Another +1 For Host Card Emulation: SimplyTapp Garners $6 Million

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Host Card Emulation (HCE) solutions company, SimplyTapp, is making it easier for banks to place their own tap to pay functionality in customers’ hands.

To further this mission, two investors, Blue Sky Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, recently contributed $6 million in Series B funding to the Austin-based startup.

SimplyTappHomepage.jpg

Other funding rounds include a $1.4 million Series A round last November and a $200,000 seed round in February of 2013. Its total funding now tallies just over $7.5 million.

Check out SimplyTapp’s video from FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, where it explains HCE.

Alumni News– November 14, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgIntelliResponse acquired by [24]7 for its customer service suite.
  • Another +1 For Host Card Emulation: SimplyTapp Garners $6 Million.
  • Financeit Brings in Fresh Funding After U.S. Launch.
  • Payfone selected as “Best Revenue Creator/Enhancer” for Mobile Network Operators in the 2014 Fierce Innovation: Telecom Edition Awards.
  • InComm & PayPal collaborate to offer digital gift cards.
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.

Fintech Fundings: More than $145 Million Raised Week Ending Nov 14

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For the most part, Fintech investors took a small breather this week. Other than the VCs sending a cool tenth-of-a-billion-dollars off to POS provider Revel Systems, the rest of the sector pulled in about $50 million. 
Two of the 10 newly funded are Finovate alums: 
  1. Austin, TX-based SimplyTapp attracted $6 million to expand its NFC mobile payment technology. 
  2. FinanceIT secured an undisclosed investment from Toronto neighbor BEST Funds. 
The deals from Nov 8 to Nov 13 in order of size:
Point-of-sale systems
Latest round: $100 million (of which $25 million is a credit line)
Total raised: $114 million 
Tags: POS, acquiring, SMB, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase
Gift card marketplace
Latest round: $18.1 million
Total raised: $21.7 million 
Tags: Giftcards, loyalty, payments, Chicago, Illinois
Source: Crunchbase
Payment services for merchants
Latest round: $8.2 million
Total raised: $8.2 million 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, SMB, merchants, loyalty, Sunnyvale, California
Source: Crunchbase
French marketplace for short-term capital financing
Latest round: $7.5 million
Total raised: $7.6 millon 
Tags: Lending, receivables, working capital, SMB, Paris, France
Source: Crunchbase
Digital payment processor
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $7.6 million 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, POS, SMB, NFC, Austin, Texas, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners
Franchise financing marketplace
Latest round: $3.8 million
Total raised: $7.5 million 
Tags: Credit, lending, underwriting, SMB, loans, investing, P2P, crowdfunding, 
Source: Crunchbase
Digital payment processor
Latest round: $600,000
Total raised: $820,000 
Tags: Credit/debit cards, acquiring, SMB, Kuopio, Finland
Source: Crunchbase
Customer financing at the retailer’s point of sale
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total funding: $21 million (not including latest round)
Tags: POS, lending, SMB, merchants, Toronto, Canada
Source: FT Partners
Payment solution for U.S. merchants to accept Chinese UnionPay cards
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Credit cards, debit cards, acquiring, payment processing, Palo Alto, California
Source: Crunchbase
Indian digital payments layer
Latest round: Undisclosed (Series A)
Total funding: $500,000 (prior to latest funding)
Tags: Payments, social media, merchants, acquiring, Mumbai, India
Source: Crunchbase

Alumni News– November 13, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgKili acquires NFC microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity.
  • American Banker lists Currency Cloud, BioCatch, Linqto, VerifyValid, and Rippleshot as top 10 tech companies to watch.
  • Fintech in the fall: themes and company updates from CAN Capital, Encap Security, Fuze Network, Guardian Analytics, Larky, Ripple, and Xpenditure.
  • American Banker examines 2015 plans for FIS, Fiserv and Diebold.
  • Forbes looks at the success of RoboAdvisors: Betterment, Wealthfront, Personal Capital, and SigFig.
  • Forbes examines Kantox’s P2P FX trading technology.
  • TSYS partners with FICO to deliver a marketing product for card issuers called TSYS Targeted Messaging.
  • Digital Insight enters reseller agreement with Guardian Analytics to deliver anomaly detection services to financial institutions.
  • Trulioo wins 2014 Canadian Technology Companies to watch award from Deloitte.
  • Huffington Post interviews Andrea Gellert, SVP Marketing at OnDeck.
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.

Fintech in the Fall: Themes and Company Updates

Fall is in full swing and there has been plenty of news to keep the fintech world busy.

I spent last week at Money20/20 where the themes centered around Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and Millennials. In between listening to industry experts on these and other topics, I sat down to chat with seven Finovate alums. Here are a few notable updates:

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CAN Capital (fka Capital Access Network) has supplied just over $4 billion in funding to more than 55,000 small businesses. It continues to expand, reporting double-digit growth from last year.

CAN’s financing works well for small businesses who cannot obtain funding through traditional bank loans. Its 60%+ approval rate is made possible by the robust tech and big data analytic capabilities that enhance market insight. This ultimately broadens CAN’s access to prospective clients and enables it to provide customers with a lower priced loan.

CANHomepage.jpg

In June, it launched the beta version of CAN Connect, a set of 4 APIs. One of these APIs is called CAN Instant Quote (IQ). It pulls data from software that a small business uses frequently, such as scheduling or accounting software, to pre-approve them for instant financing.

In November, CAN announced a partnership with Yodlee to extend funding through its small business offering. This will enable Yodlee’s financial institution clients to offer customers access to funding via CAN’s Instant Quote API. The service will be available by Q1 of 2015.

While fixed term loans are still CAN’s core product, it is currently looking into offering flexible payment terms in 2015.

See CAN Capital’s demo from FinovateFall 2013 where it debuted Mobile Funder.

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Encap Security offers Smarter Authentication, a seamless way for banks to authenticate users across multiple channels, without disrupting the user experience.

Several weeks ago, Encap partnered with Feedzai to leverage its analytic engine that authenticates users. When the customer’s identity is in question, they are sent challenges to authenticate themselves, rather than being shut out of the system entirely.

Other partnerships are in the works, but all are confidential at this point.

Additionally, Encap has recently integrated Apple’s Touch ID to replace users’ PINs. While Encap’s Smarter Authentication will still be the underlying technology, Touch ID will help authenticate the user at each point of interaction.

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The company plans to incorporate other biometrics in the future.

Watch Encap demo Smarter Authentication at FinovateSpring 2014.

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As we tweeted last week, Fuze was recently acquired by Ingo Money, a company that specializes in mobile check cashing services for underbanked consumers. Ingo enables customers to instantly deposit checks onto a prepaid card, bank account, or mobile wallet.

The acquisition will combine Ingo’s mobile check cashing with Fuze’s swipe-to-pay and swipe-to-load features to give users more control over their money. Ingo will also leverage Fuze’s existing network of more than one billion cards, which includes:

    • 50 million prepaid cards
    • 459 million debit cards
    • 576 million credit cards
    • 531 million private label cards
    • 137 million other types

Ingo is also working on solutions to help users avoid late fees by enabling them to send funds to a location of their choice, such as their landlord. Additionally, it plans to expand the number of retail locations where customers load cash and move money from card to card.

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The terms of the acquisition, which is set to be finalized by the end of this year, were undisclosed.

Fuze Network last demonstrated at FinovateFall 2011 where it debuted Swipe2Pay.

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With a swell in data breaches this year, security has become a hot topic with the half-billion personal identities stolen in the last 8 months.

The increasing number of new solutions and capabilities banks now offer has opened up fresh opportunities for fraudsters to compromise users’ identities. To combat this, Guardian Analytics has added capabilities that gather user reputation data, such as their IP address.

Guardian Analytics is working with more than 300 financial institutions and has expanded its partnerships outside of banks. In the last year and a half, it has partnered with two non-bank institutions, Fiserv and Digital Insight.

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In the future, the California-based company plans to expand its analytics-based security solutions, since rules-based security is failing under the ever-expanding number of requirements needed to protect institutions.

Guardian Analytics debuted FraudXCHANGE at FinovateFall 2012.

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Larky, a company that provides card-linked discounts and offers on a mobile platform, signed six new financial institution clients across Alabama, Michigan, and New York in October.

Each new client is using a white-labeled version of Larky’s platform coupled with a package of local offers and rewards. The offers not only save users money, but also drive traffic to local business, and increase card usage.

LarkyHomepage.jpg

Check out Larky’s demo from FinovateFall 2014.

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Open source payments protocol, Ripple,announced a partnership with Yantra, which specializes in electronic payment systems. Specifically, Ripple will use Yantra’s risk management capabilities.

The Ripple network increases the speed and velocity of transactions, which add to its risk. To mitigate the liability, it leverages Yantra’s technology to create context and conditionality to its money movement processes.

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Yantra will augment the data collected about transactions and is adding new tools, such as custom search fields, to better analyze the data, and all within seconds.

Ripple debuted at FinovateSpring 2013.

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When we last spoke with Xpenditure at the beginning of this year, the company had $2.2 million in Angel funding and 15 employees. By the end of 2014, it will have raised $3.5 million in total funding and expects to have 25 employees.

It is also expanding its operations. It recently opened offices in São Paulo and New York City. In fact, the U.S. is its fastest growing market and accounts for 30% of its customers.

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In late October, it launched a partnership with MasterCard and its expense management system will be available as a part of MasterCard’s Business Owner ToolBox in Canada.

Check out Xpenditure’s demo from FinovateEurope 2014.

Neo-Banking is Just Getting Started

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Definition: Neo-Bank
Delivering banking services without touching the funds

————————-

This morning, Celent’s Stephen Greer published a post called, The Challenges of the New Neo-Bank, wherein he states:

In recent months, the neo-bank model (e.g., Simple, Moven, GoBank) has hit a few stumbling blocks that call into question the promise of the digital-only model…

Stephen lays out four scenarios for the future of neo-banks:

1. Neo-banks are acquired and assimilated into larger financial brands

2. Larger brands start their own digital “neo-bank-like” brands

3. Neo-banking fails to become a viable business model, but nevertheless influences the industry

4. Neo-banking becomes the dominant method of accessing underlying accounts held at traditional banks

My thoughts: We already see #1 and #2 happening, so the question comes down to whether we are headed long-term towards #3 or #4. Like most analysts, I’m firmly in the “it depends” camp. But I’ll go out on a limb a bit. I believe we will see dozens, if not hundreds, of neo-banks launch in the next few years. Here’s why:

image1. Simple’s $100-million exit to BBVA
I’m not sure how much equity the founders held at the end, but it must have been a multi-million dollar payday for five-plus years of hard work. While that’s not enough to make the cover of Forbes, it’s a huge win for most entrepreneurs.

2.  Marketplace lending provides a path to profitability
The problem with the neo-bank model in an era of low deposit rates and shrinking interchange, is that those traditional income sources are not enough to pay competent developers, execs and customer service folk. With consumers loath to pay fees, most startups end up forced into the ad-supported model, which strains their credibility with customers.

But with the growing popularity, and proven profit potential, of marketplace lending (aka P2P lending), neo-banks can partner with or build their own loan platforms to profitably put those deposits to work (sounds less “neo” and more “banking” doesn’t it?). So I envision the day where neo-banks allow you to store your funds in the prepaid account for no interest, or put it to work in a lending marketplace to earn a few percentage points on the funds, with the neo-bank pocketing a bit of the spread.

3. Third-party financial watchdogs become trusted services
Another advantage of being an independent neo-bank is that it’s easier to become an unbiased watchdog over all things financial. The neo-bank can track all your accounts (Mint/Yodlee), find areas where you are overpaying or have potentially been defrauded (BillGuard), monitor your credit score (Credit Karma) and even analyze the effectiveness of your 401k (Brightscope).

Right now, it’s still almost impossible for third-party startups to get to scale because customers just don’t trust them. But that will slowly change as the newcomers gain brand recognition (for example, Intuit’s Quicken, Quickbooks, and TurboTax brands).

4. It’s much, much harder to launch a real bank
Ten years ago, we were seeing about 10 new banks launched every month. Due to all the failures brought on by the Great Recession (and I would argue, way too much deposit insurance), there has only been one new bank launched in the past three years (through end of 2013). So, if you want to get a banking business started, you have little choice but to go with a non-bank model.

—————

Comments? Give me a shout @netbanker

Picture credit: Article from NY Times, 20 Feb 2014 (link); sign in background from Simple HQ

Alumni News– November 12, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgGuardian Analytics introduces FraudMAP ACH-RDFI to identify suspicious transactions.
  • Zumigo named finalist in Mobile Excellence Awards for Best Mobile Retail/Commerce Solution.
  • Pando Daily: BillGuard was the first to notify many affected consumers of the USPS security breach.
  • Yodlee Interactive introduces selected companies to participate in its incubator program.
  • AsiaOne Business features PlayMoolah co-founder, Lee Min Xuan.
  • ReadyForZero launches ReadyForZero Insights, a new dashboard to help users understand their debt.
  • MetaIntelli and Arxan Technologies partner to provide developers a way to mitigate security and privacy risks in mobile apps.
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.

Linkable Networks Raises $8 Million for Card Linked Offers Platform

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Just days after its competitor, Cardlytics, announced a major funding round, Linkable Networks landed a fresh $8 million round.

The new installment is Linkable Networks’ seventh funding round, bringing its total to $28.7 million.

    • October 2014: $8 million
    • August 2013: $3.6 million
    • December 2012: $4.1 million
    • September 2012: $3.2 million
    • October 2011: Undisclosed
    • March 2011: $8.3 million
    • October 2010: $1.5 million

The Boston-based company’s investors include Kepha Partners, Common Angels Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Citi Ventures.

Linkable Networks focuses on enhancing customer loyalty for retailers while providing financial institutions with a reward program linked to bank cards.

The company was founded as Clovr Media in 2011 and has since changed its name. It debuted MyLinkables MasterCard solution at FinovateFall 2012.

Alumni News– November 11, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgLinkable Networks Raises $8 Million for Card Linked Offers Platform.
  • Coinbase integrates with Openfolio to create transparency in who is investing in Bitcoin.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions Launches Enhanced Select Business Solution.
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.

Alumni News– November 10, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgNHS Choices selects Narrative Science to Assist with Delivery of Healthcare Information.
  • Visa using Kofax TotalAgility to deploy enhanced data and invoice management in Asia Pacific.
  • PostFinance integrates Strands PFM in their new digital banking platform.
  • BNN interviews Bionym CEO on how its Nymi band could work for payments.
  • The Australian Business Review considers how SocietyOne is contributing to the P2P lending boom.
  • Livemint.com features Bankbazaar.com’s growth.
  • Hoyos Labs launches iOS & Android password manager that uses the user’s face to log into websites.
  • BillGuard and Experian Data Breach Resolution partner to offer an advanced ID protection suite.
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.

Fintech Fundings: 19 Companies Raise $240 million Week Ending Nov 7

The blistering $1 billion-per-month funding pace continued into early November, with more than $236 million raised globally across 19 fintech companies. Five Finovate alums recorded multi-million rounds including Trustly ($30 million), MX ($8.3 million), Kofax ($2.8 million), InvoiceASAP ($700,000) and Gremln ($500,000).

The deals by size recorded on Nov. 1 through Nov. 8, 2014:
Mobile payments & commerce
Latest round: $80 million
Total raised: $177 million
Tags: Payments, ecommerce, mobile, shopping, POS, point of sale, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase 
Global payments gateway
Latest round: $50 million
Total raised: $165 million
Tags: Payments, processor, Waltham, Mass 
Source: Crunchbase http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/plimus
Direct online/mobile bank payments
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $30 million
Tags: Payments, billpay, ecommerce, Stockholm, Sweden, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 
Indian digital wallet
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $30.3 million
Tags: Mobile, payments, ecommerce, Gurgaon, India
Source: Crunchbase 
MX (formerly MoneyDesktop)
Online & mobile banking platform
Latest round: $8.3 million
Total raised: $20 million
Tags: Digital banking, PFM, Utah, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 

Payroll & HR platform
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $21.8 million
Tags: Payroll, human resources management, tax reporting, New York City
Banking & rewards app for millennials
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $8 million
Tags: Cards, rewards, debit, prepaid, San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners 
Small business credit reporting
Latest round: $6.5 million
Total raised: $6.5 million
Tags: SMB, credit, underwriting, South Jordan, Utah
Source: Crunchbase 

Card-linked rewards program
Latest round: $4.7 million
Total raised: $6 million
Tags: Rewards, debit cards, credit cards, offers, loyalty, San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners
Document & image capture solutions
Latest round: $2.8 million
Total raised: $8.8 million
Tags: Docs, remote capture, mobile, mobile account opening, Irvine, California, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase
Tax & insurance tools for independent contractors
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.6 million
Tags: Invoicing, SMB, invoicing, tax
Source: Crunchbase
Cash-back & rewards platform for merchants
Latest round: $2.4 million
Total raised: $2.4 million
Tags: POS, point-of-sale, loyalty, rewards, ecommerce, London, UK
Source: FT Partners
ACH at the point-of-sale
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Payments, merchants, mobile, SMB, acquiring, ACH, 
Source: Crunchbase
Cloud-based invoicing & payments
Latest round: $700,000
Total raised: $1+ million
Tags: Invoicing, SMB, accounting, receivables, San Francisco, California, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 
Social media compliance and monitoring
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Social media, compliance, marketing, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Alternative payment provider in Philippines
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unkown
Tags: Payments, Philippines
Source: Crunchbase
French online marketplace for business loans
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Lending, SMB, P2P, crowdfunding, investing, Paris, France
Source: FT Partners
Chinese P2P lending platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Undisclosed
Tags: Marketplace lending, person-to-person loans, crowdfunding, investing, credit, Whenzhou, China
Source: Crunchbase
Real estate transaction platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Home buying, real estate, mortgage, Austin, Texas
Source: Crunchbase
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Alumni News– November 7, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgP2Binvestor marks milestones in new credit lines, purchased invoices.
  • MasterCard announces acquisition of Payment Gateway Services business from TNS.
  • Andover Bank to deploy Precision core processing platform and other solutions from Fiserv.
  • Jack Henry Banking’s Symitar division partners with Stickley on Security to bring SoS Advisor to its core credit unions.
  • Josh Alexander, CEO of Toopher, named “Top Techpreneur” by Austin Business Journal.
  • eWeek looks at Concur’s ecosystem for app development.
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.