Finovate Debuts: SuiteBox Introduces Virtual Meeting Rooms for Financial Professionals

Finovate Debuts: SuiteBox Introduces Virtual Meeting Rooms for Financial Professionals

SuiteBox_homepage_Mar2016

SuiteBox provides professionals in financial services and other fields with the kind of multi-channel, interactive experience we’ve always wanted from the internet. With just a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, professionals can build and manage secure, virtual meeting rooms and use these private, virtual spaces for conference calls, document collaboration, screen sharing, embedded web forms, e-signatures and more. Everything in the session can be recorded in full or in part for future reference. The technology is available as both a standalone solution or via a fully integrated white-label API.

“SuiteBox does everything that you can do in a physical meeting and more,” said Ian Dunbar, country manager for SuiteBox Australia.

Company facts:

  • Founded in March 2013
  • Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand
  • Richard Mannell is CEO

SuiteBox_stage_FEU2016

SuiteBox Australia Country Manager Ian Dunbar demonstrated his company’s technology at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

In his demonstration at FinovateEurope, Dunbar and his team showed a fully white-labeled virtual meeting space. He demonstrated a sample insurance transaction showing off the platform’s mutually accessible web forms, video conferencing, session recording, and e-signatures. “Importantly,” Dunbar added, “this virtual meeting room is now open and available to be used at any time. They can come back in. They can have a meeting. They could drop documents off for each other to have a look at. They could even leave a video message or a chat message.”

“Effectively that gives you a meeting space that can be used on an ongoing basis,” Dunbar explained. “You don’t have to be back actually having a physical meeting.”

SuiteBox_Ian_Dunbar2We spoke with Ian Dunbar (circle photo), country manager, Australia, during rehearsal day at FinovateEurope. We followed up with a few questions about SuiteBox and how entrepreneurs and businesses can take advantage of the technology.

Finovate: What problem does SuiteBox solve?

Ian Dunbar: SuiteBox is solving one of the biggest challenges of professional services globally. How do you maintain and grow your client relationships, manage and close business and increase efficiency and profitability into your business. All when we are faced with time-poor clients, congested cities, and the need manage paper, post, scanning and signing of documents.

SuiteBox solves all of this by delivering everything you can do in a physical meeting and more, including video meetings, document sharing and collaboration, electronic signing and selective recording.

This is all delivered through the SuiteBox MeetingSpace, a secure private collaboration space that remains permanently open and accessible throughout the relationship life of the professional and their client.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Dunbar: Financial advisers, insurance providers, banks, mortgage brokers, stock brokers, educators; legal, pension fund, and real estate professionals.

SuiteBox_image1

Finovate: How does SuiteBox solve the problem better?

Dunbar: SuiteBox is the only tool globally that combines all the tools to close business and get the job done. SuiteBox eliminates the need to juggle video tools, e-signature tools and emails. SuiteBox is also the only tool that delivers a permanently open MeetingSpace, that allows the participants to enter and leave the space at their convenience, share and transact documents, and only meet via video when needed.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of SuiteBox.

Dunbar: SuiteBox has launched a highly integrated solution with Midwinter Financial Services’s AdviceOS adviser desktop in Australia. In this implementation, the Adviser has a seamless experience that allows:

  • the Adviser to schedule virtual meetings and launch SuiteBox from the AdviceOS desktop
  • the Adviser to white label SuiteBox to their own branded MeetingSpace
  • documents to be sourced from AdviceOS and saved directly back to the client record in AdviceOS
  • video records to be stored for future reference, and be easily accessible from the client record within AdviceOS.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Dunbar: SuiteBox’s founder and creative director is a world leader in data visualization and founder of several successful interactive media businesses including Terabyte Interactive, now recognized as the oldest multimedia company in the world.

Craig is expert at developing technology strategies to address opportunities. He pioneered the first online real-time 3D graphics for the America’s Cup as co-founder of Virtual Spectator. More recently, Craig established Futuretech that gave rise to One Room, the World’s leading funeral-streaming service.

SuiteBox_image2

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from your company that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Dunbar: We will be integrating with a number of CRM systems, Advice Platforms and Wealth Platforms globally.

We will also be releasing enhancements to the secure MeetingSpace, that will allow participants to utilize the space completely autonomously of being in a meeting. Such as allowing a party to drop off a document, leave a video or chat message, and manage business at any time convenient to them.

Finovate: Where do you see your company a year or two from now?

Dunbar: SuiteBox has recently expanded into the South African market, opening an office in Johannesburg. Throughout 2016, we will expand into the United Kingdom, Europe and North America.


Check out the demo video from SuiteBox from FinovateEurope 2016.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Ledger Launches Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System”
  • “Finovate Debuts: VoicePIN Offers an Easy Biometric Login Solution”
  • “Finovate Debuts: SuiteBox Introduces its Virtual Meeting Rooms for Financial Professionals”

On FinDEVr.com

  • Avalara teams up with WooCommerce to help online merchants manage sales taxes.

Around the web

  • OnDeck partners with Innovate Finance to debut Transatlantic Policy Working Group.
  • LandlordReferencing.co.uk to use Netverify from Jumio to comply with the U.K.’s new Right to Rent law.
  • The United Bank of Egypt upgrades to latest Misys core banking solutions as part of major modernization of retail, SME, and corporate businesses.
  • Top Image Systems launches next generation, automated accounts payable solution, eFLOW AP.
  • Zopa’s new lender products are live.
  • Golden West CU processes 15 new applications for insurance products in first 30 days of deploying Larky.
  • Coinbase introduces stop orders on Coinbase exchange.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO”
  • Check out this week’s “FinDEVr APIntelligence”

Around the web

  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Verifone to provide European food retailer Auchan Group with a pan-European card payments platform.
  • Misys earns 2016 Excellence Award for Transformational Client Engagement at the Global Summit on Customer Engagement.
  • PYMNTS.co takes a look at App Annie and its recent acquisition of AppScotch.
  • Geezeo announces partnership with King Fish Media.
  • MicroStrategy launches version 10.3 of its enterprise analytics platform, MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise.
  • Markit acquires credit default swap (CDS) pricing service from Fitch Solutions.
  • Money Summit interviews Mohamed Khalis, Moven’s head of product, data and marketing, in a discussion on UX.
  • Ignite Sales and Central Bancompany are recognized as award finalists at The Best of FinXTech Awards.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals”

On FinDEVr.com

Around the web

  • MX inks multi-year data-aggregation deal with USAA.
  • Feedzai opens new offices in the U.K.; hires new head of international operations.
  • Payoneer buys Armor Payments.
  • Micronotes leverages AI and machine learning with new suite of cross-sell solutions for banks.
  • TransferWise teams up with Pay Gate to bring its money-transfer service to South Korea.
  • Insuritas to deploy turnkey insurance agency at Sun Community FCU ($358 million in assets).
  • Genworth Mortgage Insurance to use technology from Roostify to streamline home-buying process.
  • Former Check CEO Guy Goldstein’s Next Insurance announces $13 million seed-round led by Zeev Ventures, TLV Partners, and Ribbit Capital.
  • Patch of Land rolls out mid-term loans of two to five years.
  • In the U.K., PayPal Here SDK reveals first eight business partners.
  • CustomerXPs featured on Nasscom’s Indian Analytics Products Landscape.

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.

Algomi Gains Investment from Former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer

Algomi Gains Investment from Former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer

Algomi_homepage_Mar2016

Tom Glocer, managing partner of Angelic Ventures and former CEO of Thomson Reuters (2008 through 2011), will work with fintech innovator Algomi as a strategic adviser. Glocer also made a significant investment in the company, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed.

“We’re empowering our customers by giving them more actionable intelligence on the data they already hold within their businesses,” Algomi CEO Stu Taylor explained. “Tom’s experience  with Thomson Reuters and his track record of working with other successful financial services businesses will be invaluable for us as we continue to develop our offering.”

Algomi_stage_FF2014

Pictured: Algomi CEO Stu Taylor demonstrated Algomi’s Honeycomb technology at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Algomi provides a social networking and market-intelligence platform for professionals working in the fixed-income bond markets. The company’s Honeycomb network connects fixed-income sales forces, traders, and customers with the goal of increasing both the number of trading and investing opportunities as well as the velocity of large transactions in what the company calls a “liquidity-constrained world.” Honeycomb uses custom algorithms to push the best deals and opportunities to fixed-income salespeople in real-time, providing a greater degree of transparency and the lowest level of market disruption when trading and investing in often-illiquid markets.

TomGlocer_AlgomiCalling the lack of liquidity as a major issue plaguing fixed-income investing, Glocer (right) says, “Algomi’s approach of creating a bank balance-sheet based on actual data, and virtualizing the assets in the market is fascinating, and I’m looking forward to working closely with them.”

The company’s current clients include Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Alliance Bernstein, JP Morgan, as well as hedge funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds. More than 160 buy-side firms, 15 banks, and hundreds of registered users around the world have signed on to be a part of Algomi’s Honeycomb network.

In addition to Glocer, Howard Edelstein will join Algomi’s Board of Directors. Edelstein had served the company as strategic adviser for the past two years, and is the current chairman of REDI Holdings.

“I’ve been working closely with Algomi for two years,” Edelstein said, “and believe the company delivers a second-to-none approach to a bank’s fixed-income, liquidity-sourcing needs.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, Algomi demonstrated Honeycomb, its buy-side graphic user interface, at FinovateFall 2014.

Prosper Marketplace Teams Up with HomeAdvisor to Improve Access to Home Improvement Financing

Prosper Marketplace Teams Up with HomeAdvisor to Improve Access to Home Improvement Financing

Prosper_homepage_Mar2016

A new partnership between Prosper Marketplace and HomeAdvisor will help homeowners get the home-improvement financing they need.

“Home-improvement projects are a great way to increase the value of a home,” Prosper Marketplace CEO Aaron Vermut said. “But not all homeowners have access to home-equity lines of credit as a financing option.” Vermut says that homeowners will be able to borrow money for home financing projects via HomeAdvisor at rates lower than those typically accompanying credit cards.

HomeAdvisor_homepage_Mar2016

Through the partnership, homeowners will be able to research the cost of home improvement projects via HomeAdvisor’s True Cost Guide, and then review monthly repayment estimates for Prosper’s fixed-term, fixed-rate loan product.

“Offering Prosper’s smart financing option strengthens HomeAdvisor’s commitment to helping homeowners achieve their home improvement goals,” said HomeAdvisor CEO Chris Terrill. A national, online marketplace for home services, HomeAdvisor helps connect homeowners with home repair, maintenance, and improvement resources. The service is free to access and has put more than 35 million homeowners in touch with its network of prescreened home service professionals. HomeAdvisor is headquartered in Golden, Colorado.

Prosper also made headlines last week with the launch of Prosper Daily, a rebranding of the BillGuard app the company acquired as part of its purchase of BillGuard last fall. Also this month, Prosper announced the appointment of its new CFO David Kimball, a former USAA executive. The company announced surpassing $4 billion in loan originations last July, and have since updated that total to more than $6 billion.

Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, Prosper demonstrated its technology at the very first Finovate conference in 2007.

Dealflow Closes Million Dollar Convertible Note

Dealflow Closes Million Dollar Convertible Note

Dealflow_homepage_Mar2016

Dealflow, the multi-asset, deal sourcing and marketing platform for institutional investors and their advisers, has closed a $1 million convertible debt offering.

In a blog post announcing the funding, Dealflow founder and CEO Steven Dresner credited Rule 506(c) for helping make the financing a reality. “It’s because of Rule 506(c)—and specifically the ability to advertise the deal—that I can present our investment opportunity to an active readership of about 11,000—with astonishingly high open rates, I might add!”

Dealflow_stage_FF2015

Pictured: Dealflow Founder and CEO Steven Dresner demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Dealflow’s technology helps buyers and sellers find deals among actively marketed private-placement opportunities. The company’s software enables investors to query Dealflow’s aggregated database, tracking deals using “recommendation-type” algorithms. The platform’s Signal technology leverages both user preferences and actual user history to provide more accurate and efficient results. Users can be alerted to changes in deals they are watching, forward deals to a colleague, read information about the management, watch video information, and so on.

During their Finovate appearance, Dealflow unveiled its Dealflow 2.0 technology including a new Dashboard feature that leverages Signal to aggregate the most relevant deals. For example, investors looking for potential fintech investments see a dashboard loaded with deals in that sector. At the same time, companies looking to raise capital are shown potential investors who have committed capital to similar projects.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York City, Dealflow introduced its platform at FinovateFall 2015. The company has a number of financial services firms sourcing opportunities on its platform including Cantor Fitzgerald, Societe Generale, RBS, and Goldman Sachs.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “DealFlow Closes Million Dollar Convertible Note”
  • “Algomi Gains Investment, Strategic Advisory from Tom Glocer, former Thomson Reuters’ CEO”
  • “Prosper Marketplace Teams Up with HomeAdvisor to Improve Access to Home Improvement Financing”

Around the web

  • Misys FusionBanking Loan IQ goes live at Virtus Partners.
  • Top Image Systems launches its next-generation accounts-payable automation solution, eFLOW AP.
  • Blackhawk Network names Anil D. Aggarwal to its board of directors.
  • App Annie acquires app marketing data company, AppScotch.
  • Temenos again recognized by IBS Intelligence as best-selling core banking software provider.

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.

EZBOB Raises £20 Million in Series C Round Led by Bank Leumi, Oaktree

EZBOB Raises £20 Million in Series C Round Led by Bank Leumi, Oaktree

EZBOB_homepage_Mar2016

Small business lending innovator EZBOB has raised £20 million ($28.8 million USD) in a Series C investment. The round was led by Leumi Partners and Oaktree Capital Management and takes EZBOB’s total capital to more than $83 million.

EZBOB CEO Tomer Guriel, co-founder, called the investment “proof” of his company’s platform and strategy for helping small businesses get the funding they need to grow. “This latest investment will further accelerate our growth plans and enable us to continue to develop our proprietary business lending platform to address more of the U.K.’s business lending needs.”

EZBOB_stage_FEU2014

Pictured (left to right): EZBOB COO Nimrod Kaplan and CEO Tomer Guriel, co-founder, demonstrated the EZBOB platform at FinovateEurope 2014 in London.

The investment also marks the first major foray into fintech for the Israeli-based Leumi Partners. Leumi Group Deputy CEO Danny Tsiddon says that, given the strong growth of business e-lending worldwide, “it is only natural that a bank which specializes in Israeli high-tech and spearheads innovation has chosen to invest in this leading FinTech startup.”

EZBOB says that the additional funding will help the the company both increase its lending capacity as well as improve its lending technology. The company has provided more than £100 million in funding via more than 8,500 loans to SMEs in the United Kingdom. Applying for a loan from EZBOB takes only 10 minutes and businesses can get funding in as little as 30 minutes. Loans are available from between £500 and £120,000, and U.K. businesses with annual turnover of at least £10,000 that have been in operation for at least a year are eligible.

Founded in 2011 and based in London, EZBOB demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2014.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “EZBOB raises 20 million in Series C round led by Bank Leumi, Oaktree”

Around the web

  • Quartz asks, “Should Venmo Buy a Bank?”
  • HuffPost Business features Simply Tapp and Kontomatik in its list of the five most useful APIs in the financial world.
  • Algomi adds Glocer as strategic adviser, appoints Edelstein to board.
  • CityWire U.K. looks at Nutmeg and Scalable Capital in a discussion on the robo-adviser phenomenon.
  • NAB Asset Servicing selects Thomson Reuters as its preferred data partner.

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.

StockViews Raises $355k in Seed Funding, Adds Fidelity’s Balk as Chairman

StockViews Raises $355k in Seed Funding, Adds Fidelity’s Balk as Chairman

Stockviews_homepage_March2016

Stock market research platform Stockviews has raised £250,000 ($355,000 USD) in seed funding. Participating in the round were angel network Craigie Capital, the London Co-Investment Fund, and former head of Fidelity International, Thomas Balk, who will join Stockviews’ board of directors as chairman.

Stockviews CEO Tom Beevers called Balk’s decision to join the company “a huge validation of this new approach to equity research.” Beevers praised Balk’s 25 years of experience in global asset management, including 16 years at Fidelity. “We’re delighted to have such a high-caliber executive heading up our board,” Beevers said.

Stockviews_stage_FS2015_2

Pictured: StockViews CEO and Founder Tom Beevers demonstrated his company’s technology at FinovateSpring 2015.

Balk spoke to StockViews’ ability to help improve sell-side research, which he said “has long had a poor reputation for generating results.” Focusing on the competition among fund managers as a main driver of interest in new technologies, Balk sees StockViews as becoming the “leading marketplace for high-quality, independent investment research.”

The news comes almost a year since StockViews made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015. The company’s platform connects individual stock market investors with more than 500 independent equity analysts who make their research available online. The “StockViews Signal,” launched at FinovateSpring 2015, provides a straightforward buy or sell signal for stocks based on the aggregated recommendations of the platform’s highest-rated analysts.

Founded in 2014, StockViews is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

Capitalise.com to Join Microsoft Accelerator London

Capitalise.com to Join Microsoft Accelerator London

Capitalise_homepage_Mar2016

Fresh from its launch at FinovateEurope 2016, British-based Capitalise.com announced that it will be joining the fifth cohort of Microsoft’s 16-week accelerator program in London.

Capitalise.com Founder Paul Surtees, M.D., said, “Working closely with Microsoft will enable Capitalise to more quickly develop our machine-learning capability and realize our ambition to make access to finance a reality for all small businesses.”

Capitalisecom_stage_FEU2016

Pictured (left to right): Capitalise.com co-founders Ollie Maitland, product director, and Paul Surtees, M.D., founder, demonstrated their technology at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

One of 13 companies to participate in “Batch V,” Capitalise.com helps small businesses—and those who advise them—find financing. The company’s platform uses behavioral data to compare more than 2,500 data points to connect business borrowers with the best lender for them. Focusing on getting borrowers the financing offer with the highest likelihood of approval, Capitalise says that borrowers on its platform are twice as likely to get funded.

Microsoft Accelerator London provides startups with mentorship, technical guidance and support in order to help them scale their businesses. The accelerator does not take an equity stake in the startups that participate in the program, and companies do not have to be U.K.-based to participate in the London Accelerator, as long as the team is able to stay in London for the duration of the program.

MicrosoftAcceleratorLondon_Twitterpic

Joining Capitalise.com in the spring accelerator are:

  • Dendrite
  • FitWell
  • Apprecie Solutions
  • Altitude Angel
  • Crowdaura
  • Glisser
  • Instanda
  • Opsh
  • Pinipa
  • Furo

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, Capitalise.com demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2016.