Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 16 February 2018
Payfone raises $23 million
Payfone, the world’s leading digital identity authentication network, today announced that it has raised $23 million to expand its user experience-enhancing cybersecurity services in the retail, insurance, and healthcare sectors.
The funding round was led by an institutional investor with participation by premier consumer financial services company Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF); MassMutual Ventures, the venture fund of leading mutual life insurance company Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual); Anil Aggarwal and Jonathan Weiner, the founders of Money20/20, Shoptalk and HLTH; and Andrew Prozes, the former global CEO of LexisNexis. The financing reinforces Payfone’s position as a new standard of digital identity authentication that enables enterprises to combat fraud, while enhancing the customer experience to accelerate revenue.
“Our research shows that by 2020, 2/3 of e-commerce sales will be conducted by adults under 40. This next wave of customers will be mobile-first and will expect transactions to be both fast and secure,” said Rodger Desai, Founder and CEO of Payfone. “The days of using quizzes, questions and one-time codes to verify identity are numbered. Payfone is ushering in a new world where authentication is instant, passive and continuous using the most advanced cybersecurity. Our mission is to help clients across the financial, retail, insurance, healthcare, and technology industries use authentication to not only thwart fraud but drive revenue.”
Singapore and Egypt bolster fintech co-operation
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) signed an agreement to strengthen FinTech cooperation between the two countries on 6 February 2018. The Cooperation Agreement was signed at Seamless North Africa 2018 (under the patronage of the CBE), a conference focused on Payments, FinTech and eCommerce.
The agreement allows both parties to refer FinTech companies to each other so that the companies would be able to tap on the support to better understand the regulatory regime in each country. It also sets forth a framework under which MAS and CBE can explore potential joint innovation projects and share information on emerging FinTech trends.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS, said, “We are delighted to work with the CBE on this FinTech partnership. The FinTech ecosystems in Singapore and Egypt have their unique set of opportunities, and this agreement signifies MAS’ and CBE’s commitment to accelerate the growth of FinTech through collaboration and knowledge-sharing. We believe that this will create more opportunities for FinTech firms between our countries.”
IdentityMind closes $10 million Series C
IdentityMind Global, the leader in Digital Identities You Can Trust, today announced that it has closed a $10 million Series C round of financing.
In addition to all existing investors, the round was co-led by Benhamou Global Ventures and Eastern Link Capital and included Hanna Ventures, Overstock.com, and Zanadu Capital Partners.
IdentityMind provides a SaaS RegTech platform that builds, maintains and analyzes digital identities worldwide, allowing companies to perform identity proofing, risk-based authentication, regulatory identification, and to detect and prevent identity fraud.
According to Garrett Gafke, President and CEO, IdentityMind Global, the new funds will be used to drive expansion within international markets (Asia, Latin America and Europe), sales, marketing, and the company’s new business unit specifically dedicated to providing know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions to address the regulatory and compliance requirements of the rapidly growing Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and cryptocurrency markets.
