By Christopher Hamman
What a week!
Things rolled by with the world wondering when Congress will put its act together on the looming debt limit.
The recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) is apparently pro-crypto, with DAOs taking center stage, and Goldmans’ Platform Solutions Unit lost out big time last year.
Insurtech and community banking were also hot topics, with several deals outlining the importance of credit unions to the US economy.
Here’s the round-up of events in the digital wealth space.
Wealthtech and Advisors
FNZ/YieldX
FNZ, the leading WealthTech management platform, revealed its YieldX acquisition. The portfolio management solutions provider enables financial institutions, advisors, wealth managers, and other players with personalization, analytics, and other end-to-end solutions that allow seamless workflows and decisions.
The partnership allows FNZ to provide YieldX’s fixed-income solutions to clients.
FNZ had previously acquired German trading and custody firm Fondespot Bank.
Blue Owl Capital Inc.
Alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital partnered with iCapital and Allfunds to increase its private wealth offerings.
Blue Owl’s direct lending strategy is available to iCapital’s clients through an iCapital feeder fund.
The direct lending strategy allows investors to source and include debt and equity investments in the US technology sector.
Crypto, Blockchain and Digital Assets
FNZ/YieldX
FNZ, the leading WealthTech management platform, revealed its YieldX acquisition. The portfolio management solutions provider enables financial institutions, advisors, wealth managers, and other players with personalization, analytics, and other end-to-end solutions that allow seamless workflows and decisions.
The partnership allows FNZ to provide YieldX’s fixed-income solutions to clients.
FNZ had previously acquired German trading and custody firm Fondespot Bank.
Blue Owl Capital Inc.
Alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital partnered with iCapital and Allfunds to increase its private wealth offerings.
Blue Owl’s direct lending strategy is available to iCapital’s clients through an iCapital feeder fund.
Direct lending strategy allows investors to source and include debt and equity investments in the US technology sector.
Fintech, Personal Finance and Apps
Oracle
The enterprise software giant Oracle Flexcube core banking revealed that it gained onboarding fees worth $27.5 million from global customers in 19 countries.
The customers include India’s Aavas Financiers, Cambodia’s Wing Bank and Prasac, and a yet-to-be-revealed US client.
Signifiyd/Commercetools
San Jose-based seamless commerce solutions platform Signifyd teamed up with Commercetools to launch its services on the Commercetools Integration Marketplace.
Merchants can now authorize payments without the fear of loss via Sygnifid’s plug-in. The plug-in also increases merchant’s operating standards including chargeback protection.
nsKnox
Banking and payment security solutions firm nsKnox gained $17 million in a funding round that included Link Ventures, Viola Ventures, M12, Harel Insurance and Finance, CEO Alon Cohen, and others.
nsKnox aims to improve and expand its current infrastructure, including increasing marketing activities to banks and other corporate clients.
Apart from bank account authentication, the cybersecurity firm’s solutions include insider fraud prevention, business exchange compromise (BEC), social engineering, and other attack prevention solutions.
Banking, Payments and Infrastructure
Core10
Community bank-focused software services company Core10 completed a successful series B funding round worth $6.5 million. The funding will be used to improve and grow its Accrue financial services suite and expand its banking linkage services.
Patriot Financial Partners led the round alongside Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and JAM FINTOP.
The firm’s total funding is now at $12.5 million.
Union Credit
Credit union startup marketplace Union Credit revealed the successful closing of a $5 million seed funding round which CMFG Ventures led and included Marina Sonoma Impact Ventures (MSIV).
Union Credit also partnered with CuneXus, a CUNA Mutual Group subsidiary.
Goldman Sachs
Reports show that investment banking behemoth Goldman Sach’s Platform Solutions unit continued its losing streak with $1.2 billion losses in the first nine months of 2022.
This follows losses of $783 million in 2020 and $1.05 billion in 2021.
Though the unit posted higher inflows in the past year, operating expenses and credit losses were the cornerstones of the losses.
REtech, Insurtech and Investing
iLife Technologies
InsurTech platform iLife Technologies successfully raised $4 million in a round led by Foundation Capital, involving Jerry Yang-founded AME Cloud Ventures and Taiwanese Cherubic Ventures.
iLife allows agents and brokers to create digital insurance agencies and does not interact directly with consumers.
BondExchange/BrightFire
Surety bond technology development company BondExchange revealed a partnership with BrightFire, a digital marketing company for insurance companies and institutions.
The partnership provides agents with end-to-end solutions that allow agents to scale and improve their businesses seamlessly.
Insured.io
Insurance customer solutions company insured.io added payments to its toolbox. The payments feature, “Payments Center”, allows players in the insurance ecosystem to create payment processes that ease the administrative burden from within its Insured Portal.
Other features Payment Center offers include payment options, disclosures, content, messaging, and advance payment scheduling for up to 30 days.
Assurant/Avenue5
Proptech firm Assurant disclosed a multi-year extension of its current partnership with Avenue5 Residential, the property management company.
Per the partnership, Assurant will enhance the current Point of Lease (PoL) to its Cover360 product, allowing property management service firms to solve current insurance issues.
Assurant allows property management firms to offer renters insurance by text or email. Cover360 improves this offering via self-service.
