BioCatch Mobile Emerges from Beta

BioCatch Mobile Emerges from Beta
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From iCloud to Home Depot, is anybody else looking for some good news when it comes to digital security?

Fortunately, BioCatch – who will be making its FinovateFall 2014 debut later this month – is punching through the “Who Got Hacked?” gloom with news that its mobile security technology is now out of beta.

BioCatch CEO Benny Rosenbaum highlighted two features he thinks will help separate BioCatch Mobile from the rest of the multi-authenticating pack. “What makes our solution so unique is the fact that it’s completely transparent, works behind the scenes, and yet is far more secure than traditional two-factor authentication, ” he said.
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How so? BioCatch specializes in cognitive biometrics. Cognitive biometrics provides for a greater range of inputs than many multi-factor authentication schemes. For example, BioCatch not only creates a unique signature based on physical factors such as left or right-handedness, but also factors in device interaction patterns, geolocation, and more.
The goal is to help identify many of the more common security breaches experienced by FIs and their customs. These include account takeover and malware threats, as well as identifying the presence of “jailbroken” devices. The trick, said Rosenbaum, is to allow banks to “add new functionality without admitting new fraud or creating new friction.”
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Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Boston, BioCatch was recognized last December by Aite Group as an “emerging player in biometric authentication.” And Gartner called BioCatch a “Cool Vendor in Security” as recently as April 2013. The company announced that it had raised $10 million in new funding in June, courtesy of investments from Blumberg Capital and OurCrowd, as well as existing investors.

FIS Signs Agreement to Acquire Clear2Pay for $493 Million

FIS Signs Agreement to Acquire Clear2Pay for $493 Million
Fidelity National Information Services

Banking and payment technologies giant, FIS, announced today it has signed an agreement to acquire payment technology company, Clear2Pay for $493 million (€375 million).

Once the acquisition is complete, FIS will augment its global payment services with Clear2Pay’s technology. The Fortune 500 financial services provider anticipates that the new technology will give its larger customers a set of modern payments solutions.
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Here are some quick facts on the two parties:
FIS
    • Founded 1968
    • Went public in 2001
    • Headquartered in Jacksonville, FL
    • 39,000 employees
    • Serves 14,000+ institutions in 110+ countries 
Clear2Pay
    • Founded 2001
    • Privately held company. Has raised $127 million 
    • Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium
    • 1,200 employees
    • Counts 40 of the 50 largest global financial institutions as clients
The pending acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval and contractual closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
FIS last demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2013 where it debuted its mobile wallet solution.

Alumni News– September 3, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgCortera announces Caine & Weiner as the Latest Open Receivables’ Partner to Join Network.
  • Personal Capital launches Private Client Service. Come see Personal Capital’s presentation at FinDEVr in San Francisco Sept 30 and Oct 1.
  • Blackhawk Network announces integration with Google Wallet.
  • Nutmeg, TransferWise featured in Growth Business’ look at the top 10 technology venture capital investments of Q2.
  • ValidSoft wins 4th European Privacy Seal award for its Zero Latency Correlation process.
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.

FinovateFall 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 5

FinovateFall 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 5

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After resting up over the weekend, we hope you’re ready to take a look at six more companies that will demo their newest fintech creation in New York City at FinovateFall this September 23 and 24.

Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve seen:

Don’t miss out; get your ticket here to be a part of the action.



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Business Centric Services Group (BCSG) is a cloud- services brokerage offering business apps for small businesses via FIs with a platform reaching over 4 million SMBs worldwide.
Features:
    • Modularized platform that allows FIs to tailor their offering
    • 24×7 support for SMBs on all apps
    • Client support: from proposition design, to go-to-market strategy, to ongoing delivery
Why it’s great:
Its platform will continue to evolve with the market. Whatever it does, it will always start with the small business need.
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Presenters:

1) John Davis, Managing Director
Prior to BCSG Davis spent 10 years at Barclays where he was Marketing and Product Director for Barclays Business, and also Managing Director of Clearlybusiness.
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2) Andrew Garney, Commercial Manager

Before joining BCSG Garney held various technical and project delivery roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services and De La Rue.

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Diebold’s evolution of Relationship Banking lowers the costs of self-service channels in the branch, combined with a seamless extension of tablet-based Sales, Servicing and Account Opening
Features:
    • Advanced teller transactions moved to self-service terminals
    • Personalized Account Opening, Sales & Service via Tablet
    • Shared customer history and product promotion across channels
Why it’s great:

Diebold furnishes the ability to effectively identify, engage, service and anticipate the needs of customers across your self-service and assisted channels will differentiate your brand.
Presenters:
1) Shelly Ewing, New Business and Solution Incubation for Diebold  
2) Chris Siemasko, SVP Product Solutions for Zenmonics  

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Larky delivers engagement and loyalty through a unique platform that provides point-of-sale discounts at local and national merchants and magically reminds users of offers at the right time and place.

Features:

  • Location-triggered alerts when a discount is near
  • Tracks 2,000+ memberships. Users never miss an offer they deserve (including yours!)
  • White-labeled platform seamlessly ties in with your brand
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Presenter:

Andrew Bank, Co-Founder
Successful start-up entrepreneur with substantial experience identifying and developing products, services, and business relationships with high ROI. Passion for creating compelling new solutions.

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MaxMyInterest by Six Trees Capital LLC is an intelligent cash-management solution that helps investors earn up to 0.80% more on FDIC-insured bank deposits, rebalancing funds automatically as rates change.

Features:

    • Earn up to 0.80% more on cash without changing your checking account
    • Get the best interest rates, automatically, even as rates change
    • Fund
      s move to and from checking as needed
Why it’s great: 
Max brings efficiency and transparency to the $12 trillion market for cash, making it easy for investors to securely and effortlessly increase the yield on the cash portion of their portfolios.
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Presenters:

1) Gary Zimmerman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Zimmerman is an investor and entrepreneur, focused on financial technology. Prior to founding MaxMyInterest, he was an investment banker at Citigroup. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics.
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2) Richard Wu, Director of Engineering

Wu leads the technology development team and is an expert in interface design. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Computer Engineering.  

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Sonavation empowers trust through ultrasound technology by creating more secure environments in which to access sensitive financial data, conduct non-cash transactions and offer peace of mind.

Features:
    • Impenetrable security using ultrasound technology and cloud-based Identity-as-a-service infrastructure
    • Protection of sensitive banking information
    • ATM, credit and debit card protection
Why it’s great:
Sonavation is on a mission to replace passwords and PINs with highly secure biometric solutions, leveraging the power of ultrasound to deliver piece of mind.
BobStewart

Presenter:

Bob Stewart, Chief Operating Officer
Stewart is the Chief Operating Officer at Sonavation, currently focused on delivering the convergence of physical and cyber security.

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TickSmith has built the first commercial Big Data platform for financial data.

Features:
    • Powerful and scalable Big Data technology and analytics
    • Management of all types of financial data
    • Solve compliance, reporting, analytics and distribution problems on huge data sets
Why it’s great:
TickSmith provides out-of-the-box, previously unavailable possibilities to exploit financial big data.
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Presenters:

1) Francis Wenzel, CEO
Seasoned financial data and technology executive and entrepreneur with 28 years of experience.
LinkedIn
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2) David David Côté, CIO

Entrepreneur, consultant and IT Architect with 17 years of experience developing, architecting, deploying and running technology solutions and infrastructure for banks, travel and IT companies.
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Check back this Thursday to see another six companies that will demo at FinovateFall 2014.

Kofax Acquires Softpro for its Electronic Signature Capture Software

Kofax Acquires Softpro for its Electronic Signature Capture Software

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Mobile imaging software company, Kofax, recently announced it acquired Softpro, a company that specializes in fraud prevention and e-signature, for $35 million.

As part of the deal, California-based Kofax paid Germany-based Softpro $31.2 million in cash when the transaction closed on Monday. To complete the purchase, it will pay the remaining $3.5 million in three batches over the next two years.

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Softpro’s e-signature software, SignDoc, processes 200 million electronic signatures every year, and boasts two major features:

1) Click-to-sign
2) Physical signature capture

With SignDoc added to Kofax’s quiver, services that require a contract, such as account opening, loan or mortgage applications, can be carried out entirely on the digital channel.

Kofax last presented at FinovateSpring 2014 where it debuted its retail gift card balance solution.

Advanced Merchant Payments Joins FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific

Advanced Merchant Payments Joins FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific
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The 2014 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia Pacific has announced the latest set of fintech startups to participate in its accelerator program. And FinovateAsia 2013 alum Advanced Merchant Payments is among them.

Advanced Merchant Payments specializes in providing short-term, unsecured financing for small and medium-sized businesses. AMP also provides SMEs with accounts receivable financing and cash-flow management services. Loans can be approved as quickly as five days, and terms typically range from 90, 180, 270, or 360 days. The company lends to a variety of businesses in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, from retailers and wholesalers to contractors and equipment providers.

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The Innovation Lab was developed by Accenture and launched in June of this year. The program is geared toward “early-state” companies with technologies designed for the Asia Pacific market. The program lasts for 12 weeks and includes mentoring, panel discussions, and workshops led by industry veterans and fintech professionals – as well as networking opportunities for incubator participants.
Sushil Saluja, senior managing director for Financial Services at Accenture suggested that the kind of technologies chosen by the lab selection committee are indicative of the kind of solutions FIs and customers alike are looking for. Saluja pointed specifically to “data security, analysis, and risk assessment” as areas where innovation could “make a real difference in the everyday lives of people” in the region.
Joining Advanced Merchant Payments will be:
    • AtCipher.com
    • Beijing Wecash Wonder Technology
    • FinSuite
    • I Think Security
    • iDGate
    • Jocata Financial Advisory & Technology Services
    • OxBranch.
Among the FIs supporting the FinTech Innovation Lab are Bank of America, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Barclays, China Construction Bank (Asia), Credit Suisse, DBS, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Ping An, and UBS.
Based in Hong Kong and founded in 2009, Advanced Merchant Payments has provided more than $25 million USD in loans to small businesses. The company demoed its technology at FinovateAsia 2013. See a demo of Advanced Merchant Payments at work here.

Alumni News– September 2, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgMobile payments app from BBVA earns more than 250,000 downloads since launch last December in Spain.
  • Knox Payments picks up $625,000 in venture round funding. See them demo at FinovateFall 2014 in New York this month.
  • Issuer Direct chooses Top Image Systems to drive incoming document automation.
  • P2P lender, SocietyOne, to offer free credit scores to customers.
  • MicronotesCross-Sell interview marketing platform now automatically reports Net Promoter Score.
  • Advanced Merchant Payments 1 of 8 fintech startups to enter the FinTech Innovation Lab in Asia-Pacific.
  • Jumio and IDology announce partnership to enable verification via government-issued ID in card-not-present situations.
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.