Recently in Alumni News Category

Here are the news headlines we posted recently on our Finovate Twitter feed (follow it here).

Acculynk Provides Debit Payment System for Ritz Interactive -- Acculynk will provide its PaySecure debit payment service to Ritz Interactive. The service, which allows consumers to make PIN-based debit transactions online, is being deployed on 16 Ritz e-commerce sites. http://bit.ly/aE5DlD

FIRST ROI Joins BancVue -- FIRST ROI, which develops interactive products for financial institutions, is joining its parent company BancVue and changing its name to BancVue Interactive. http://bit.ly/auuovg

NFCNews Covers Bling Nation's Mobile Payments Pilot Program - Bling Nation is testing its mobile payments program in Colorado. According to the NFCNews report, about 500 customers of The State Bank of La Junta use Bling Tags - tiny chips attached to their cell phones - in order to make debit purchases at more than 50 participating businesses in the Colorado town. Bling Nation authenticates the transactions over cell phone networks. About half the bank's customers have signed up for the service. http://bit.ly/bqHhMa

Financial Institutions Adopting POPMoney -- CashEdge announced that more than 100 financial institutions will add its POPMoney person-to-person payment service to their customer options by the end of the second quarter of 2010. POPMoney allows payment transactions over e-mail and mobile services. http://bit.ly/aNNazq

Fiserv Introduces Boardroom Series -- Fiserv announced a new information service for its clients. Called the Fiserv Boardroom Series, the service provides clients with research data and business advice from a series of subject matter experts. The Series will include videos, webinars, and white papers. http://bit.ly/9hEA8J

Fiserv Study on Gen Y Banking Habits -- Research conducted by Fiserv shows that members of Generation Y are frequent users of online and mobile financial services. Gen Y also favors debit cards over credit cards and is more comfortable with Internet-based services than previous generations. http://bit.ly/cLbHBu

Firethorn Expands its Mobile Offering to More Banks -- Firethorn has updated its mobile banking app to allow consumers to access their accounts at more than 3,700 US financial institutions. Previously, Firethorn's mobile banking solution only worked with institutions that were integrated Firethorn providers. http://bit.ly/apbePC (Finovate blog entry here.)

Geezeo to Provide PFM & Social Tools to Vantage Credit Union -- Vantage Credit Union selected Geezeo to provide additional online tools to its Internet banking services. Vantage members now have access to Geezeo's customizable online personal finance management and social networking platform. http://bit.ly/9tHqWH

iPay Technologies Announces Invoicing System -- iPay Technologies announced Billpayperless, a new electronic invoicing and receivables management product for small businesses. The system allows small business owners to receive electronic payments through credit cards or PayPal accounts. http://bit.ly/9C9hUb

iThryv Rebrands to Alkami Technology -- iThryv announced on March 2 that it has completed the transition to its new corporate identity, Alkami Technology. Under the new name, the company will focus on providing online banking solutions for the financial services industry. http://bit.ly/domtAa

Mint Giving Away Apple iPad -- Mint.com is encouraging people to follow the company on Facebook by giving away a free Apple iPad. The winner will be selected on March 17. http://bit.ly/cvRsPi

Prosper Launches Talk Taboo Website -- On March 3, Prosper launched its new Talk Taboo website. The site allows users to share personal finance stories. The site offers a debt consolidation guide and is running an introductory sweepstakes to encourage users. http://bit.ly/9SuG02

TradeKing Launches Mobile Trading Site -- Online broker TradeKing announced a new mobile trading site. After activating the mobile features, clients can access TradeKing from any mobile at http://m.tradeking.com to get stock quotes, check account balances, and place trades. http://bit.ly/b4GRrP

Tyfone Announces MicroSD Secure Digital Memory Cards -- Tyfone announced the completion of its SideTap micro secure digital (MicroSD) memory cards, which will become available to consumers in the second half of 2010. The memory cards, which carry financial information, can be used in mobile phones and accessed at contactless payment terminals, creating an electronic wallet. http://bit.ly/9wi5aR

WorkLight to Host Widget Webinar -- On March 16, 2010, WorkLight will host a webinar entitled, "5 Questions You Should Answer Before Launching Widget Banking." The webinar will cover widget technology and its impact on the banking world, as well as providing discussion on implementation. http://bit.ly/d7LhDz

Zecco Updates Website with New Tools -- Online broker Zecco has rebuilt its website to offer new data tools for investors. New additions to the site include real-time quotes, charting tools, and real-time portfolio monitoring. http://bit.ly/aYghMi

Here are the news headlines we posted recently on our Finovate Twitter feed (follow it here).

Acculynk and EFT Networks Establish Advisory Council -- Acculynk and partner EFT Networks have established the Internet PIN Advisory Council. The council brings together members of EFT's business network, including ACCEL/Exchange, Alaska Option, Credit Union 24, PULSE and SHAZAM. The function of the council is to establish the processes, procedures, rules and best PIN practices for PaySecure, Acculynk's software service for online debit payments. http://bit.ly/cxlCLv

CashEdge Launches Integration Kit - CashEdge has launched a new Integration Kit, making it easier for financial planning, customer relationship management, and portfolio management application providers to simplify the addition of aggregation services into their applications. http://bit.ly/9aSYKv

Credit.com in Money Magazine's Top 20 Websites & Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies -- Credit.com has been listed at #7 among Money Magazine's top 20 best money websites. Other companies on the list include Mint.com, BillShrink, and Morningstar. Credit.com has also been included in Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies list, where it ranks #7 in the finance category. http://bit.ly/cPzRT6

Mint.com Offers New Support Forum -- PFM Mint.com is implementing a new user support forum, supported by San Francisco company Get Satisfaction. The forum provides a support resource for Mint's nearly 2 million users. http://bit.ly/bg2FYW

Online Resources Launches iPhone App for PeoplesBank -- Online Resources launched a new iPhone app that provides mobile banking services to customers of PeoplesBank. The Massachusetts bank has $1.5 billion in assets and has been a client of Online Resources since 1999. http://bit.ly/bckTX3

SecondMarket Secures Second Round of Venture Capital -- SecondMarket, which provides a market for illiquid assets, has received $15 million in its second round of venture capital. The funding was provided by Hong Kong-based Li Ka-shing Foundation and Singapore-based Temasek Holdings (through its Dunearn Investments subsidiary). Each invested $7.5 million. http://bit.ly/bclL0J

SeerGate and Integrated Banking Technology Introduce Online Banking System -- SeerGate and Integrated Banking Technology have joined to launch SeerGate's Secured Lock System, a secure platform for real-time online banking transactions. IBT will include the Secured Lock platform among the outsourced service offerings it provides to financial institutions in the US and Canada. http://bit.ly/97bzXu

Sparkroom Partners with eBureau -- Sparkroom has announced a partnership with eBureau, a provider of information services for online marketers. The companies will work together to provide technology solutions to help advertisers and lead generators manage online consumer leads. http://bit.ly/c2Woj7

ThreatMetrix Partners with CyberSource -- Online fraud prevention company ThreatMetrix has partnered with CyberSource to provide advanced device identification systems for fraud detection. CyberSource provides more than 200 fraud detection tests and services, while ThreatMetrix offers systems for digitally profiling devices and their online behaviors. http://bit.ly/9w3SXH

Yodlee Officially Opens FinApp Store -- Yodlee has opened its FinApp Store, a platform where certified developers can create financial apps and distribute them to users of Yodlee-based PFM products. The FinApp Store supports both free and pay applications. Yodlee is also making its Software Development Kit available to FinApp Store developers, allowing them to work with the Yodlee data infrastructure. Yodlee demoed the store at Finovate2009. http://bit.ly/cWolZR

Since many Finovate alums compete in the online space, one measure of their success is the number of unique website visitors. Using traffic data from web-analytics company Compete, we reviewed visitor numbers for the 100+ companies that have demoed at Finovate.

Out of 104 sites, 44 (42%) had more than 10,000 unique visitors last month (see chart #1, below). Of those, 25 (57%) had more visitors than a year ago. Overall, 51 (49%) had traffic increases, with 37 (36%) more than doubling. There were 27 (26%) company sites that gained more than 5,000 visitors over the year (chart #2).

Notable traffic increases:

• FiLife, which has been running full-page ads in its sister company, The Wall Street Journal, moved to the top of the alumni chart, with more than 2.7 million U.S. unique visitors in January, up 16-fold over a year ago.
• Mint, now owned by Intuit, saw a record number of visitors in January, nearly 1.7 million. The company does no outside advertising, so the totals are completely from word of mouth and links on other Intuit sites (see Netbanker post here).
• ThreatMetrix and Home-Account, both went from zero to nearly 200,000 unique visitors, a phenomenal amount of traffic for a financial company in their first year of operation.

1. Finovate Alumni with More than 10,000 Unique US Visitors in Jan. 2010

Source: Compete, Feb. 18, 2010

2. Finovate Alumni with Year-over-Year Growth of at Least 5,000 US Visitors

Source: Compete, February 18, 2010

Notes:

1. We reviewed 133 unique sites. Data was unavailable for 28 sites because they had been acquired, were no longer available online, or had active sites that were not covered by Compete for various reasons, including some that were not US domestic companies.

2. At larger companies we tried to measure traffic to the sub-domain most closely aligned with the Finovate demo, e.g. www.checkfree.fiserv.com.

3. Numbers have been rounded to three significant digits.

4. The charts include companies that did not have measurable traffic in January 2009, indicated by a N/A.

5. Compete draws its information from the online activity of a panel of more than 2 million US Internet users. It is only an estimate of traffic, and may undercount at-work usage.

Here are the news headlines posted recently on our Twitter feed (follow it here).

Billeo's iPad Sweepstakes -- From Feb. 4 to April 5, Billeo is offering an incentive for new users. Sign up to Billeo and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a new iPad. No purchase is required, but you must download the Billeo app and register. http://bit.ly/7JU7q3

Credit Karma Adds Users and New Tool -- Credit Karma doubled its users in 2009 and now serves more than 1 million users. On Feb. 3, the company announced its new Savings Dashboard tool, which helps consumers capitalize on improvements in their credit scores. www.creditkarma.com

Expensify Launches Palm Pre App -- Expensify has released a new app for the Palm Pre that scans receipts and tracks expenses. The company already has apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. http://is.gd/7B22C

GreenSherpa Wins Catalyst Competition Award -- Social networking company Girls in Tech and broadcast platform Vator.TV have announced the winners of their joint Catalyst Competition honoring women-led startup companies. GreenSherpa was among the five winners selected. Other winners were AccessDNA, BakeSpace, MyLawsuit, and Marriage.com, with Graspr winning the popular vote. http://bit.ly/dw7HU1

Intuit Launches PFM product in India -- Intuit has launched a new financial software product in India. The new Intuit Money Manager application aggregates account data and allows users to view real-time information about their expenses. The tool can also track investments, insurance, and other financial instruments through Intuit's collaboration with Moneycontrol.com. http://bit.ly/9N1xMs

Mortgagebot Reports Growth in Users and Revenue -- Mortgage technology provider Mortgagebot reported a 25% growth in revenue for fiscal 2009. The company also gained about 200 new clients in 2009 and now serves nearly 950 clients. http://bit.ly/c9ugjC

Silver Tail to Present Webinar -- On Feb. 23, Silver Tail Systems will present a free webinar on screen injection, a new hacking technique threatening the security of online banking sites. Silver Tail's founder, Laura Mather, Ph.D., will provide detailed information on the hacking technology. http://bit.ly/caqtH8