Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 16 December 2017
Kasisto Announces $17 Million in Series B Funding led by Oak HC/FT
Kasisto, creators of KAI, the leading conversational AI platform for finance, today announced a $17 million Series B funding round led by Oak HC/FT with participation from existing investors Propel Venture Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Mastercard and Partnership Fund for New York City.
KAI enables financial institutions to acquire new customers as well as engage, support, and generate additional revenue from existing customers via human-like, intelligent conversations with smart-bots and virtual assistants, anytime, anywhere.
The new capital will be used to scale the business to meet the increasing demand for Kasisto’s products in existing and new markets as well as deepen partnerships with existing customers. This new funding will also be invested in expanding the KAI platform to include new AI-powered features and incorporate innovations that continue to deliver both business results and customer engagement and delight.
“This past year has been one of explosive growth across the board – the number of signed deals and deployed customers, our team’s strength and size, and KAI’s feature robustness and readiness for large-scale enterprise deployments,” says Zor Gorelov, CEO and Co-Founder of Kasisto. “There is great momentum going into this investment, especially following the recent signing of major customers including TD Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. We are very excited to partner with Oak HC/FT on this next phase and consider their track record and expertise in the finance sector a significant asset.”
Santander adopts The B2 Group’s Multi-Bank Integrator automated banking platform for Supply Chain Finance
The B2 Group, the provider of cloud-based payments software and consultancy solutions, announced today that Santander UK have chosen its Multi-Bank Integrator platform to further enhance their supply chain finance solution for major corporate clients.
Multi-Bank, a 5th generation platform based on two decades of experience and launched at the start of 2016, enables corporates to automatically connect with their banks for processing of payments and statements, providing a single point of access and cash management portal. The fully managed Multi-Bank service already boasts an ever-growing global clientele of subscriber institutions, including major banks, multi-national corporates and insurers, as well as a rapidly expanding community of partner banks connected to the platform. Outgoing payments and incoming statements are processed automatically via secure links with the banks to deliver fast and tangible benefits, including; automation of incoming statements, “smart” reconciliation of credit and debit payments, real-time enterprise-wide cash visibility, automation of complex business processes such as supply-chain finance, cash pooling and sweeping, and controlled automation of outgoing accounts payable, payroll and treasury payments via a real-time portal. Multi-Bank also fully integrates with most ERP and TMS platforms, to provide true end-to-end processing, with associated cost savings through reduced back-office headcount.
NatWest introduces Face ID for mobile app login on iPhone X
NatWest customers who have an Iphone X are now able to use facial recognition technology to log into their mobile banking app. Using Apple’s Face ID functionality, NatWest customers with an iPhone X can now securely log-in by having the phone recognise their face. The NatWest app will still retain the option for customers to access their accounts using a passcode.
NatWest customers are increasingly using digital technology to access their banking with 1.1 billion mobile and online transactions carried out in the first half of 2017, an increase of 41% since 2014. Mobile transactions have increased by 73% since 2014 and there were 3,531 log-ins per minute to our apps in Q3 2017.
Miguel Tatay, Head of Mobile, said: “There has been a revolution in banking, more and more of our customers are using digital platforms to bank with us. Over 5 million of our customers now regularly use our mobile banking apps. People tell us that they expect a bank to be innovative, digital and responsive to their needs, and adding Face ID to our app does just that – making it even easier and more convenient for customers with an iPhone X to access and manage their finances on the move”.
