The demos are done and the votes have been counted: congratulations to the winners of Best of Show at FinovateFall 2026!

It is true that AI continues to be the most enabling technology in fintech, bringing new capabilities to payments, fraud prevention, lending, wealth management, and more. As one demoing company representative noted from the FinovateFall stage this week, there may not have been a single demo that did not in some way acknowledge the role that AI—and increasingly agentic AI—is playing in helping banks and other financial institutions become more efficient and more effective in serving individuals, families, businesses, and communities.

That said, if there is one commonality among the companies that won Best of Show at this year’s FinovateFall, then that commonality might be a laser-focus on what matters most to financial institutions large and small: growing deposits, boosting customer and membership growth, creating new revenue opportunities, and simplifying and streamlining operations that have been historically hindered by manual processes, siloed systems, and an inability to transform data into the kind of insights that lead to better experiences for financial services customers. Viewed through this lens, AI is just the latest technology to help bridge the gap between what customers want and what financial institutions can safely, compliantly, and consistently deliver.

With one more day to go in this year’s FinovateFall conference, we want to thank all of our demoing companies, our sponsors and partners, our top-notch AV team, and—perhaps most of all—our attendees for their continued support of what we believe is still one of the most unique events on the fintech calendar.

Our next conference will be FinovateSpring 2027 in San Diego, California, at the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Conference Center, from May 3rd through the 5th. Tickets are on sale now and you can save up to $600 if you register by November 6th.

Clockout for its solution that drives member and customer growth, increases direct deposits 10%-25%, generates $16-$50 monthly per-user revenue, and creates competitive differentiation through embedded financial wellness.

equipifi for its technology that enables banks and credit unions to offer flexible payments and Buy Now, Pay Later as a native capability within their digital banking platforms.

Goodbuy for its solution that transforms local small business engagement into a new growth channel—enabling financial institutions to drive account activation, deposits, and interchange through connected community commerce.

Neural Payments for its Payments Hub that connects banks and credit unions to every major US payment rail and wallet through a single, fully branded integration.

ScreenSteps for its performance enablement platform that helps financial institutions turn complex procedures into simple, real-time guidance employees can find and follow.

Tweezr for its technology that helps organizations transform and grow by accelerating TTM and increasing developer productivity for both legacy system maintenance and modernization—or even obviating modernization all together.

Vertice AI for its OPTIMIZE solution that transforms institutional growth goals into optimized, AI-executed marketing campaigns with human approval at the strategic level.

Young Early Starters for its investing and education app that gives children real stock ownership, guided by learning and approved by parents.

Notes on methodology:

1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.

2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.

3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”

4. The eight companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”

5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2026 conferences are below:

FinovateEurope 2015

FinovateSpring 2015

FinovateFall 2015

FinovateEurope 2016

FinovateSpring 2016

FinovateFall 2016

FinovateAsia 2016

FinovateEurope 2017

FinovateSpring 2017

FinovateFall 2017

FinovateAsia 2017

FinovateMiddleEast 2018

FinovateEurope 2018

FinovateSpring 2018

FinovateFall 2018

FinovateAsia 2018

FinovateAfrica 2018

FinovateEurope 2019

FinovateSpring 2019

FinovateFall 2019

FinovateAsia 2019

FinovateMiddleEast 2019

FinovateEurope 2020

FinovateFall 2020

FinovateWest 2020

FinovateEurope 2021

FinovateSpring 2021

FinovateFall 2021

FinovateEurope 2022

FinovateSpring 2022

FinovateFall 2022

FinovateEurope 2023

FinovateSpring 2023

FinovateFall 2023

FinovateEurope 2024

FinovateSpring 2024

FinovateFall 2024

FinovateEurope 2025

FinovateSpring 2025

FinovateFall 2025

FinovateEurope 2026

FinovateSpring 2026

The post FinovateFall 2026 Best of Show Winners Announced! appeared first on Finovate.

     

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This week’s edition of Finovate Global is a hat tip to the companies from outside the US that are traveling to New York to demo their latest fintech innovations live on stage at FinovateFall 2026.

It is true that our European conference tends to feature the highest proportion of non-US companies. That said, FinovateFall is a popular destination for emerging and established fintechs looking to showcase their solutions to an audience of banking and financial services professionals and decision-makers.

Get to know our dozen international fintechs below—and be sure to catch them on stage next week at FinovateFall!

FinovateFall 2026 comes to the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York, September 9 through 11. Tickets are still available, so visit our registration page and save your spot, book your room, and join us next week in New York!

3 Degrees—United Kingdom

3 Degrees enables community banks and credit unions to deliver fully digital international payments that improve the customer experience and create new revenue. Founded in 2025, 3 Degrees is headquartered in London.

Covecta—United Kingdom

Covecta builds agentic operating systems for community banks and credit unions. The company’s solutions optimize bank performance via autonomous agents working across the full lifecycle, connecting strategy to execution. Founded in 2024, Covecta is headquartered in London.

Data City—United Kingdom

Data City offers an “Industry Engine” that uses AI and the open web to instantly and compliantly assign accurate industry codes to companies for KYC/KYB screening, risk management, and identification of market opportunities. Founded in 2018, Data City is headquartered in Leeds.

Doshi—United Kingdom

Doshi is an AI-native engagement layer for banks that gamifies financial education to transform behavioral data into actionable, revenue-generating product readiness signals. Founded in 2023, Doshi is headquartered in London.

Finerative—Spain

Finerative introduces Wealth MCP, a comprehensive solution that integrates seamlessly with the AI clients that financial institutions already use while maintaining full compliance. The platform delivers secure access to portfolios, products, and market data through a permissioned and encrypted infrastructure with complete audit trails. Founded in 2023, Finerative is headquartered in Madrid.

LemonadeLXP—Canada

LemonadeLXP is an AI-powered learning and knowledge platform for financial institutions. The solution drives staff performance and customer growth via engaging learning experiences. Founded in 2018, LemonadeLXP is headquartered in Ottawa.

Nextvestment—Singapore

Nextvestment enables safe self-service exploration of investment opportunities and financial planning scenarios while guiding advisors to intervene at the right moments, improving client engagement and advisor productivity without changing advisory models. Founded in 2024, Nextvestment is headquartered in Singapore.

Omnisient—United Kingdom and South Africa

Omnisient is a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform that enables financial institutions to tap into consumer behavior data directly from retailers and consumer brands to help financial institutions find best future customers—without any data ever changing hands. Founded in 2019, Omnisient is headquartered in London and Cape Town.

Palomonte Labs—United States and Argentina

Palomonte Labs offers Cube2, a solution that makes financial APIs AI-readable, enabling developers and AI agents to safely understand and execute financial integrations. Founded in 2019, Palomonte Labs is headquartered in Miami and Buenos Aires.

Tapix by Dateio—Czech Republic

Tapix is a transaction intelligence API that transforms banks’ raw payment data into clear merchant, location, and category data, powering engagement, insights, and personalization. Founded in 2013, Tapix by Dateio is headquartered in Prague.

Tweezr—Israel and the Netherlands

Tweezr enables firms to transform and grow by accelerating time to market and increasing developer productivity for both legacy system maintenance and modernization. Founded in 2024, Tweezr is headquartered in Tel Aviv and Amsterdam.

Young Early Starters—Belgium

Young Early Starters (YES) is the investing and financial education app that enables children to invest in stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with every transaction requiring parental approval. Founded in 2026, Young Early Starters is headquartered in Belgium.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Colombian fintech Plenti raised $3 million in seed funding for its money movement and investment services.
• Ant International secured a payment institution license from Brazil’s central bank.
• Analysts expressed concern over the growing popularity of “fintech financing” among workers in Argentina’s gig economy.

Asia-Pacific

• Japan’s SBI Holdings acquired a 20% stake in Indonesian online trading platform Ajaib.
• The Reserve Bank of Australian concluded there was “no clear public interest” for a central bank digital currency based on a public consultation conducted by the Verian Group.
• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) proposed a legislative framework for stablecoins.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Nigerian fintech Nomba raised $3 million debt facility via CardinalStone Finance Company.
• The Africa Report highlighted Yoco’s efforts to become the operating system for small businesses in South Africa
• Nigerian fintech Opay denied rumors that the company was planning to shut down operations inside the country.

Central and Eastern Europe

• Austria’s Volksbanken Group teamed up with Belgian fintech Oper to digitize end-to-end mortgage lending.
• Latvia-based biometric payment and identity solutions provider Handwave expanded its partnership with Visa.
• Norwegian investor Hawk Infinity is reportedly acquiring a majority stake in Hungarian fintech—and two-time Finovate Best of Show winner—Dorsum.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Jordanian “quick commerce” platform Jet Application partnered with UAE-based payment gateway Telr.
• Israel-based travel fintech Faye secured $50 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $500 million.
• Egyptian founded and UAE-headquartered fintech Remi received $135,000 from the Stellar Community Fund to build a confidential settlement layer for regulated financial institutions leveraging the Stellar network

Central and Southern Asia

• Pakistan-based Buy Now, Pay Later fintech Qist Bazaar raised $1.8 million in funding.
• Concerns over data security, money laundering, and cyberfraud were cited by India in its decision to suspend action on a proposed link between Alipay+ and UPI.
• India’s NBFC Business Nextgen Finance secured $22 million in funding from Beams Fintech Fund.

Photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash

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With FinovateFall 2026 less than a week away, there’s not much time left to make your last-minute preparations before the conference begins on September 9 (September 8 for those lucky delegates attending one of our exclusive Leaders+ or Credit Union Spotlight pre-events!).

We’re looking forward to hosting more than 2,000 senior-level decision-makers, including more than 1,000 from banks and financial institutions, and more than 300 from credit unions and community banks. Add to that our full, 72-demo roster and a slate of insightful keynote speakers and panelists, and we’re on track to deliver one of the best FinovateFall conferences to date.

To help you make the most of your experience, here’s a handy guide of need-to-knows before and during your time at FinovateFall next week. We’ll see you at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York!

Connect Yourself

• The first step is to download the ConnectMe app from your preferred app store and set up your attendee profile. The ConnectMe app is a great way to review and keep up with the conference agenda as the show gets going. You can also use ConnectMe to set your schedule for the week and begin networking. We’ve added functionality within the app to make it easier than ever to exchange digital business cards with your fellow attendees.

• Follow #FinovateFall on LinkedIn for live updates. We’ll share event photos and announcements throughout the conference.

• FinovateFall is about helping you connect with the people you want to meet, which is why we offer more than ten hours of dedicated networking time across the three days of the event. In addition to organic networking, we’re also helping you find meetings that matter via our ConnectMe platform, where you can search other attendee profiles and schedule meetings directly through the app. FinovateFall is also featuring a number of interactive discussion roundtables to facilitate conversations between industry experts and your peers. Check out our agenda to see which roundtables most interest you.

At the Conference

• The conference begins Wednesday, September 9. Registration opens each morning at 8am. Continental breakfast and coffee will be available in the networking area.

• The general sessions will begin each morning at 9am with networking breaks scheduled throughout the day. Each conference day will conclude with a drinks reception and networking opportunity.

• With so much going on at FinovateFall this year, a little preparation can go a long way toward ensuring you don’t miss the sessions, speakers, and demos you’re looking for. In addition to the agenda in ConnectMe, check out our blog posts highlighting some of this year’s top attractions.

Special Attractions

• FinovateFall 2026 has something for everybody, along with a few offerings designed for specific audiences. These include our Leaders+ and Credit Union Spotlight on September 8. These pre-event exclusives give bank and credit union professionals, respectively, an opportunity to discuss issues relevant to their organizations and hear insights and experiences from industry analysts, executives, and innovators. To learn more about joining us for Leaders+ or the Credit Union Spotlight, reach out to Rianne.Thompson@informa.com.

• Free books! FinovateFall 2026 is proud to host a pair of book signings. Steve Bishop and Tony del Fierro, co-authors of Know Your Agent, will sign their book on the morning of Wednesday, September 9. Author and founder of Unconventional Ventures Theodora Lau will sign her latest book, Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence, during the networking session Wednesday evening.

• Our award-winning strolling magician and mentalist is back! Joining attendees at the networking reception Thursday evening—ahead of our Best of Show awards presentation—our magician will wow you with feats of close-up magic and live illusions!

Final Notes

• There’s a lot going on at FinovateFall this year. To make sure you get seamless access to everything you’ve registered for, please remember to bring—and wear—your badge every conference day.

• Dress code for FinovateFall is business casual to business formal. Need some guidance? Here are some tips for women and for men.

• Questions? Before the event, feel free to reach out to us at register@finovate.com. Once you’re at the venue, stop by our registration desk on the fifth floor or ask a Finovate staffer if you need help.

The post FinovateFall 2026: The Need to Knows Before You Go appeared first on Finovate.

     

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• EMVCo released a draft framework for card-based agentic payments designed to promote secure, interoperable, and scalable transactions involving AI agents.
• The framework introduces Intent Services, a shared layer that would help payment participants register, retrieve, reference, and update consumer-authorized intent as it changes over time.
• EMVCo is exploring additional agentic payment capabilities, including Know Your Agent (KYA) and Agentic Transaction Indicators, while seeking industry feedback on the draft through September 30.

Global technical organization EMVCo released the draft of a new framework to help promote secure, interoperable and scalable agentic payments. 

Much of the conversation around agentic commerce has centered around the liability that occurs when an AI agent makes a purchase on the consumer’s behalf. EMVCo has discovered that, in agentic payment scenarios where intent needs to be managed over time, such as recurring purchases, cumulative budgets, and post-transaction activities, users may need to offer access to a shared intent “state,” which means multiple participants in a transaction may need a consistent way to determine what the consumer authorized, whether that authorization is still valid, and how much of it has already been used.

To address this, EMVCo’s proposed framework introduces “Intent Services,” a shared layer that would allow payment participants to register, retrieve, reference, and update consumer-authorized intent before, during, and after a transaction.

The framework is designed to complement, rather than replace, existing approaches to proving consumer intent. While cryptographic solutions such as Verifiable Intent can provide assurance that a consumer authorized an agent to act, EMVCo’s Intent Services would provide a common coordination point for participants to interpret and manage that authorization as it evolves over time. The framework outlines ecosystem roles and data fields for registering intent, maintaining lifecycle and state information, and allowing authorized parties to retrieve intent-related data.

“Card-based agentic payments require a globally interoperable foundation that consumers, merchants and issuers can all trust,” said EMVCo Executive Committee Chair Junya Tanaka. “This publication marks an important step forward by outlining a consistent approach for establishing and communicating intent alongside payment-related information, and we encourage participants from across the industry to share their feedback to shape its ongoing development.”

EMVCo has a dedicated Agentic Payments Task Force and is actively engaging with stakeholders, including EMVCo Associates and Subscribers. The organization is also collaborating closely with other industry partners such as the FIDO Alliance, the OpenID Foundation, the OpenWallet Foundation, and W3C.

EMVCo anticipates that creating a common foundation for card-based agentic payments will help identify potential future enhancements to other EMV technologies such as EMV 3-D Secure (3DS), EMV Payment Tokenization, EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), and the EMV Digital Payment Credential (DPC).

EMVCo is also considering capabilities related to Know Your Agent (KYA) and Agentic Transaction Indicators for future publications. These capabilities could help payment participants identify the agent involved in a transaction, communicate relevant attributes about that agent, and signal when a transaction involves an agent acting on a consumer’s behalf.

Anyone interested in providing feedback to EMVCo’s draft framework can leave their comments on the proposed framework by Wednesday, September 30.

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

The post EMVCo Releases Framework for Card-Based Agentic Payments appeared first on Finovate.

      

• Banking transformation company Finzly has launched its AI-powered security and assurance layer Assure.
• Assure provides banks and other financial institutions using Finzly’s BankOS with AI-powered security, compliance monitoring, and operational resilience that is native to the infrastructure they rely on.
• Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Finzly is a two-time Best of Show winner. The company most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2022.

The latest product launch from banking transformation company Finzly weaves security and continuous assurance natively into the infrastructure its banking customers rely on. Assure, Finzly’s newly released security and assurance layer, is part of the company’s Agentic Galaxy suite of AI capabilities, which powers BankOS, its modern operating system for banks. Financial institutions using BankOS will benefit from Assure’s AI-powered security, compliance monitoring, and operational resilience that is native to the infrastructure they are currently using.

“Banking is entering a new era where attacks happen at machine speed, requiring intelligence, innovation, and trust to evolve together,” Finzly CEO and Founder Booshan Rengachari said. “BankOS was created to help financial institutions continuously evolve, and never has that been more needed than with AI. We introduced Agentic Galaxy to transform banking operations with AI, and with Assure we are extending that intelligence into security and resilience, helping banks innovate faster while maintaining the trust their customers depend on.”

Finzly’s Assure will enable banks to detect and respond to fraud threats faster, leveraging AI to accelerate triage and investigation. The technology provides continuous monitoring of attack surface risks rather than relying on point-in-time reviews, and delivers security testing that covers both traditional and AI-enabled development. Assure also offers banks ongoing compliance evidence that is automatically collected instead of being compiled by hand.

The new offering comes at a time when AI-based fraud is transforming the threat environment for financial institutions. According to TrendAI’s Modern Bank Heists 2026 report, AI-powered attacks on banks and other financial institutions climbed by 89% year over year, while 67% of institutions reported that attackers were actively countering defenders during live incidents.

This underscores the value of continuous assurance. By giving banks evidence that critical controls are working as expected, AI-powered tools such as Assure can continuously monitor signals, identify anomalies, test controls, surface potential gaps, and expand the scope of security and compliance monitoring. Assure accomplishes this without the additional costs and manual efforts typically associated with these processes.

“As financial institutions embrace AI, security must evolve alongside innovation,” Finzly Chief Information Security Officer Supro Ghose said. “As AI security researcher Roman V. Yampolskiy has written, ‘our best hope to defend against AI-enabled hacking is by using AI.’ Assure represents our commitment to making security and intelligence foundational elements of BankOS, helping banks operate with greater confidence in an increasingly complex digital environment.”

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019, Finzly is a two-time Best of Show winner, most recently demonstrating its technology at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company showed how to build and launch a new, modern, digital banking proposition in minutes using its bank operating system technology. Finzly’s BankOS is a modern operating system for banks that manages traditional and tokenized money and the movement of that money through ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, SWIFT, and other payment rails via ISO 20022-native processing. Finzly offers banks a single platform with advanced payment processing and a unified ledger that enables them to modernize payments and launch new products and services. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Finzly was founded in 2012.

Photo by Mahoney Fotos

The post Finzly Unveils AI Assurance Layer Assure appeared first on Finovate.

      

• Cross-border money transfer and top-up firm Félix Pago (Félix) has raised $200 million in combined equity and debt funding.
• The equity component, in the amount of $87 million, was led by Andreessen Horowitz. The General Catalyst Customer Value Fund provided a $113 million credit facility.
• Félix will use the funding to scale its existing remittance business and to support the expansion of its product suite to include lending and savings. The Miami, Florida-based company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.

Cross-border money transfer startup Félix Pago has secured $200 million in Series C funding for its technology, which leverages WhatsApp to offer a conversational remittance experience for Latinos and Hispanics living in the US. The round consists of $87 million in equity funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and a $113 million credit facility from the General Catalyst Customer Value Fund. The equity portion also featured participation from QED Investors, Castle Island Ventures, Switch Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, and Endeavor Catalyst.

The investment will help Félix scale its remittance and mobile top-up services, as well as add new team members in engineering and AI. The funds will also enable Félix to expand its offering into lending and savings via third-party solutions. Félix currently offers transfers from the US to 11 countries in Latin America including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. Reporting revenue growth of 2.5x over the previous year, Félix has processed more than $8 billion in transactions since inception and served more than six million customers.

“We started Félix with remittances because sending money home is one of the most important financial needs our community has,” Félix CEO and Co-Founder Manuel Godoy wrote on his LinkedIn page. “Since then, we have processed more than $8 billion in transactions and impacted over six million people. But remittances were always the beginning. Now, we are building Félix into a Cognitive Financial Companion: a financial experience that begins with what someone wants to accomplish, rather than with a product, a form, or another app.”

Operating without a physical branch network, Félix relies on a financial infrastructure layer supported by partners such as Stripe, Mastercard, Checkout, and dLocal, and enhances its cross-border capabilities through partnerships with USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Bitso, UniTeller and zerohash. It is this constellation of partners that enables Félix to operate: the company uses a WhatsApp-based AI chatbot to manage transfers and leverages USDC on the Stellar blockchain for settlement. Bitso serves as the on/off ramp for getting funds into the hands of recipients.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Miami, Florida, Félix made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Félix Send solution, which allows financial services firms to embed cross-border remittances into their apps with a simple integration. Félix Send enables users to initiate remittances via WhatsApp with a single tap: funds are debited through the partner platform and recipients receive their money in seconds. Félix Send helps financial services companies generate new revenue streams, boost engagement, and deliver greater value to their customers.

Photo by Sergio Arteaga on Unsplash

The post Cross Border Money Transfer Outfit Félix Raises $200 Million appeared first on Finovate.

      

• Tyfone is acquiring ATTUNE to add consumer and business account opening, deposit funding, loan origination, and servicing capabilities to its digital banking platform.
• The deal gives Tyfone a role earlier in the customer lifecycle, allowing it to support financial institutions from acquisition and onboarding through lending, payments, servicing, and ongoing digital banking.
• The acquisition advances Tyfone’s evolution into a broader end-to-end banking technology provider, building on its history in mobile banking, payments, and multichannel digital banking.

Digital banking solutions company Tyfone is doubling down on its account opening and loan origination operations with the acquisition of New York-based ATTUNE.

Tyfone anticipates the acquisition will expand its platform with consumer and business account opening, deposit funding, loan origination, and servicing capabilities. Overall, the acquisition will allow the Oregon-based company to extend its digital experience from the first interaction through the entire, lifelong engagement. Additionally, Tyfone will use ATTUNE to help it build account opening and loan origination into its new lending platform.

“Community financial institutions have always differentiated themselves through trusted relationships, but today those relationships increasingly begin through digital channels,” said Tyfone CEO Siva Narendra. “This acquisition completes the digital financial relationship by bringing account opening, lending, payments, servicing, and AI-powered engagement together within a single platform. More importantly, it gives financial institutions the flexibility to compete digitally while preserving the personal relationships that have always been their greatest advantage.”

ATTUNE was founded in 2019 to offer end-to-end digital solutions for lending and home buying. The company’s Digital Origination Platform helps organize, manage, and process customers and financial products to help banks meet and stay ahead of their customers’ financial needs, and then intelligently provide logical product and service solutions. ATTUNE’s account opening and loan origination solutions are core and digital banking agnostic, which allows financial institutions to deploy them alongside their existing systems or integrate them with Tyfone’s nFinia Digital Banking Solution. 

“When we founded ATTUNE, our belief was simple,” said ATTUNE Founder and CEO AK Patel. “Community financial institutions shouldn’t have to stitch together multiple vendors to deliver a modern digital experience. The future of banking belongs to institutions that can acquire, onboard, lend to, and serve customers through one connected platform. Joining Tyfone accelerates that vision by bringing together digital account opening, lending, payments, servicing, digital banking, and AI into a single open ecosystem.”

Integrating ATTUNE’s expertise and technology into its own platform will bring Tyfone’s bank clients a unified experience that simplifies operations by eliminating fragmented point solutions in order to help banks build stronger customer relationships. With ATTUNE’s technology, banks will be able to originate consumer and business loans, accept payments through Quick Pay, offer payment flexibility with Skip-a-Pay, and manage collections with Collect.

The acquisition comes as community banks and credit unions increasingly look to consolidate their technology stacks, replacing fragmented point solutions with platforms that can support more of the customer lifecycle. Adding ATTUNE will evolve Tyfone beyond its roots in digital banking by giving it a role at the very beginning of the customer relationship. Instead of first engaging with a customer after an account has already been opened or a loan originated, Tyfone can now support the relationship from acquisition and onboarding through lending, payments, servicing, and ongoing digital banking.

“Together, we’re helping community financial institutions compete on experience instead of size, deepen customer relationships, and innovate faster while preserving the personal service that has always been their greatest competitive advantage,” added Patel.

Tyfone is one of the earlier Finovate alums, having demoed at the first Finovate event to take place in San Francisco at FinovateSpring 2008. At the show, Tyfone Co-Founder Siva Narendra demoed a memory card for a mobile phone that facilitated contactless payments. The company, which used to focus on mobile-only solutions, began developing for multiple channels in 2014. A decade later, in 2024, Tyfone launched its Payfinia brand to provide instant payment solutions to both financial institutions and third-party organizations.

Interestingly, Tyfone has evolved from mobile payments to multichannel banking to instant payments to lending and digital banking. This week’s acquisition of ATTUNE marks another step in this progression, making Tyfone more of an end-to-end banking technology platform and less of a digital banking interface provider.

Photo by Christina Morillo

The post Tyfone Acquires ATTUNE for Account Opening and Loan Origination Solutions  appeared first on Finovate.

      

UK-based lending technology provider Lenvi has unveiled its new automated loan verification software, ALVIN, designed to combat fraud risks such as double pledging. The launch follows a series of high-profile fraud cases involving MFS, Tricolor, and First Brands Group.

Double pledging takes place when a borrower uses the same asset as collateral to secure multiple loans from different lenders simultaneously—without informing the lenders that the collateral has already been pledged as security for other loans. This fraud tactic drew significant public attention this year when a number of high-profile fraud cases involved double pledging.

For example, Market Financial Solutions was a UK property lending company that collapsed in February 2026 as a result of a £1.3 billion fraud and double pledging scandal. Executives at Tricolor Holdings were accused of running a massive fraud scheme—also using double pledging—around subprime automobile loans and were charged by the SEC in August in connection with the firm’s $1.9 billion collapse. First Brands Group was another case of multibillion-dollar fraud involving fake collateral and not just double pledging, but triple pledging.

Historically, lenders have defended themselves against double pledging via collateral registries, UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filings and searches, regular and AUP audits, and even blockchain-based and digital registry solutions. Unfortunately, many of these methods fall short due to the lack of centralization among registry systems, the prevalence of manual and periodic verification processes, and increasingly sophisticated fraud strategies, including document forgery and digital manipulation—both accelerated by AI—as well as the use of shell companies and jurisdictional arbitrage.

In response, Lenvi’s ALVIN provides continuous, automated loan verification across the entire lending portfolio. Built on agentic AI, ALVIN operates alongside Lenvi’s existing AUP (Agreed-Upon Procedures) and compliance services to deliver robust, end-to-end protection for capital markets investments. ALVIN can analyze data tapes or connect directly to loan management systems via APIs, consuming data at the source to provide visibility across all funding lines. ALVIN verifies every loan document, every customer, and every pledged asset. This empowers funders to monitor processes on an ongoing basis instead of using periodic or smaller-sample checks alone.

Additionally, to help guard against double pledging, each loan is tokenized with a unique digital fingerprint. If ALVIN encounters another loan with a similar fingerprint or other matching characteristics, the software instantly alerts the funder, enabling them to investigate the matter further. ALVIN also delivers real-time visibility of cash movements, monitoring transactions from origination through repayment to ensure the funds reach the correct recipients.

“Developing ALVIN was all about helping investors to confirm that what’s on paper matches reality,” Lenvi Director of Capital Markets Owain Chambers said. “The recent cases with MFS, Tricolor, and First Brands Group have naturally shaken the market and increased scrutiny of loan verification, particularly around the risk of double pledging. This software responds directly to that nervousness and helps detect any irregularities before they cause lasting damage.”

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Leeds, UK, Lenvi made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its technology delivers rich and mature lending functionality and broad, extensible, first-party API support. This facilitates feature toggling alongside fully automated online deployments, while a React user interface and API support an endlessly configurable workflow engine in an environment that is compliant and secure. Richard Carter is Lenvi’s Chief Executive.

Photo by Mehdi Mirzaie on Unsplash

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• SettleMint has partnered with Ripple to integrate Ripple Custody into its Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP), bringing custody, issuance, compliance, settlement, and servicing together on one platform.
• The partnership expands Ripple’s institutional digital asset footprint while strengthening SettleMint’s ability to offer financial institutions an end-to-end platform for managing tokenized assets.
• The tie-up reflects tokenization’s shift from experimentation to implementation, as banks increasingly need integrated infrastructure to move digital asset initiatives into production.

Digital asset lifecycle management company SettleMint has entered a strategic partnership with blockchain solutions company Ripple to help banks custody, issue, and manage tokenized assets.

SettleMint will integrate Ripple Custody, Ripple’s institutional-grade digital asset custody infrastructure, with its own Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform (DALP), a composable digital asset lifecycle platform built for financial institutions, market infrastructure operators, and sovereign entities. DALP brings issuance, compliance, custody, settlement, and servicing onto a single platform, allowing financial institutions to manage the full lifecycle of a digital asset without relying on multiple vendors or separate systems to move from pilot to production. SettleMint’s DALP is currently used by financial institutions across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

Ripple launched its digital asset custody infrastructure in 2024 and has since expanded its capabilities via new partnerships with Securosys and Figment, an integration with Chainalysis, and its acquisition of Palisade in November of 2025. Bringing Ripple’s custody solution into SettleMint’s DALP platform will allow institutions to hold and manage digital assets in a regulated, compliant way using a single vendor for custody, issuance, compliance, and servicing.

“Global capital markets are moving fully on-chain, and that shift only works when digital asset custody and lifecycle management operate as one system rather than two,” said SettleMint CEO Adam Popat. “Combining Ripple Custody and DALP gives institutions that single foundation, and this partnership lets us bring it to regulated markets globally.”

The offering is now live in Asia and will be available in other geographies as demand develops.

“Financial institutions across Asia Pacific are putting digital assets to work,” said Ripple Managing Director of Asia Pacific Fiona Murray. “They are asking how to do more without stitching together separate solutions for custody, issuance, and governance. This partnership gives them the foundation to roll out digital assets and future-proof them from there: Ripple Custody to hold and govern the asset, and SettleMint to manage its entire lifecycle.”

Founded under the name OpenCoin in 2012, Ripple debuted at FinovateSpring the following year. The company provides blockchain-based solutions across traditional and digital finance. Its solutions span global payments, custody, liquidity, prime brokerage, and treasury management tools for banks, fintechs, payment service providers, and crypto businesses.

The partnership extends the reach of Ripple’s custody infrastructure by embedding it within a broader digital asset management platform. For SettleMint, adding Ripple Custody strengthens DALP’s ability to serve as a single access point for institutions looking to issue and manage tokenized assets.

Just as we’re seeing with stablecoins, tokenization is moving from experimentation to implementation. As banks move tokenized assets into production, custody alone is not enough. Participating institutions will also need to add infrastructure for issuance, compliance, settlement, and ongoing asset management. Integrating these functions eliminates the need for institutions to stitch together multiple providers, making it easier for banks to move forward with digital asset initiatives.

Photo by Dash Cryptocurrency

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• MeridianLink announced its acquisition of financial wellness platform Credit Mountain. Financial terms were not disclosed.
• The acquisition will help MeridianLink launch its Pathway solution, which helps community financial institutions provide declined borrowers with a personalized pathway to loan approval.
• Credit Mountain won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York.

As FinovateFall 2026 approaches, we’re sharing news from FinovateFall alumni to give you a sense of the kind of companies that will be demoing their latest innovations live on stage September 9 through 11.

Consider Credit Mountain, a financial wellness platform that won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024. Earlier this month, MeridianLink, a software platform provider for financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies, announced its acquisition of the company. In a statement, MeridianLink said that the acquisition will support the launch of its MeridianLink Pathway, which enables community financial institutions to provide declined borrowers with a personalized and fully compliant pathway toward loan approval. MeridianLink also previewed MeridianLink Coach, which is scheduled to launch later this year and leverages AI-powered guidance to help consumers build or improve their credit profile.

“Through MeridianLink Pathway and the future launch of MeridianLink Coach, we’re helping community financial institutions transform the loan decline experience,” MeridianLink CEO Larry Katz said. “Pathway gives borrowers a personalized, compliant path toward future approval, while MeridianLink Coach delivers AI-powered guidance to help consumers strengthen their financial health over time. Together, these solutions help financial institutions create more paths to yes, improve financial outcomes, and build trusted relationships that extend far beyond a single lending decision. To us, that is the true spirit of Lending Made Human.”

MeridianLink’s acquisition of Credit Mountain is the latest example of the company’s accelerated technology investment strategy. This includes MeridianLink’s Lending Lifecycle initiative, which is designed to empower financial institutions to engage borrowers before, during, and after the lending decision. As credit unions and community banks are pursuing ways to make faster lending decisions, engage more creditworthy borrowers, and deepen member and customer relationships, solutions that help enhance financial wellness and expand access to credit have become increasingly valuable. Credit Mountain’s expertise in helping lenders and financial institutions remain constructively engaged with borrowers who experience an initial loan rejection supports all of these goals.

When a borrower is rejected, MeridianLink Pathway will automatically provide a personalized adverse action experience to enable the applicant to understand the reasoning behind the loan decision and the steps they can take to successfully secure financing going forward. Unlike other approaches, Pathway communicates support rather than rejection by providing financial guidance and a personalized “Path to Yes” plan. It also enables lenders and financial institutions to turn adverse action compliance into an opportunity to build better relationships.

“Community financial institutions succeed when they help consumers achieve their financial goals,” Credit Mountain Founder Nathan Pinto said. “This acquisition strengthens our ability to help more lenders serve more borrowers, build deeper relationships, and offer innovative lending experiences where every borrower has a clear path forward. We’re thrilled to be a part of MeridianLink and look forward to continued innovation together.”

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Credit Mountain made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024. At the conference, Pinto demonstrated how the company’s technology transforms the end-to-end decline experience for lenders when they must reject a borrower. Credit Mountain offers a lead tracking/nurturing system and personalized Path to Yes, enabling lenders to give declined borrowers a path to securing the financing they need.

Serving more than 1,800 community financial institutions and 78 million credit union members throughout the US, MeridianLink offers a digital lending platform and suite of solutions to help banks, credit unions, and consumer reporting agencies serve, scale, and grow. Leveraging automation, built-in compliance, trusted AI and data, as well as a robust partner network, MeridianLink provides solutions across account opening, loan origination and optimization, digital mortgages, collections, and reporting. Headquartered in Irvine, California, MeridianLink was founded in 1998.

Photo by Heather Wilde on Unsplash

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We officially have 72 demos on stage at this year’s FinovateFall conference, taking place September 9 through 11 at the Marriott Marquis in New York (book now!). This year’s lineup is a nice mix of startups with established players, and with all demos running on a single track, you won’t miss a thing. This concentrated format makes it easy to spot the patterns shaping bank roadmaps for the next 12 to 18 months.

Here’s a look at what trends lie ahead, based on what we’re seeing across this year’s demo companies.

AI gets to work

It will come as no surprise that AI is the most prominent enabling technology on the FinovateFall stage this year. What’s more interesting is that this year’s demo companies are showing that the industry has evolved its use of AI to tackle specific jobs that are expensive, repetitive, time consuming, or difficult to scale.

In wealth management, AdvisorHelpAI, Covecta, GPTAdvisor, Nextvestment, Mobena, and Valcori Automated Solutions are using technology to augment advisors, improve planning, organize institutional knowledge, or streamline the work that happens around client relationships. CUltivate AI, LemonadeLXP, and ScreenSteps are focused on the employee side of the equation, helping financial institution staff learn, find information, and navigate complex processes more efficiently. Inbenta, Titan AI, Tweezr, Birdie AI, and Hamming AI similarly point toward a future in which AI is embedded into service and operational workflows rather than living in a standalone chatbot.

The same shift is happening with data. Pyramid Solutions, Data City, Preql AI, and Ventus AI are helping organizations extract more useful intelligence from the data they already have, while Go.AI allows financial institutions to use AI while maintaining greater control over their data, models, and outputs.

Banks are slowly realizing that they can outsource a wide range of tasks to AI, and fintechs are making that possible.

Agentic AI moves deeper into financial operations

The next evolution is already visible as fintechs begin building technology capable of taking action.

Saris AI is building agents to automate lending, compliance, and operations tasks, while Rexi applies an agentic layer to transaction matching, reconciliation, and discrepancy resolution. Palomonte Labs is building infrastructure that makes financial APIs understandable and executable by AI agents, and Tacnode is tackling the data layer by giving agents access to shared, real-time context.

Agentic concepts are showing up in more specialized areas, too. Vertice AI is applying autonomous capabilities to marketing campaign planning and execution, while Transvision Solutions uses autonomous AI to conduct AML investigations. Kita Technologies deploys multiple specialized agents across the lending process. Voyager AI similarly brings intelligence to document collection, spreading, underwriting, compliance, and credit memo preparation.

The first generation of agentic banking may be much less visible to consumers than other developments have been. Rather than immediately handing an AI agent control over a customer’s entire financial life, financial institutions appear more interested in deploying specialized agents with narrowly defined jobs, permissions, data, and guardrails.

Fintech targets operating leverage

One of the more interesting themes in this year’s lineup has less to do with a particular technology and more to do with the outcome fintechs are promising. Many are seeking to help financial institutions accomplish more without adding equivalent amounts of headcount, cost, or complexity.

This becomes very clear when we look at the lending subsector. ALoan is automating commercial underwriting and credit memo preparation, while QuickFi digitizes commercial equipment financing from application through final payment. Kato uses automation to lower the cost of servicing and collections, Veritus deploys AI voice and text agents across lending and collections, and Vertyx automates servicing workflows after mortgage close. Donevia adds an intelligence and engagement layer to existing lending infrastructure rather than requiring institutions to replace their LOS.

Other companies are attacking operational friction from different angles. MHC automates documents, payments, and customer communications, while Naehas automates regulated offers, disclosures, and marketing processes. Loquat brings onboarding, lending, cards, and back-office lifecycle management together for community financial institutions. Finerative, Horizon AI, FFERM Technologies, and adapfin Technologies are also addressing specialized areas where better technology can streamline decision-making or financial operations.

Even Delfi Labs, which operates in capital markets rather than traditional bank operations, reflects the same underlying theme by using AI-guided analytics and streamlined execution to help community financial institutions make balance-sheet decisions more efficiently.

This is a notable shift from an earlier era of fintech, when some of the industry’s most visible innovations centered on making banking look and feel better. Smoother onboarding and cleaner interfaces still matter, but much of this year’s technology is focused on making the institution itself operate better.

Customer engagement gets tied to outcomes

Customer engagement and financial wellness remain prominent on the demo stage, but this year’s companies are increasingly connecting them to measurable behaviors and business outcomes.

BankUniverse uses intent signals to identify high-value prospects and improve digital conversion, while Finalytics.ai uses behavioral, transactional, and third-party data to create segment-of-one experiences. Tapix enriches raw payment data to create the clean merchant and transaction information needed to power better analytics and personalization. Omnisient adds another dimension by enabling privacy-preserving collaboration around consumer data, and Radar uses location intelligence not only for fraud prevention, but also to help companies engage users in context.

Other companies are connecting financial wellness more directly to action. Doshi combines gamified financial education with product-readiness signals, while GenAspire uses teen banking and financial literacy as an acquisition strategy for community financial institutions. Young Early Starters combines education with real, parent-approved investing, and On Time Harvest pairs cash-flow forecasting and behavioral insights with financial education and planning.

Perqia uses incentives timed to borrower cash flow to encourage loan repayment. Clockout connects financial wellness and liquidity tools to direct-deposit growth and engagement. And Goodbuy turns community commerce into a channel designed to drive account activation, deposits, card usage, and interchange.

Even lending and payments are becoming more contextual. equipifi brings personalized BNPL and flexible payments into the digital banking relationship, while OptimaFI uses household-level intelligence and peer benchmarking to identify growth and risk opportunities.

The common thread is that engagement is now focused on influencing what happens next instead of generating clicks.

Infrastructure takes center stage

Much of the technology on the FinovateFall stage will be the infrastructure that consumers never see.

Payments provide a good example. 3 Degrees enables community banks and credit unions to embed cross-border payments, while Finzly provides infrastructure for banks to process payments across rails including ACH, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT, and FedNow. Neural Payments connects financial institutions to multiple payment rails and wallets through a single branded integration. Paywhere and Tyfone also illustrate the continued evolution of the technology connecting financial institutions, payments, and digital banking experiences.

Glide combines digital account opening, lending, onboarding, identity verification, fraud detection, and funding, demonstrating another important infrastructure trend: financial institutions increasingly want capabilities that can slot into their existing environments rather than require wholesale replacement.

Security and trust are becoming part of that infrastructure, as well. Darwinium continuously evaluates digital behavior to identify fraud across customer journeys, while Illuma applies voice authentication to contact-center security. SLC Digital focuses on secure digital authentication and account-takeover prevention, and Quavo Fraud & Disputes tackles the operational infrastructure surrounding fraud and disputes.

McCarthy Hatch applies AI to regulatory risk by analyzing customer complaints, while RangersAI moves fraud prevention closer to the customer with real-time scam education and intervention. Warrant and Root represent other approaches to establishing trust and managing risk as financial services become increasingly digital.

And some infrastructure is aimed at expanding what financial institutions can offer in the first place. Blytz, Cosmos, and FinZee AI illustrate just how broadly the definition of financial technology continues to stretch, from new forms of financial interaction to technologies that connect financial behavior with other sources of context.

In a broad sense, many of this year’s fintechs aren’t trying to replace the bank or even become the customer’s primary financial interface. This new breed is building the intelligence, automation, security, payments, data, and workflow layers that allow existing financial institutions to modernize.

What’s missing?

For a demo lineup this large, almost every corner of fintech has some representation. Still, one of today’s loudest industry conversations is surprisingly quiet.

Stablecoins have moved squarely into mainstream conversations about payments, settlement, and banking infrastructure, but there isn’t a corresponding wave of stablecoin issuers, tokenized-deposit platforms, crypto custody providers, or blockchain companies on the demo stage. This is a reflection of the fact that regulatory frameworks like those established by the GENIUS Act and proposed under the CLARITY Act are still taking shape, and many traditional banks are hesitant to jump into decentralized finance without established regulatory guidelines.

Overall, this year’s demos point toward a fintech industry that is becoming less focused on novelty and more focused on execution. AI is being tasked with real work, agents are beginning to execute defined processes, infrastructure is drawing attention, and customer engagement is increasingly being tied to measurable outcomes.

The flashy front-end experience hasn’t disappeared, but much of the innovation at FinovateFall 2026 will be happening behind it. And for banks planning their next 12 to 18 months of technology investment, that may be the trend that matters most.

Photo by crazy motions

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There are still a few weeks left of summer, but the final day of August often serves as the unofficial end of summer for many—with kids returning to school and Labor Day around the corner.

As the week begins, Finovate’s Fintech Rundown is highlighting a handful of fintech funding announcements in payments, wealth management, and capital markets, as well as interesting partnership news in DeFi and identity verification involving fintechs from Singapore and South Korea.

Fraud prevention

Nasdaq Verafin teams up with Q6 Cyber, combining dark web fraud intelligence with consortium data insights.

Digital banking

Deutsche Bank’s Private Bank partners with Thought Machine for its core banking overhaul.

Vertice AI launches Vertice OPTIMIZE growth engine.

OnePay launches My Garage to offer users a full picture of vehicle ownership into one place.

Capital markets

Clearing and custody firm RQD* Clearing raises $74 million in a round led by Bain Capital.

Payments

Canadian payment processor Helcim secures C$53 million in Series C funding.

Online music instrument and equipment retailer Sweetwater partners with payment orchestration platform Gr4vy to modernize its payment infrastructure.

Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta turns to ACI Worldwide for its cloud-native, centralized payments hub ACI Connetic.

FIS and Ericsson to help remove integration barriers for organizations launching wallet-led financial services.

Vroozi named a leader in Nucleus Research’s source-to-pay technology value matrix.

MessagePay signs its 400th financial institution.

Wealth management

Vanguard agrees to acquire wealth and custody platform Altruist.

Multiplier, an agentic AI startup for asset managers, raises $6 million in seed financing.

Identity verification

Experian and Singapore-based account validation service provider iPiD forge strategic partnership to scale bank account verification across borders.

Stablecoins

Visa inks a strategic partnership with South Korean fintech Dunamu to develop stablecoin payments, international remittance services, and AI-powered e-commerce solutions.

Credit unions

Baton Rouge Telco Federal Credit Union launches AI-powered smart financial calculators courtesy of its partnership with Appli.

Lending

RateZip launches live US bank rate and mortgage rate app in ChatGPT.

CheckAlt and LoanPro partner to expand payment processing capabilities for lenders.

Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash

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