Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Fenergo, Flywire, HackerOne, ID.me, Infosys, ISARA, Jack Henry, Mortgage Cadence, Onfido, Promontech, WePay

On Finovate.com

  • Onfido to Help Crowdfunding Platform Indiegogo Fight Fraud.

Around the web

  • The Technology Transformation Service of the U.S. General Services Administration awards $2 million bug bounty contract to HackerOne.
  • Mortgage Cadence integrates LoanBean’s income calculation solution into its end-to-end loan origination platform.
  • Minnesota-based Glenwood State Bank ($289 million in assets) to deploy Jack Henry SilverLake core banking platform.
  • Avaloq taps former Credit Suisse executive Michael Pahlke as Chief Service Delivery Officer (CSDO).
  • ID.me founder and CEO Blake Hall earns spot on Washingtonian’s Tech Titans 2018: Washington’s Top Tech Leaders.
  • Infosys announces plans to open tech hub in Arizona and hire 1,000 Americans by 2023.
  • PromonTech integrates its POS platform, Borrower Wallet, with GSF Mortgage.
  • Forbes features Tina Hsiao is COO at WePay.
  • Fenergo doubles revenue for 2nd year & expands into new market segments.
  • ISARA partners with DigiCert and Gemalto to develop digital certificates and secure key management for connected devices.
  • Flywire partners with Allianz Global Assistance to enable families to purchase Allianz’s GradGuard Tuition Protection Plan.
  • Trustly’s Pay N Play solution to power Gaming Innovation Group fast-registration and withdrawal feature.

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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FinovateFall 2018: Be There … In Times Square

FinovateFall 2018: Be There … In Times Square
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2018

FinovateFall 2018 is only a few days away! The curtain will rise on the Finovate stage next week on Monday, September 24, and the conference will continue over the next three days with live fintech demonstrations, in-depth panel discussions, and illuminating keynote addresses.

We’ve spent a good chunk of the summer working with our demoing companies and talking with industry experts in preparation for what we think could be our most amazing FinovateFall to date. And as the attendee registrations have rolled in, we’ve managed to get a clearer picture of the kind of professionals you’ll be rubbing elbows with in the main hall and during our networking sessions. Check them out below.

To help everyone get ready for next week’s event, here’s a quick run-down of need-to-knows to ensure you make the most of this year’s FinovateFall. And if you’ve been on the fence about attending, don’t worry. There’s still time to pick up a ticket and join us. So visit our registration page and save your spot today.

Who?

Nearly 80 demoing companies, 100+ expert speakers and panelists, 1500+ professional attendees including – as shown above – CEOs and founders, CTOs and engineers, Directors, VPs, and more.

What?

Two days of live fintech demonstrations. Two days of fascinating keynotes, panel discussions and debates on some of the critical topics in fintech today. And four days of top quality networking with the founders and funders, developers and directors who are making sure that the best technologies find valuable and insightful use cases within fintech.

Our partnership with networking app Brella was a huge success at FinovateSpring in helping attendees meet and mingle. So we’re thrilled to bring Brella to New York for FinovateFall. Visit our Brella page to learn more.

Where?

FinovateFall returns to New York City next week, setting up shop for the first time in historic Times Square. Join us on the fifth and sixth floors of the New York Marriott Marquis at 1535 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036.

When?

The conference begins on Monday, September 24, with registration opening at 8am and the first demo kicking things off at 8:45am. We’ll have a second day of live demos on Tuesday with the same start times before transitioning to our Discussion Day conversations on Wednesday. And remember our special summit day on Thursday focusing on AI and blockchain technology. To help plan your week, check out our conference agenda.

Why?

To see and hear about tomorrow’s fintech today, that’s why! FinovateFall provides attendees with the unique opportunity to watch some of the most cutting edge financial technology demonstrated live on stage. And with our new expanded format, attendees will have the opportunity to dive deeper into the trends and themes that are driving fintech innovation.

We’re excited for this year’s FinovateFall conference. If you have questions about the conference or your visit, please reach out to our staff who will be happy to help. See you bright and early Monday morning!

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DefenseStorm Forges Strategic Partnership with Alogent

DefenseStorm Forges Strategic Partnership with Alogent
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: DefenseStorm

The newly-forged strategic partnership between Alogent and DefenseStorm is a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity to the world of digital banking. The two companies – an end-to-end payment processing, content management, and digital banking technology provider, and a real-time cybersecurity and cybercompliance specialist – are teaming up to help institutions manage and control their digital workflow, including the ability to better defend themselves from outside threats.

“As financial institutions increasingly adopt digital, mobile, and self-service solutions to meet consumer demand, they must be increasingly diligent about protecting their operations and their customers from cyber threats,” Jason Schwabline, Alogent SVP of Product Management and Strategy explained. “We have made it a priority to help our customers address what can be a costly and labor intensive challenge by partnering with a company that focuses exclusively on bringing effective and affordable cybersecurity and cybercompliance to credit unions and banks.

“Alogent’s digital and cloud solutions are perfect complements to the DefenseStorm GRID,” company Chief Revenue Officer Steve Soukup added. “(GRID) leverages cloud technology to keep cybersecurity and cybercompliance continuously current, scalable, and affordable.” Soukup emphasized that the key to success in working with banks and credit unions on cybersecurity is focusing exclusively on these institutions’ needs. Doing so, according to Soukup, enables FIs to “detect, investigate and resolve outside threats, even when resources are constrained.”

Founded in 2015, DefenseStorm demonstrated its PatternScout anomaly detection engine at FinovateSpring 2017. The firm, with offices in Atlanta, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington, specializes in helping regional and community banks and credit unions meet the challenge of ever-evolving cyber threats. The DefenseStorm GRID is a co-managed, cloud-based, and compliance-automated solution that monitors all activity on the bank or credit union’s network, and compares this activity in real time to the firms’ cyberexposure readiness policy to help institutions become and remain both alert and accountable.

DefenseStorm has raised $14.9 million in funding, and includes TTV Capital, Washington Trust, Live Oak Banking Company, and Citizens National Bank among its investors. This summer, DefenseStorm announced that it had been picked by NAFCU as the preferred cloud-based cybersecurity partner. In March, it was named a Top 40 Innovative Technology Company by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). The company began the year with news of its partnership with American National Bank, a Florida-based community bank with more than $280 million in assets.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, Bambu, CallVU, DefenseStorm, Enveil, Exate, HackerOne, Market IQ, Payfone, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • DefenseStorm Forges Strategic Partnership with Alogent.
  • FinovateFall 2018: Be There … In Times Square.

Around the web

  • Ripple reaches milestone as its RippleNet network is now live in more than 40 countries across six continents.
  • Bambu, Exate Technology, and Market IQ are among the seven startups selected for Plug and Play ADGM’s three-month accelerator program.
  • AlphaPoint appoints Moishe Gubin to its board of directors.
  • CallVU to provide an international credit company with biometric authentication via its digital engagement platform.
  • Enveil and Payfone earn spots on the 2018 SINET 16 Innovators roster.
  • Fifth Domain features Hacker One in a look at how white hat hackers could help improve voting machine security.

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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Finicity Teams Up with Capsilon to Modernize Mortgage Origination

Finicity Teams Up with Capsilon to Modernize Mortgage Origination
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finicity

In its latest integration with Capsilon, real-time financial data aggregation and insights specialist Finicity is bringing mortgage origination into the 21st century – one partner at a time. An intelligent process automation software provider, Capsilon will combine Finicity’s Verification of Assets (VoA) solution with its own borrower and loan officer workspaces to automate the asset verification process.

“We’re excited to work alongside Capsilon with the shared goal of transforming the difficult manual mortgage origination processes of today into a modern and digital experience of the future,” Finicity CEO Steve Smith said. “Finicity’s VoA reports are a key part of the next-generation mortgage process.”

Capsilon COO Jim Obsitnik underscored the importance of digital transformation in the mortgage industry. “Those who invest in the right technology now will gain a competitive advantage to help them minimize risk and accelerate growth as the market changes,” Obsitnik said. He added that the partnership would “speed up the application process and deliver better borrower and loan officer experiences.”

Demonstrated live at FinovateFall last year, Finicity’s Verification of Assets (VoA) reports are part of the company’s suite of credit decisioning solutions. VoA provides bank-validated insights into the assets of prospective borrowers to enable lenders to readily identify those issues that impact the credit decisioning process. VoA reports include information on multiple financial institutions and accounts, as well as data on account types, balances, and detailed transactions. These reports, along with those from the company’s Verification of Income (VoI) solution, are delivered under the CRA framework, enabling borrowers to access information in the reports directly, as well as submit any disputes.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Finicity has spent much of 2018 in partnership mode. Last month, the company signed a secure data exchange agreement with Capital One. In July, Finicity partnered with Cre8tech Labs’ Lender Price, integrating its VoA solution into the Lender Price’s digital lending platform. Fellow Finovate alum Mortgage Cadence integrated Finicity’s VoA technology into its loan origination platform in May. This spring, the company teamed up with another fellow alum, BeSmartee, to add VoA to BeSmartee’s POS mortgage origination platform.

Finicity has raised nearly $80 million in funding, and includes Bridge Bank and Experian among its investors. The company was founded in 1999.

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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Entersekt, Finovate Global, Infosys, Neener Analytics, Ripple

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Personality Biometrics Specialist Neener Analytics Partners with American Express as part of Accelerate Middle East initiative.
  • Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) launches its digital sandbox.
  • Ithmaar Bank of Bahrain and Eazy Financial Services partner to launch biometric payment network.
  • Al Salam Bank Bahrain (ASBB) leverages technology from Clayton to launch new mobile banking solution.
  • Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank partners with Ripple for instant settlement of cross-border money transfers.

Central and South Asia

  • Infosys to Acquire Fluido for $76 Million.
  • TPS and DigInc partner to support mircofinancing in Pakistan.
  • Bengaluru’s SlicePay, which provides credit to millennial consumers, announces Series A investment led by China’s FinUp Finance Technology Group.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Argentina-based digital financial services startup MONI raises $4.5 million in funding. In Spanish.
  • Mexico’s much-anticipated Fintech Law goes live.
  • Euromoney profiles Brazilian data management fintech, Quod.

Asia-Pacific

  • Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) launches its digital brand, Yolo.
  • Indonesia’s B2B marketplace Ralali raises $7 million in new funding.
  • Singapore introduces the first unified payment QR code.
  • ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) launches its API Exchange.
  • Moka, a business payments management startup from Indonesia, picks up $24 million in round led by Sequoia India and Southeast Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Jumo, a fintech startup from South Africa that helps provide financing to the underbanked, raises $52 million in round led by Goldman Sachs.
  • Central Bank of Kenya to consider new regulations for the country’s digital lenders.
  • South Africa’s Click2Sure and Finovate alum Entersekt chosen to participate in AlphaCode’s accelerator program.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Nordigen, a credit risk assessment solution provider based in Latvia, announces $800,000 in new funding.
  • Forbes looks at the collaboration between IBM, PwC, and the Czech Republic’s Blockchain Connect Association.
  • Hackernoon makes the case for “developing your fintech solution in Poland.”
  • Which Eastern European country is making the biggest strides when it comes to innovating with blockchain technology? Bitnews Today shares its review of the region.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CardFlight, Cortera, Entersekt, Finicity, iSignthis, Jack Henry, Lendio, PayNearMe, Persado, ProfitStars, TransferTo

On Finovate.com

  • Finicity Teams Up with Capsilon to Modernize Mortgage Origination.
  • CardFlight’s New Release Adds Paper Receipt Printing, Advanced Security, and More.

Around the web

  • iSignthis acquires core banking technology provider Probanx.
  • Entersekt taps Christian Ali as new country manager for Canada.
  • Jack Henry & Associates’ ProfitStars division unveils new online, anti-fraud monitoring and reporting technology.
  • Chris Savides named new global Chief Operating Officer at TransferTo.
  • Cortera announces partnership with Moody’s Analytics in new RiskCalc SMB solution.
  • PayNearMe powering Buildium’s Retail Cash Payments, a feature that allows residents to pay rent in cash.
  • Lendio Franchising has helped facilitate $16 million in financing to 500+ SMBs and reports a 111% percent increase in loans funded quarter over quarter.
  • Persado announces Persado for Salesforce on Salesforce AppExchange.

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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TradeIt Teams Up with TradingView to Help Retail Investors Reach Big Brokers

TradeIt Teams Up with TradingView to Help Retail Investors Reach Big Brokers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TradeIt

Thanks to a new partnership between TradeIt and TradingView, average retail investors and traders will be able to buy and sell with some of the biggest brokers in North America.

“There are very few tools out there that give a complete picture of the market in a way that is conducive to both beginners and more advanced traders,” Trade It CEO Nathan Richardson said. “We are excited to be working with TradingView as this partnership will power retail investing across the web, a match made in heaven.”

TradingView is the largest social networking and data analysis tool for financial markets. The Chicago, Illinois-based company aims to give non-professional traders a “Bloomberg-like experience” with free charts and analysis, as well as the ability to share and discuss their own trading and investing ideas in real-time. TradingView’s platform leverages HTML5 to relieve users of installation and setup. The technology is compatible with a variety of formats, including iPad, tablet, and smartphone.

“With millions of users around the world, our mission is to provide the trading community with a comprehensive solution for investing, from social networking to research,” TradingView CEO Denis Globa said. “The developments we’ve made in recent years have not only benefited our user base, but they’ve expanded our global reach.”

TradeIt demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2015. Last month, the company announced that it was partnering with IBM Cloud for Financial Services to make it easier for developers to add universal brokerage functionality to their apps and platforms. The company’s solutions include TradingTicket, which enables investors to make, retrieve, and cancel market orders; PortfolioView, which links investors’ account balances and positions for easy monitoring; and SmartAds, which delivers highly targeted financial ads to help firms further optimize the platform.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2014, TradeIt has raised $12 million in funding. The company includes Newfund Capital and Valar Ventures among its investors.

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Get Your VAT Back: Expensify Integrations to Streamline Reclamation

Get Your VAT Back: Expensify Integrations to Streamline Reclamation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Expensify

Back to school season is also back to business travel season for many professionals. And this makes the news of two new integrations from expense management innovator Expensify all the more timely and welcome.

The San Francisco, California-based company announced today that it has integrated with two major value-added tax (VAT) reclamation solutions: Global VaTax and Taxback International. This will make it easier for businesses to reclaim VAT by exporting expenses directly from Expensify to one of these two services.

“Many companies don’t know that VAT reclamation exists, much less how to benefit from it,” Director of Strategy and Marketing for Expensify Ryan Schaffer said. “But with the right tools it can mean some serious money back with minimal effort upfront.”

Both Global VaTax and Taxback International help individuals and businesses maximize VAT reclamation. Once the data is extracted from Expensify, the VAT reclamation process analyzes all expenses, invoices, and VAT calculations per expense type. The company’s solutions then review all invoices for VAT refund compliance, prepare submission claims for each country and submit those claims to the relevant national authorities. VAT refunds are available anywhere from three to nine months, depending on the processing speed of government.

“Companies using Expensify can already track receipts and manage expenses in more than 160 currencies,” Schaffer said. “Now, it’s just a matter of enabling one of our partner integrations to automatically extract that expense data for easy VAT processing and a maximum refund.”

Used by more than six million people around the world, Expensify leverages technologies and features like OCR receipt tracking, corporate card reconciliation, and integrations with leading accounting software solutions to automate the complete expense reporting process. Since inception, the company has processed more than $100 billion, and topped 660 million expenses created with more than 180 million expenses created in 2017 alone.

Founded in 2008, the company demonstrated its Expensify Invoices solution at FinovateSpring 2013. More recently, Expensify announced an integration with Hotel Engine, was named Innovation Partner of the Year by Netsuite, and inked a deal with Wells Fargo to pilot the launch of its ExpensifyApproved! Banks integration program.

Expensify has raised $38.2 million in funding, and includes Redpoint Ventures, OpenView, PJC, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) among its investors. David Barrett is founder and CEO.

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Thinking Capital, National Bank Expand Funding Options for Canada’s SMEs

Thinking Capital, National Bank Expand Funding Options for Canada’s SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Thinking Capital

A strategic partnership between alternative business lender Thinking Capital and National Bank will help get more financing to more growing small businesses in Canada. National Bank, with $256 billion in assets, will leverage Thinking Capital’s technology to streamline the SME loan application process with the goal of qualifying more applicants faster and with less friction.

Stephane Achard, National Bank EVP for Commercial Banking and Insurance, highlighted the bank’s commitment to helping its SME clients “find new ways to power their ideas.” He said, “This partnership with Thinking Capital exemplifies our commitment to innovation and creating new financing options that support entrepreneurs at every stage of their company’s growth.”

For Thinking Capital, which has helped fund more than 10,000 small businesses in Canada since inception, working with National Bank provides opportunities for further growth for the Montreal-based alt lender. “National Bank of Canada broadens our reach and enables us to provide even more small businesses with fast and seamless access to capital to support their growth,” CEO and co-founder of Thinking Capital Jeff Mitelman said. “We believe fintech providers and banks can work together to close the gap between the financing small businesses need and what they have access to.”

Thinking Capital’s lending-as-a-service platform leverages artificial intelligence and proprietary algorithms to accelerate the financing process for small businesses. The company offers both fixed and flexible term loans of up to $300,000 for Canadian-based businesses that have been in operation for at least six months and have average monthly sales of at least $7,000.

Founded in 2006 and based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Thinking Capital was acquired by Purpose Investments in March in a deal valued at $200 million. This summer, the company partnered with Equifax to launch a new solution, BillMarket, that helps Canadian SMEs leverage their good credit to extend payment terms in their supply chain.

Thinking Capital participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr New York 2016. The company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Anthony Lipschitz, and Chief Technical Officer, Pat Forgione, discussed Lending as a Service, and the power of the partnership model between fintechs, banks, and other institutions.

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KPMG Takes Minority Stake in Alternative Credit Scoring Specialist AdviceRobo

KPMG Takes Minority Stake in Alternative Credit Scoring Specialist AdviceRobo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AdviceRobo, Funding

Alternative credit scoring startup AdviceRobo announced today that KPMG has acquired a minority stake in the company. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

KPMG Head of Advisory Rob Fijneman called AdviceRobo a “front runner” in credit risk management. He added that the partnership would “enable us to add these types of AI-based predictive behavioral models to our services for lenders,” enhancing credit risk models and lowering costs. The partnership will also enable AdviceRobo to take advantage of KPMG’s expertise in a wide variety of areas including risk management, compliance and regulation, Big Data, and analytics.

AdviceRobo’s approach to credit risk management focuses on the insights available from the non-financial and behavioral data of would-be borrowers. The company’s psychographic risk scoring can be used to access the creditworthiness of applicants for products including loans, mortgages, and credit cards. The technology is especially valuable for lenders working with customers from historically underbanked communities, whose thin credit files make them poor candidates for traditional financing. AdviceRobo CEO Diederick van Thiel estimates that there are more than four billion people around the world who fall into this category and said that technology can help financial services firms reach them.

“Our software enables lenders to target these underserved customers and streamline their credit processes,” van Thiel explained. “This stimulates prosperity and the economy. Moreover, our software has the potential to accelerate credit processes and identify the key risk signals of existing clients. For instance, the software can identify vulnerable consumers who will be at risk of defaulting on loans in the future.”

AdviceRobo demonstrated its CreditRobo solution at FinovateEurope 2016. CreditRobo leverages artificial intelligence to evaluate credit risk, providing early warnings on bad debt, default, pre-payment, and outflow; real-time behavioral data on the risk profile of the customer base; and real-time credit scoring for instant onboarding, renewal, and targeting of the underbanked, whether they are millennials or SMEs.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, U.K., Amsterdam, and Paris, AdviceRobo serves clients in ten countries across Europe and Latin America. In April, AdviceRobo joined the BNP Paribas Plug and Play accelerator program, one month before the company was named to Insights Success’ 20 Most Innovative FinTech Solution Providers roster. Also this spring, the company announced a trio of new bank customers: Hungary’s OTP Group, Argenta of the Netherlands, and Banco Macro of Argentina.

A member of KPMG’s Fintech 100 Emerging Stars, AdviceRobo began the year with news that its Psychographic Credit Score solution would be available via Mambu’s Product Marketplace.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AdviceRobo, Arxan Technologies, Checkbook.io, Cortera, Dwolla, Klarna, Personal Capital, Ripple, Solna, Thinking Capital, Tyro, WorkFusion, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • KPMG Acquires Minority Stake in Alternative Credit Scoring Specialist, AdviceRobo.
  • Thinking Capital, National Bank Expand Funding Options for Canada’s SMEs.

Around the web

  • Australia’s business bank Tyro to offer flexible same-day settlement and payroll integration courtesy of a partnership with Xero.
  • Spreedly unveils latest version of its Account Updater solution.
  • Dwolla discontinues its last branded solution Transfer; pivots to focus on Dwolla Platform, the company’s white-label API.
  • Klarna to acquire Close Brothers Retail Finance (CBRF).
  • Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank partners with Ripple for instant settlement of cross-border money transfers.
  • WorkFusion launches Partner Portal to support rise in AI-driven automation engagements.
  • Solna launches its intelligent invoicing tool powered by credit score data.
  • Personal Capital Promotes Craig Birk to Chief Investment Officer.
  • Moody’s Analytics partners with Cortera on a small business solution.
  • Arxan launches advanced protection for client-side eeb apps.
  • Checkbook celebrates topping two million user milestone.

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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