Associations as well as MyCase in 2024.

Firms accepting payments through the new AffiniPay In-Person Payment devices can experience a reduction in chargeback risks and be fully compliant during all payments. This includes multiple types of payment methods such as:

• Contactless Debit and Credit Cards
• Debit and Credit Card Chip Inserts
• Apple Pay and Google Pay Wallets

“We are excited to provide customers with limitless options to get paid fast and secure with our prolific solutions that empower firms to go beyond,” said Dru Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of AffiniPay. “AffiniPay’s new In-Person Payments technology validates firms to take more control of how they implement flexibility and amplify their services to propel client satisfaction.”

Tookitaki, a trusted leader in the financial crime space, announced the rebranding of its flagship Anti Money Laundering Suite (AMLS) to FinCense. This strategic move is aimed at better representing the enhanced capabilities of its compliance platform, which now seamlessly addresses both fraud and AML risks.

The convergence of fraud and AML challenges has reshaped the compliance landscape, leading financial institutions to seek a unified solution. Currently, operational silos divide anti-fraud and AML teams. As costs continue to soar, a complete solution to manage both is needed.

This is especially critical in cross-border payments, where protection from Financial Crime risk is vital. FinCense bridges the gap between fraud and AML with its FRAML solution.

Mr. Abhishek Chatterjee, Founder, and CEO of Tookitaki, emphasized the significance of this rebranding, stating, "Why FinCense? Because it can sense finance aka suspicious patterns. Our transition from AMLS to FinCense signifies more than a name change; it marks a pivotal advancement in compliance solutions available in the market. By merging Fraud and AML prevention into a single, powerful solution, we enable financial institutions to capitalise on the synergy to improve detection rates, reduce operational costs and prevent fraud in real-time."

FinCense fosters collaboration between fraud and AML prevention, with a comprehensive platform adept at handling both domains' complexities.

Recognizing the unique intricacies of cross-border payments and their susceptibility to both Fraud and AML risks, FinCense has been carefully crafted to provide real-time protection for domestic and cross-border payment companies. FinCense is built for scale by processing billions of transactions with high throughput at 200 TPS for real-time fraud prevention.