Author: David Penn

Nvstr Brings Brokerage Optimized Investing to the Masses

Nvstr Brings Brokerage Optimized Investing to the Masses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, Nvstr

New York-based Nvstr demonstrated its machine learning-powered stock selection platform just over a year ago at FinovateFall. By leveraging technology and the collective wisdom of the investing crowd, Nvstr offers individual investors access to the same sort of “smart processes” to discover good investment opportunities and build profitable portfolios that professional investors have long enjoyed.

“Roughly half the U.S. population is invested in the stock market. But in reality, many people do not learn about investing formally. This makes it incredibly difficult to find information on investing intelligently – or to even know what to look for,” Nvstr co-founder and CEO Bernard George (pictured) explained in an email conversation.

“We understand that building a stock portfolio can be time consuming and intimidating, and that’s why we created Nvstr. Studies suggest that Americans are leaving $60 billion on the table each year due to poorly allocated portfolios,” he said.

We caught up with George to talk about the company’s technology and plans for the future. The company recently launched a promotion to add up to $500 to any newly-opened brokerage account.

Finovate: What does Nvstr do and how does it do it?

Bernard George: Our social trading platform empowers individuals to invest smarter by leveraging technology and the collective experience of other investors to make more educated investment decisions. Our software is based on independent Nobel Prize-winning research that works behind the scenes to guide users towards intelligent portfolio allocations in just one click.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

George: Our primary customers are individuals who already have some experience in investing. However, anyone can create a free simulated trading account to familiarize themselves with our platform and to practice investing risk-free. This is a great way for beginners or intermediate investors to get more comfortable investing before having to commit real money.

Finovate: How does Nvstr solve the problem better?

George: Existing brokerages are not designed to help customers achieve their fundamental goal, which is to build wealth by intelligently allocating their money for the long-term. Nvstr fills this void by bringing a social, technology-driven approach to investing. First-time users can buy and sell stocks (at cheaper fees than many competitors) with a front row seat for what other really successful investors are thinking and doing.

Not only can they view their portfolios, but they can collaborate and discuss investment ideas and their pros/cons. To make things better, everyone’s input on each stock is automatically summarized. This means everyone can access the key benefits – and risks – of each stock at a glance.

Finovate: Tell us about a favorite feature of the Nvstr platform.

George: Nvstr’s machine learning technology is used behind the scenes throughout the product to surface relevant and interesting ideas to the Nvstr community.  One of the most exciting implementations is the Collective Intelligence filter. This filter lets users quickly find stocks that our algorithm determines will be most interesting in based on a user’s actions on the site.

It will even tell them how these stocks might fit into their current portfolio. This list can be further filtered by traditional data like market cap, P/E ratio, industry, and more. It’s like browsing for a new TV series on Netflix, but for stocks.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

George: We’ve been professional investors at some of the world’s most sophisticated institutions, but we’ve also experienced the frustrations of personal investing. Nvstr’s leaders are former hedge fund managers, game designers and ed tech engineers who left those industries to make intelligent investing easy and engaging.

Our team has spent time working for companies like J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, The Carlyle Group, and Electronic Arts, and we know where the gaps in this market lie, and that’s what we have set out to fix.

Finovate: Where do you see Nvstr a year or two from now?

George: Nvstr is the best place for people to discuss stocks with friends and find new trade ideas from their network and a community of smart investors. As our community continues to grow, more investors will benefit from the advanced portfolio allocation and machine learning technology within the platform.

Our ultimate goal is for Nvstr to be the platform of choice for investors of all skill levels to gain insights and to build and manage their portfolios – all in one place.

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Anorak Raises $6.5 Million in Series A

Anorak Raises $6.5 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Anorak, Funding

In a round led by Kamet Ventures – an insurtech startup studio backed by AXA – life insurance recommendation engine Anorak Technologies has raised $6.5 million (£5 million) in new funding. The investment, which takes the U.K.-based company’s total equity financing to more than $11.6 million (£9 million), will be used to fuel further development of and applications for its technology. In a press release, Anorak specifically highlighted plans to use its life insurance recommendation engine as the basis for an advisor platform.

“The life insurance sector is on the verge of transformation and Anorak is leading the way,” Anorak co-founder and CEO David Vanek said. “Kamet’s investment enables us to deliver on our vision. We are committed to using cutting-edge technology to bring (the) life insurance sector into the digital age and make protection advice accessible to the millions unprotected in the U.K.”

Anorak leverages AI, and advanced data science, and actuarial science to build a fully automated advice platform for life insurance consumers. Designed to serve the nine million families in the U.K. that Anorak estimates are underserved, Anorak’s technology and APIs enable distribution partners to offer life insurance recommendations alongside other financial, investment, and e-commerce services.

Guillaume Borie, Chief Innovation for AXA, praised Anorak’s technology as “transformational” and underscored how the recommendation engine could be deployed in a variety of contexts. “(The technology) enables carriers to create a new breed of distribution partnerships from banking to gig economy platforms, whilst also reinventing the experience of existing intermediaries networks,” Borie said.

Anorak Technologies made its Finovate debut at the beginning of the year, demonstrating its platform at FinovateEurope. In September, the company announced that it would provide life insurance advice for users of money management app, Yolt. Also that month, Anorak teamed up with Starling Bank to provide insurance advice for customers of the U.K. mobile-only bank. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in London.

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Avaloq Launches New Venture Capital Fund

Avaloq Launches New Venture Capital Fund
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq

Avaloq has unleashed a new subsidiary, Avaloq Ventures, to offer venture capital funding and join the hunt for start-ups and fintech action, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Zurich-headquartered Avaloq Ventures will enable funding for fintechs partnering with Avaloq, e.g. by offering their solutions on Avaloq’s Software Exchange.

It will be led by Johannes Minho Roth, an alternative investments and fintech entrepreneur. He worked for FiveT Capital and Baader Bank among others. Avaloq founder and group chairman Francisco Fernandez will be chairman.

Roth said: “We will look to identify, fund and support the most innovative start-ups and companies with the greatest growth potential. They will be able to leverage their access to Avaloq’s client community of more than 150 banks and wealth managers worldwide.”

Avaloq Ventures will look to partner with third-party investors such as banks, wealth and asset managers, and established fintech companies in providing capital. The size of funding will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

It naturally plans to use the Avaloq Community and Avaloq’s connections. The latter says more than 1,300 third-party fintech developers work with it and over 90 third-party fintech solutions are available on its market place.

Avaloq is confident as in April this year, for instance, the firm acquired a 10% stake in Metaco, a Lausanne-based blockchain and cryptocurrency specialist. In the future, Avaloq says it will continue to identify potential M&A deals at a group level while facilitating fintech funding through Avaloq Ventures.

Along with this news, Avaloq said it is launching 150 API endpoints during the second half of 2018.

Headquartered in Switzerland, Avaloq has more than 2,000 employees; three R&D centres in Zurich, Edinburgh and Manila; and four service centres in Switzerland, Singapore and Germany.

Avaloq demonstrated the “double marketplace” feature of its API marketplace at FinovateAsia last month, winning Best of Show. The feature encourages collaboration between fintechs and FIs by enabling both parties to offer solutions via Avaloq’s ecosystem.

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Finablr Takes Majority Stake in Digital Gifting Innovator Swych

Finablr Takes Majority Stake in Digital Gifting Innovator Swych
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Swych

Global payments and foreign exchange solution platform, Finablr, has boosted its stake in – and become a majority shareholder of – digital gifting platform, Swych. The investment adds to Swych’s Series B round, and will enable the company to reach a broader international audience via Finablr’s 160+ country network.

“At Finablr, we facilitate access for consumers and businesses to the digital economy,” Finablr CEO and Executive Director Promoth Manghat explained. He praised Swych for its “distinctive business proposition that complements the services offered by the Finablr network brands.” Those brands include UAE Exchange, Xpress Money, Unimoni, Remit2India, and Ditto.

The partnership will be managed by Swych Blockchain Labs, a Swych subsidiary built to develop and incubate blockchain, payments, digital wallet, and cross border e-commerce solutions. This will enable the two firms to offer Swych’s instant, secure, personalized digital gift and incentive solutions to consumers and businesses globally.

“The presence of Finablr network companies in key international markets with millions of consumers has the potential to greatly accelerate Swych’s mission,”  Swych CEO and founder Deepak Jain said. “Finablr network brands’ entrepreneurial culture combined with its focus on innovation and strong team is highly synergistic with our own core values at Swych. This investment is a testament to the robustness of our business model and will be invaluable as we look to take digital gifting to global audiences.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Plano, Texas, Swych demonstrated its blockchain-based, digital gift card platform at FinovateSpring 2016, winning Best of Show. The company returned to the Finovate stage earlier this year for FinovateSpring. Last month, Swych announced an agreement in which its digital gift card technology will power Travelex Pay, a cashless spending solution from Travelex hosted within messaging app WeChat. In August, the company reported that it was leveraging its acquisition of GiftCardsIndia to bring its blockchain-based gifting solutions to international markets.

Swych has 50,000 registered users in the United States and 100,000 users in India. With total global revenues near $20 million, the company reports more than 50 corporate customers “and growing.”

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Access Softek, AdviceRobo, BehavioSec, BLUERUSH, Bucket, CallVU, Golden, Hydrogen, identitii, iProov, James Finance, Kofax, Kony, Simple, Swych, Systelos, Tinkoff Bank

On Finovate.com

  • Finablr Takes Majority Stake in Digital Gifting Innovator Swych.
  • Simple Appoints Former Amazon Exec as CEO.

Around the web

  • Analyst Ian McKenna highlights six Finovate alums – Access Softek, Bucket Technologies, Systelos, BlueRush, Tinkoff, and Golden – in his roundup of “fintech innovators making waves.”
  • Marketing Technology Insights interviews CallVU CEO Ori Faran.
  • Hydrogen, iProov, Ocrolus, and James Finance are among 20 startups competing for top honors at the India FinTech Awards 2018.
  • The Constant Investor’s Crypto Watch interviews Identitii CEO Nick Armstrong on the role of blockchain technology in fighting cybercrime.
  • Tinkoff Mobile extends service to seven additional areas of Russia including Smolensk and the Republic of Mordovia.
  • Kofax pays $400 million in cash to buy Nuance’s imaging division.
  • Walmart’s in-store Direct2Cash service gives PayActiv users instant cash access to earned wages.
  • Kony enhances Kony AppPlatform to support progressive web apps.
  • CEO Review magazine features AdviceRobo CEO Diederick Van Thiel.
  • BehavioSec launches new features for version 5 of its behavioral biometrics platform.

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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Zopa Seals Series G Investment En Route to Bank Launch

Zopa Seals Series G Investment En Route to Bank Launch
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Zopa

U.K.-based P2P lender Zopa added another $20.7 million (£16 million) to its latest Series G investment round this week. The company has built upon its $57 million (£ 44 million) August fundraising and now has more than $77 million (£60 million) in new capital to pursue its current objective: building a bank.

“This new funding takes us a step closer to realising our vision of being the best place for money in the U.K.,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. “Having served half a million customers to date, Zopa is set to redefine the finance industry once again through our next generation bank to meet a broader set of U.K. customers’ financial needs.”

Participating in the Series G were Bessemer Venture Partners, Northzone, Augmentum Capital, and Wadhawan Global Capital. Zopa’s total funding is $190.2 million (£152.9 million).

The round was the largest yet for the innovative peer-to-peer lender, which applied for a banking license in 2016. The company noted at the time that the application process can take between 15 months and two years – making this week’s investment and the company’s return to profitability for the first time since 2012 timely news for Zopa.

“2017 was a landmark for us,” Janardana said in a statement this summer, reporting the company’s good financial fortunes. In addition to revenue gains of 40% and a 43% increase in funds loaned, Zopa earned full FCA authorization last year – the first major P2P lender to do so. This enabled the company to launch its Innovative Finance ISA, bringing the tax efficiency of ISAs to P2P investments.

Zopa’s digital bank, which the company says it expects to launch “soon,” will initially offer FSCS-backed savings accounts and P2P investments such as ISAs, as well as credit cards, personal loans, and auto financing. Janardana told the Independent in October that he hoped to reduce the stress for people trying to manage their finances and “extend the ethos of peer-to-peer into retail banking.”

One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Janardana, along with the company’s board chairwoman, Christine Farnish, was named to the Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50’s Top 10 earlier this month. Zopa has lent more than £3.78 billion to customers in the U.K., with more than 60,000 active individual investors and more than 311,000 borrowers approved via the company’s platform.

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Meniga Inks Deal with Singapore’s United Overseas Bank

Meniga Inks Deal with Singapore’s United Overseas Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Meniga

According to reporting from Tanya Andreasyan of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication) Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (UOB) has signed a deal with Icelandic fintech vendor Meniga for its data enrichment and categorization tools for UOB’s recently launched digital bank. The technology will help the bank’s customers “keep track in real time of their savings and expenses more easily and clearly,” Meniga said.

According to the vendor, UOB becomes the first bank in Southeast Asia to sign for Meniga’s solution “to simplify complex and multiple transaction datasets into simple and relevant data” for its clients. It will also help the bank to gain a better understanding of customer needs and prompt them to make smarter decisions in managing their finances.

For example, a customer who dines out frequently could be asked if they would like to set a budget for dining out and to be alerted to stay on track. The customer can also categorize expenses through personalized hashtags, such as #rainydayfund or #coffeewithfriends and check in real-time how much has been spent in each category.

Dr Dennis Khoo, head of regional digital bank and digital banking, UOB, described the project with Meniga as “a key building block in the bank’s data-centric approach to use data as a strategic asset.”

He explained: “A pain point customers typically face when tracking their monthly expenses is the inconsistency in how retail names are recorded. As a result, it takes a longer time to match their expenses with what is reflected in their statements. The inconsistency is due to the transaction data coming from different sources, each with its own classification set.

“Meniga’s solution powers UOB’s digital bank’s advanced expense tracking which sorts and categorises these large volumes of complex transaction data. This means our customers can match their purchases without having to scratch their heads trying to figure out the retail or brand name associated with the merchant.

“Our customers will also be able to organise the way in which they manage their finances in real-time so that it is always personal to them and relevant to their own needs.”

For Georg Ludviksson, CEO and co-founder of Meniga, the UOB deal is “an important milestone in Meniga’s geographical expansion”. Furthermore, “it is one of the largest and most exciting personal financial management (PFM) partnerships ever made in Southeast Asia”, he added. Thanks to this deal, Ludviksson said, Meniga’s product will be launched in “several exciting, high-growth markets” in the region.

UOB has a network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. In Asia, it operates through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Meniga’s news comes just days after the company announced a major investment from Islandbanki. Meniga noted that the funding, which comes from its first and longest-standing client, will support its R&D efforts to build out its products.

Founded in 2009, the five-time Best of Show winner demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall back in September. Meniga has 65 million digital banking customers in 30 countries via its partnerships with FIs including Santander, ING Direct, and fellow Finovate alum, mBank.

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Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group

Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Thought Machine

Lloyds Banking Group has taken a 10% stake in core banking technology provider Thought Machine. The investment of $14.4 million (£11 million) represents the lion’s share of the company’s $23.6 million Series A round (£18 million) and is part of a strategic partnership that will help Lloyds reach its digital transformation goals.

Lloyds will leverage Thought Machine’s Vault solution, a cloud-based, next generation core banking platform to provide its customers with more personalized solutions, as well as accelerating the development cycles for additional digital banking additions. Lloyds noted in a press release that not only has it “completed extensive testing and proofs of concept” with Thought Machine, but also that the firm plans to continue helping develop Vault’s capabilities.

Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor and Chief of Sales & Marketing Travers Clarke-Walker demonstrating Vault at FinovateEurope 2018.

“A key part of our recently launched three-year strategic plan is applying technology innovation to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” Lloyds Group Director for Transformation Zak Mian explained. “I’m really excited to work with the Thought Machine team to explore ways to simplify and enhance our IT architecture and (help) on our journey to make banking easy and simple for customers.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, U.K., Thought Machine demonstrated Vault at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The flexible, end-to-end, cloud-based platform comes with a full suite of banking solutions including current accounts, loans, savings, mortgages, and credit cards – all delivered via Vault’s system of smart contracts. Driven by what Thought Machine founder and CEO Paul Taylor called a reaction to “the horror of the legacy IT systems” used by banks, Thought Machine and its team of 60 are dedicated to helping banks provide their customers with the “quality and richness of service they deserve.”

“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Lloyds,” Taylor said. “Lloyds has shown a deep commitment to embrace the opportunities that new technologies can bring in improving customers’ banking experience and it is a pleasure to take this partnership forward.”

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Bambu

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Bambu
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

Bambu is a leading robo-advisor technology provider, transforming digital wealth globally. The company enables businesses by making saving and investing more straightforward and intelligent for their clients.

Features

  • Customizable, goal-based robo advisor platform
  • Natural and effortless experience
  • Combination of personalization advice, investment strategies and the latest technology

Why it’s great
A smarter way to invest and save for the future.

Presenters

Ned Phillips, CEO and Founder
Former MD and now an entrepreneur, Phillips is the founder and chief executive officer of Bambu. Based in Asia for the past 25 years, he started his journey in fintech in 1999 with E*TRADE.
LinkedIn

 

Nick Wood, Senior Representative, Middle East and Africa
With over 20 years of work experience in the international financial services environment, Wood is a successful business builder with extensive South African and global contacts and track records.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Drive Revenue

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Drive Revenue
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Drive Revenue Holdings, FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

Drive Practice, a Drive Revenue Holdings product, provides real-time online accounting and practice management for the legal profession.

Features

  • Instant insight into practice and professional performance
  • Visibility of trust monies held and disbursements incurred
  • Automation created management by exception.

Why it’s great
Legaltech is a buzzword, focused on operational innovation. Drive Practice innovates the strategic management of the business practice, critical for the survival of the #21stCenturyLawyer.

Presenters

Jenny Assheton-Smith, CEO
Assheton-Smith is experienced in Business Process Re-engineering, design and implementation of business systems. She is passionate about automating business processes, strategic alignment, and management by exception.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: RISQ

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: RISQ
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek, RISQ

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

RISQ empowers corporate/SME banking divisions with a solution that combines an efficient platform with intelligence, data integration, and AI, presented in a radically intuitive user experience.

Features

  • Manages complex credit decisions with ease
  • Provides integrated analytics and AI components to support the process
  • Integrates “out-of-the-box” with multiple external data repositories

Why it’s great
RISQ | corporate lending powered by CRIF puts the business banking user in the driver’s seat, giving them a 360-degree visibility of every credit decision in real-time.

Presenters

Michael Jesse, CEO and Co-Founder
Jesse has met with over 150 banks in 35+ countries as part of various management roles. This unique insight was channeled into RISQ to create a radically new approach to financial software.
LinkedIn

 

Ozan Vakar, CTO and Co-Founder
Vakar, being an entrepreneur for over 25 years in the financial services industry, has the unique capability to transform a business requirement into a software solution that exceeds clients’ expectations.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Bambu, Drive Revenue Holdings, eToro, Finn.ai, FIS, Outsystems, RISQ, Signicat, Thought Machine

On Finovate.com

  • Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.

Around the web

  • OutSystems announces its partner of the year awards.
  • A €5.5 billion independent French bank will deploy Ambit Focus, a regulatory reporting as a service solution from FIS.
  • eToro invests $1 million into cryptocurrency experiment, GoodDollar, designed to reduce wealth inequality.
  • Dell Small Business’ BetaKit interviews Finn.AI co-founder and COO, Natalie Cartwright.
  • Signicat launches new B2B document signing solution, Signicat Business Signature.
  • Backbase names Capgemini its Global Solution Partner of the 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.

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