In a Valentine’s Day Special, FinTech Global takes a look at some of the partnerships in FinTech that have begun their (hopefully) fruitful and long-lasting relationships in the new year.
Valentine’s Day is upon us, and some FinTech companies are seizing the opportunity to use the holiday in their marketing efforts. Car FinTech company Carmoola, which aims to reinvent how people pay for cars, launched its own Karma Sutra-inspired Valentine’s Day card game.
Aptly named, the “Car-ma Sutra” game shows its players different ways to have sex in, or around, their car, with car-related names such as “The Undercover Mechanic”. Romantic.
Valentine’s Day in FinTech has not always gone smoothly. Back in 2019, Revolut hit the headlines for its Valentine’s Day tube advert which ruffled some feathers.
The advert read, “To the 12,750 people who ordered a single takeaway on Valentine’s Day. You okay, hun?” This prompted the Advertising Standards Authority to receive a number of complaints, which accused the advert of patronisingly mocking single people and being crass.
FinTech Global has opted for a different route to celebrate this holiday; reflecting on some of the recent partnerships in the industry.
New relationships are always exciting. Both parties are full of optimism and hope for the future. It is not always easy however, to determine between the partnerships that prove to be of substance, and those that are made of empty promises and unfulfilled potential.
Below FinTech Global has reported on some of the major partnerships to have taken place so far this year.
UK-headquartered buy now pay later (BNPL) FinTech Zilch partnered with UK debt charity StepChange to help customers during the cost-of-living crisis.
The deal, which Zilch believes is an industry-first, will help Zilch’s customers access help, if needed, more quickly during the cost-of-living crisis. Zilch is the first BNPL company to fully integrate StepChange into its platform.
The duo has removed steps that hinder people being referred. As part of this, StepChange has worked with Zilch’s vulnerability team on how to recognise and make referrals to debt advice more effectively.
Zilch will make financial contributions to StepChange through the Fair Share funding mechanism to support the charity’s operations.
In the insurance and InsurTech space, this partnership is significant and testament to the trend of the use of AI in back-end insurance processes. Tractable, an applied AI company, partnered with global data and analytics provider Verisk to offer AI-powered estimates for property damage.
Tractable’s AI leverages deep learning for computer vision, as well as other machine learning techniques to make accurate decisions. The technology is also able to make recommended repair operations and guides the claims management process.
Verisk provides data-driven analytic insights and solutions for the insurance and energy industries.
By integrating with Tractable, Verisk will be able to significantly help accelerate insurance claims processing and home repairs.
Tractable’s AI property solution allows policyholders to take and submit photos of damage through a mobile-friendly, web-based app.
The AI, trained on a large database of claims and damaged property, then quickly identifies, classifies and measures the property damage, enabling automated estimates to be generated on Verisk’s Xactimate® platform.
Fujitsu and Mizuho Bank have collaborated to focus on the development of services for corporate customers to manage ESG and SDG related data.
The deal will combine Mizuho Bank’s customer networks and knowledge of environmental and energy solutions with Fujitsu’s cloud services for visualising CO2 emissions across the entire supply chain.
By working together, they hope to support customers with de-carbonisation and improve sustainability management strategies.
Within the joint project, the companies will leverage Mizuho Bank’s customer networks and insights in customers’ environmental management issues and needs with Fujitsu’s services, including SaaS-based sustainability management information.
This will allow the two companies to calculate, visualise and analyse greenhouse gas emissions to support customers in reducing their carbon footprint. By making it possible to manage various ESG data, including energy consumption, waste management, occupational health and safety and CSR activities, companies will be able to meet regulatory requirements, such as the Japanese Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy.
The duo will also explore other collaborative initiatives to develop further services and solutions.
Trium Cyber, a Lloyds’ services company providing cyber insurance, risk management and claims adjudication services, has partnered with Origami Risk.
Backed by Pelican Ventures, Trium Cyber commenced operations earlier this month. Led by Josh Ladeau, CEO, and Jeff Bores, chief underwriting officer, Trium Cyber provides cyber insurance. The US-based company also provides complementary risk management advisory services and real-time loss mitigation services.
Origami Risk offers a full suite of end-to-end, integrated SaaS solutions for policy, rating, billing, loss control and claims administration, reporting and analytics, along with a comprehensive digital engagement experience for all internal and external stakeholders.
The partnership will see Trium Cyber leverage Origami Risk’s multi-tenant SAAS P&C insurance core solution suite for underwriting, billing and claims administration.
Origami has also been working in collaboration with Trium Cyber’s team to develop the service company’s core platform.
Workplace equity analytics platform Syndio has partnered with FinTech provider Broadridge Financial Solutions to measure their commitment to pay equity.
Syndio’s technology has four core products. The first is OppEQ, which enables companies to build equity into recruiting, talent assessment, promoting, and retaining employees fairly
Its next solution is PayEQ, which is an always-on view of pay equity. Clients can use this to analyse, resolve and prevent pay disparities due to gender, race, ethnicity or other demographics.
The third solution is Pay Finder. This enables hiring teams to establish fair starting salaries and stop pay inequity before it starts. The solution combines internal pay data with market-informed salary ranges to provide a holistic view of what’s both fair and competitive for each individual candidate.
Finally, it offers expert advisors. It boasts a team of data scientists, technology experts, and legal professionals who specialise in workplace equity and provide ongoing best practice advice.
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