Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Polly Portfolio Unveils Bespoke Custom Investing Platform for Financial Advisers”
  • “Top Direct-to-Consumer Wealth Tech Plays”

Around the web

  • CashStar announces digital gift card agreements with online marketplace OpenSky and Marcus Theatres.
  • Nasdaq.com profiles Moven, “the future of banking.”
  • Charlotte Business Journal names Passport among its Fast 50 award winners for its more than 475% revenue growth from 2013 to 2015.
  • Inc. lists Xero, Gusto, and PayPal among 8 business apps that will crush it in 2017.

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

Finovate, FinDEVr Alums Earn AWS Financial Services Competency Status

Finovate, FinDEVr Alums Earn AWS Financial Services Competency Status

aws_financialcompetencies

Amazon Web Services has introduced a pair of new competencies as part of its AWS Competencies Program. The program is used by AWS to designate specific industry expertise or “competency” among its network partners. And this week we learned that one of these new competencies, AWS Financial Services, features more than a handful of Finovate/FinDEVr alums.

Earning spots in the Risk Management category of AWS Financial Services Competency Partners were FICO (FD16), FIS-Prophet (F16), and NICE Systems (F15). Four alums—Avoka (F16), Corezoid (F16), Mambu (F13), and Moven (F16)—made up more than half of the companies in the Core Systems category. IHS Markit (FD16) earned a place in the Data Management category along with two other alums, Infosys (F09) and Wipro (F15).

Avoka CMO Don Bergal credited the AWS Cloud for enabling the company to deliver solutions with the speed, security, and regulatory compliance needed to serve “the largest financial institutions worldwide.” Mambu CEO Eugene Danilkis called AWS “the future of agile, cost-effective infrastructure” for both fintech companies and FIs. Speaking for FICO, which made its FinDEVr debut in New York this spring, CTO Stuart Wells said his company will increase the amount of its risk management and compliance technology available via the cloud “powered by AWS.”

The AWS Competency Program is designed to help customers use Amazon Web Services by connecting with the company’s network partners in a variety of fields. For the Financial Services competency, these fields include banking and payments, capital markets, and insurance. Amazon Web Services made the new competency announcements at its re:Invent conference this week.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate, FinDEVr Alums Earn AWS Financial Services Competency Status”

Around the web

  • FIS and Trunomi team up to build a data protection solution to help FIs comply with new EU regulations.
  • PYMNTS.com looks at Concur and its partnership with China DataCom Corporation.
  • Comarch to integrate EyeVerify into its Smart Finance and Corporate Banking solutions.
  • FinDEVr alum Symbiont hires Dr. Lisa Yin as new chief security officer and chief cryptographer.
  • D3 Banking adds more than a million users to its digital banking platform.
  • Hypepotamus interviews CTO Amala Duggirala, Kabbage’s new chief technology officer.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions develops new prepaid banking platform for CereTel.
  • Tuition.io wins 2016 Best In Biz Awards.
  • Financial Brand: Moven promotes financial health with ‘Smart Savings Account’
  • RealtyMogul.com unveils new lower minimum of $1,000 for investment in its online REIT, MogulREIT I.
  • Business Standard profiles MarketsMojo and its algorithm-based approach to stock market analysis.

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

Finovate Alums Earn Spots in FinTech Forward 20 “Companies to Watch”

Finovate Alums Earn Spots in FinTech Forward 20 “Companies to Watch”

fintechforward_americanbankerbai

Half of the companies in the FinTech Forward 20 “Companies to Watch” list presented by American Banker and BAI this week are Finovate/FinDEVr alums. These 10 companies range from payments innovators and security specialists to alt-lending platforms and mobile banking app builders—the list even includes a pair of alums that have earned multiple Best of Show awards.

“The following 20 companies are the standouts among a pool of companies that nominated themselves and ones familiar to our judges,” American Banker declared in an announcement accompanying a slideshow of the FinTech Forward 20. When evaluating the various companies, judges were encouraged to ask themselves questions such as: “Is this organization solving relevant problems for the banking industry?” and “Does it speak to the challenges the industry faces now.”

Below are the ten Finovate/FinDEVr alums that made the cut. The rest of the FinTechForward 20 is listed below.

  • Currency cloud (FF16)
    • Founded in 2012
    • Headquartered in London, United Kingdom
    • Michael Laven is CEO
    • $35 million raised
  • identitii (FF16)
    • Founded in 2014
    • Headquartered in Sydney, Australia
    • Nick Armstrong is co-founder and CEO
  • BehavioSec (FF15)
    • Founded in 2007
    • Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden
    • Neil Costigan is CEO
    • More than $8 million raised
    • Two-time Finovate Best of Show winner
  • InSpirAVE (FF16)
    • Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York City, New York
    • Om Kundu, founder, is CEO and chairman
  • Moven (FF16)
    • Founded in 2011
    • Headquartered in New York City, New York
    • Brett King, founder, is CEO
    • More than $24 million raised
    • Two-time Finovate Best of Show winner

Commenting on its spot on the list, Finovate newcomer InSpirAVE founder and CEO Om Kundu said the recognition was a “testament that our patent-pending technology enables financial institutions partnering with us to set themselves apart.” Kundu said his company’s solutions help FIs “tangibly boost deposits and payments revenues” as well as improve customer engagement and share-in-wallet in enduring ways.

Co-founder and CEO of CUneXus credited his firm’s one-click consumer-lending technology for catching the Fintech Forward judges’ attention. He said banks and credit unions were growing the size of their loan portfolios and “competing with emerging technologies” by adopting CUneXus’ solutions.

Speaking for Alkami Technology, which demoed at Finovate 2009 as iThryv, founder Stephen Bohanon, chief strategy and sales officer, pointed to his company’s flagship Alkami ORB platform and called it an example of the sort of “user experience brought about by great design and tightly coupled integration” that increasingly will set FIs apart. “ORB gives banks and credit unions a competitive advantage by placing strong emphasis on delivering the ultimate digital banking experience,” Bohanon said.

Also on the Fintech Forward 20 Companies to Watch list were:

  • Autobooks
  • Kasisto
  • ClickSWITCH
  • Built
  • BookingBug
  • Lenndo
  • Supipay
  • Self Lender
  • Private Wealth Systems
  • Yantra Financial Technologies

Fintech Forward is a collaboration between American Banker and BAI that combines research, media, and event hosting into a single professional, educational enterprise. In addition to its Fintech Forward 20 “Companies to Watch” list, Fintech Forward also publishes a Top 100 Companies and Top 25 Enterprise rankings.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Yoyo Wallet is Prepared for Liftoff (But Not in a SpaceX Explosion Sort of Way)

Around the web

  • American Banker features Moven’s partnership with TD Bank. Come see Moven at FinovateFall this week in NYC.
  • FST Media interviews Phil Copeland, co-founder and chief executive officer of Avoka. Come see Avoka’s FinovateFall demo.
  • MoneyStrands launches new app to help users create good spending habits. Check out Strands at FinovateFall.

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.

Mobile: Going All-in with PFM in Mobile Banking

Mobile: Going All-in with PFM in Mobile Banking

becu_mx_mobileThe ongoing migration to mobile provides financial institutions a chance to reboot their approach to delivering information digitally. Digital banking v1.0 (desktop online banking) was primarily about porting paper-based statements into an online format. It was a huge change and made banking more convenient, though not really any more effective than the paper-and-call-center system it replaced.

Digital banking v2.0 (mobile banking) is where modern processing power and machine intelligence pays off. Banking becomes not only more convenient, but much simpler, less time consuming, and helps consumers make better financial decisions. But to get to those payoffs, FIs need to provide advanced features, that we in the industry call PFM (personal financial management).

But it’s hard to transition entrenched desktop-banking users to the more powerful PFM platforms. Many customers have been happily using desktop-online banking for a decade or more. And it’s a painful process to move them into what looks initially like a more complicated system.

So some FIs are gently pushing users into the future by offering ONLY a PFM-based native app. The largest U.S. financial institution to use that approach is Seattle-based BECU, the fourth largest credit union in the nation, with nearly 1 million members and 350,000 using mobile banking (up 75% in the past year).

A year ago, the credit union replaced its simple mobile-banking app with a fully PFM-integrated version powered by MX (see them at FinovateFall next week). CU members using native apps (Apple, Android, Windows) now do all their banking through a full PFM interface.

becu_mob_money_homeIt’s a good long-term move. Users expect, and need, more functionality than simple balance lookup and funds transfer. But making such a big change all at once carries risks too. With more than 200,000 users at conversion time, there ensued some initial member grumbling, inevitable with such a big change. But the latest version released in May 2016 carries the highest 5-star rating, so apparently users have come to grips with the change. You can see the reviews in the iTunes and Google Play stores. Check out the MX case study for more details.

The full-conversion approach used by BECU may be the fastest way to move customers into the future. But to minimize initial pushback and work out any UX hiccups, grandfathering the old app could provide some breathing room. Or call the new version “Pro,” charge $1.50/mo for it (waived for a few months), and let both versions live side by side indefinitely. TD Bank in Canada offers the Moven-powered MySpend app as an add-in to its regular mobile banking app (see Moven at FinovateFall next week).

Alternatively, users turned off by a the full-featured app can be referred to the mobile website with instructions on how to save it as an icon on their phone. As long as you have a reasonably responsive, well-designed site, non-power user customers will be satisfied.

—–

The BECU Money Manager has a start page (inset) that includes links to a tour, FAQs, new member application, online banking enrollment (required for mobile banking), location finder, and a link to the full mobile website.

——

Here’s a 3-minute MX-produced video of BECU exec Howie Wu discussing the desktop PFM platform and integration:

BECU on MX

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Moven

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Moven

Moven_homepage_August2016

FF2016-Logo-wdate-largeA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

Moven offers a software platform designed for mobile customer-centric banking, connecting the customer’s lifestyle to the revenue moments of a bank.

Why it’s great
Moven partners with global financial institutions to transform banking from products and balance sheets to insights and advice.

Moven_GregMidtboPresenters

Greg Midtbo, Chief Revenue Officer

 

 

 

Moven_BobSavinoBob Savino, Chief Technical Officer

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Persado Earns Top 20 Ranking in Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies List
  • Qumram Wins Swisscom Startup Challenge (Note: See Qumram demonstrate its technology in New York at FinovateFall 2016 on 8/9 September.)
  • HelloWallet’s New Feature is a Budget Within a Budget
  • Upserve’s New Square Partnership Offers Clients Access to Funding via Square Capital

Around the web

  • New partnership lets small businesses using Xero pay invoices using PayPal.
  • TSYS extends payments agreement with Swisscard.
  • The Muse features Persado on its list of “20 companies that want you to be happy.”
  • CRN lists MapD Technologies as one of 10 of the coolest big-data startups of 2016.

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.

Ready for a Sneak Peek? How to Best Prepare for FinovateFall

Ready for a Sneak Peek? How to Best Prepare for FinovateFall

StageIMG

To give you a sense of the many new ideas at the upcoming FinovateFall conference in New York, we’ve launched our Sneak Peek series. Eight companies are featured each week leading up to the 8/9 September event (tickets now available).

In the meantime, here is a quick summary of the 66 announced companies (six more are in stealth mode). It’s a lot to take in; pace yourself!

  • Agreement Express offers an an end-to-end platform that helps traditional financial institutions automate labor-intensive parts of the customer onboarding process to remain compliant while quickly opening customer accounts.
  • Aleo’s marketplace uses e-procurement, e-commerce and supplier financing bundled in a single open platform to offer small and medium enterprises an online procure-to-pay solution.
  • AutoGravity’s mobile-first digital marketplace helps digitally minded customers, looking to buy and finance a vehicle, circumvent the inefficiencies of the auto-financing process by leveraging the full potential of their smartphone.
  • Avoka’s customer-acquisition platform integrates multiple fintech services to help banks, wealth managers and insurers use mobile and digital channels to onboard customers.
  • Backbase offers 60-second onboarding for financial services companies to accelerate customer acquisition with a simple, fast, and seamless omnichannel onboarding journey.
  • Bankjoy offers developers a banking API for a modern, real-time, holistic interface for credit unions and community banks.
  • Bitbond’s automated, international credit-scoring mechanism compares small business-loan applicants from different countries by using machine learning and data from the applicant’s business accounts.
  • Bluescape offers large financial services companies a highly interactive, visually collaborative platform that uses real-time, cloud-based architecture that’s ultra-scalable, all-capturing, and accessible anytime from any device.
  • BondIT offers financial advisers and portfolio managers a data-driven solution that uses machine learning advanced algorithms to manage fixed-income portfolios and solve optimization challenges.
  • brandCrowder has developed an alternative investment platform focusing on branded franchises. It leverages 45+ years of franchise-operations experience to help retail investors finance franchises, helping to bring them to market quicker.
  • Clinc’s mobile, voice-activated personal financial adviser uses artificial intelligence to help consumers get answers to financial questions and tasks.
  • Consdata offers banks and financial institutions a comprehensive platform for e-form management and customer-communication complexities.
  • Currencycloud’s dedicated API services use intelligent APIs to help businesses with the cost, limitations, and boundaries of existing payment infrastructure.
  • Daon bridges convenience and security by offering financial services companies a mobile biometric authentication platform that turns a smartphone into a mobile capture device.
  • Divy’s app and social investing community uses an approachable interface and engaging content to help first-time and emerging investors access direct marketing and financial literacy material.
  • Dynamics offers issuers and their cardholders interactive payment cards and an authorization-based, real-time loyalty processing system.
  • ebankIT’s platform offers financial institution clients an omnichannel experience.
  • Econiq’s Conversation Hub uses color-coded conversations to help bank and insurer frontline staff, and operational management and executives avoid disconnected customer conversations in branches and contact centers.
  • Envestnet | Yodlee offers millennials a solution for measuring financial health and promoting a healthy financial lifestyle.
  • Experian CrossCore is a single platform that helps manage customer identities, fraud-prevention tools, workflows and decision strategies in an easy-to-use and scalable format.
  • EyeVerify’s Eyeprint ID offers banks and other financial services companies eye biometrics via smartphone cameras for convenient, secure and private authentication.
  • Featurespace’s ARIC Engine helps financial services clients spot and prevent fraud attacks in real time using adaptive behavioral analytics.
  • Finicity offers an API for companies to build financial apps.
  • Fiserv helps financial institutions enable social finance by providing customers access to a safe, collaborative bank-secured social funding product.
  • Full Profile uses the blockchain and smart contracts for real-time settlement and reporting of physical agri-commodities to help farmers, buyers, banks and government counter party and credit-risk exposures.
  • FutureVault’s cloud-based filing cabinet helps financial service providers and their clients organize asset documents and accounts using a secure, structured and collaborative B2B2C cloud environment.
  • GainX’s SaaS platform uses decades of market research and leading-edge technology to help large financial institutions overcome innovation and adaption failures.
  • GoodData helps large banks, credit-card processing and insurance companies commercialize and monetize their data using a scalable, manageable and secure platform that is exclusively designed for data products and embedded analytics.
  • iBank Marketing offers millennials a multifunction digital wallet to help them achieve personal goals around life events by using its local eco-system that bridges consumers and small- to medium-sized enterprises.
  • identitii uses tokens and blockchain to help financial institutions with KYC, CTF and AML compliance using an information layer over legacy systems.
  • InSpirAVE’s social e-commerce platform curates advice and financial support from the user’s friends and family, financial institutions, and merchants. It helps multiply savings, for big-ticket purchases for customers who otherwise may not be able to afford them, by placing important goals for life’s special moments within reach, without the crushing burden of debt.
  • KORE’s platform transforms enterprise applications, online banking and mobile apps into personalized, conversational engagements to help financial institutions meet customer-experience expectations using the power of bots and simplicity of messaging.
  • LendingFront’s lending platform leverages a cloud-based system that furnishes small businesses with capital using their cashflow data.
  • Lidya offers African small- to medium-sized enterprises access to finance using online receivables-based lending and proprietary credit scoring.
  • Liferay’s Digital Experience offers banks a richer understanding of customers by orchestrating personalized customer experiences.
  • M1 Finance places assets held in low-yielding cash accounts into an asset-linked bank account and intuitive investment platform.
  • MapD’s Immerse helps quantitative hedge fund and asset managers query datasets with billions of rows in real-time by applying the parallel processing power of GPUs to the challenges of databases, visualization and analytics.
  • MarketX’s cross-border investment platform helps international investors with the lack of liquidity for U.S. startup shares and limited access to U.S. pre-IPO investment opportunities.
  • ModoPayments offers financial companies a digital payments hub to connect disparate sources of value to diverse destinations using Modo’s COIN technology.
  • Moonraft Innovation Labs helps banks innovate and evolve by rapidly adapting to changing market needs using Catamera, its unique customer experience delivery framework.
  • Moven’s growing platform reaches the millennial, mobile first, digital native audience by bringing banking (specifically savings) into the moment.
  • MX helps financial institutions become true advocates for their account holders by using analytics to power a revolutionary category of data-driven money management.
  • nanoPay offers a payments and loyalty solution for merchants.
  • Overbond’s digital platform offers transparency, efficiency, and liquidity in the fixed income market for corporate issuers, investors, and dealers.
  • Personetics offers financial services providers a digital personalization platform that uses real-time, ultra-scalable predictive analytics to keep customers engaged in the digital age.
  • ProActive FinTech uses a phone app and debit card featuring unlimited mini bank accounts and pre-purchase categorization to help millennial moms with cash-flow management.
  • QE Data offers commercial banking systems a real-time predictive model for net cash-flows that uses machine learning, rich visualization, speedy deployment and real-world banking experience.
  • Qumram uses 100% real-time, video-like recording of every mouse movement, keystroke and button click to help financial services organizations with compliance and transparency issues relating to digital business.
  • RightCapital’s financial and tax-planning platform helps advisers deliver unbundled, quality financial planning and tax-planning services. It works to efficiently and digitally help consumers with the lack of viable business and technology solutions.
  • SaleMove offers financial institutions a live engagement platform to help sell and service complex financial services products online. The platform uses instant video chat and guided browsing with no downloads or installations.
  • Sindeo’s self-directed consumer rate quote and prequalification tool simplifies home financing and refinancing using an integrated platform that offers consumer, real estate partner, and adviser tools that conform to CFPB regulation and ensure a simple and easy consumer experience.
  • SpeechPro’s customer onboarding solution offers multichannel access to help CTOs, developers and other technologists focus on KYC, identity and verification.
  • Swych’s mobile gifting platform offers gift-card recipients a better way to buy, gift, and manage gift cards.
  • Tango Card’s RaaS API 2.0 uses simple-yet-complete delivery technology and domain expertise to help enterprises deliver incentives efficiently and effectively.
  • TokBox’s Financial Services Accelerator Pack offers banks and financial organizations secure and easy-to-embed, real-time communications technology.
  • TransUnion’s interactive data-visualization solution uses big data and analytics to connect and interpret consumer financial data for lenders.
  • Trulioo’s GlobalGateway uses traditional and cyber ID data sources to offer banks, financial services providers, and online marketplaces secure access to reliable, global data sources for instant ID-verification.
  • Trusona’s anti-replay and TruToken technology offers an insured identity platform for sensitive assets.
  • Unbill’s API enables companies to offer bill pay in their app or technology platform without complicated integration or high costs.
  • Uniken’s REL-ID, a card-not-present approval solution, uses mobile API tool kits and DMZ software appliances to help enterprises secure mobile communications.
  • Urban FT’s enhanced, white-label digital banking platform gives financial services organizations, wireless carriers, and other consumer-facing organizations a long-term, competitive advantage that makes their brand integral to customers’ daily financial and online social activities, financial tools, and social features.
  • Xentral Station’s supply-chain funding app helps vendors of all sizes receive cash for trade financing within 24 hours.
  • Zenmonics uses a single, common platform to help banks and their customers minimize friction in customer engagement with channelUNITED.
  • Zooz offers an agnostic, cross-border payments platform to help merchants act on payment processes and save money to maintain their client base.

Stay tuned on the blog for more detailed descriptions. And don’t forget to register now to reserve your spot.

Fintech Trending: Germany Grows, Pokemon Goes, PayPal Partners

Fintech Trending: Germany Grows, Pokemon Goes, PayPal Partners

PokemonGo_videoimage

Today we unveil our fintech trends column, a look at trending topics of the past week or two, compiled by the Finovate research team.


Trending highest: Pokemon Go

Our inaugural post leads with the Pokemon Go phenomenon which has fintech innovators rethinking their strategies around not just mobile, but the power of gamification, location-based marketing, and the diversity of data, as well.

Sberbank (F16) was clever enough to offer free accident insurance for distraction-prone Pokemon Go players. But the Russian-based bank has bigger plans to engage potential customers via the game, including bonuses for players who catch Pokemon in a Sberbank branch. Sberbank also plans to use lures to help drive traffic to its locations, an initiative already underway at CenterState Bank in Florida. Read our take on the technology, and its potential as a marketing tool for FIs.

It comes as no surprise that fintech’s foremost futurist, Brett King, makes the most far-reaching case in favor of a connection between Pokemon Go and fintech. Calling the game “a glimpse into how very different the world of banking, investing, and financial advice will be in 10 year’s time,” the Moven (F16) CEO and author of Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane tells The Financial Brand’s Jim Marous: “(Pokemon Go) illustrates why banking is no longer a place you go, but something you do—on a phone, in AR, and as a person lives their life.”

Other quality Pokemon posts:

  • Lessons Pokemon Go Can Teach the Banking Industry – The Financial Brand
  • Is Pokemon Go the Killer App for Location-Based Marketing – AdvertisingAge
  • Urban gamification: can Pokemon transform our public spaces – The Guardian
  • Pokemon Go Is Inspiring Small Retailers. So Has Augmented Reality Gone Mainstream? – AdWeek
  • Pokemon Go has reinvented the power of data – IT Pro Portal
  • Capture your business spend: no Pokeball needed – TradeShift blog


Other trending topics

Brexit a Boon for German Fintechs?
With the strong fundraising performance of Germany’s fintech startups in late June, and news this week that Peter Thiel took a $3.5 million stake in Cologne-based nextmarkets, London’s position as Europe’s fintech capital may be weakening. And Germany seems to be the likeliest beneficiary.

  • Brexit spurs London startups to investigate Berlin move – Reuters
  • ‘Over a hundred’ London startups have asked to relocate to Berlin since Brexit – International Business Times
  • Berlin bids to replace London as post-Brexit fintech capital – Financial Times

Nasdaq Fintech Index Goes Live
You know Wall Street loves you when they render your likeness in an index. This week, Nasdaq launched its Fintex Index which tracks the performance of 49 fintech companies including 17 Finovate/FinDEVr alums. The index of publicly traded fintechs excludes banks and is limited to companies that “mainly sell financial services,” are not brick-and-mortar based, and generate revenues from fees rather than interest.

A Week in the Blockchain
While in Florida, a judge ruled that Bitcoin isn’t money, the EU commission made a step fostering the cryptocurrency, proposing the creation of a central database that keeps a record of bitcoin users. With the new measure, the executive arm of the EU aims to prevent the use of the currency to fund terrorists.

Mastercard Accentuates the Digital
Mastercard (F14) enhanced Masterpass, allowing consumers to make in-store payments at 5 million brick-and-mortar stores. The company rebranded its logo with a lowercase ‘c’ to focus less on a physical card and more on a digital wallet. One week later the company purchased a majority stake in U.K.-based VocaLink for $1.14 billion, giving Mastercard a potentially larger role in the overall U.K. payments universe.

Pump Up the Visa Volume
Visa (F10) and PayPal (F12, FD16) partnered, putting to bed a long-standing conflict. PayPal will encourage users to make Visa their preferred payment method. And more importantly, PayPal will stop steering Visa cardholders to pay via ACH bank transfer, increasing the transaction volume sent to Visa and its card-issuing banks. In turn, Visa is adding PayPal to its Visa Digital Enablement Platform, allowing consumers to use PayPal mobile wallet at the physical POS at major retailers. PayPal has been trying to engage consumers with physical POS payments since 2012, when it first introduced its pay-by-phone-number at Home Depot.

More Fintech Companies Choose Chatbots
This ongoing trend saw new entrants with Polly Portfolio (F16) launching a chatbot, along with MyKAI and YouInvest. Additionally, text-based savings service Dyme (F15) launched the first prototype of its Facebook Messenger Bankbot.

We’re also keeping our eyes on:

  • Amazon partnered with Wells Fargo to offer a 0.50% discount on student loans for Amazon Prime members
  • Square adds same-day bank deposits for merchants. While relatively pricey, adding 1% of the transaction amount to the processing cost, it’s a simple way to improve cash flow for certain businesses.
  • Cambridge Savings Bank partnered with SigFig (F11) to become one of the first U.S. banks to offer a robo-adviser investment service.

Parentheticals after a company name refer to the year of their most recent Finovate or FinDEVr conference appearance (F = Finovate, FD = FinDEVr),

Finovate Alumni News

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Trustly Goes Live with P2P Payments at Avanza Bank”
  • “TWINO’s First Year: 2,500 Investors Fund $24.6 Million in Loans”
  • “Ormsby Street Partners with Deutsche Bank to Launch CreditHQ in Germany”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “Speed of Lightning, Roar of Thunder: Blockchain Unveils Off-Chain Bitcoin Payments Network”

Around the web

  • Version 6.0 of PayPal app discontinues support for Amazon Fire, Windows, and Blackberry phones.
  • Neyber selects Cloud Lending Solutions for loan automation.
  • Mircea Mihaescu’s blog features Moven.
  • SafetyPay partners with online travel agency ViajaNet.
  • Santander to build international payments app using blockchain technology from Ripple.
  • Technology from Cachet Financial Solutions to power mobile deposit solution for LCNB National Bank.
  • Credit Suisse chooses FIS Derivatives Utility for post-trade futures and cleared OTC derivatives operations and technology.

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.