This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news from fintechs headquartered in Sweden. Klarna Brings Tap to Pay to 14 Markets in Europe Swedish digital bank and payment provider Klarna has introduced Tap to Pay across 14 markets in Europe. The new features bring flexible payments to the brick-and-mortar retail world at scale, and help to transform Klarna’s app into a contactless wallet ready for everyday use. “Tap to Pay brings us closer to our vision of Klarna being everywhere for everything,” Klarna Chief Product & Design Officer David Fock said. “Now you can set up a flexible payment plan and tap to pay in seconds, all inside the Klarna app. It makes everyday shopping moments significantly smoother for our Klarna customers across Europe, giving them even more flexibility and choice at checkout.” At a time when 80% of shopping in Europe is still conducted in physical stores, Klarna’s Tap to Pay solution offers consumers the seamless experience of online commerce when shopping at brick and mortar retailers. Tap to Pay is currently live for Klarna customers in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden. Klarna’s Tap to Pay announcement follows the introduction of the company’s stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, in late November. Klarna is the first bank to launch a stablecoin on Tempo, the new independent blockchain purpose-built for payments, that was started by Stripe and Paradigm. Currently live on Tempo’s testnet, KlarnaUSD is scheduled to launch on Tempo’s mainnet in 2026. “With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” Klarna Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.” A Finovate alum since 2012, Klarna is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Tink Brings Pay by Bank Top-Ups to Fidelity International Investors As Senior Analyst Julie Muhn reported earlier this week, Fidelity International has partnered with Sweden-based open banking platform Tink. The partnership will enable Fidelity to offer account top-ups via Pay by Bank, making it easier for investors to fund their ISAs, SIPPs, cash management, and general investment accounts. A two-time Finovate Best of Show winner that was acquired by Visa in 2021, Tink enables financial institutions, fintechs, and merchants to leverage financial data to design and create personalized financial management tools, products, and services. With a single API, Tink empowers its customers to access aggregated financial data, use smart financial services, including risk insights and account verification, and build personal financial management tools. Pay by Bank is one of the fastest-growing use cases for open banking. With analysts anticipating that total open banking users will top 645 million worldwide in 2029—a 3.5x increase from 2025’s 183 million users—options such as Pay by Bank are likely to become increasingly widespread as a modern, secure payment alternative with reduced friction. “Pay by Bank represents the next evolution of open banking payments, delivering a fast, secure way to pay directly from your bank account,” Tink Head of Payments Ian Morrin said. “As adoption accelerates, we’re thrilled to see leading institutions like Fidelity put open banking at the heart of their payment experiences to make topping up investment accounts more seamless.” Founded in 2012, Tink is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The fintech offers 3,000+ connections to the major banks across Europe, processes more than 10 billion transactions a year, and boasts 10,000 developers using its platform. Co-Founder Daniel Kjellén is CEO. Swedish VC Incore Invest Secures €15 Million Second Closing Incore Invest, an investment firm based in Stockholm, has raised €15 million in a second closing of its Incore Invest II fund. The fundraising brings the fund’s total capital to €40 million to help SaaS and fintech companies throughout Europe grow. “Incore Invest’s strategy has always been to back proven tech companies with strong growth potential,” Incore Invest Founder and CEO Nicolai Chamizo said in a statement. “Investors’ continued confidence in Incore Invest is very encouraging and with this second close, the round is fully equipped with capital to back the most promising European technology companies. It allows us to continue identifying and supporting the next generation of category-defining technology companies shaping the future of the industry.” Incore Invest’s successful fundraising comes at a time when a number of European venture capital firms, especially those that have targeted growth-stage or early-stage technology companies, are raising or closing new funds. For example, four funds alone—Backed VC, Notion Capital, Armilar Venture Partners, and henQ—have raised more than €300 million in capital combined this year. Among the companies in Incore Invest’s portfolio are several of innovative fintechs including Brite, a Swedish payments platform that leverages open banking to process instant payments; Mynt, a Swedish fintech that simplifies expense management via smart company cards; and Froda, a Swedish fintech and embedded finance company. Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world. Sub-Saharan Africa Kenyan fintech Jahazii raised $400,000 to provide earned wage access and payroll infrastructure technology for Africa’s informal economy. Wise secured conditional regulatory approval to go live in South Africa. Business AM looked at how Nigeria’s FairMoney Microfinance Bank expanded beyond digital lending into a full-service bank. Central and Eastern Europe Embedded finance infrastructure company YouLend announced a strategic partnership with digital financial management solution Qonto to help the firm enter the German market. Salt Edge teamed up with Romanian financial management platform, Finlayer, to bring open banking to small businesses in the country. Former Polish President Andrzej Duda joined the board of fintech firm ZEN.COM. Middle East and Northern Africa Developed in partnership with Mawarid Finance, UAE-based fintech platform Huru launched its microfinance solution, Quick Cash. Egypt’s Money Fellows topped $1.5 billion in transactions. Israel’s Haaretz profiled Matan Bar, CEO of Israel-based fintech Melio. Central and Southern Asia Financial Times interviewed Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, on the rise of Indian fintech. The Express Tribune looked at the current state of fintech innovation in Pakistan. India’s Paytm launched a new AI-powered travel app, Paytm Checkin. Latin America and the Caribbean Episode Six forged a strategic partnership with Mexico’s Xepelin to launch digital financial products in the country. São Paulo, Brazil-based fintech Cumbuca launched this week to help international companies participate in the Brazilian payments market. Colombian fintech Movii entered the Peruvian market this week. Asia-Pacific Vietnamese neobank Circle Asia Technologies launched its AI-powered PayLater card, in partnership with Pismo and Visa. South Korea’s NH NongHyup Bank conducted a blockchain-based cross-border payments pilot project. Thunes secured In-Principle Approval (IPA) for a variation on its Major Payment Institution license (MPI) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Photo by CARTIST on Unsplash The post Finovate Global Sweden: Tap to Pay, Pay by Bank, and Investments in Nordic Fintech appeared first on Finovate.       

MoneyGram is partnering with Fireblocks to introduce stablecoin-based settlement across its global payments network, enabling faster, lower-cost transactions and real-time liquidity management. Fireblocks’ blockchain infrastructure will power a programmable settlement layer that streamlines reconciliation, reduces pre-funding needs, enhances treasury operations, and supports large-scale stablecoin flows. As a legacy payments giant adopts digital-asset rails, fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core infrastructure for cross-border payments and corporate treasury. Cross-border payments network MoneyGram is taking a step toward modernizing its global settlement infrastructure by partnering with Fireblocks to bring stablecoin-based settlement into its core treasury processes. The collaboration aims to enable faster payments, lower costs, and real-time liquidity across MoneyGram’s worldwide network. Fireblocks is a blockchain infrastructure and security platform designed for storing, transferring, and issuing digital assets. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, the company’s suite of digital asset tools includes treasury management, wallets-as-a-service, payments, and tokenization. Fireblocks also offers stablecoin infrastructure that enables institutions to seamlessly move, hold, manage, and issue stablecoins with enterprise-grade security. Founded in 1940, MoneyGram serves 50 million clients annually with its payment network that connects over 200 countries and territories, 20,000 corridors, and close to 500,000 retail locations. “We are leading the next era of money movement by enabling money to move instantly across any channel—fiat or stablecoin,” said MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo. “Fireblocks accelerates this vision by giving us the secure, programmable infrastructure to transform global payments at scale.” The company will use Fireblocks’ stablecoin infrastructure to create a programmable settlement layer to help reduce capital requirements with pre-funding partners through continuous funding, receive stablecoin payments at scale from its partners, improve access to liquidity pools across global entities, streamline reconciliation and financial reporting for stablecoin operations, and improve treasury operations. MoneyGram will also use Fireblocks to help introduce programmable money and more resilient liquidity pathways. “MoneyGram is rebuilding the rails of cross-border settlement in real time,” said Fireblocks Co-Founder and CEO Michael Shaulov. “By moving to a multi-chain, programmable infrastructure, it’s upgrading the speed and reliability of global payments at the foundation layer—where it matters most for the people who rely on these payments every day.” For a long-standing, traditional player like MoneyGram, teaming up with Fireblocks pivots the company from traditional correspondent-bank rails toward a modern, agile payments infrastructure. Today’s partnership is an example of how fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core plumbing for global payments and corporate treasury operations. It shows that stablecoins could provide instant, reliable, low-cost cross-border value movement at scale, while bypassing legacy banking delays and costs. Photo by David Dibert The post MoneyGram Teams with Fireblocks to Upgrade its Rails with Stablecoins appeared first on Finovate.       

Financial data network Plaid and real-time clearing and embedded banking enabler ClearBank announced a new partnership this week. The partnership will enable Plaid to leverage ClearBank’s virtual accounts and UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) access to enhance the sending, receiving, and reconciling of open banking payments. Founded in 2013, Plaid has been a Finovate alum since its debut at our developers conference, FinDeVR Silicon Valley 2014. A new partnership between ClearBank and Plaid will deliver faster, more secure, and friction-free Pay by Bank experiences for both businesses and customers throughout the UK. Courtesy of the collaboration, ClearBank‘s virtual accounts and direct access to the UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) will enable Plaid to enhance the sending, receiving, and reconciling of open banking payments. This includes making it easier for companies to match incoming payments to specific users or transactions, enhancing the reconciliation process and reducing reliance on manual effort. “ClearBank and Plaid share a commitment to modernizing financial services through transparency, security, and innovation,” ClearBank Group Chief Executive Officer Mark Fairless said. “By combining ClearBank’s cloud-native infrastructure with Plaid’s open banking connectivity, we’re unlocking potential for businesses to deliver faster, more reliable, and secure payment experiences.” An enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, ClearBank will provide a regulated, real-time, cloud-native infrastructure that will benefit consumers with faster, more predictable bank payments. The partnership will enable Plaid to offer faster, more reliable pay-ins and payouts that will empower companies to provide better customer experiences at checkout and during account funding. “Pay by Bank is no longer a niche option,” Plaid Head of Product, Europe, Zak Lambert said. “Adoption is rising quickly, especially among younger consumers who expect instant, secure, and low-friction ways to pay. To meet that demand, businesses need reliable real-time payment infrastructure. ClearBank’s technology helps Plaid deliver instant, secure, and cost-efficient bank payments so companies can better serve their customers’ needs.” Plaid’s partnership announcement with ClearBank comes as Plaid announced a new AI-enhanced transaction categorization capability that delivers up to 10% greater accuracy on primary categories and 20% greater accuracy on detailed sub-categories. The result is fewer missed transactions and more accurate data labeling. In addition to AI-assisted label generation and targeted human review, Plaid also noted that it would deploy an expanded category taxonomy with more than a dozen new subcategories to help differentiate income types, repayments, disbursements, bank fees, and transfers. A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. Today, the San Francisco-based fintech offers a data network that covers more than 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe, making it easier for people to connect their financial accounts to the products and services they want. Plaid works with thousands of companies, including Fortune 500 firms and many of the world’s largest banks. Plaid was founded in 2013. Co-founder Zack Perret is CEO. Photo by Tim Bish on Unsplash The post Plaid Partners with ClearBank; Announces AI-Enabled Transaction Categorization appeared first on Finovate.       

As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, companies that once relied on simple firewalls must now face a new reality. For a major telecom like T-Mobile, the stakes are especially high, as networks, customer data, and identity services are all at risk. To protect both its assets and its customers, T-Mobile is rethinking its cybersecurity strategy at every level, from workforce authentication to real-time detection to a “human-first” culture. Mark Clancy, SVP, Cybersecurity, Information, Technology at T-Mobile joined me in front of the camera at FinovateFall earlier this year to offer up what T-Mobile is doing to combat fraud. In our conversation, he discussed how SIM-based authentication is eliminating the friction in financial services while keeping clients’ money safe. He talked about why making security invisible doesn’t mean making it weaker, shared how banks can put customers first without compromising protection, and described T-Mobile’s network authentication tool, T-Secure. Network authentication, what we call T-Secure, simply embeds the authentication process into the SIM card that’s already in your phone. We have 130 million customers, and we already know who they are. We use that to bind the transaction they’re performing to their identity and authenticate invisibly in the background using certificate-based authentication. Mark Clancy leads cybersecurity at T-Mobile as Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity, Information, and Technology. Under his watch, the company has shifted from traditional reactive security practices to an identity-first, zero-trust model. T-Mobile is one of the largest wireless carriers in the US, serving millions of customers nationwide. Historically a telecom company, T-Mobile has increasingly expanded into identity services, digital authentication, and mobile-based financial and communication products. The company runs a centralized Cyber Defense Center, employs zero-trust authentication protocols, and subjects all devices to rigorous security vetting before they go to market. Photo by cottonbro studio The post T-Mobile’s Cybersecurity Playbook: How Mark Clancy Is Reinventing Telecom Security for the AI Age appeared first on Finovate.       

First-party fraud is a growing problem for financial institutions and retail businesses. But relative to other fraud threats—from deepfakes to account takeover—first-party fraud is often overlooked when it comes to major fraud challenges faced by businesses. Nevertheless, this type of fraud, which takes place when an individual claims to have not made a purchase they have actually made, is a problem that has only increased as ecommerce has expanded. In this interview, conducted at FinovateFall earlier this year, I spoke with Shanti Shanmugam, Co-Founder and CEO of Casap, about the challenge of first-party fraud and dispute resolution. Shanmugam explains how AI enables Casap to instantly distinguish legitimate disputes from fraudulent claims, reducing dispute resolution costs by 90% and reducing fraud losses for clients by 51%. Shanmugam discusses why trust is at the center of both banking relationships and the dispute resolution, and how a poor dispute resolution experience can impact how much business a customer decides to do with their primary financial institution in the future. The true cost of disputes is in trust. You are saying ‘Hey, I really did not buy this TV at Best Buy, and I really need you to have my back.’ Right now, most financial institutions, especially if they’re not working with us, take on average 90 days to resolve your case. And you’re kind of waiting in the dark the whole time. Maybe they give you a credit up front, but at the end, if they don’t get that money back from the merchant, they’re going to be clawing that money back from you 90 days later. And that’s a very trust-breaking experience. It’s the number-one reason why people are leaving their institution as a primary financial relationship: because of a negative dispute experience. So that’s the hidden cost of a dispute. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York City, Casap won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. The company’s dispute automation and first-party fraud prevention platform automatically resolves disputes, enabling financial institutions to intelligently manage first-party fraud. The technology also transforms the dispute resolution process into an opportunity to build lasting loyalty and trust. Casap’s solution increases recovery rates, identifies and prevents fraud patterns, and delivers fast, frictionless, low-cost dispute and chargeback resolution. Photo by Kavoos Hosseinpour on Unsplash The post Fighting First-Party Fraud: How AI is Revolutionizing Dispute Resolution in Fintech appeared first on Finovate.       

Fraud is growing more sophisticated and has become supercharged by generative AI, deepfakes, and increasingly organized social-engineering networks. The changing dynamics have forced both banks and fintechs to rethink their defenses as criminals adapt faster, more frequently, and with more personalized attacks. Across fintech, it is clear that traditional fraud controls are no longer enough to protect customers. But while the entire industry is facing the same escalating threats, fintechs have been especially creative in rolling out new layers of protection. Over the past year, a handful of standout features have emerged that combat fraud by proactively shaping customer behavior, interrupting social-engineering tactics, and closing gaps that legacy systems can’t reach. Here are three unique new innovations worth watching (and borrowing). Revolut’s geolocation restrictions Revolut released a safety feature yesterday that allows users to restrict money transfers to specific, user-approved geographic areas. If a transfer request is made from the customer’s device, but takes place at a location that the customer has not listed, the app blocks the transaction automatically, even if the fraudster has the user’s credentials. The feature uses both device GPS and Revolut’s internal risk engine to reduce account takeover losses. Why banks should care: Geolocation locking adds a low-friction layer to fraud defense, especially for reducing authorized push payment fraud (APP) and account takeovers. By having the user determine their restricted, “safe” locations, banks could offer users more granular control over how and where their money can move. Monzo’s and Robinhood’s in-app scam warnings Both Monzo and Robinhood help users determine whether an inbound call claiming to be from the bank is legitimate. When a customer is on a call and opens their mobile app, the app displays a banner that clearly communicates that the call they are on is not with the bank. In Robinhood’s case, the message states, “We are not currently trying to call you. If the caller says they’re from Robinhood, they are not. Hang up.” Why banks should care: Impersonation scams are one of the most expensive forms of APP fraud. Adding an in-app, real-time verification banner is an extremely simple but effective way to interrupt fraudsters. iProov’s deepfake-resistant biometric verification iProov is fighting deepfakes with biometric verification that detects AI-generated faces and synthetic video spoofing. The company analyzes pixel-level light reflections, which it calls “liveness assurance,” and uses deepfake-detection models to identify whether a live user is present. This is becoming essential for remote KYC, account recovery, and high-risk authentication. Why banks should care: Banks increasingly rely on remote onboarding and passwordless authentication, but deepfakes are now able to defeat many of the legacy selfie-verification systems launched in the past decade. Deploying deepfake-resistant biometrics is becoming essential to prevent fraudulent account opening and social-engineering-driven account resets. Each of these features has one thing in common: they put friction in exactly the right place. The friction isn’t applied to every transaction, and they won’t deter honest customers, but they will help stop fraud in common places. By using smarter triggers, real-time context, and design choices, fintechs are able to interrupt fraudsters. And while each solution won’t stop all fraud, they take care of some of the heavy lifting while minimizing the burden of friction on end consumers. Photo by Pixabay The post 3 of Fintech’s Newest Security Features Every Bank Should Be Standardizing appeared first on Finovate.       

Embedded income protection and life insurance provider Eleos has launched its AI Voice Agent. The new offering is designed to provide customers with always-on, around-the-clock assistance, backed by human customer service professionals. Eleos made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. Kiruba Shankar Eswaran is Co-Founder and CEO. London-based insurtech Eleos recently unveiled its AI Voice Agent. The new solution will provide always-on, 24/7 customer service, including the ability to make outbound calls to prospective clients. The AI Voice Agent draws answers from actual Eleos policy documents to address customer queries regarding issues such as policy coverage updates, claims information, how to cancel existing policies, and more. “We’re committed to making protection simple, accessible, and always available,” Eleos Life CEO and Co-Founder Kiruba Shankar Eswaran said. “Our voice agent extends this mission by giving customers the support they need, exactly when they need it—whether that’s at midnight or mid-afternoon. We’re removing barriers to access and empowering our customers to manage their protection with confidence.” Eleos emphasized that its new AI Voice Agent is designed to support, not replace, human customer service professionals. Rather, the AI agent will serve customers with basic queries, as well as those who have difficulty reading online content or writing emails. In all instances, customers will have ready access to a human agent via phone, email, or WhatsApp. Eleos’ AI Voice Agent is the latest iteration of the company’s ongoing investment in AI-powered technology. In August, Eleos unveiled Theea, an intelligent chatbot that guides customers through their insurance application with step-by-step instructions and personalized coverage calculations. “Life insurance is one of the most important financial decisions people can make, but too often it feels out of reach,” Eswaran said when Theea was launched. “With Theea, we’re changing that by building awareness through clear, jargon-free guidance, improving access with on-demand, multilingual support, and driving engagement by giving people the confidence to explore and choose coverage in their own time. Our mission has always been to make protection simple and inclusive, and Theea is a powerful step in that direction.” An insurtech specializing in embedded term life insurance, disability insurance, and income protection in both the US and UK, Eleos made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company showed how it partnered with consumer brands to embed life insurance and income protection into their online journeys. Eleos demonstrated how the company leverages partner data to raise awareness of the importance of life insurance and income protection, provide quotes on various insurance products, and expedite the application process. Photo by Peter Spencer The post Insurtech Eleos Launches AI Voice Agent appeared first on Finovate.       

Fidelity International is partnering with Visa-owned Tink to offer pay by bank account top-ups, giving investors a faster, more seamless way to fund ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts. Tink’s pay by bank enables real-time, secure bank-to-bank transfers, settling in under 40 seconds and reducing friction, fraud risk, and costs associated with manual transfers or card-based payments. Pay by bank adoption is accelerating across Europe, driven by lower fees, faster settlement, and open banking growth. Global asset manager and retirement savings firm Fidelity International has teamed up with Visa’s open banking platform Tink. Fidelity will leverage Tink’s pay by bank tool to enable account top-ups for its personal investing customers and advised clients. Adding the account top-up capability will allow Fidelity International users to quickly add funds to their ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts. With Tink’s pay by bank, users can send funds directly from their bank accounts using their secure bank log-in details. The funds are sent on fast rails that settle the transaction in less than 40 seconds on average and offer real-time payment confirmation. “Fidelity’s focus is always on making investing as accessible and straightforward as possible. Partnering with Tink to offer pay by bank gives both our personal investors and our advised clients a fast, convenient way to fund accounts—reducing friction and improving the overall customer experience,” said Fidelity International Chief Digital Officer, Global Platform Solutions, Ian Hood. “By integrating pay by bank, we’re expanding our digital payments infrastructure to offer a modern, secure alternative to traditional methods like manual bank transfers, helping users move money quickly and safely.” Founded in 2012, Tink was an early player in Europe’s open banking ecosystem. The Sweden-based company was acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2 billion and today offers a wide variety of products ranging from payments to account data to risk decisioning and finance management. With 3,000+ connections to all major banks across Europe, Tink processes 10 billion transactions per year across 19 geographical markets. Pay by bank is one of Europe’s fastest-growing payment methods, driven by lower transaction costs, faster settlement times, and a shift toward open banking–powered digital payments. For merchants, direct bank-to-bank transfers eliminate interchange fees and reduce chargeback risk, making the payment experience both cheaper and less prone to fraud. Consumers benefit from a smoother checkout flow, fewer authentication steps, and greater security due to strong customer authentication. According to Juniper Research, there are currently 183 million open banking users worldwide, a number expected to surpass 645 million by 2029. The combination of cost efficiency, real-time settlement, higher authorization rates, and improved fraud controls positions it as one of the most strategically important payment innovations in the market today and offers the potential for it to become a mainstream payment option. For Tink, Fidelity’s rollout is another signal that pay by bank is moving from early adoption into mainstream financial services. As Tink Head of Payments Ian Morrin noted, “Pay by bank represents the next evolution of open banking payments, delivering a fast, secure way to pay directly from your bank account. As adoption accelerates, we’re thrilled to see leading institutions like Fidelity put open banking at the heart of their payments experiences to make topping up investment accounts more seamless.” Photo by Karola G The post Fidelity International Taps Tink for Account Top-Ups via Pay by Bank appeared first on Finovate.       

ID-Pal’s strategic acquisition of NorthRow, a specialist in compliance solutions, will enhance the Irish company’s compliance intelligence for Know Your Business (KYB), Know Your Customer (KYC), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) operations. The move will combine ID-Pal’s AI-powered verification platform with NorthRow’s expertise in KYB and business due diligence, enabling ID-Pal to offer a single solution for ensuring one perpetual risk view for both individuals and organizations. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but post-acquisition, NorthRow’s services and operations will operate without interruption under ID-Pal. The acquisition comes at a time when new regulations in the UK, and the US Corporate Transparency Act, are putting pressure on compliance teams and making strategies like continuous KYC, AML, and KYB monitoring essential features. In a statement on the company’s website, ID-Pal Founder and CEO Colum Lyons put the acquisition in the context of his own firm’s founding. “Alongside co-founders James O’Toole and Robert O’Farrell, ID-Pal was created to support businesses with accurate identity verification built on privacy preservation,” Lyons said. “As the financial services space becomes more regulated, and with AI-driven document fraud becoming the biggest threat our industry has faced, it is essential that businesses have a unified view of the risks ahead and how to manage them. Our acquisition of NorthRow allows ID-Pal to unify this process with one comprehensive platform that defends businesses against fraud at every entry point and avoids noncompliance fines.” The acquisition builds on ID-Pal’s identity verification tools, adding native end-to-end KYB checks to provide continuous monitoring of changes in a business’s status, structure, or directors. The deal also helps ID-Pal deliver on its goal of providing scalable, AI-powered solutions that can tackle ever-evolving compliance challenges. NorthRow’s technology will help companies adapt to regulatory changes worldwide by providing real-time data on companies, from ownership structure to financial health. ID-Pal will also benefit from expanding its portfolio with major financial services companies such as Caxton, Equifax, and Hargreaves Lansdown. Caxton COO Alana Parsons praised the strategic acquisition for creating “a powerful platform for the future.” Parsons added, “We’re excited to start working with ID-Pal and to benefit from the innovation in KYC and KYB risk intelligence that this partnership will deliver.” ID-Pal most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its ID-Detect solution provides an additional layer of verification designed to detect evidence of document fraud. ID-Detect is a standard feature of ID-Pal’s identity verification, helping businesses deal with the growing challenge of AI-generated fake identification cards and other documents. ID-Pal’s technology is used in more than 250 jurisdictions, covering more than 16,000 document types and accessing 400+ trusted data sources. Photo by Caio Cardenas The post ID-Pal Acquires KYB Specialist, NorthRow appeared first on Finovate.       

Wealthfront filed an S-1 with the SEC, planning to raise up to $485 million by offering 34.6 million shares at $12 to $14 each, targeting a $2 billion valuation. The wealthtech firm was founded as kaChing and rebranded to Wealthfront in 2010 and has expanded from robo-advisory into high-insurance checking, savings, and credit products. The IPO follows a previously canceled $1.4 billion UBS acquisition, and positions Wealthfront among a new wave of fintechs going public, including eToro, Chime, and Klarna. Wealthtech firm Wealthfront revealed this week that it has filed an S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, taking its first formal step toward an IPO. According to the filing, Wealthfront plans to offer 34.6 million shares at $12 to $14 each, which would raise up to $485 million and value the company near $2 billion. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol WLTH. Founded in 2008 and making its Finovate debut as kaChing a year later, the company rebranded to Wealthfront in 2010 and has since solidified its place as a pioneer in the wealthtech space. Since launch, Wealthfront has evolved its platform to add challenger banking features such as a checking account with up to $8 million in FDIC insurance, which is made possible via the company’s partnerships with 32 program banks. The fintech also offers a high-yield savings account, a portfolio line of credit, an automated bond ladder, and is working on a mortgage lending product. Wealthfront generally targets younger investors who hold an average balance of $67,000, while 180,000 of its clients hold more than $100,000 in assets and over 10,000 clients have assets more than $1 million in assets on the platform. This isn’t Wealthfront’s first move toward an exit. In January 2022, the company formed a $1.4 billion deal to be acquired by UBS. At the time, that price reflected a premium of at least 2x on Wealthfront’s most recent private market valuation. Wealthfront called the acquisition a “strategic partnership” that would enable the company to offer new services and give its customers access to “UBS’s industry-leading investing insights and research.” Two weeks after unveiling the acquisition plans, however, UBS called off the deal. Shareholders were reportedly spooked, as it came during a period of significant decline in fintech valuations. Notably, however, Wealthfront’s current $2 billion target valuation is significantly higher than the $1.4 billion acquisition price UBS had offered in 2022, which would equate to roughly $1.55 billion in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation. In going public, Wealthfront is in good company with other fintechs including eToro, which debuted in January of 2025; Chime, which went public in June of 2025; and Klarna, which debuted in September 2025 after postponing the move for six months. With the S-1 now public, Wealthfront will enter the SEC review process and prepare for a roadshow, which places its likely IPO window in early 2026. The post Wealthfront Files S-1, Targeting $2 Billion IPO appeared first on Finovate.       

Backbase and Unblu have forged a new strategic partnership to transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience that combines the best of both worlds. The partnership will integrate Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s AI-powered banking solution, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, and AI-powered chatbots. Both Unblu and Backbase most recently appeared on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021 in New York. Backbase is a four-time Best of Show winner that first demoed on the Finovate stage in 2009. A new strategic partnership between Backbase and Unblu is designed to help transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience. The two companies will offer a joint solution that combines Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s banking platform, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, co-browsing, and AI-powered chatbots. “Digital banking should never come at the expense of human connection,” Backbase Global VP of Marketplace Mayank Somaiya said. “By embedding Unblu’s collaboration tools into our ecosystem, banks can deliver effortless transitions from automated service to expert guidance, helping customers feel supported throughout their digital journey.” The goal is to enable customers to transition seamlessly from digital self-service to human-assisted interactions in a single engagement. The solution will enable relationship managers, case workers, and frontline service agents to access the customer’s individual context in order to better serve them. A unified employee workbench connects capabilities that were previously isolated across the bank’s tech stack. This empowers bank employees to deliver seamless human-digital interaction within the Backbase platform, benefit from AI-enhanced productivity that automates routine tasks and produces real-time insights, and maintain complete regulatory compliance via encrypted communications, audit trails, and built-in data residency controls. Use cases for the joint offering include onboarding and account opening, wealth management, customer service, and enabling hybrid branch experiences. The pre-integrated solution will be available to Backbase customers around the world in early 2026. “We’re excited to partner with Backbase to help financial institutions deliver the kind of personal, frictionless customer experiences today’s users expect,” Unblu Co-CEO Jens Rabe said. “By bringing our digital interaction tools directly into the Backbase platform, we’re enabling banks to build deeper relationships while maintaining the compliance and security standards they can’t compromise on.” A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Based in Amsterdam, Backbase offers an AI-powered banking platform that helps banks modernize their operations across retail, SME, commercial, and private banking, as well as wealth management. Backbase has enabled financial institutions to achieve year-over-year increases in retail transactions by 51%, customer satisfaction rates of 78%, and app onboarding in less than five minutes. Founded in 2003, Backbase forged a partnership with Facilization, a consulting, system integration, and financial services software firm, in October. The company also teamed up with Akkuro, a core banking technology provider, and Prove, a digital identity company, in September. Founder Jouk Pleiter is Backbase’s CEO. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Unblu most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helps 170+ financial institutions around the world deliver an “in-person” experience online. The company’s customers include UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo, and the firm has forged partnerships with fintechs—and fellow Finovate alums—such as Temenos, Avaloq, Q2, and ebankIT. Just days after the company announced its partnership with Backbase, Unblu reported that founder and Co-CEO Luc Haldimann would be transitioning into the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer. Rabe, who joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer and later served as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, has been serving as Co-CEO and will become the company’s sole CEO as of January 2026. “Luc built Unblu from the ground up and shaped it into an internationally respected technology leader,” Rabe said. “As CEO, I look forward to continuing the collaboration with Luc in his new strategic role to ensure Unblu remains at the forefront of secure, human-centered digital engagement.” Photo by Javier M. on Unsplash The post Backbase and Unblu Transform Self-Service Banking into Human-Connected Experiences appeared first on Finovate.       

The holiday season is well underway, and once it wraps up, FinovateEurope will be right around the corner. And with fintech evolving faster than ever, next year’s event, taking place February 10 and 11 in London, is shaping up to be one of the most important gatherings of the year for anyone working in financial services, banking, and fintech. The event features more than 100 expert speakers, 30+ live demos, and a packed agenda with deep dives into AI, embedded finance, decentralized finance, and cross-border banking. As someone who studies and writes about fintech, here are the handful of sessions I’m most excited about and why I think they matter for the next wave of fintech: Keynote Address: AI First Banking – Why Agentic AI is Truly A New Frontier In Banking Alpesh Doshi, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital will examine how banks can harness agentic AI, discuss agentic commerce, and take a look at a future where bots are customers. AI, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once: Getting Beyond The Hype – How Financial Institutions Can Use AI To Make Money Or Save Money This panel, featuring Theo Lau, book author and Founder of Unconventional Ventures; Arthur J. O’Connor, Academic Director of Data Science & Generative AI at CUNY School of Professional Studies; and Norman Tambach, Group Chief Financial Officer at Mashreq; will spend 25 minutes filtering out AI hype from reality. The group will unpack how to measure the success of AI investments, reveal what they see as the biggest opportunities when it comes to leveraging AI, examine AI regulation, and more. Analyst All Stars: How financial services have been changed forever This is always one of my favorite sessions, because it offers a fast-paced look at the top up-and-coming trends. Four leading fintech analysts will each be given seven minutes on stage to present their analysis of what has changed, what is new, and what is coming next in the industry. Digital Banking In The Artificial Intelligence Era – How Can Banks Adapt To Serving Non-human Customers? This fireside chat with David Birch, Principal at 15Mb, will offer a peek into the new era of digital banking, one that will be fueled by AI. While banks are prepping their own AI tools for internal use, consumers are also adapting to the AI-first world. Birch will discuss how banks can serve the new era of non-human customers. Live Demo Sessions + 30+ Fintech Innovation Showcases Far more than just talking points, Finovate’s hallmark demos give attendees a first look at real, deployable fintech products across payments, lending, compliance, and more. For anyone serious about fintech transformation or looking for new tools, the demo stage is the best place to see the future before it hits the market. As FinovateEurope gets closer, we’ll be covering more highlights and takeaways from the agenda, as well as speaker highlights and a deeper dive into the demos. If you missed it, be sure to take a closer look at three of the Executive Briefing sessions. The post FinovateEurope is Coming Up. Here Are My Top Agenda Picks. appeared first on Finovate.       

Behavioral and device metadata analytics innovator Credolab has unveiled its Income Prediction Model. The new offering will enable lenders to estimate applicant income using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. This will help them serve would-be borrowers with limited credit histories and proof-of-income. Founded in 2016, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018 in Singapore. Peter Barcak is Co-Founder and CEO. One of the biggest challenges for lenders seeking to expand into new markets—especially emerging, underbanked, and digital-first markets—is accessing accurate proof-of-income and credit history information. Even in a world in which open banking is embraced—making financial data more accessible overall—customers who have little data to share will remain on the outside, unable to benefit from a growing range of critical banking and financial services. To meet this challenge, behavioral and device metadata analytics company Credolab has launched its Income Prediction Model. The new offering leverages machine learning to enable lenders to estimate applicant income by using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. The solution analyzes thousands of anonymized behavioral signals that, put together, correlate with income levels. These signals include app ownership patterns, device model and age, and interaction habits. Individual client institutions can train models on their own specific datasets and customize them based on the unique characteristics of their local populations. Importantly, Credolab’s Income Prediction Model never accesses personally identifiable information (PII) or demographic data like age, gender, or education. Credolab uses proprietary feature engineering to convert raw metadata—collected with explicit user consent via its SDK—into more than 11 million behavioral features. The technology uses selection strategies based on information value, correlation filtering, and gradient boosting to narrow these features into a few dozen highly predictive indicators. The models use elastic-net logistic regression and tree-based ensemble techniques and validate them with out-of-time and out-of-sample testing to ensure both robustness and explainability. “In many markets, a lack of verified income data is the biggest barrier to financial inclusion,” Credolab Co-founder and CEO Peter Barcak said. “Our new model gives lenders a privacy-safe and statistically sound way to infer income levels using only device behavior. It’s a powerful step toward fairer, faster, and more inclusive credit decisions, especially among populations for whom traditional data simply doesn’t exist.” Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018. Since then, the company has become the device and behavioral data partner for more than 150 banks, financial services companies, and fintechs around the world. The company’s solutions for risk management, fraud prevention, and insight-driven marketing have delivered decreases of up to 21.9% in the cost of risk and fraud, increases of up to 32% in applicant approval rates, and decreases of up to 28% in the cost of acquisition. Photo by Christian Dubovan on Unsplash The post Credolab Unveils Income Prediction Model appeared first on Finovate.       

Sokin raised $50 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $96 million and boosting its valuation to $300 million following 100% year-over-year revenue growth. The fintech offers global payments, multi-currency accounts, and treasury tools across 170+ countries, positioning itself as a fast-scaling competitor in the $56 trillion cross-border payments market. Investors see Sokin as part of a new wave of infrastructure-focused payments challengers aiming to solve cross-border complexity at a global scale. Global payments fintech Sokin raised $50 million in Series B funding this week. The round boosts the UK-based company’s total raised to $96 million since it was founded in 2019. Today’s investment was led by Prysm Capital with additional contributions from Watershed Ventures and existing investors including investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Aurum Partners, Gary Marino, former Chief Commercial Officer at PayPal, and Mark Britto, former Chief Product Officer at PayPal.  With the new round, Sokin’s valuation has increased to $300 million. Prysm said that it invested in Sokin because of its “rapid and profitable growth” in the global business payments market, a subsector that is projected to see $56 trillion in transaction volume by 2030. The company’s revenues have increased by 8x since 2022, rising 100% year-over-year since then. “Sokin is at a transformative stage, having demonstrated impressive year-on-year business growth,” said Prysm Capital Co-founder and partner Muhammad Mian. “The company is perfectly positioned to become the definitive leader in cross-border payments. Critically, Sokin has already built the infrastructure to capitalize on what we see as a huge addressable market.” Sokin’s platform brings together global payments, payment acceptance, and treasury management tools to support businesses operating across borders. The company provides access to more than 70 currencies and enables customers to hold 26 currencies in multi-currency accounts, facilitating transactions in over 170 countries. “We’ve spent the past six years building a comprehensive financial infrastructure that makes global business faster and more efficient,” said ‍Sokin CEO and Founder Vroon Modgill. “For too long, payments, treasury management, and international accounts have been fragmented and outdated. We’ve built the platform that brings it all together, and this funding lets us accelerate that vision globally.” In the next year, Sokin will continue to build out its global infrastructure across Asia, the Middle East, and South America, including securing additional regional licenses and banking partnerships. Sokin will also invest in its platform and embedded solutions to expand its accounts payable and receivable capabilities. This funding round positions Sokin on a growing list of challengers building global payments infrastructure, competing not just with banks but also with new providers like Airwallex, Nium, and Rapyd. Investor appetite for these organizations shows that the winners in this new era of payments will be those that solve cross-border complexity at the infrastructure level, not just through front-end interfaces. If Sokin can turn its rapid revenue growth into market share, it may emerge as a key operator in the growing cross-border payments market. Photo by Pixabay The post Payments Fintech Sokin Raises $50 Million to Build Out Global Infrastructure appeared first on Finovate.       

The final month of the year is upon us. And with some of the season’s biggest holidays only weeks away, expect a crush of news from banks, fintechs, and other financial service providers over the next several days. We’ll keep you in the know—right here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown! Digital Banking Southland Credit Union chooses Eltropy’s unified conversations platform via its partnership with digital sales and service platform provider Alkami Technology. Digital bank Grasshopper and digital banking platform provider Narmi announced new enhancements to their Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, including expanded functionality to support ChatGPT and OAuth 2.0-based data access authorization. interface.ai introduces agentic AI BankGPT platform purpose-built for credit unions and community banks. Lending Nova Credit unveils its Eligibility Compass to modernize eligibility verification for affordable and public housing. FIS expands its asset finance platform to include US consumer auto finance capabilities. Insurtech Insurance payments company SnapRefund launches digital claim payments solution ClaimsSnap. Insurtech startup Pibit.AI secures $7 million in Series A funding to leverage AI to enhance the underwriting process. Fraud prevention DataVisor announces availability of its DEFEND training, a free, self-pace program to help workers better defend themselves against fraud and AML threats. Digital banking fraud prevention and payment security company Entersekt unveils Entersekt Orkestrate, which makes it easier to add authentication and real-time decisioning to digital banking systems. Payments Payments company Stuut Technologies raises $29.5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Photo by Oliver Kiss on Unsplash The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

Kraken is launching the Krak Card, a crypto-to-fiat debit card offering 1% cash back and multi-asset spending across 400+ crypto and fiat currencies, with initial rollout in the UK and EU. The card supports direct deposit, no foreign exchange or monthly fees, and flexible funding rules that let users choose which assets cover each purchase. With the Krak Card, Kraken is positioning itself closer to a full-service financial platform, further blurring the lines between TradFi and DeFi and enabling everyday spending of digital assets. Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken revealed plans to launch a crypto-to-fiat debit card that pays 1% cash back rewards on all purchases. The Krak Card will first be available to users in the UK and EU, and will be offered to customers in additional markets in the coming weeks.  In addition to paying rewards, the Krak Card also allows direct deposit for salaries and offers expanded wealth-building opportunities. Kraken anticipates that the new upgrades will bring users one step closer to replacing their traditional banking relationships by helping them explore the unique opportunities available within digital assets. “To us, everything is money. You should be able to use whatever assets you hold to pay for everyday goods and services in the digital era we live in,” said Kraken Global Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg. “From groceries to getaways, the Krak Card makes value move freely, no matter who you are or how you choose to store your money.” Powered by Mastercard, the physical Krak Card comes in two color options and is available in a virtual format, as well. With no foreign exchange or monthly fees, the card delivers instant spending using multiple balances with no FX or monthly fees. Uniquely, the Krak Card offers multi-asset spending, supporting more than 400 crypto and fiat assets. Purchases can be funded from either crypto, fiat, or a mix of both. The app lets users preset which assets are used first and allows them to exclude specific holdings from payments. The 1% cash back on every purchase is paid in either the local fiat currency or Bitcoin. The cash back rewards help differentiate Kraken from other debit products, as it is quite rare to find a debit card that pays cash back. Since its debut six months ago, the Krak app has seen over 450,000 downloads in over 130 countries. Kraken expects that the launch of its debit card will accelerate this number. In the coming months, Kraken plans to launch new features, including credit products, additional card options, enhanced merchant rewards, simplified onboarding, and broader support for assets. Kraken’s move, as it positions itself against traditional banks and neobanks, is an example of the pending convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). By combining multi-asset spending, direct deposit, and cash-back rewards into a single debit product, Kraken is offering another way to spend crypto while building an everyday money hub. The new capabilities allow consumers to bridge their digital assets and real-world payments without the friction of conversions or fees. Photo by Karola G The post Kraken Debuts Debit Card with 1% Cash Back appeared first on Finovate.       

Klarna revealed plans to launch KlarnaUSD, a new stablecoin built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain. Set to debut on the Tempo mainnet in 2026, KlarnaUSD will leverage early access to Tempo for testing and integration. The move positions Klarna to capture value in the $120 billion cross-border payments market, using stablecoins to cut costs for both consumers and merchants as stablecoin usage surpasses $27 trillion annually. Two months after reaching one million card sign-ups in the US, BNPL leader Klarna has revealed plans to launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD. Klarna is launching its new stablecoin on the Tempo blockchain. Launched in September 2025, Tempo is an independent, layer-1 blockchain created by Stripe and Paradigm that’s built for payments. KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge. “With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.” Klarna will launch its stablecoin on the Tempo mainnet in 2026. Tempo has granted Klarna early access to its infrastructure in advance of the KlarnaUSD launch to allow the fintech to conduct advanced testing, prototyping, and integration. Klarna and Stripe first teamed up in 2021 when they partnered to allow Stripe users in 20 countries to offer Klarna’s BNPL option, with Stripe as the preferred payments partner in the US and Canada. The partnership between Klarna and Stripe’s blockchain, Tempo, deepens the relationship between the two players. Today’s announcement comes as cross-border payments are estimated to generate $120 billion in transaction fees annually, and as stablecoin transactions top $27 trillion a year. Launching its own stablecoin isn’t just a way for Klarna to jump on a recent trend. The company will leverage the benefits of stablecoins to reduce costs for both consumers and merchants. Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash The post Klarna Debuts KlarnaUSD Stablecoin appeared first on Finovate.       

The agenda for FinovateEurope 2026 (February 10—11) in London is still taking shape. We’ve already shared a preview of some of the top themes that the conference will address. Today we’re looking at a trio of Executive Briefings that will offer attendees concentrated deep dives on a few key issues and trends in fintech and financial services. This year, women in fintech, integrating AI into financial services, and the embedded finance revolution are the three areas of focus for our FinovateEurope Executive Briefings. Stay tuned for more on our moderators and speakers. For now, check out this advance look at how we’re tackling these top issues for 2026. Women in Fintech: How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving The Needle? Ladies first! Tuesday morning will feature the first of three Executive Briefings at FinovateEurope: our Women in Fintech Briefing. This session, open to all attendees, will examine and discuss the status of women in fintech and financial services today. From strategies to encourage intentional change at the executive level to ideas on how to make mentoring relationships successful, our Women in Fintech Briefing will share experiences with successful initiatives to grow and retain female talent. The session will also explore ways that fintech and financial services professionals can drive change in their companies and the industry, at large. How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving the Needle? And How Can We Support Women in the Toughest Job Market We Have Seen In Years? Tuesday, February 10. 10:40am—11:20am The AI Competitive Imperative: Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today On Tuesday afternoon our Executive Briefing on the increasing importance of AI in fintech and financial services will take place. This session will focus on practical, real-world applications of AI technology in core financial services operations ranging from fraud prevention and compliance to lending and customer intelligence. Our Executive Briefing on AI will discuss every aspect of the integration process: from pilot to production, emphasizing the best practices that have enabled leading financial institutions to successfully deploy AI-powered solutions to increase profitability, lower costs, boost efficiency, and better engage customers. The AI Competitive Imperative & the Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today. Tuesday, February 10. 3:20pm—4:00pm From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking On Wednesday, Day Two of FinovateEurope, we will present our Executive Briefing on the latest developments in the field of embedded finance and the growth of platform banking. Embedded finance continues to be one of the most revolutionary developments in fintech. As the ability to offer banking and financial services becomes increasingly ubiquitous, what are the opportunities for banks to expand their own distribution footprint? This session will examine the current challenges faced by banks from nonbank rivals and discuss ways—including platform banking—that can enable them to compete with the integrated user experiences from Big Tech, Big Retail, and super apps. From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking—How Can Banks Capture This Huge Opportunity, Create a Robust API Strategy & Defend Against Super Apps & Ecosystem Threats? Wednesday, February 11. 11:30am—12:10pm The post FinovateEurope 2026: AI, Embedded Finance, and Women in Fintech appeared first on Finovate.       

From AI-enabled commerce to AI-powered voice agents in insurance, companies across the fintech spectrum are busily integrating AI into their operations to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance the customer experience. It is a holiday-shortened week, so be sure to check in to Finovate’s Fintech Rundown to keep you informed on the latest fintech headlines. Insurtech Eleos Life unveils AI voice agent to provide 24/7 customer support. HawkSoft partners with AI automation company Liberate to leverage the company’s Voice AI to enhance sales and service operations. Payments European payment provider Mollie announces payment integration with ChatGPT. Worldpay unveils its Worldpay MCP (Model Context Protocol). Revolut reaches a valuation of $75 billion following a share sale and investment from NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, NVentures. TerraPay introduces payments interoperability network, Xend. Australian payments and rewards platform pay.com.au raises $53 million to fuel US expansion. Payments platform Paysafe partners with independent cloud gaming provider Boosteroid. Lending Tech Mahindra launches its advanced, sustainable lending platform i.GreenFinance. Fraud prevention GFT Technologies and FICO team up to help banks leverage AI to stop fraud in real time and simplify risk decision-making. Lithuania-based Electronic Money Institution (EMI) Wallter UAB partners with regtech AMLYZE to bolster its AML screening. Open banking Intuit QuickBooks partners with SiSS Data Services (SISS) to facilitate open banking data feeds for its customers in Australia. Photo by Balazs Busznyak on Unsplash The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.