Feb. 7, 2019

Possible Finance, which specializes in short-term loans to underbanked consumers, has raised $4.3 million in equity and debt financing in a round led by Unlock Venture Partners and Columbia Pacific Advisors and is expanding into California.

The investment brings the total amount raised to $6 million since the company was incorporated in November 2017, according to a press release. Existing investors include FJ Labs, Seattle Bank, Hustle Fund, Union Bay Partners and other angel investors,

The company provides loans through a mobile app of up to $500 without running a credit check. It analyzes prior bank data using machine learning technology. Before entering California, the firm operated in Idaho, Washington and Utah.

The company will use the funding to expand into additional states and launch products to help customers improve their financial health, according to the release.

Possible Finance recently hired Sanchit Arora, the co-founder and CTO of Dextro, a machine learning company that was recently acquired by Axon. The founders of Possible Finance, Tyler Conant, Prasad Mahendra and Tony Huang, were part of the original software team at Axon, where they helped pioneer policy body camera technology, according to the release.

Topics: Financial News, Mobile Banking, Money Transfer / P2P

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Feb. 7, 2019

Tink, a Stockholm-based open banking platform, has raised $63.5 million (56 million euros) in an investment round led by Insight Venture Partners, according to a press release.

Existing investors Sunstone, SEB, Nordea Ventures and ABM Amro Digital Impact Fund participated in the round. Two new individual investors, Christian Clausen, former chairman of the European Banking Federation and Nikolay Storonsky, founder of Revolut, also participated.

Tink's developer platform will expand to five markets, bringing the total number of markets to nine, including the Nordics, the U.K., Austria, Germany, Belgium and Spain, through its account aggregation API.

Tink said the investment will help fund further expansion, as it plans to be in 20 European markets by the end of 2019 and will increase the number of workers to 300 and open four new offices. The company has 150 employees at its headquarters. The company did not disclose where it plans to open offices.

"As Europe gradually embraces open banking, our platform has proved to be its rails and brains — delivering the technology that makes it possible," Daniel Kjellen, co-founder and CEO, said in the release.

Topics: Financial News, Mobile Banking, Region: EMEA

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Feb. 6, 2019

Carvana, the e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars, has launched a program with Bank of America to let buyers shop and obtain financing through the lender’s own platform, a move that will add about 15,000 Carvana vehicles to the bank's overall inventory.

Customers visiting Bank of America's digital shopping tool can select a Carvana vehicle, select a financing application through the bank and complete the transaction on Carvana.com, all within about 10 minutes. Customers can trade-in their own vehicles and get next-day delivery.

"We launched Bank of America digital car shopping to offer our clients a more convenient and transparent experience -- from searching vehicles and dealerships to qualifying for financing, all from a desktop or mobile device," said David Hollodick, senior vice president of consumer vehicle lending at Bank of America. "With Carvana vehicles added to our platform, our clients can take the process one step further and finalize a purchase without ever leaving home."

The vehicles on both platforms are Carvana certified, which entails a 150 point inspection and have never been in a reported accident and have no frame damage. All Carvana cars have a seven day return policy.

Topics: Mobile Banking, Online Purchasing

Companies: Bank of America, Carvana

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Feb. 7, 2019

Bank of America is launching a mobile toolkit for small businesses, Business Advantage 360, which provides a way to manage finances using a smartphone.

The platform, which is provided to any customer with a business deposit account, provides information cash flow as well as real-time guidance and expertise on managing finances, according to a news release.

Clients can see information on smartphones or tablets about cash flow, connect with small business bankers and access information about expenses and payments. The tool will be enhanced with payment, tax, payroll, merchant services and other capabilities, according to the release. It will be available by the end of February and is built directly into the Bank of America mobile and online platforms.

Bank of America has nine million clients that own a small business.

Topics: Mobile Apps, Mobile Banking

Companies: Bank of America

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Feb. 7, 2019

Barclays plc led a $12.9 million (10 million pounds) investment in Bink, an app-based payment and loyalty platform, according to a press release and Twitter posting from the startup.

The companies will work together in a strategic partnership to deliver "groundbreaking experiences for customers." The investment is part of a larger plan to drive business models for growth.

Bink, founded in 2015, helps link payment cards with loyalty programs, so users automatically accrue points when they make a purchase.

"Bink has created a practical and innovative solution to an everyday problem and we're excited to support them in the next stage of their growth," Ruchir Rodrigues, head of digital and open banking at Barclays, said in the release.

He said six million Barclays customers use the bank's mobile app and that the Bink alliance will help them avoid missing out on loyalty benefits.

Bink had previously announced plans to expand into the U.S. and South Africa, as well as enter a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The Microsoft alliance involved selling the Bink loyalty solution to retailers, according to a Bink press release.

Topics: Financial News, Loyalty Programs, Mobile Banking

Companies: Barclays

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Feb. 6, 2019

Paytronix Systems Inc. announced an agreement with Jamba Juice to deploy its digital rewards platform and migrate more than 19 million gift and stored value cards to the new system, according to a company release.

"Jamba Juice has multiple types of comp programs and gift card offerings that give our guests the convenience of pre-paid, cashless purchases," Jyoti Lynch, senior vice president and chief information officer at Jamba Juice, said in the announcement.

Lynch said the company needed to automate the manual process of accounting and reporting.

"Paytronix was not only the best choice to tackle the challenges of our POS platform migration and program’s back-end administration, but to position our program for future growth through their robust integration capabilities," Lynch said.

Michelle Tempesta, head of marketing at Paytronix, said the new agreement will help Jamba Juice grow its gift card revenue through new sales channels, including third-party retail as well as enable data analysis.

"Digitized cards transform the ways guests pay for orders, expediting the order process both in store and off premise to serve more guests in a shorter period of time," Tempesta said in the announcement.

Jamba, a unit of Focus Brands, has more than 800 locations globally. Paytronics, based in Newton, Massachusetts, works with more than 490 brands at 27,600 locations.

Topics: Mobile Payments, POS, Restaurants, Retail

Companies: Paytronix Systems, Inc., Jamba Juice

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