Category: Doing Business Overseas

Successful innovation in business requires much more than just a good idea. Strategic planning and having the proper teams and technology are also key, but what might be the most important element is listening to what the client wants. Banks need to listen to specific client feedback to determine where to invest time and capital…

Lenders have always faced some level of uncertainty, but the past few years have truly put the industry to the test. While many have enhanced their systems with new enabling technologies, there are still a number of uncertainties– including inflated income due to Covid relief funds and increased spending power thanks to a student loan…

Digital mortgage lending company Better launched a new product, One Day Mortgage, that offers borrowers a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours of applying for a loan. During a period of beta testing, Better reported that it processed over $50 million in commitments, offering commitment letters in an average of 12 hours. To qualify for…

IBM’s hybrid-cloud efforts paid off in the fourth quarter of 2022 following a strategic prioritization of cloud and AI strategies in the prior quarter. WHY IT MATTERS: As part of the tech giant’s software portfolio growth, investments throughout 2022 were made in hybrid-cloud and AI capabilities, Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said during Wednesday’s Q4 earnings…

Germany-based fraud prevention and AML solution provider Hawk AI has raised $17 million in Series B funding this week. The round was led by Sands Capital and featured participation from DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital, and adds to the $10 million Hawk AI raised in 2021. Hawk AI made its Finovate…

Finovate alums raised more than $2.7 billion in equity funding in 2022. The sum makes the $8.4 billion raised in 2021 seem all the more an outlier as our alumni funding levels return to those common in 2020 and before. Previous Annual Comparisons The fourth quarter of 2022 saw Finovate alums secure more than $380…

Microsoft posted increased revenue year over year in its fiscal second quarter driven by its commercial business, specifically Microsoft Cloud. WHY IT MATTERS: In the first half of fiscal 2023, more than 70% of revenue came from commercial business, and over 70% of the commercial business derived from Microsoft Cloud, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood…

Bold Commerce and PayPal struck up a partnership that will better integrate payments into more checkout experiences. Using Bold Commerce’s headless checkout tool, retailers can place a point-of-sale wherever shoppers interact, including on blogs, within social media, and even on the packaging of a physical good. The new solution is available in Bold Commerce’s Checkout…

Capital One reported higher technology-related expenses for the fourth quarter despite reducing its tech workforce as the company “continues to invest in its retail banking business,” Chief Executive Richard Fairbank said during Tuesday’s Q4 earnings call.  WHY IT MATTERS: The $455 billion bank reported a 9% year-over-year increase in total non-interest expenses to $5 billion…

Continuous product design platform company Quantum Metric launched its Atlas solution this week. Atlas provides enterprises with a library of pre-built industry guides to help them turn digital opportunities into new products and solutions for customers. Quantum Metric won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope n 2021. Quantum Metric, the continuous product…