Best of Show Winner BOND.AI Launches Embedded Finance Solutions Network for Banks and Businesses

• Arkansas-based fintech BOND.AI recently unveiled its latest offering, The Bond Network.
• The technology enables financial institutions and businesses to add modern financial health solutions to their platforms.
• BOND.AI won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2018 in New York.

BOND.AI has launched The Bond Network, which leverages open banking to enable banks, credit unions, and businesses of all sizes readily access contemporary financial health solutions.

“There is nothing like The BOND Network in the market today that combines the utility of modern financial technology with the life-changing benefit of financial health,” BOND.AI CEO Uday Akkaraju said. “Our Empathy Engine and The BOND Network together will connect the dots between financial institutions and employers to get them back at the heart of peoples’ financial lives and spark a mutually prosperous relationship between them.” Akkaraju called the new offering “the next revolution in embedded finance.”

Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas and founded in 2016, BOND.AI demonstrated its Empathy Engine at FinovateFall 2018. The technology, which consists of three components – holistic analyzer, conversational intelligence, and path automator – helps financial institutions better understand customer behavior, provides an “age-agnostic” user experience, and meets the needs of both front-end users and back office workers.

Firms partnering with The BOND Network will get access to BOND.AI’s advanced Empathy Engine, as well as a curated set of solutions from selected fintechs. Financial institutions benefit from the ability to bring greater personalization to their banking customers as well as increase profitability. BOND.AI claimed that FIs can earn “at least one percent of their asset size” in greater revenues and savings. Employers embracing the technology can use it to embed AI-enabled banking and financial solutions, which enables them to better understand the financial health of their employees and devise strategies to increase productivity, boost engagement, and keep retention high.

Unveiled in June, the initiative went live with 16 financial institutions and employers as founding members. BOND.AI anticipates that the network will have “at least 50 partners” by the end of this year.

BOND.AI has spent much of 2022 adding talent to its team. In February, the company announced that Yogesh Asudani had joined BOND.AI as Executive Vice President of Partnerships. A month later, the company announced a pair of new hires – Kent Llewelyn and Amit Dhongde – to serve as Chief Technology Officer and Head of Technology, respectively.

Speaking of partnerships, BOND.AI also in March made fintech headlines for its collaboration with earned wage access and financial inclusion specialist GoDo. The company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, offers a mobile app and debit card to enable employers to offer their employees real-time earned wage access. GoDo CEO James Ray said that the partnership with BOND.AI and access to its Empathy Engine will provide the kind of “intelligent coaching” that is “critical in helping people improve their financial lives and for solving the financial equity issues plaguing our country.”

BOND.AI has raised $5.2 million in funding. The company’s investors include FIS and Fund for Arkansas’ Future.

Photo by Evie Shaffer