Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BizEquity, blooom, D3 Banking, Fiserv, GMC Software Technology, Insuritas, Jack Henry, Lendio, Stratumn, Thomson Reuters, TSYS

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • BizEquity Forges Strategic Partnership with Sawtooth Solutions

Around the web

  • Thomson Reuters unveils its KYC due-diligence solution, Org ID.
  • Jack Henry Banking has “refreshed”  its SilverLake Systems core banking solution.
  • Lloyds Banking Group renews processing agreement with TSYS.
  • St. Louis-based Midwest BankCentre picks Insuritas to open and manage its turnkey insurance agency.
  • 2016 Gartner Market Guide for Customer Journey Analytics lists GMC Software as a representative vendor.
  • Lendio to participate in small business lending disclosure, SMART (Straightforward Metrics Around Rate and Total cost) Box initiative.
  • D3 Banking wins Depth of Service Award in vendor analysis report from Celent.
  • Encentus FCU to deploy core account processing technology from Fiserv.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Student Loan Genius to Help TrendKite Employees Retire Debt Faster, Save Sooner

Student Loan Genius to Help TrendKite Employees Retire Debt Faster, Save Sooner
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Student Loan Genius

StudentLoanGenius_stage_FS2016c

Left to right: Emiliano Villarreal (Chuck Norris of Product) and CEO Tony Aguilar, confound, demonstrated Student Loan Genius at FinovateSpring 2016.

Employees of PR analytics innovator TrendKite will soon have a much easier time paying off their student loans and saving for retirement. The Austin-based company will deploy technology from Student Loan Genius that will enable them to provide loan-debt repayment assistance to both TrendKite employees as well as members of their immediate families.

Student Loan Genius founder and CEO Tony Aguilar says that educating companies on this issue is a big part of the startup’s early success: Student Loan Genius offers free surveys and showcases the real stories of employees and their challenges to repay student-loan debt to show the impact. “In 2013 when we launched, most company leaders we talked to had no clue that the student-loan problem was actually affecting their businesses,” Aguilar said.

Jennifer Cantu, TrendKite’s VP of people, echoed this point, saying, “Issues that concern [employees], like student loans, are issues we should try to help with. When we saw the data, we knew student-loan benefits were a requirement, not an option.”

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Student Loan Genius demonstrated its platform at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has raised $3.1 million in funding, courtesy of a seed investment led by Gibraltar Ventures and featuring participation by Capital Factory, Fenway Summer Ventures, Kapor Capital, VilCap Investments, and Village Capital. This spring, Prudential Retirement announced that it would provide Student Loan Genius to its clients.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CardLinX, D3 Banking, iSignthis, Personal Capital, Sberbank, SecondMarket, Student Loan Genius, ThreatMetrix, Trulioo

On Finovate.com

  • Personal Capital Offers Digital Wealth Management for BancAlliance’s Member Banks
  • Student Loan Genius to Help TrendKite Employees Retire Debt Faster, Save Sooner
  • Finovate Debuts: CardLinx Helps Members Find & Post Card-Linked Offers

Around the web

  • Trulioo extends its identity-verification platform, Global Gateway, to the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Sberbank creates mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to pave way for launch of mobile bank.
  • iSignthis to provide digital KYC, customer authentication, and secure card vaulting for FxNet.com.
  • ThreatMetrix updates platform to enhance authentication and enable smarter decisions for fraud prevention, authentication and threat detection.
  • Celent recognizes D3 Banking for its commitment to customer service and innovation in Depth of Service Award.
  • SecondMarket settles with the SEC over Regulation M.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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$510 Million Raised by 22 Alums in Q2 2016

$510 Million Raised by 22 Alums in Q2 2016
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings

walking_sack_of_cashFinovate alums raised more than $510 million in the second quarter of 2016, down 39% compared to Q2 2015 and down 22% from last quarter. And while this number is down from the breakaway second quarter of 2015, the trend in Q2 alum funding remains on the upswing based on previous years. Q2 2016 was 11% above Q2 2014 and more than twice as much as raised in Q2 2013.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q2 2016: More than $510 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q2 2015: More than $840 million raised by 39 alums
  • Q2 2014: More than $458 million raised by eight alums
  • Q2 2013: More than $200 million raised by 15 alums

The biggest equity deal of the second quarter was the $75 million raised by Tradeshift in June. Also noteworthy was the $50 million raised by Personal Capital, and SigFig’s $40 million financing. The top 10 investments in the second quarter totaled $327 million or 64% of the quarter’s total alum funding.

Top 10 Overall Investments (equity only)

  1. Tradeshift: $75 million
  2. Personal Capital: $50 million
  3. SigFig: $40 million
  4. Persado: $30 million
  5. TransferWise: $26 million
  6. SocietyOne: $25 million
  7. Zooz: $24 million
  8. Dashlane: $22.5 million
  9. BizFi: $20 million
  10. Azimo: $15 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2016.

April 2016: More than $169 million raised by six alums

  • Aire: undisclosed – post
  • BlueVine: undisclosed – post
  • Ixaris: $6 million – post
  • Persado: $30 million – post
  • Scalable Capital: $7.9 million – post
  • SocietyOne: $25 million (plus $100 million debt) – post

May 2016: More than $217 million raised by nine alums

  • Azimo: $15 million – post
  • Dashlane: $22.5 million – post
  • EZBOB: $35.5 million debt – news
  • Featurespace: $9 million – post
  • Personal Capital: $50 million – post
  • SigFig: $40 million – post
  • Tagit: $8.75 million – post
  • Tink:  $10 million – post
  • TransferWise: $26 million – post

June 2016: More than $126 million raised by seven alums

  • Bento: $7 million – post
  • BizFi: $20 million – post
  • Buzz Points: $1.8 million – post
  • CallVU: $3 million – post
  • CrowdFlower: $10 million – post
  • Passport: $8 million – post
  • TradeShift: $75 million – post

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2016, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

 

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Spiff Raises $150,000; Adopts Tech Talent from Fink

Spiff Raises $150,000; Adopts Tech Talent from Fink
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Spiff

Spiff_homepage_July2016

Spiff is now $150,000 (NOK 1.3 million) closer to its planned launch in Norway this fall. The financing was announced by Spiff CEO and founder Carl Nicolai Wessman on Shifter.com and shared with readers on the new Spiff blog. The investment comes a year after the company raised more than $300,000 (NOK 3.5 million) from a group of investors including Founders Fund, and Sverre Munck, the chairman of Opera Software.

The current financing was led by Silvija Sere and Mildrid Raade, veteran investors in the industry, and the company’s first female angel investors. “We built a product for women, so it makes sense to want women on-board,” Spiff’s blog post read this morning. “However there are actually very few women that make angel investments today. That’s why we’re incredibly excited to introduce our first female angel investors.”

Spiff_stage_FEU2016b

From left: CMO Kristin Moller and CEO Carl Wessmann, founder, demonstrated the Spiff app at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

“I started Spiff (two) years ago from my own savings with Steve Mellbye-Stolen,” Wessman says. “Now we (raise) NOK 1.3 million, and (we are) particularly pleased that it came from two women investors.” Silvija Seres is a partner at TechnoRocks and serves on the boards of a number of financial services and technology companies, including Nordea. Mildrid Raade is a marketing strategist and private angel investor who recently finished an executive MBA thesis on disruption in banking.

In addition to the funding news, Spiff reported that it is joining forces with Fink, a developer startup with experience working for companies such as Microsoft as well as fellow Finovate alums Telenor and Encap Security. Fink will handle engineering with founding partner Svein Halvorsen joining Spiff in August. Calling Fink a match in terms of values, Spiff’s Wessmann praised the team of full-stack developers as “perhaps among Europe’s best.”

Founded in January 2015 and headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Spiff previewed its savings app and service designed especially for women at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. Check out our Finovate Debut post on Spiff from this spring.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aire, Bill.com, EverSafe, Fiserv, Kasasa, Moven, Ormsby Street, Revolut, Spiff, Student Loan Genius, TickSmith

On Finovate.com

  • Revolut Lands $8.7 Million, Launches Crowdfunding Campaign
  • Spiff Raises $150,000; Adopts Tech Talent from Fink

Around the web

  • Asset TV interviews CEO Tony Aguilar, founder, Student Loan Genius.
  • Business Quarter profiles Ormsby Street MD, Martin Campbell.
  • TechCityNews features Aire in an issue devoted to artificial intelligence.
  • TickSmith upgrades its TickVault Platform with file inventory module.
  • Bank Info Security interviews Fiserv anti-fraud specialist, Andrew Davies.
  • CNBC column on financial fraud and retirees quotes Liz Loewy, general counsel for EverSafe.
  • Bill.com launches Bookkeeping Accelerator Program.
  • CNBC features Moven founder and CEO Brett King speaking about his newest book, “Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane.”
  • Kasasa Named One of the Best Places to Work in Austin for a Second Consecutive Year.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Financial Guard Acquired By Legg Mason

Financial Guard Acquired By Legg Mason
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Financial Guard

FinancialGuard_homepage_July2016

Legg Mason has acquired a majority stake in online investment adviser Financial Guard. Terms were not disclosed. Financial Guard will become a part of Legg Mason’s alternative distribution strategies business which specializes in helping the global asset manager’s investment affiliates leverage financial technology to serve customers better.

Global Head of Distribution for Legg Mason, Terence Johnson, highlighted this point, saying that technology has played a major role in “redefining consumer expectations” and that financial services companies “need a comprehensive, accessible, secure technology solution to serve their clients in this dynamic environment.” Johnson praised Financial Guard’s “simple and scalable platform” for both active and passive investing, saying the combination of the online technology platform and Legg Mason’s investment offerings would be a boon for its partners and their customers.

FinancialGuard_stage_FF2013

Left to right: Business Development Director A.J. Remlinger and President Kevin Pohmer demonstrated Financial Guard at FinovateFall 2013 in New York.

“We are excited to combine our intuitive, wide-ranging technology solution with Legg Mason’s diverse investment capabilities, scale and global reach,” said Cary Jenkins, chief innovation officer for Financial Guard. “As adoption of technology-enabled advice grows, we believe we will be well-positioned to serve the adviser channel.”

Jenkins also highlighted the retirement market in particular as an area where Financial Guard may be especially helpful to plan sponsors and “the smaller segment of the market that will continue to need advice.” As part of the acquisition, Legg Mason will also be adding to the Financial Guard platform with other investment solutions from its nine independent investment advisers, including from QS Investors.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Financial Guard demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2013. The company, which has been profiled in Barron’s, Bloomberg.com, Employee Benefit News, launched its enhanced fee-transparency service in May of last year.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cachet Financial Solutions, Corezoid, Dwolla, Experian, Financial Guard, FIS, Gusto, iSignthis, Jwaala, Neustar

On Finovate.com

  • Experian and Neustar Partner to Empower Marketers with More Data
  • Financial Guard Acquired by Legg Mason

Around the web

  • FIS wins “Most Disruptive” award at 2016 PYMNTS.com/Alexa Challenge.
  • Corezoid’s Alexander Vityaz talks chatbots and the mobile OS market in Venture Beat.
  • iSignthis to provide automated, digital KYC solution for TRADOLOGIC.
  • Cachet Financial launches two new enhancements to its Select Business Merchant Capture Solution.
  • Dwolla hints at a new dashboard for white-label integrations.
  • Entrepreneur interviews Josh Reeves, Gusto co-founder and CEO.
  • Jwaala now powers mobile banking for Avadian CU.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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defi SOLUTIONS to Launch Full-Service Analytics and Reporting Platform by Year’s End

defi SOLUTIONS to Launch Full-Service Analytics and Reporting Platform by Year’s End
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: defi Solutions

defisolutions_homepage_July2016

When the going gets tough, the tough get analytics (and reporting).

Auto-lending loan-origination service (LOS) provider defi SOLUTIONS will soon offer lenders a full-service analytics and reporting platform. Pointing to the difficulties lenders have in gaining meaningful insights from increasingly sizable and diverse customer data, defi SOLUTIONS’ ANALYTICS platform promises lenders “big company analytics and strategic insight at an affordable price.”

defi SOLUTIONS’ founder and CEO Stephanie Alsbrooks said the new analytics platform will help lenders manage data in the same way her company’s signature solution helps lenders improve their loan-origination system-process. The reporting feature of ANALYTICS will enable lenders to track loan originations, as well as credit-risk performance and profitability. And courtesy of a partnership with Integrated Fintech, defi ANALYTICS will provide lenders with risk management and strategic consulting, as well. The solution, with a base reporting module, is expected to be available at the end of 2016, with additional modules added in 2017.

defiSolutions_stage_FS2014

Left to right: CEO Stephanie Alsbrooks, founder, and Senior Engineer Chris Holt demonstrated defi SOLUTIONS at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

In the meanwhile, defi SOLUTIONS has already had a very busy start to its summer. In June alone, the company promoted its director of quality, Robert Dufalo, to chief technology officer; announced that Heritage Acceptance Corporation would go live with its LOS technology; and helped Jet Capital launch the latest version of its loan application-processing solution, which included core evaluation software from defi SOLUTIONS. In May, the company announced a partnership with First Access Funding Corporation, bringing its automated LOS technology to the Canadian non-prime automotive finance company.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, defi SOLUTIONS demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2014.

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Ping Identity Unveils Security, Usability Upgrades to IDaaS Platform

Ping Identity Unveils Security, Usability Upgrades to IDaaS Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ping Identity

PingIdentity_homepage_July2016

Ping Identity launched a series of enhancements to its Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) technology to improve security and ease-of-use for end users. Ping Identity founder and CEO Andre Durand said the upgrades would “(ensure) that enterprises can create trusted mobile experiences with very little friction, while also supporting IT’s need to move quickly without compromising quality.”

On the security side, key upgrades to the platform include secure, privileged access and support for Windows Remote Desktop, including multifactor-authentication support. To improve usability, Ping Identity has built a consistent UX across mobile devices and improved the UI both for PingOne and the PingOne cloud. FIs and other organizations will benefit from opportunities to co-brand or white-label Ping’s mobile multifactor authentication as well.

“Mobility, combined with unrelenting phishing attacks, have caused multifactor authentication to evolve from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have,'” Durand said. “But it can’t come at the cost of the seamless experience people have come to expect.”

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Ping Identity demonstrated its PingFederate, Cloud Identity Connectors, and integrations with third-party solutions at FinovateEurope 2012. This February, Ping Identity announced a series of new features to its Ping Federate solution, including elastic scalability, which enables IT to dynamically change the size of AWS and OpenStack environments, and contextual multifactor authentication, that gives IT the ability to change system access requirements under various circumstances.

Ping Identity was acquired by private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, in June for an undisclosed sum. The company had raised more than $128 million in funding prior to being purchased.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Buzz Points, Coinbase, defi Solutions, eMoney Advisor, Holvi, iSignthis, Ixaris, Jack Henry, Lending Club, Misys, Ping Identity, ProfitStars, Risk Ident, WattzOn

On Finovate.com

  • Ping Identity Unveils Security, Usability Upgrades to IDaaS Platform.
  • defi SOLUTIONS to Launch Full-Service Analytics and Reporting Platform by Year’s End
  • Coinbase Lands $10.5 Million in Strategic Investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

Around the web

  • Misys honored by Celent Model Bank Awards for its work with Russia’s Alfa-Bank.
  • Holvi launches new debit card, Holvi Business MasterCard.
  • Risk Ident CEO Roberto Valerio writes about fighting account-takeover fraud.
  • Ixaris helps Amadeus build prepaid B2B wallet.
  • WattzOn unveils three new web and mobile tools for monitoring and managing utility bills.
  • The Street: Lending Club ‘Platform Investors’ Are Slowly Returning Despite Recent Hiccups
  • Buzz Points joins Jack Henry’s Symitar Vendor Integration Program.
  • iSignthis integrates with XM.COM to deliver due diligence Digital KYC service.
  • ProfitStars Ranked Among Top-50 Providers in MSPmentor 501 Global Edition.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Ripple Adds Multi-Sign Functionality to its Consensus Ledger Technology

Ripple Adds Multi-Sign Functionality to its Consensus Ledger Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ripple

Ripple_homepage_July2016

Is the new multi-sign feature on the Ripple Consensus Ledger (RCL) the answer to preventing security breaches like the cyber-heist that cost the Bangladesh Bank more than $100 million?

That’s how Ripple sees it. Pointing to the problem of “outdated single-signature methods” of legacy payment networks, Ripple has introduced new multi-sign functionality for its RCL. Combined with the inherent transparency of the consensus ledger, the additional layer of control gives financial institutions another tool to combat fraud and unauthorized transactions. Pointedly, Ripple notes, this tool is not available via SWIFT, which is a major problem for FIs and a potential source of opportunity for companies like Ripple.

OpenCoin_Ripple_stage_FS2013

CEO Chris Larsen demonstrated the Ripple network at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.

“The new features found in distributed fintech solutions, such as multi-signing, are not available in traditional systems like Swift,” Ripple asserts. “Blockchain technology delivers a more robust and distributed security architecture for banks.” The multi-sign functionality on RCL will enable account holders to require more than one stakeholder to sign off on transactions. These signatures can be required from other users, other institutions, and/or other devices, making it that much more difficult for someone to make an unauthorized or fraudulent transaction.

And because Ripple’s multi-sign is “enforced by the RCL” rather than the FI itself, there is a greater chance of detecting fraud—particularly internal fraud—than with those traditional methods even if they rely on some measure of multi-signing. Ripple adds that multi-sign functionality won’t end with the RCL; the company also plans to make the technology an added feature of its Interledger Protocol (ILP).

Founded as OpenCoin in 2012, and rebranding as Ripple in 2015, the company’s founder and CEO Chris Larsen introduced the Ripple network at FinovateSpring 2013. Ripple announced that it added seven banks to its list of FIs testing cross-border payments using its technology in June, the same month the company received a BitLicense to trade virtual currencies in New York.

 

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