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Interactions Garners $56 Million in its Largest Funding Round Yet

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 10, 2016
Categories: Funding, Interactions

This blog may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.

Virtual customer-assistance company Interactions—the technology behind automated customer-service solutions for companies such as Hyatt, LifeLock, and Asurion—pulled in $56 million today. This is the company’s largest round since launching in 2004. It brings the company’s total funding to $167 million.

The funding comes from Comcast Ventures, NewSpring Capital, and Revolution Growth. Previous investors include Sigma Partners and Softbank Capital. Interactions CEO Mike Iacobucci said he plans to use the funding to meet the “widespread, growing demand” for its speech and natural language offerings and to boost sales and marketing efforts.

The Massachusetts-based company leverages AI and voice-recognition technology to help big brands offer a more friendly, automated customer experience. At FinovateSpring 2014, Interactions launched conversational solutions for banks that enable customers to access account information, change account details, and ask complex questions about their account in real time.

Interactions processes just shy of one billion customer transactions on an annual basis for large brands in seven industries. From 2014 to 2015, the company doubled its annual revenue; it expects to grow sales by 50% in 2016.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on August 10, 2016
Categories: Betterment, eMoney Advisor, Envestnet, EquityZen, Finova Financial, Interactions, Kontomatik, Simple, TradeRiver Finance

On Finovate.com

Interactions Garners $56 Million in its Largest Funding Round Yet

Automobile Title Lending Platform Finova Financial Raises $52.5 Million

Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.

Around the web

Kontomatik’s Konstantin Rabin shares his thoughts on successful lending in The Paypers.

Forbes features Jon Stein, Betterment CEO and cofounder.

San Diego Business Journal names eMoney Advisor one of the “Best Places to Work in San Diego.”

Envestnet | Yodlee launches Transaction Data Enrichment to offer transparency into transactions.

TradeRiver Finance reaches milestone of lending GBP100 million to U.K. businesses.

EquityZen featured on CNBC.

Portland Business Journal takes a look inside Simple’s new office.

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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FinovateAsia 2016 — Save Big with a Super Early-Bird Ticket!

By Erika Sanchez Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateAsia 2016

Though we’re in the heat of summer, FinovateAsia 2016 in November is just around the corner. Tickets for the event are selling quickly, and we’re on pace to sell out our first event in Hong Kong.

We’ve already received an array of impressive applications from companies looking to present, so this year’s event is shaping up to be one you won’t want to miss. On November 8 in Hong Kong, we will showcase 32+ of the newest fintech innovations via our signature format that blends fast-paced demos with high-quality networking.

To give you an idea of the influential companies that attend Finovate, see below for just a few of those who joined us at previous events:

American Express

ANZ

Arbor Ventures

The Asian Banker

Asian Banking & Finance

Bangkok Bank

Bank of Singapore

Barclays

Citibank

Discover

Fidelity Growth Partners Asia

Goldman Sachs

JPMorgan

MasterCard

OCBC Bank

PayPal

Route 66 Ventures

Standard Chartered Bank

Thomson Reuters

Visa

If you’re interested in joining them to watch the future of financial and banking technology unfold live on stage, then get your ticket by this Friday to lock in your spot at the low, super early-bird rate of $300 off. That said, if you can’t wait until November for your next fix of fintech innovation, we do still have a few tickets left for FinovateFall 2016 (8/9 September, in New York City).

Hope to see you at a future event soon!

FinovateAsia 2016 is sponsored by: InvestHK/startmeup.hk and more to be announced.

FinovateAsia 2016 is partners with: BankersHub, Big Data Made Simple, CoinTelegraph,CrowdFundBeat, FemTechLeaders, Finolab, Fintech Finance, Harrington Starr, Korea FinTech Forum, Miss FQ, SME Finance Forum, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Verdict Financial.

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CUneXus Closes $5 Million Series A

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: CUneXus, Funding

CUneXus, creator of sales and marketing automation solutions for lenders, quietly closed a $5 million funding round late last week. Two investors contributed to the round; both prefer to remain anonymous.

The California-based company’s total raised is now $7 million. Regarding plans for the funding, CUneXus President and CEO Dave Buerger said, “The use of funds is twofold: (1) aggressive growth and the addition of key personnel, and (2) continuous product development and improvement.”

Dave Buerger, CUneXus president and cofounder, and Darin Chong, cofounder, presented at FinovateSpring 2016.

Since launching in 2011, CUneXus has built a host of solutions for online and mobile lending and cross-selling. At FinovateSpring 2016 the company announced its recent partnership with Edmunds.com and showed off AutoXpress, a vehicle purchasing experience that takes place completely online or on mobile. Prior to that, the company demoed features of its Comprehensive Prescreened Lending (CPL) engine, cplXpress, at FinovateSpring 2014 and 2015. The product suite allows banks to extend perpetual loan-approval status across multiple products to their clients.

Buerger noted that this is just the beginning and says that CUneXus has many exciting projects lined up for release in 2017 and beyond: “As enthusiastic as we are about our current product line, our development roadmap is packed with potential and additional opportunities. We’ve really just scratched the surface.”

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Holvi and SumUp Join Forces to Serve SMEs and the Self-Employed

By David Penn Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: Holvi, SumUp

SumUp helps merchants accept card payments, and Holvi provides banking services to small businesses. The just-announced partnership between the two will give small businesses and the self-employed a more complete range of financial services without having to rely on traditional banks.

“The cooperation with SumUp is the next logical step for us, because the payment (market) is moving more and more toward the card payments in Germany,” said Leah Marie Zeppos, Holvi DACH country manager. The opportunity is especially large among the self-employed, which has grown by nearly 40% in the past decade to total more than 1.3 million Germans.

“With the Holvi business account, our customers can concentrate on the essentials,” says Maximilian Stella, SumUp’s VP of business development. “Independence has never been so easy.” SumUp and Holvi see the partnership has helping encourage entrepreneurship in way that is more cost-effective and efficient for smaller companies and individual businesses.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in London, SumUp demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. The company acquired payleven this spring, creating a €1 billion-a-year payment-processing giant that provides services in 15 countries including Germany and Brazil. Daniel Klein is CEO.

Holvi provides small business customers with an online business banking account, a Business MasterCard, and digital accounting and bookkeeping. Referred to by Wired magazine as one of the “hottest startups in Finland,” the company was acquired by BBVA in March. Johan Lorenzen joined Holvi as CEO in 2013, the same year the Helsinki-based startup made its most recent Finovate appearance.

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: QEData

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: FinovateFall 2016, FinovateFall 2016 Sneak Peek, QE Data

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

QEData’s Mirai is a predictive solution that enables any business to use their financial data for insights on their net-cash position for up to six months in the future.

Features:

Generates 6-month net-cash position-predictions with better than 80% accuracy
Offers suggestions for invoice payment and borrowing
Supports what-if sensitivity analysis to test scenarios

Why it’s great
Mirai is a collaborative solution that enhances a financial institution’s services while addressing the strategic challenges of their small business clients.

Presenter

Vibhu Bhan, Chief Innovation Officer
Bhan spearheads the innovation effort at QEData, leveraging more than 15 years of experience across IT, banking and consulting.
LinkedIn

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: SaleMove

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: FinovateFall 2016, FinovateFall 2016 Sneak Peek, SaleMove

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

SaleMove enables organizations to engage online visitors the same way they would in person through video, audio, chat, and co-browsing without any downloads or installations.

Features:

Increase conversions
Enhance customer experience
Improve contact center efficiency

Why it’s great
Businesses that use SaleMove are able to provide online customers with the same high-touch interactions that are possible face-to-face.

Presenters

Dan Michaeli, CEO, cofounder
Michaeli, CEO, is a University of Pennsylvania graduate, originally from Guatemala. His career has focused on venture capital, tech/strategy consulting and startups.
LinkedIn

Justin DiPietro, COO, cofounder
Justin is the cofounder and COO of SaleMove. He formerly was a consultant who devised growth and innovation strategies for Accenture.
LinkedIn

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Full Profile

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: FinovateFall 2016, FinovateFall 2016 Sneak Peek, Full Profile

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

Full Profile brings transparency, efficiency, and trust to farmers and the post-farmgate ecosystem through our AgriDigital agri-blockchains and commodity-management software.

Features:

Help growers get paid immediately and save buyers and brokers time and money
De-risk financing for banks
Enable paddock-to-plate transparency for consumers

Why it’s great
This harvest, we are launching the first ever global pilot application of blockchain in physical agri-commodities.

Presenter

Emma Weston, Founder
Weston has extensive career experience as a lawyer, agribusiness executive, start-up mentor, and executive coach. She brings a wealth of strategic and operational expertise to the team at Full Profile.
LinkedIn

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: TransUnion

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: FinovateFall 2016, FinovateFall 2016 Sneak Peek, TransUnion

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

TransUnion’s Prama puts the power of big data and analytics at your fingertips to make better decisions at the speed your business demands.

Features:

On-demand access to seven years of depersonalized credit data
Easily configure metrics to answer your specific questions
Benchmark your performance against the market and peers

Why it’s great
Prama is an intuitive, web-based solution that provides self-service access to more than 350 billion rows of depersonalized consumer credit data, facilitating faster decisions and strategy adjustments.

Presenters

Paul Siegfried, SVP, Financial Services
Siegfried leads the financial services card vertical and is charged with product development, business development and market strategy.
LinkedIn

Ginny Gomez, SVP, Product Management
Gomez leads U.S. product management and is responsible for delivering innovative new solutions and driving increased value for our clients across markets and verticals.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on August 9, 2016
Categories: Cachet Financial Solutions, Compass Plus, CUneXus, DefenseStorm, Full Profile, Holvi, OutsideIQ, PayActiv, payworks, QE Data, SaleMove, SumUp, TransUnion, TSYS

On Finovate.com

Holvi and SumUp Join Forces to Serve SMEs and the Self-Employed

CUneXus Closes $5 million Series A

Check out today’s FinovateFall Sneak Peek posts:

Around the web

Cybersecurity innovator DefenseStorm adds Libertyville Savings Bank and PrimeRevenue as clients.

Prasac, the largest microfinance institution in Cambodia, launches mobile banking services courtesy of TranzWare from Compass Plus.

The New York Times features PayActiv.

Cachet Financial Services partners with the Central Bank of Kansas City to roll out a reloadable prepaid card program.

Payworks partners with VBO Tickets.

OutsideIQ Brings Due Diligence Platform DDIQ to New International Markets

TSYS EVP and CIO Patricia Watson writes about the importance of strong enterprise architecture in fintech for CIO Review.

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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Fintech Fundings: 32 Companies Raise $210 Million Second Week of July

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 8, 2016
Categories: Funding

Through mid-July, the blistering pace of deals continued with 32 new fundings during the week ending 15 July 2016. There has been an average of 28 fintech deals per week this year.

The total value of deals this week was $206 million, with half ($100 million) going to Canadian blockchain technology provider Blockchain Intelligence.

Two Finovate alums raised a total of $12 million during the week:

Revolut raised $8.7 million
Alkami landed $3.7 million

The total number of deals YTD stands at 792, nearly double last year’s 407. Total dollars raised YTD is $18.1 billion, more than double the $8.8 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 9 July to 15 July 2016:

Blockchain Intelligence Group
Blockchain search and analytics
Latest round: $100 million
Total raised: $100 million
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tags: SMB, institution, blockchain, crypto-currency, BI, analytics
Source: Crunchbase

Gust
Platform for investing in early-stage startups
Latest round: $14.4 million Debt
Total raised previously: Unknown
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, advisers, investors, capital raising
Source: Crunchbase

OK Car Insurance
Online automobile insurance
Latest round: $12 million Series A
Total raised: $14.4 million
HQ: Shangahi, China
Tags: Consumer, insurance, vehicles, autos
Source: Crunchbase

OpenDoor Trading
Treasuries trading platform
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $10 million
HQ: Jersey City, New Jersey
Tags: Institutions, advisers, investing, fixed-income
Source: FT Partners

Exporo
Real estate crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $9.1 million Series A
Total raised: $9.1 million
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Revolut
Currency exchange platform
Latest round: $8.7 million Series A
Total raised: $13.2 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, SMB, remittances, foreign exchange, payments, funds transfers, fx, mobile, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

PayJoy
Alt-lender
Latest round: $8.5 million Series A
Total raised: $10.5 million
HQ: Saratoga, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, purchase finance, merchants, payments
Source: Crunchbase

WeSwap
P2P currency exchange
Latest round: $8.4 million Series B
Total raised: $18.5 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, person-to-person, P2P, prepaid debit card, fx, foreign exchange
Source: Crunchbase

Amber Financial Services
Consumer alt-lender
Latest round: $5 million Seed
Total raised: $5 million
HQ: Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, alternative lender
Source: Crunchbase

Ingo Money (formerly Chexar Networks)
Check decisioning and funding
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $19.1 million
HQ: Roswell, Georgia
Tags: Institutions, SMB, B2B2C, checks, authorization, credit, underwriting, deposits
Source: Crunchbase

Alkami Technology
Digital banking technology
Latest round: $3.7 million
Total raised: $46.7 million
HQ: Plano, Texas
Tags: Institutions, digital banking, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Quilt
Digital renter’s insurance
Latest round: $3.25 million Seed
Total raised: $3.25 million
HQ: Boston, Massachusetts
Tags: Consumer, insurance, renters, property & casualty, P&C
Source: Crunchbase

Compliance Science
Compliance platform for financial institutions
Latest round: $2.9 million
Total raised: $11.2 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Institutions, compliance, regulations
Source: FT Partners

Digitzs
Digital payments platform
Latest round: $2.8 million Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $5,4 million
HQ: Santa Monica, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, debit/credit cards, merchants, API, developers
Source: Crunchbase

BankerBay
Investment banking platform
Latest round: $2 million Convertible Note
Total raised: $5 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Institutions, SMB, capital raising, venture capital, VC
Source: Crunchbase

Touche
Mobile payments platform
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, payments, client platform, point of sales, POS
Source: FT Partners

MoneyBox
Savings and investing app
Latest round: $1.75 million Seed
Total raised: $4.75 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, savings, deposits, spending, investing, personal financial management, PFM, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Settled
Home buying platform
Latest round: $1.33 million Seed
Total raised: $1.75 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, real estate, discovery, mortgage, comparison
Source: Crunchbase

Switch
Lost/stolen credit and debit card solution
Latest round: $1.2 million
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: Consumer, payments, credit/debit cards, security, convenience
Source: Crunchbase

TagPay
Sound-based payment and banking technology
Latest round: $1.1 million Seed
Total raised: $1.1 million
HQ: Paris, France
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, acquiring, mobile banking, core system
Source: Crunchbase

InvestiQuant (formerly Master the Gap)
Investment and trading technology
Latest round: $1.0 million
Total raised: $3.3 million
HQ: Morrisville, North Carolina
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, stocks
Source: Crunchbase

Plutus
Bitcoin-based mPOS technology
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, merchants, credit/debit cards, acquiring, bitcoin, crypto-currency, blockchain, point of sale
Source: FT Partners

CirraGroup
Crowdsourced medical debt settlement
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Layfayette, Lousiana
Tags: Consumer, SMB, credit, debt repayment
Source: FT Partners

CreditExchange
Consumer loan marketplace
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

SoCash
Mobile cash finder
Latest round: $400,000 Seed
Total raised: $400,000
HQ: Singapore
Tags: Consumer, merchants, ATM, cash-back, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Safello
Bitcoin exchange
Latest round: $300,000
Total raised: $1.3 million
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Tags: Consumer, cyrpto-currency, bitcoin, blockchain, payments, remittances
Source: Crunchbase

CrediWire
Commercial credit ratings
Latest round: $28,000
Total raised: $68,000
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Accelerator: TechFounders
Tags: Institutions, underwriting, commercial lending, loans, information, BI, API
Source: Crunchbase

Quantoz
Blockchain technology
Latest round: $28,000
Total raised: $28,000
HQ: The Netherlands
Accelerator: TechFounders
Tags: Institutions, SMB, payments, cyrpto-currency, bitcoin
Source: Crunchbase

SayPay Technologies
Authentication technology
Latest round: $28,000
Total raised: $28,000
HQ: Pleasanton, California
Accelerator: TechFounders
Tags: Institutions, security, authentication, voice biometrics, payments, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Blocko (Coinstack)
Blockchain technology
Latest round: Unknown
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Seoul, South Korea
Tags: SMB, institutions, blockchain, database, crypto-currency
Source: FT Partners

GyanDhan
Education loans marketplace
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New Delhi, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, person-to-person, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

SETL
Blockchain-based institutional funds transfer and settlement
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Institutions, payments, funds transfer, blockchain, bitcoin, crypto-currency
Source: FT Partners

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Image licensed from 123RF Stock Photo

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Alpine Data Partners with Pivotal to Bring Smart App Building Blocks to Businesses

By David Penn Posted on August 8, 2016
Categories: Alpine Data Labs

A new partnership announced last week between Alpine Data Labs and Pivotal is designed to help enterprises “attain business value from their investment in modern data platforms.” Specifically, Alpine Data Labs will use its collaborative platform for advanced analytics, Chorus, as a link between the Pivotal Big Data Suite and the Pivotal Cloud Foundry.

“With Chorus and Pivotal BDS,” Alpine Data’s Collin Cook wrote at the company blog, “you can easily build machine learning models that leverage data from any data source, expedite the process of building scoring engines around your models and quickly deploy them as micro services within the Pivotal Cloud Foundry.” Cook called the combined solution a way to reduce the friction that often develops between data scientists, IT professionals and business users.

Alpine Data cofounder and CPO Steven Hillion demonstrated Alpine Touchpoints at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Alpine Data specializes in technologies that help turn big data into predictive insights and analysis. The company’s Chorus solution is a comprehensive, advanced analytics platform for big data and Hadoop that has been deployed in a variety of verticals from financial services to healthcare. Version 6, launched in May, provides tools to annotate analytics assets (data, scripts, models), build and share machine learning and ETL workflows, deploy models, and leverage predictive applications like Alpine’s Touchpoints to make data more digestible for non-technical co-workers and customers.

The partnership between Alpine Data and Pivotal may be new, but the relationship between the two companies’ technologies goes back to a time before Alpine Data was founded as its own entity. Alpine’s Workflow Editor and analytics engine began as research projects in the open source, massively parallel data warehouse known as Pivotal Greenplum. “Customers running Chorus on top of Pivotal BDS will be able to get up and running very easily,” says Cook, “without having to deal with any big-data infrastructure hurdles.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Alpine Data demonstrated its Touchpoints technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company has raised more than $23 million in funding and includes among its investors Mission Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Sierra Ventures, Stanford University, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, and UMC Capital. Read our Finovate Debut profile of Alpine Data from earlier this year.

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