Zest AI, the leader in automating underwriting with more accurate and inclusive lending insights powered by AI, announced today that the company has raised over $50 million in a new growth round. The round was co-led by existing global software investor Insight Partners and new investor CMFG Ventures, with participation from CU Direct, Curql, Suncoast Credit Union, Golden1 Credit Union, Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union, and NorthGate Capital. 

"We're working to build a better future for the financial services ecosystem where underwriting is swift, equitable, and frictionless across the United States," said Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. "Our work is to help our customers efficiently and confidently approve more loans — creating economic opportunities for all consumers."

Zest AI plans to use the new funding to rapidly expand access to AI-automated credit underwriting for all lenders. In broadening access to this technology, Zest AI will fuel more accurate and consistent underwriting decisions — leveling the playing field for all borrowers and fostering a more inclusive economy. 

"Zest AI's accelerating growth is a testament to the power and value of its advanced explainable AI technology for loan underwriting," said Lonne Jaffe, Managing Director at Insight Partners. "By using more features, or ingredients, in its prediction system, Zest's customers can issue more loans, take less risk, and be more inclusive — all while adapting more quickly to changing macroeconomic conditions and explaining loan decisions more effectively. We look forward to doubling down on our partnership with Zest as they rapidly Scale Up."

"Our credit union partners have found Zest AI's technology to be a great way to automate their underwriting. Zest not only allows credit unions to make better loan decisions but also expands access to more affordable credit across the credit tiers," said Mike Kraus, Principal at CMFG Ventures. "The timing for credit unions to adopt more inclusive credit underwriting could not be better, and we're thrilled to help demonstrate Zest's value to the industry."

The company is on target to nearly double its customer base in 2022 after tripling it in 2021. To date, the company has built over 250 AI-underwriting models. A number of the most innovative lending organizations, such as Citibank, First National Bank of Omaha, Truist, Golden 1 Credit Union, Suncoast Credit Union, and Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union, have partnered with Zest AI to modernize their lending business. 

"Zest AI is transforming the financial services landscape — in particular, for credit unions and their members. The future of underwriting is automation and the ability to deliver better financial products and superior customer service. Investing in Zest means investing in our members' financial well-being. Our support will fuel the company's fidelity to advance AI in lending to the benefit of all credit union members from coast to coast." said Darlene Johnson, EVP and Chief Growth Officer at Suncoast Credit Union.   

As more financial institutions adopt artificial intelligence tools to make better credit decisions, Zest AI is well-positioned to transform the industry. Zest's technology uses AI to identify, predict, and remove inherent biases and render more consistent and equitable lending decisions. The technology allows customers to approve more borrowers without taking on more risk, resulting in 25 percent increases in approvals and full automation. 

United Fintech, the go-to platform for capital markets digitisation, broadens its global reach and expansion of its leadership team with a move into the Asia Pacific market, appointing Cameron Booth as head of APAC to drive its growth.

Based in Singapore, Cameron will work closely with United Fintech’s London-based sales team, reporting to Tom Robinson, partner and head of sales, to help scale and distribute United Fintech’s range of products and services to clients. Cameron joins after 16 years at Barclays where he held senior roles in e-FICC (Electronic Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities) across Europe, Australia, and Asia, most recently as Head of e-FICC Sales APAC. Cameron has built and led high-performing sales teams that have been instrumental in delivering the e-FICC strategy, and maintaining Barclays status as a leading electronic trading provider.

After a fast-paced year of growth which saw United Fintech expand across Europe and the United States, the company is well positioned to firmly establish itself in one of the fastest rising markets for fintechs globally. Singapore has a national strategy for the further development of its fintech sector in its mission to become a global fintech hub, strengthened by regulations that structure the development of the field. With 67 percent of fintech companies in the region based in Singapore and estimated total assets of S$4.7 trillion under management, it’s a key hub for capital markets.

Christian Frahm, founder and CEO, United Fintech commented:

“I am delighted to welcome Cameron to our growing team of world-class talent. His experience and deep understanding not just of the Singapore market, but of the global financial services space is invaluable to our push to be a global force in the capital markets.

“Strategically growing our physical footprint across the US, Europe and now Singapore gives us the power and presence to deliver a truly global offering to our clients. While the world has become more used to a hybrid way of working, having key experts on the ground in the main financial services hubs across the world is critical to delivering the value our clients have come to expect from us.”

Cameron Booth, head of APAC, United Fintech added:

“I’m thrilled to join the United Fintech team at this exciting point of the company’s global expansion, and to work with such an impressive and talented group of people. This is one of the most incredible financial hubs with impressive growth and companies primed for the innovative solutions that United Fintech can offer.

“Christian and the senior management team share a phenomenal vision and energy to connect financial institutions with innovative fintechs to thrive in the fast-changing capital markets space globally. This is one of the most exciting regions at the forefront of technological innovation in financial markets and I’m looking forward to helping our clients grow and thrive.”

Darwinium, a pioneering new Customer Protection Platform, has today announced a seed funding round of $10 million USD led by Blackbird alongside Airtree, both Australian headquartered Venture Capitalist firms. The initial funding round, raised to elevate the global launch of the company into the security and fraud sector, will be targeted towards both product and customer expansion. Additional funding was supported by several prominent angel investors including Naval Ravikant and Jeff Fagnan.

The company was founded by Alisdair Faulkner, CEO of Darwinium and former Chief Product Officer of ThreatMetrix, which was acquired for $817 million in 2018. Darwinium is also supported by Reed Taussig as board Chairman who was previously the Chairman and CEO of ThreatMetrix.

Darwinium is delivering an entirely new approach to holistic customer protection by combining the tools used internally for cybersecurity with the tools used to fight fraud, providing a single window into a user’s entire digital journey. Account compromise and online fraud continue unabated, facilitated by swathes of breached credentials, despite large investments in solutions meant to separate good and bad behaviour. Faulkner has built Darwinium to redress this inequality, and to unify a widely disjointed approach to security controls which he has seen is hugely impacting businesses’ ability to protect their organizations.

He commented: “The industry is seeing a surge in fraudsters capitalizing on new technology and techniques to adapt attacks targeting online businesses and currently many are operating with ‘point-in-time’ solutions that are not fit for purpose. Alongside this, the security and fraud divisions of these businesses are operating in siloes which leaves them wide open to attacks. Fraud Farms walk right past bot defences, and social engineering and malware render fraud solutions useless.  Protecting your customers must be about continuously scrutinising their digital journey and behaviour, rather than a point-in-time evaluation. It requires a joined-up system that allows proper collaboration between digital security and fraud via one singular view.”

Faulkner continued: “These siloed and limited approaches are consistently causing unnecessary friction for those customers that businesses want to protect their sales process and cart abandonment. They are often deterring good customers and losing businesses billions in both revenues, fraud losses and unnecessary operational costs. Darwinium’s platform addresses these challenges and allows online businesses to capture valuable intelligence across their sales journey. Risk decisions can then favour the customer and not the fraudster.”

The Darwinium difference – a technical outline

Darwinium is the world's first Customer Protection Platform that operates across a company’s entire digital presence: Web, Apps and APIs.  Its risk-based orchestration operates at the perimeter edge, holistically assessing every digital interaction to identify bad behaviour and automate remediation, in real time.

Darwinium is unique in its ability to build complete “signatures” for both every digital interaction and across digital journeys. These are comprised of rich intelligence related to human versus automated markers, devices, locations, behaviours, behavioural biometrics data, digital content and user profiles. Unlike first-generation behaviorial biometric solutions which provide anomaly scores, Darwinium is the only solution that turns behaviour into identity allowing the ability to find related entities and activities. 

Using this intelligence, businesses can better orchestrate risk-appropriate customer journeys, integrating native Darwinium capabilities and third-party services, and ultimately make risk decisions that enable good customers, and block adversaries, all in real time.

Darwinium is already seeing early success with customers across global travel, ecommerce, banking, payments and gaming.

Seven startups from around the world seek to champion innovation through the Mastercard Start Path program 

There is no single vision for the crypto economy other than anyone who uses crypto should be able to do so simply and safely. For Mastercard, it’s about offering choice in how people pay, spend and buy crypto. Our role is to provide a best-in-class user experience and scale to offer this choice. NFTs, blockchain gaming and metaverse experiences could transform how consumers shop and communicate, however, we need to collaborate and bring together tech, banking, fintech and crypto to unlock this potential.

A shared vision for innovation and collaboration

We’ve always taken a collaborative approach to co-innovation with fintechs. We build with an API and developer-first mindset to make it easy for fintech creators to co-innovate and unleash the vast utility and scale of our network to quickly power new and relevant solutions. With more than 90 million acceptance locations worldwide, our experience securing multiple payment rails instils trust and enables crypto companies to operate safely in the market. We provide an express lane for Web3 and crypto startups to grow and an ecosystem for them to thrive.

Through the Mastercard Start Path global startup engagement program, we work with digital asset, blockchain and cryptocurrency-based companies that share a vision to make blockchain technology and digital assets more accessible. These companies are making strides to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 and meet consumers where they are today. We’re welcoming a new cohort of startups to ease access to digital assets, build communities for creators and empower people to innovate for the future through Web3 technologies. These companies will join more than 350 companies from 40 countries that have participated in Start Path since 2014.

Powering the future of crypto 

The following startups are joining Start Path to harness innovation in a way that powers economies and empowers people: 

• Digital Treasures Center (DTC) [Singapore] empowers merchants to pay, receive and transfer funds including card, cash and crypto, as well as process major currencies using DTC Pay. 
• Fasset [Abu Dhabi] is an emerging markets digital asset exchange, pioneering Web3 use cases for the next billion to enhance the way people own, connect and share digital assets. 
• Loot Bolt [U.S.] empowers organizations to build, grow and scale passionate communities by leveraging a Web3-powered social payments system. 
• Quadrata [U.S.] uses privacy-preserving and Sybil-resistant technology to bring identity and compliance to public blockchains, while also lowering reputational risk. 
• Stable® [Colombia] offers global remittances, peer-to-peer payments and card use based on a technology that stabilizes all global currencies, including stablecoins, safely and simply. 

• TBTM (Take Back the Mic) Studios [Dubai] is building the world’s first blockchain-based media fintech, turning culture into currency by rewarding fans and compensating creators for building communities around great content. 
• Uptop [U.S.] uses blockchain to create a clutter-free place for brands to control their customer relationships and for shoppers to receive fun, personalized rewards. 

Capchase, the leading provider of non-dilutive capital for SaaS companies, today announced its entry into Germany. The move is the latest milestone in Capchase’s expansion across Europe. In 2022 Capchase has expanded to the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and launched a European HQ in London.

Miguel Fernandez, Co-Founder and CEO of Capchase, said: "In today's economic environment, founders need new ways to fund their business. Since our inception, we have seen a huge appetite for growth capital that is fast, flexible and complementary to traditional funding methods like venture capital. We are pleased to partner with founders and companies living in Germany and to provide scalable, non-dilutive financing to help them achieve their growth potential, faster."

Frank Bertele, General Manager Germany at Capchase, said: "As entrepreneurs, we feel the pain of other entrepreneurs when it comes to financing and growing their business. This is where we want to help. With Capchase you are not just getting capital tailored to your needs at attractive rates, but a genuine partner who helps you grow."

Phos, the global leader in software point of sale (softpos) orchestration for businesses, has launched a Tap to Pay solution in North America with global acquirer Elavon.

The solution will enable Independent Sales Organisations (ISOs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in the US and Canada to turn mobile devices into contactless payment terminals.

The deal marks the first of many acquiring partnerships being targeted by the fintech, as phos eyes expansion in the North America market. The size of the opportunity is clear, with a total of 64 million merchants in the US alone that do not currently accept card payments.

This reliance on legacy technology and a lack of affordable alternatives greatly reduces the payment options for customers and minimises potential revenue for businesses in the region.

In bringing Tap to Pay to the market, ISOs in North America can now use phos’ leading software-only POS solution to accept card payments directly on any NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet, in a secure and contactless way.

The cross-platform solution can be used standalone or embedded into an application, depending on partner requirements, without the need for costly additional hardware i.e. traditional chip and pin machines.

Phos offers a scheme-certified application if any partner wishes to use their existing application and there are various app-app and web-app integration options available.

Brad Hyett, CEO of phos, said: “We’ve been at the heart of the contactless revolution in Europe, so we’re pleased to have selected Elavon to bring our innovative softPoS technology to merchants across the United States and Canada.

“We’re excited to work with the first ISOs in the North America region interested in deploying software point of sale technology and equipping them with a solution that works across a range of devices and mobile operating systems. Our partnership with Elavon will be the first of many in the North America market, with additional acquirer connections planned over the coming months to help us reach more merchants across the region.”

The partnership will enable existing Elavon partners to expand their acceptance capability to include a range of contactless acceptance solutions.

Phos currently has 14 certified acquirer connections globally and plans to increase this number exponentially to satisfy the needs of tier-one providers and requirements in each market. Additional acquiring certifications are currently in progress and will be announced before the end of the year. 

BlueSnap, the payment orchestration platform of choice for leading B2B and B2C businesses has expanded its partnership with top eCommerce agency, objectsource to support online sellers across Europe.

The paytech firm has teamed up with the London-based consultancy to enhance its integration with popular shopping cart plug-in Magento /Adobe Commerce, adding new payment methods – GooglePay and ApplePay, iDeal and Sofort.

BlueSnap has been objectsource’s payment partner of choice over the last five years, while the eCommerce consultancy serves as the paytech’s System Integrator (SI), responsible for building and maintaining updates to the Magento / Adobe Commerce plug-in for BlueSnap.

Their combined efforts allow retailers to localise the payment experience by offering consumers more familiar ways to pay, which will reduce friction in the checkout experience for shoppers and help increase merchants’ conversions.

This ability to scale into EU markets through the Magento /Adobe Commerce platform will enable objectsource’s customers, which include retailers Katie Loxton, FLOWERBX and Astley Clarke, to shift into the digital space and expand to global audiences.

Nikhita Hyett, EU MD of BlueSnap, said: “We are bridging the gap between international retailers and global consumers by expanding our long-standing relationship with objectsource. It comes at a time when convenient and familiar payment experiences are only predicted to grow in Europe, with digital wallets such as Google Pay expected to compete side by side with credit-cards by 2026. Our expansion allows global retailers to reach those EU consumers and objectsource’s expertise in Magento is key to achieving this.”

Rebecca Jones CEO of objectsource, said: “As the EU landscape continues to shift towards digital ecosystems, an enhanced payment experience is something we see as a necessity. We strongly believe in the power of Magento / Adobe Commerce as retailers can grow three times faster on average, but our work with BlueSnap helps retailers truly adapt to changing consumer behaviours, furthering their global reach. BlueSnap’s payment capabilities perfectly compliment our eCommerce offering, and we are excited to see how our joint efforts help merchants reach new heights.”

The new integration with objectsource is the latest in a string of partnerships for BlueSnap, as the payment orchestrator continues to enhance its leading global payment capabilities for a growing network of retailers. 

Enjaz Payment Services Company, a leading Fintech company licensed by the Saudi Central Bank announced a partnership with Thunes, a global leader in cross-border payments. This agreement will help our customers in Saudi Arabia to make instant international transfers globally to bank accounts and digital wallets using Thunes payment  network. The signing ceremony took place at the Seamless Conference held in Riyadh. 

Enjaz is a leader in remittance technology, having developed a scalable self-service and digital infrastructure to complement its wide-reaching physical network, which addresses an evolving market and creates a fast, convenient, and cost-efficient remittance experience. Through its established partnerships with correspondent banks and MTOs, it allows customers to send money instantly to more than 200 countries. 

Enjaz offers its customers the best customer experience through a variety of channels. Customers can perform their transactions through more than 150 Enjaz Centres operating in more than 60  cities, 200 self-service kiosks and 200 Point of Sales. Enjaz also offers a fully digital journey for its customers through Enjaz App with end-to-end digital onboarding and the creation of Wallet. In addition, Enjaz offers Payment Card, and utility bill payments and all of its channels are supported by 8  languages and 24/7 Contact Center. 

This partnership follows Thunes’ announcement to expand its capabilities, intensifying local  partnerships with MTOs such as e-wallets service providers and banks in KSA."

Expressing delight at the new partnership, Khalid Al Zain, Enjaz CEO said, "We are excited to see this collaboration go live, allowing customers to send money to any part of the world instantly and efficiently. In pursuit of our shared goal to provide a frictionless experience when moving  money globally, we are committed to our customers in delivering the most innovative technology-led financial solutions." 

“I am excited to kick off the partnership with Enjaz and support their innovative payment offering  and product vision. By connecting Thunes’ robust and extensive global payment network with  Enjaz’s digital capabilities, we are able to create a strong synergy that benefits the communities,  connects people to their families, and provide a much-needed service to citizens and residents of  Saudi Arabia,” said Simon Nelson, SVP for MENA at Thunes.  

Skilling, the Scandinavian-founded fintech, has announced a partnership with TradingView, the all-things trading platform for traders and the global leader in charting and analysis tools.

Thanks to this partnership, traders can now identify and assess opportunities and trade them directly through Skilling without leaving the TradingView platform. It will enable mutual customers to chart and trade simultaneously for the first time and enjoy the fully combined features and benefits of both platforms. Customers will also benefit from the collective insights and community-generated indicators and research provided by TradingView’s extensive active user base of traders and investors.

TradingView unites over 30 million traders and investors monthly. Designed for traders of all levels, it provides access to the world’s best charting and analysis tools with over 100 prebuilt technical indicators, market screeners, community-built scripts, exchanges’ volume profiles, and customised user-defined chart timeframes. TradingView’s strong community focus underpins its success as the world’s most popular investing website and continues to fuel the growth in its user base of engaged traders, investors, analysts, and researchers, all of whom rely on it as a key resource for investment ideas.

Skilling provides access to nearly 1,000 of the world’s top markets, enabling clients to trade CFD instruments across the most renowned asset classes, including an extensive suite of more than 55 popular cryptos. The partnership follows a period of record growth for Skilling and represents a strategic next step in its mission to provide robust, all-in-one access solutions for its growing customer base.

Michael Kamerman, CEO of the Skilling Group comments: “This partnership makes it both easier and quicker for our customers to find and execute on trading opportunities. Providing quick and easy access to financial markets is central to Skilling’s mission as a company. TradingView provides the world’s best online charts and I have been impressed by their meteoric growth. They have become an extremely popular, trusted platform amongst traders worldwide. The launch of this partnership is the next step in Skilling’s vision to make financial markets accessible for all.”

Accessibility and inclusivity have reshaped the financial industry with clients looking to capitalise on time-relevant markets quickly and securely. Skilling remains in tune with this by staying ahead of the trends, being one of the fastest brokers to bring new products to market, and by continuously updating its offering to bring traders the most popular instruments.

Currently providing access to instruments over a wide range of CFD asset classes — forex, indices, stocks, ETFs, metals and commodities, as well as one of the largest crypto CFD offerings in the industry – Skilling encourages its clients to harness the maximum benefit that comes from analysing global financial market movements and opportunities while staying dedicated to providing a first-rate experience that is fully transparent for all.

DivideBuy, the leading UK Point of Sale (POS) finance pioneer, has today announced a partnership with Salesforce, the world's foremost cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform, to offer instant onboarding for DivideBuy’s merchants and partners.

In yet another disruptive innovation DivideBuy has made in the POS credit space, LendTech’s partnership with Salesforce promises to break records in merchant onboarding times, accelerating the uptake of POS finance among customers in more verticals. Crucially, DivideBuy’s merchants will be able to refer their own partners to DivideBuy and benefit from en-masse instant onboarding, a major competitive advantage that will enable them to offer POS finance solutions to wider customer bases straight away.

With DivideBuy occupying a unique space in the POS finance market by being both a tech solution provider and lender, the partnership will future-proof DivideBuy’s award-winning SaaS technology platform even further. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer intuitive customer relationship management (CRM), DivideBuy will empower merchants to tap into enhanced self-serve capabilities and automated process improvements, including dynamic real-time data insights that can inform peak sales event strategies and performance forecasts for key retail dates like Black Friday and the Golden Quarter period.

Usage of POS finance and interest-free credit is surging worldwide, with the latest research suggesting an expected 157% growth in the number of users in the next five years, growing from 360 million in 2022 to 900 million by 2027. At a time when rising inflation and living costs are putting pressure on consumer budgets, and with merchants wanting to offer affordable and ethical finance methods, DivideBuy’s responsible lending-based POS finance solution is set to become even more commonplace across a growing range of merchant sectors. As an easy and convenient payment option in comparison to credit cards that charge interest and higher fees, POS finance is also a hit with the millennial generation.

Teresa Byrne, Chief Commercial Officer at DivideBuy, commented: “DivideBuy is – by its nature – a disruptive, innovative company and our recent growth is a testament to the number of merchants who have realised the value of our solution. DivideBuy is leading the charge as a dynamic credit provider in the eCommerce space, and so it is critical that the technology we offer our customers upgrades in line with this growth. Our partnership with Salesforce will enable DivideBuy to break onboarding records, with merchants up and running in times never seen before in the industry.

“Previously, DivideBuy relied on its own CRM, so I am excited to see how Salesforce’s agile platform will allow us to execute innovation at pace and add significant value to our partnership interface by driving insights and communications. Salesforce’s end-to-end solution will support DivideBuy’s full offering, ensure real-time feedback for merchants thanks to its machine learning capabilities, and give predictability on performance to help merchants to plan ahead for important days in the retail calendar such as Black Friday. It will also mean that DivideBuy will be able to onboard new merchants at a much faster rate.”

Having announced a milestone £300m funding agreement with global investment management firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP in 2021, DivideBuy has chosen Salesforce’s integrated CRM solution to help execute its ambitious plans as it continues to scale its business.

Currently working with more than 500 merchants, DivideBuy’s new partnership will enable it to continue to respond to the increased demand it has experienced across all verticals following a broadening of its consumer base, a major shift in consumer attitudes towards interest-free credit and its fast-growing roster of major merchant partners.

This news is the latest in a series of fintech-focused partnerships for Salesforce, which is aiming to build its support of the merchant sector through a combination of direct outreach, omnichannel strategies and retail industry insights.

Ryan Joyce, Head of FinTech for UK&I at Salesforce, commented: “Salesforce’s mission is to bring companies and customers together through our integrated CRM platform that gives all operations — including marketing, sales, commerce, and service — a single, shared view of every customer. We’re delighted to be working with such a customer-focused company in DivideBuy to provide its merchant customers with smoother journeys and improved experiences, and to help the growing POS finance market and the wider fintech sector.”

DivideBuy’s POS finance eCommerce credit plugin integrates with shopping cart functionalities such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and Craft Commerce to offer interest-free credit through merchant partners. DivideBuy offers a fast 60-second application process and an immediate decision, which means that customers can spread the cost of their purchases with no hidden charges. At a time when record rises in inflation and living costs are putting pressure on household budgets, interest-free credit solutions like those from DivideBuy can help customers make aspirational, hassle-free purchases this golden quarter by spreading the cost over several months – and with no late payment fees.