Month: June 2013

Finovate Alumni News– June 24, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Acculynk, Andera, Capital Access Network, Cartera Commerce, Currensee, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, GoodApril, Intuit, Keynote DeviceAnywhere, Manilla, Realty Mogul, Tagit, TIBCO Software, Zighra, Zooz
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgCapital Access Network named one of the top financial services companies of the year at the 11th Annual American Business Awards.
  • American Banker looks to Zigrhra, GoodApril, Realty Mogul, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab for innovation.
  • Lead411 names Cartera Commerce to Hottest Companies in Boston list.
  • TIBCO and Western Union partner to leverage Big Data to anticipate consumer trends and customize customer engagement.
  • Banking2020.com interviews Andera and Intuit on the branch of the future.
  • Tagit to expand in the Philippines by offering mobile-banking application software to banks.
  • Manilla adds email integration feature to personal finance platform.
  • Acculynk announces RuPay debit cardholders in India can make online purchases using the card.
  • Keynote DeviceAnywhere to be acquired by private equity investment firm, Thoma Bravo in a $395 million, all-cash, deal.
  • Adotas column on mobile commerce for SMBs takes a look at Zooz.
  • NordFX and Currensee launch partnership as former joins Trade Leaders Investment Program.
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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Finovate Alumni News– June 21, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Braintree, CurrencyFair, LendUp, Locaid, Metaforic, Monitise, Pindrop Security, QuantConnect
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBraintree opening office in Sydney, Australia, that will cater to developers and startups.
  • Monitise named winner in the Inspire Wales Awards.
  • Pindrop Security raises $11 million led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures.
  • Metaforic wins American Technology Award for Cyber Security.
  • New Business interviews CurrencyFair founders on saving money when making foreign currency transactions.
  • Biz Report’s Mobile Marketing column features 3 tips to improve location-based campaigns in an interview with Locaid CEO, Rip Gerber.
  • INTJ Capital takes a look at QuantConnect’s announcement that it has added historical FX and US equity tick data.
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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Metrics: Mobile Traffic at Six Large Prepaid Card Sites

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Metrics & Market Research, Prepaid/gift cards

image In March, we reported on the mobile traffic at the 10 larget U.S. banks. Across all ten banks, an average of 20% of users were mobile-only.

Today, comScore provided similar numbers (note 1) for major prepaid card issuers in Q1. And the mobile lift was even more dramatic. Across the six major issuers, the incremental traffic through mobile browsers (not including native apps) ranged from 23% at WalmartMoneyCard.com to 80% at Netspend. The weighted average lift across all six was 43%.

Bottom line: While we need conversion rates to gauge channel profitability, it’s clear that mobile users are a large potential market for prepaid issuers.

—————————–

Table: U.S. desktop and mobile browser traffic at six large U.S. prepaid card sites
millions of unique visitors, age 18+ (Feb 2013)

Q1 2013 Total Desktop Mobile* Mobile Only Mobile Incremental**
netSpend 1.4 mil 790,000 670,000 630,000 80%
WalmartMoneyCard 1.1 mil 930,000 230,000 210,000 23%
Rush Card 980,000 710,000 290,000 270,000 38%
Green Dot 820,000 560,000 270,000 260,000 46%
Account Now 600,000 450,000 150,000 140,000 31%
Amex Bluebird* 370,000 240,000 130,000 130,000 54%
  Total*** 5.3 mil 3.7 mil 1.7 mil 1.6 mil 43%

Source: comScore, monthly unique visitors in Q1 2013 (methodology)
*Includes traffic only from mobile browser, except American Express BlueBird, which also includes native app
**Mobile-only divided by desktop base
***Includes some overlap of users visiting multiple prepaid issuers

——————————

Note:
1. The banking numbers in March included native app traffic. The prepaid card traffic estimates exclude any native app traffic, except for American Express Bluebird which has both native and mobile browser traffic.

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Check Announces Expedited Payments

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Check

Check_logo.jpg

Check, the mobile PFM provider formerly known as Pageonce, announced today that it will now offer expedited payments to its eight million customers. 

Same day payments will start at $14.99, a nice savings compared to typical $20+ late fees. 

ExpeditedBillPay_Check.jpg

“Industry-wide, expedited bill pay has saved customers more than $4 billion in potential fees in 2010,” said Check marketing VP, Daniel Kjellen, citing a 2011 Javelin Strategy & Research report. This amount is expected to climb to more than six billion by 2015.
Expedited bill pay also helps differentiate Check from its competitors. Said Kjellen “we want to be known as a payments company rather than just a personal finance company.”
Expedited bill pay is available as a feature of the Money & Bills App, available for download at both the iTunes AppStore and at Google Play.
Check was most recently in the headlines following news that the company had reached a deal with Alltel Wireless to allow the carrier’s customers to pay their bills via smartphone. 
The company announced its rebranding a little over a month ago.
Check demoed its technology as part of the FinovateSpring show in 2010. See the company’s presentation here.

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Finovate Alumni News– June 20, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Andera, Better ATM Services, Bill.com, Check, Geezeo, Intuit, Lending Club, Prosper, SafetyPay, Wallaby Financial
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTitan Bank and Congressional Bank now buying loans through the Lending Club platform.
  • Nexonia integrates its expense reports solution with Bill.com.
  • Mexican Airline Volaris adds SafetyPay to payment method options.
  • Prosper reduces maximum loan percentage to 50% for investors in any one loan.
  • Geezeo signs Corporate America Family Credit Union.
  • Andera’s oFlows platform will be the new account opening technology for Intuit’s financial institution clients.
  • Check (formerly Pageonce) announces expedited payments.
  • Consumer Reports takes a look at the growth of Better ATM Services.
  • Wallaby releases version 2.0 for iPhone with new interface, Foursquare integration.
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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Better Haves Wins $50K FinCapDev Grand Prize

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

fincapdevlogo.jpg

An app called Better Haves won the Grand Prize at the FinCapDev $100K Demo Day held at Capital One 360 Cafe in San Francisco Tuesday evening. 

The event pitted 10 finalists against one another in a mobile app-making contest geared toward “helping working Americans make smart financial choices and gain better access to financial services.” 

Having made it past a qualifying round last fall, finalists gathered before a panel of judges to demo their mobile apps in two-minute elevator pitches. Finalists also fielded questions about their apps from the judges before the final voting. 
The Grand Prize-winning app, Better Haves, is a budgeting solution for couples to help them form better financial habits by sharing their spending tendencies and values. The Better Haves team consisted of Itai Leibowitz, Marcos Siqueira, and Vanya Pasheva – shown accepting their Grand Prize below.
FinCapDev_Better_Haves-Wins.jpg
Two finalists picked up a pair of runners-up prizes. An app called Thrifty Bunch (the “Wikipedia for needs-based shopping”) uses a variation of crowdsourcing to help limit impulse buying. Down Payment Saver also earned a runners-up award. This budgeting app is geared toward helping renters overcome the single biggest hurdle to homeownership: coming up with a downpayment.

BetterHaves_mobile.jpg

A budget and savings app called Financial Forest, and an insurance advisory app named Smart Insurance earned Honorable Mentions.
Financial Forest focuses on helping those living paycheck to paycheck save enough money for a one-month emergency fund. Smart Insurance is an app that helps consumers make sound decisions on everything from whether or not to buy an extended warranty when purchasing an appliance to picking the best auto insurance deal.
All the finalists’ apps are available for download. Read more about each of the apps in the contest here.
The FinCapDev competition is presented and administered by the D2D Fund and the Center for Financial Innovation. The event is a companion competition to the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Grand prize for the FinCapDev competition was $50,000. Runners up received prizes of $20,000 each. Both Honorable Mention winners earned $5,000 each. 
Learn more about all of the finalists here.

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Pindrop Security Raises $11 Million Led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Pindrop Security

pindropLogo.jpg

Pindrop Security, a startup that aims to stop caller ID fraud, announced today that it has received $11 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures.

Other investors contributing to Pindrop’s Series A round include:

The Atlanta-based company plans on using the funds to add resources in engineering, operations, and sales and marketing in the U.S., Canada and Europe in order to better meet customer demand.

Scott Weiss, General Partner for Andreessen Horowitz, has joined Pindrop’s board.

To learn more about Pindrop Security, watch its FinovateFall 2012 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– June 19, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Better ATM Services, Dwolla, eDeposit, Ixaris, Kashoo, LICUOS, mBank, Meniga, MicroStrategy, Personal Capital, Ping Identity, QuantConnect, Simple, Zopa
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBRE Bank, operator of mBank launches “new mBank”, which is based on Meniga´s PFM.
  • U.S.-based life insurance carrier expands use of Kofax solutions by investing an additional $550k to automate document processing.
  • Personal Capital introduces new dashboard features.
  • Bank Innovation visits Dwolla’s new office in NYC.
  • The Next Web reports: Simple launches its Goals feature on the iPhone.
  • Ping Identity named in IDG’s Computerworld 2013 Best Places to Work in IT.
  • Zopa cuts personal loan rate to 4.9%.
  • QuantConnect adds FX, US equity tick data; raises capital.
  • MicroStrategy to partner with Hortonworks to improve Apache Hadoop usability.
  • ixaris shows off its new look and rebranding.
  • Web AppStorm reviews Kashoo’s cloud-based accounting technology.
  • eDeposit teams up with DoubleBeam to integrate mobile account enrollment and eCheck deposits into eDeposits mobile payment network.
  • LICUOS named a finalist in the Next Bank Madrid – Innotribe Startup Disrupt.
  • Fox Business News features Arxan CEO Mike Dager on mobile banking security.
  • Better ATM Services CEO Todd Nuttall talks about the “real lessons” from the Cyprus financial crisis.
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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QuantConnect Adds FX, US Equity Tick Data; Raises Capital

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: QuantConnect

quantconnect_logo.jpg

How do traders and investors who “sell in May and go away” spend their summers?

If you are a quantitative trader looking forward to spending the sunny months indoors backtesting trading strategies, then QuantConnect has some very good news for you: the company just announced that it now provides backtesters with five years worth of foreign exchange tick data and U.S. equity tick data going back to 1998. For free.

“This has never been done before,” said QuantConnect CEO Jared Broad in a telephone conversation. The data comes courtesy of two new partnerships: U.S. data provider QuantQuote.com is providing the equity data, while FXCM, the largest retail FX broker in the United States, is making available the forex data.
Clean, extensive U.S. equity tick data is a precious enough commodity for most quants. But access to forex tick data can be almost impossible for the average, non-professional trader to come by. 

quantconnect_homepage1.jpg

What’s next on the data front for QuantConnect? The company is currently looking for quality futures data sources, ideally with trade execution. In addition to helping QuantConnect serve an even broader trading and investing public, futures data would also help attract those working in commodity-sensitive industries such as transportation and agriculture to the platform, said Broad.
QuantConnect’s data announcements come on the heels of the company’s recently closed funding round. The actual amount of the financing remains undisclosed. Broad said that the funding came from angel investors with backgrounds in quantitative trading and investing, and that the funds will contribute toward operations. 
QuantConnect demoed their technology as part of the FinovateEurope show in London earlier this year. Watch the company’s presentation here.
Correction: The U.S. equity data provider was misidentified in a previous version.

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Finovate Alumni News– June 18, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Currensee, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, EyeVerify, ID Analytics, Intuit, Q2ebanking, Realty Mogul, SecureKey, ShopKeep POS, SimpleTuition, TransferWise, VoiceTrust
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgID Analytics and IdentityMind partner to reduce online fraud and stop merchant account creation fraud.
  • SimpleTuition adds 10 U.S. colleges as partners.
  • United Texas Bank selects Q2ebanking platform to accelerate unified virtual banking for anytime anywhere access.
  • SecureKey and Intel beef up authentication for MasterPass.
  • ShopKeep POS grows To 6.5K+ merchants.
  • Fairwinds Credit Union chooses Intuit for digital banking.
  • Realty Mogul and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab selected as 2 of 5 SWIFT Innotribe finalists of Startup Challenge New York.
  • Bank Innovation features how Entrepreneurial Finance Lab and VoiceTrust can combine psychographics and biometrics to revolutionize financial services.
  • ForexSmash reviews Currensee Social Trader.
  • Kansas City Business Journal profiles EyeVerify founder and CEO Toby Rush.
  • GigaOM Pro Blog takes a look at TransferWise through the lens of traditional Hawala informal money transfer networks.
  • My Money Blog reviews Realty Mogul and the concept of fractional investment property ownership.
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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Finovate Alumni News– June 17, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Banking Up, BillGuard, EZBOB, FreeAgent, Geezeo, Lendio, Plastyc, Realty Mogul, Stockr, TrustedID, Virtual Piggy
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgVirtual Piggy grows to over a quarter million users.
  • TrustedID launches new service to help protect AARP members from identity theft.
  • Lendio launches new small business resource center to give business owners access to products and services to help grow their businesses.
  • Geezeo advances social finances by launching Friend and Feed tools.
  • FreeAgent launches Invoice-o-matic, a free online invoicing tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
  • EZBOB announces new, 12-month business loan with decreasing rate over term.
  • Realty Mogul featured in Herald-Tribune column on bringing real estate investing “to the masses.”
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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Finovate Alumni News– June 14, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Billeo, Encap, Heckyl Technologies, Jemstep, MoneyDesktop, Moven, Narrative Science, Nomis Solutions, Quantopian, Wallaby Financial, Zopa
  • Nomis Solutions wins patent for price sensitivity models.
  • Billeo announces acquisition of ecommerce platform, Swag.io.
  • Encap earns seven-figure investment from ProVenture Seed.
  • Money Marketing considers Narrative Science, Quantopian, Moven, MoneyDesktop and Jemstep.
  • Zopa named Most Trusted Loans Provider at the Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2013.
  • CU Broadcast interviews MoneyDesktop’s Bret Skousen.
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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