AperiData is thrilled to announce a ground-breaking partnership with premier digital identity provider OneID®.

This new partnership combines the unique bank-verified identification of OneID® with the transformative real-time consumer credit insights of AperiData that power instant, responsible, and ethical credit decisions.

“We are excited at the possibilities that will be unlocked for many sectors by working together to offer a powerful blend of AperiData’s real-time financial and risk insights with OneID’s innovative customer authentication capabilities”. 

Stephen Ashworth – CEO AperiData.

Both companies share the goal of creating simplicity and security for the customer, combining ID capabilities with the risk insights provided by open banking to enable customers to know the consumer, as well as understand the consumer’s financial position. Real-time identity checks combined with real-time affordability checks achieve exactly this, enabling lenders to make quick and fair decisions, giving both the company and consumer more confidence, that they are making the right decision.

This type of collaboration is not just limited to income verification, having widespread use cases that include automated direct debit set-up/reinstatement, enhanced employee screening process, and ethical gambling.

“A partnership with Aperidata is a natural fit for OneID. Bringing the power of bank-verified digital identity together with AI-powered real-time credit analysis gives our joint customers a better way to support their customers with their credit decision-making.

As a BCorp, that aims to make the world a safer place, we are delighted to be working with a partner that holds similar values”.

Stuart Kempster – Chief Product Officer, OneID®

Fintech Saudi and Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services company, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to help accelerate the adoption of advanced innovation among Saudi Arabia’s homegrown and locally-based entrepreneurs and startups in the financial technology (fintech) industry. 

The collaboration is part of Fintech's Enablement Program (Makken), an initiative by Fintech Saudi and supported by Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and the Capital Market Authority. It is aimed at helping fintech entrepreneurs and startups go to market faster and more efficiently. The program closely aligns with the Kingdom’s fintech strategy, which is part of the pillars of the  Financial Sector Development Program that supports the strategic objective of “Saudi Vision 2030.” Makken is a verb in Arabic that means “to enable” or “to empower.”

Launched in April 2018 by SAMA in collaboration with the Capital Market Authority, Fintech Saudi catalyzes the Kingdom’s fintech industry development. It aims to transform Saudi Arabia into an innovative fintech hub, facilitate infrastructure capabilities and talent development, and provide support to entrepreneurs and startups throughout their developmental stages. According to SAMA’s annual fintech report, the number of fintech companies operating in Saudi Arabia has increased by approximately 300% since 2021, generating a total revenue of SR2.8 billion ($746.4 million) in 2022.

Under the MoU, Kyndryl aims to support fintech entrepreneurs and startups by providing a secure, fully managed, cloud-based incubation platform so that startups can focus on developing prototypes, use cases, and products and services before seeking funding. Throughout the incubation period, Kyndryl will provide technical support and additional resources to help transform ideas into viable, real-world technological innovations.

Additionally, Fintech Saudi and Kyndryl will co-host hands-on seminars, events, and workshops aimed at nurturing knowledge sharing, networking opportunities, and the promotion of modernization within the fintech community.

"We are proud to be chosen as an enablement partner for Saudi Arabia’s fintech entrepreneurs and startups and have the opportunity to contribute to the growth of the financial services sector in Saudi Arabia," said Andreas Beck, Vice President and Managing Director, Kyndryl Middle East and Africa. "Through the collaborative efforts of both organizations leveraging their strengths and resources, we are well-positioned to facilitate the development of innovative value propositions across the financial services value chain, addressing customer needs."

In the presence of the leadership team from both organizations, the MoU was signed by Nizar Al-Haider, Director at Fintech Saudi, and Andreas Beck, Vice President and Managing Director, of Kyndryl Middle East and Africa.

Klarna, the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant, announced today Matthew Miller will join the boards of Klarna Holding AB and its subsidiary, Klarna Bank AB. 

Matt Miller is a long-standing Partner at Sequoia focused on early and growth-stage investments in technology companies across the US and Europe. Over the last 11 years at Sequoia, Matt has worked closely with companies like Confluent, dbt Labs, Docker, Grafana, Graphcore, Hex, and Tessian. He also has a deep knowledge of AI and machine learning, holding several board positions in AI-related companies including Graphcore, Tecton.ai, Tessian, and Yokoy Group. Matt moved from California to London in 2021 to help launch Sequoia’s European office. 

Sir Michael Moritz, who led Sequoia's original investment in Klarna in 2010, will remain as an independent board member as well as Chairman allowing Klarna to continue enjoying his stewardship. Previously, Michael was the Chairman of Sequoia and has decades of experience serving on the boards of some of the world's leading internet and financial services companies including Yahoo, Paypal, Google, Linkedin, Stripe, and Instacart. Today, Michael is a senior advisor to Sequoia Heritage. 

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and Co-founder of Klarna said: “I am happy to welcome Matt to Klarna’s board. His long background at Sequoia, and in particular being a champion of opening an office on the ground in Europe playing into the support for European companies, is of great value to Klarna. In addition, his extensive expertise in technology, and AI, will be invaluable to the company. We are also delighted to continue to enjoy Sir Michael's support, particularly given his intimate knowledge of Klarna from over a decade on the board. Michael’s continued guidance and leadership will be especially valuable as Klarna prepares for an IPO."

Matt Miller, partner at Sequoia Capital commented: “Klarna is on an incredible trajectory, transforming the way the world views credit, payments, and shopping - sectors that have been teetering on the brink of disruption for quite some time. I'm excited to join Klarna’s board and support the company in continuing its impressive journey, particularly as it seizes the opportunity to further harness generative AI. Sequoia has had the privilege of partnering with Klarna for well over a decade and we know them to be true outliers. I look forward to spending more time with this great team and in Sweden, a place already close to my heart.”

The appointment was confirmed by Klarna’s shareholders at the EGM on 29 December 2023 and is subject to regulatory approval. 

Volt, the global real-time payments platform, today announces the appointment of Irina Chuchkina as the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer. Chuchkina joins at a significant period of growth for Volt - with ambitious plans to meet market demand for real-time payments across the globe - following the company’s $60m Series B funding round in June,  appointment of ex-Stripe European CEO, Matt Henderson, as a Special Advisor, and Volt’s global expansion into Australia. 

Chuchkina brings over 18 years of experience in the payments space across Europe and Asia. She was most recently Chief Marketing Officer at Thunes, a Singapore-based payment infrastructure platform where she led its global marketing strategy. Before Thunes, Chuchkina also held senior marketing roles at Series E payments scale-up Rapyd, Southeast Asia's super-app Grab and Visa. She has also served on the board of the Singapore FinTech Association and was named among the top 25 women leaders in financial technology in Europe by The Financial Technology Report. 

During her time at Rapyd, Chuchkina led its go-to-market strategy in the APAC region, and Global Brand and Communications. At Grab, she helped launch the mobile wallet GrabPay, as well as its loyalty platform GrabRewards. At Volt, she will be responsible for the global marketing strategy and building on Volt’s ambitious global expansion plans. 

Commenting on her new role, Irina Chuchkina said: “I firmly believe in the transformative power of real-time payments. Over the next few years, they will disrupt the status quo and reshape the payment ecosystem, and there is currently no company better suited to lead this evolution than Volt. 

“Tom and his co-founders have done an incredible job assembling a high-caliber team, laying the vision and foundations of a successful business. However, this is just the beginning of a remarkable growth journey. I couldn’t be more excited to join Volt at this time as the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer, to help it realize its immense potential, grow the value and power of its brand, and help the company expand into new markets.”

Founder and CEO of Volt, Tom Greenwood, commented: “Irina’s experience in payments and marketing is second to none and I couldn’t be more delighted to welcome her to the team. To have someone of Irina’s stature within the industry taking on the role is a testament to the great progress we have made. Continuing to build on our global vision is a primary objective. Irina’s international experience will be crucial in ensuring our success.” 

Bumper, the fintech enabling flexible payments for car repairs, has announced the completion of a $48 million / €46 million / £40 million Series B fundraising to accelerate its growth. 

Bumper helps drivers split repair bills into interest-free payments so they can keep their car on the road. It ensures car owners can cover the cost of repairs or servicing in an easier, more efficient, and flexible way while enabling dealerships and garages to provide digital payment methods to their customers, helping them win business and drive profitability. 

The funding round was led by Autotech Ventures and with investment from Shell Ventures as well as JLR’s InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and Revo Capital. The raise takes Bumper’s total investment to date to $64 million /€61 million /£53 million. 

The new funding will be used to expand Bumper’s reach and technology as it seeks to become the dominant payment platform for car dealers across Europe, most notably the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland. Bumper is currently available through 5,000 dealers, which have provided flexible payments for more than 250,000 repairs in the last 12 months alone. The business wants to continue to double that number each year. 

Bumper – which is headquartered in Sheffield and has offices in London and Ankara – counts most of the major automotive brands in the world as clients, including Volvo, Ford, Nissan, VW Group, and many more, in addition to both JLR and Porsche.  

Its full suite of digital and physical payment options, including open banking payments, card payments, and in-dealership card terminals are designed to integrate fully into dealers’ existing infrastructure. Combined with extremely positive customer reviews (with over 23,000 reviews rated 4.9/5 on Trustpilot and 96% rating it as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’), Bumper has already built a track record as a trusted partner that can enhance the dealer-customer relationship. 

The funding round comes on the back of record growth, with Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growing 100% YoY in recent years, and customer numbers up 80% in the last 12 months. 

James Jackson, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bumper, said: “We want to be the dominant payment platform for car dealers across Europe. We’ll do it by providing a no-brainer solution, one that gives their customers the ultimate flexibility in making the necessary payments to keep their cars on the road. We are proud of the growth journey we have been on over the last 9 years and the endorsement of investment from InMotion Ventures and Porsche is a hugely positive moment for the business. 

“While we’re proud of our record, I firmly believe we’re just getting into second gear. There has never been a more important time for a business like Bumper, with consumers across Europe feeling the pinch amidst high inflation, rising bills, and escalating rent or mortgage costs. The need for a flexible way to pay for car repairs is vitally important for drivers, and dealers want to ensure they can provide customers with every reason to book them there and then. Bumper provides a win for dealerships and customers alike, and we look forward to expanding our reach to more and more people across Europe in the coming years.” 

Alexei Andreev, Managing Director of Autotech Ventures, said: “Bumper is one of the most innovative and exciting businesses in the global automotive space, enabling dealers to ensure their customers can afford repairs immediately, delivering both efficiency and profitability. Bumper solves a genuine customer need, supporting car owners in times of stress so that they can get back on the road as quickly and efficiently as possible. James, Jack, and the team have built a winning business model and we continue to invest to support their ambitious growth plans.” 

Mike Smeed of InMotion Ventures said: 

“Flexibility is synonymous with the modern luxury experience and this extends to offering JLR clients the convenience of spreading the costs of repairs. I'd like to congratulate Bumper for raising a further round of investment. In a highly competitive sector, the Bumper team stands head and shoulders above the rest, which is why we're proud to continue our support as they scale their operations across Europe.” 

Decentro, India’s leading Banking-As-A-Service startup, has launched its Penniless Bank Account Verification (BAV) API. Making it one of the first companies to launch such a product, it aims to help enterprises save over 5 - 10 man hours and close to Rs. 50 - 75 per onboarding of every new consumer or merchant. 

The first method of Penniless BAV, in contrast to the penny drop BAV process, is a method that allows an enterprise to obtain the name of a bank account holder or the status of the account using only the bank account number without requiring any nominal financial transaction. While penny-drop BAV brought in significant efficiency and security gains compared to manual verification, it still leads to failures in many cases, such as a wrong IFSC code entered or if the bank has merged with another bank. 

This is mainly because penny drop verification involves an actual Re. 1 (or penny) being sent from the source account to the destination for verification, and any issue during this entire flow leads to a failure. Moreover, for companies handling recurring payments and large-scale transactions, penny-drop verification increases the risk of sending funds to a fraudulent account unnecessarily. Penniless verification solves these pain points by eliminating the movement of money, ensuring a success rate of more than 99% (per the company’s benchmarks), and decreasing customer onboarding time even further. 

The second product, called Reverse Penny Drop or Penny Pull Verification in other words, essentially as the name implies, asks the user to make a Re. 1 payment (via UPI) instead of asking for the full account details and then depositing the Re. 1 (penny) as per the old methods. The interesting part here is that for a user, it is just like making a regular UPI payment online, and he doesn’t need to remember any of his long bank account details at any time. Once he makes a successful payment of Re. 1 via UPI, the aggregator / financial entity can then receive his verified bank account details as well as the actual registered name from the banking ecosystem in the API response itself. 

Commenting on the launch of these new flows, Rohit Taneja, Founder & CEO, Decentro said, “Since our inception in 2020, we have been driven by a singular goal of building a robust financial infrastructure for Indian fintechs and enterprises so that they can focus on innovation without having to spend their time sorting out the infrastructure. This has empowered us to find solutions and build products across the payments and banking value chain, giving us a significant advantage in having the most robust and safest data and financial flow ecosystem. This has helped us gain an airtight reputation in becoming one of the first banking infrastructure companies to launch a penniless verification module, which has a large potential to reduce costs for enterprises and make their financial flows safer.”

With only 30+ financial institutions using these new penniless & reverse penny drop-based verification processes in India, the potential for such a technology is significant. Decentro aims to capture the majority share of the market with its superior technology and end-to-end technology stack, which has the potential to deliver the fastest verification process most securely.

Notable players in the BFSI & fintech space have been building their platforms & journeys on top of the modular Decentro platform, such as Uni Cards, MoneyTap, CashE, Potlee, CreditFair, and many more. These 2 new & innovative offerings have already brought about the success rate of the overall bank account verification API suite of Decentro to more than 99.4% in the market. 

An early user of the bank account verification module from Decentro - Bhavik Davda, VP of CreditWise Capital, said, “Decentro’s APIs helped CreditWise Capital’s Twin2 with KYC and banking prowess. This lets us get the job done for both ID collection & verification and Bank Account Validation seamlessly. The way Twin2 can now collect information seamlessly from the user is amazing. Hope to grow a long way with Decentro.”

Revfin, a leading digital lending platform that finances electric vehicles, has raised $14m in a series B funding round. 

This significant injection of capital was led by Omidyar Network and was joined by the Asian Development Bank, Companion Capital Limited, a group of angel investors, and existing investors such as Green Frontier Capital and LC Nueva Investment Partners.

Revfin’s approach to lending is innovative and inclusive, leveraging non-traditional methods such as biometrics, psychometrics, and gamification to evaluate and manage consumer loans. This tech-driven strategy allows Revfin to cater to a broader range of consumers, especially those underserved by traditional banking systems. By partnering with local manufacturers, Revfin has already facilitated loans for over 34,000 EVs, underscoring its impact in the market.

The company intends to use the newly acquired funds to expand its reach and services. With an ambitious goal to finance 2 million more EVs in the next five years, Revfin is poised to play a pivotal role in accelerating India’s transition to sustainable transportation.

Scienaptic AI, a leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider, announced its integration partnership with DigiFi, the financial industry's leading platform for automated digital lending. With this integration, DigiFi clients can seamlessly access Scienaptic’s advanced AI-powered signals for lending.

Today's borrowers expect a seamless lending experience that includes easy credit access and a personalized loan offering. Integrating DigiFi's loan origination system and Scienaptic’s AI-powered signals will enable financial institutions to automate their lending, approve more loans and increase credit availability for their members. The partnership will increase the adoption of AI for lending and give more members access to fair credit. Lenders leverage Scienaptic AI's signals to boost approval rates while holding the loss rates constant. Clients typically experience a substantial 15-40% increase in approval rates. The platform also delivers notable advantages such as a significant rise in automated decisions and a decrease in bias across protected consumer classes.

DigiFi provides a next-generation loan origination system to banks, credit unions, finance companies and fintechs. DigiFi's cloud-based platform enables the automated online delivery of multiple consumer lending products through a single platform, driving better customer experiences and lower operating costs. DigiFi was founded in 2017 and has offices in the US and Europe.

“DigiFi is dedicated to empowering lenders to provide digital access to credit that impacts people's lives, and we love how Scienaptic is helping lenders expand who they can serve,” said Joshua Jersey, CEO and Co-Founder of DigiFi. “The integration of both platforms is an exciting opportunity to bring Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit signals to our clients. As a result, our clients will have the opportunity to incorporate AI into their lending process and make smarter, automated decisions. In addition, this partnership will enhance their borrowers’ experience, increase approvals and expand access to credit.”

Pankaj Jain, Co-Founder & President of Scienaptic AI, said, "We are very excited to partner with DigiFi. Our partnership removes the integration hurdles that prevent lenders from implementing AI. This partnership will increase the adoption of AI and allow more members to access credit. As a result, we will be able to drive faster and smarter loan decisions for financial institutions and empower their members and customers to say "yes" more often.”