Author: David Penn

Qumram Acquired By Digital Performance Management Firm, Dynatrace

Qumram Acquired By Digital Performance Management Firm, Dynatrace
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Qumram

Digital performance management company Dynatrace has acquired Qumram, a digital interaction audit solutions provider, for an undisclosed amount, reports Antony Peyton of Banking Technology (Finovate’s sister publication).

With the addition of Qumram’s technology and intellectual property, Dynatrace said it will provide the ability to visually replay a user session within its existing platform. Qumram’s product will be re-engineered and will form part of an expanded digital experience analytics offering that will be announced early next year.

Patrick Barnert, Qumram CEO, praised Dynatrace as a clear compliment to Qumram’s  technology. “Dynatrace is unique in its ability to not only monitor highly complex digital ecosystems but see every user transaction. In addition, their AI-powered analytics is amazing, The technology fit is identical to what we believe at Qumram, where every user’s experience is captured, analyzed, and able to be replayed on demand.”

Dynatrace CEO, John Van Siclen, said via the deal it will offer “advanced behavioral analytics that will combine session replay with our unique artificial intelligence (AI) analytics capabilities”.

Dynatrace also plans to double Qumram’s existing engineering team in Barcelona in the coming year.

In a recent and separate development, Dynatrace is working with Rabobank “to monitor the real-time experience of every customer and user for all services” at the bank.

The project, says Dynatrace, “supports Rabobank’s vision to centralise and optimise company-wide application performance monitoring to future-proof customer experience”.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, Qumram demonstrated its regtech platform at FinovateFall 2016. This fall, the company announced that it would provide fully-compliant, mobile-to-mobile WhatsApp and WeChat conversation recording. In April, Qumram earned recognition as Best RegTech Company in the 2017 FinTech Breakthrough Awards, and in March, the company won Growth Stage Startup of the Year at the Swiss FinTech Awards 2017.

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Tweets from the East: A Look Back at FinovateAsia 2017

Tweets from the East: A Look Back at FinovateAsia 2017
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017

FinovateAsia 2017 was a great success. On this, our second visit to Hong Kong, we learned a great deal about the growth of fintech in Asia, the rapid developments in specific fields like artificial intelligence and the blockchain, and how an interest in new areas like real estate and insurance will reshape what we have traditionally thought of as “financial services”.

In addition to more than 30 live technology demonstrations (congratulations to our Best of Show winners!), our keynote speakers and panel discussion participants added valuable insights that helped us keep all of these innovations in context.

We’re looking forward to coming back next year. For now, stay tuned for our demo videos from the conference, which should be available in a few weeks in our video archives. In the meanwhile, here is a quick look at some of the highlights of this year’s event via Twitter (@Finovate) as captured by the tweets from our attendees.

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Bluefin Payment Systems, Checkbook.io, Compass Plus, Fenergo, Finastra, nCino, NetGuardians, Ping Identity, Q2 Holdings, Revolut, Scalable Capital, Stratumn, Trustly

Around the web

  • ACI Worldwide supports cross-border e-commerce in Brazil with integration of payment processor and gateway, PagBrasil.
  • Revolut is the latest fintech to apply for a European banking license.
  • Fenergo teams up with Opus to improve integration of risk-relevant information in the KYC process.
  • KAMCO Investment Company chooses Fusion Invest from Finastra to accelerate growth.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems unveils PCI P2PE sub-listing option for users of its Decryptions as a Service (DaaS) offering, Decryptx.
  • Ping Identity adds support for companies seeking PSD2, open banking compliance.
  • Trustly tops €10 billion in total payment processing volume since inception.
  • Q2 Holdings named to Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for second consecutive year.
  • Stratumn completes a blockchain experimentation connecting 14 insurance companies in France.
  • nCino debuts in top half of Deloitte’s 2017 Technology Fast 500.
  • Scalable Capital hits €500 million in assets.
  • Checkbook.io disrupts class action payments.
  • Compass Plus assists Almazergienbank to support the issuing and acquiring of JCB cards.
  • NetGuardians and Swisscom launch fraud prevention service.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eToro, Stratumn, Xero

Around the web

  • eToro taps George Verbitsky as managing director for Russia.
  • Stratumn tests use of blockchain technology in enhancing information flows for French insurers.
  • Xero and Worldpay partner to make invoicing easier for SMEs.

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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FinovateAsia 2017 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateAsia 2017 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AApay Technology, Bambu, Best of Show, OCR Labs, YUKKA Lab

FinovateAsia 2017 is in the books. And after two days of live fintech demos from 32 innovative companies from around the world, our Finovate attendees have made their preferences known as to which companies should win Best of Show trophies.

One of the most interesting aspects of our Best of Show awards is how they provide an insight into which technologies are truly being put to work to solve real-world financial problems for financial institutions, merchants, and consumers alike.  Whether the challenge is making payments safer and easier, helping individuals and families meet their financial goals, or fighting fraud and cybercrime, the companies that earn Best of Show at Finovate conferences are the ones that have shown our attendees that they have the solutions that the rest of the competition is still searching for.

This is why it is no surprise that so many of the companies that have earned the title of Best of Show have made such a significant impact in fintech – either as an emerging industry leader in their chosen field or as the sought-after acquisition from a larger firm eager to leverage a specific set of skills to broaden their own ability to serve a wider range of customers.

So with no further ado, let’s take a look at the award winners for Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2017 (in alphabetic order):

AApay Technology for its unique payment app that enables consumers to automatically split bills and gives businesses access to multiple payment methods to better manage all of their electronic transactions.

 

 

 

Bambu for its machine learning model, People Like Me, that goes beyond traditional roboadvisory to help users better identify and reach their financial goals.

 

OCR Labs for its Orbit ID SDK that enables enterprises to stop fraud, reduce friction during the onboarding process, and help manage KYC/AML obligations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

YUKKA Lab for its technology that leverages natural language programming and machine learning to provide real-time analytics into the financial markets.

 

 

 

 

We hope you enjoyed FinovateAsia 2017 and our new expanded format including panel discussions and keynote speeches from major fintech thought leaders. We had a great time bringing our fintech conference to Hong Kong for a second year in a row, and are looking forward to being back again next year. As always, a thousand thanks to all those who attended, sponsored, partnered with, and demoed their latest and greatest innovations live on stage. We’ll see you again in 2018!

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The four companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 and 2016 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017

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Welcome to Day One of FinovateAsia!

Welcome to Day One of FinovateAsia!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017

FinovateAsia is back in Hong Kong for two days of live demonstrations and deep-dive keynotes and panel discussions on the themes that are driving innovation in fintech today. Whether you are interested in mobile banking or P2P lending, wealth management or banking for the unbanked, artificial intelligence or the blockchain, FinovateAsia is a great opportunity to see how the region’s most innovative and insightful companies are leveraging technology to help businesses and consumers better manage their financial lives.

With 17 demos, four panel discussions, a pair of keynote addresses, and a 90-minute end-of-day networking session, our schedule for Day One of FinovateAsia promises to be a great start to our annual, late autumn event. Whether you are here with us in person in Hong Kong, or catching up with all the action via Twitter @Finovate, we think you’re going to like what you see and here from our FinovateAsia 2017 innovators.

Here is the agenda for today.

Registration begins at 08:00

08:00 – 09:00: Registration & Breakfast

09:00 – 09:20: Welcome Remarks

09:20 – 09:50: Keynote: P2P Lending in China

09:50 – 10:10: Panel Discussion: The Future of Peer Lending

10:10 – 10:40: Networking Break with Refreshments

10:40 – 12:00 Demo Session #1

12:00 – 13:00: Lunch and Networking

13:00 – 13:20: Keynote: A Glimpse into Hong Kong’s Fintech Scene

13:30 – 14:50: Demo Session #2

14:50 – 15:20: Networking with Refreshments

15:20 – 15:50: Panel Discussion: Mobile Banking is Booming

15:50 – 16:10: Panel Discussion: Revolutionizing the Insurance Industry

16:10 – 16:30: Panel Discussion: Transforming Investment and Wealth Management

16:30 – 18:00: Reception and Networking
Best of Show winners will be announced tomorrow

All demo videos will be available for free in a few weeks in our video archives.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA, DefenseStorm, Expensify, Leondrino Exchange, Revolut

Around the web

  • Leondrino Exchange launches its own digital currency, XLEO.
  • BBVA forges global strategic agreement with Telefónica.
  • Revolut announces plans to build its own in-house processor.
  • Cybersecurity specialist DefenseStorm hires Terrie O’Hanlon as Chief Marketing Officer.
  • Expensify and Wells Fargo ink data exchange agreement.

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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See Tomorrow’s Fintech Today at FinovateAsia 2017

See Tomorrow’s Fintech Today at FinovateAsia 2017
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017

FinovateAsia 2017 is almost here! And we can’t wait to show you the new features we’ve added to this year’s event.

In addition to our signature, 7-minute live technology demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday, FinovateAsia will also include keynote addresses and panel discussions. Topics covered range broadly from P2P lending and payments, mobile banking, wealth management, and the rise of artificial intelligence. We will also take a look at some of the leading fintech accelerators and incubators in Asia in a special showcase on Wednesday.

So if that sounds like a great opportunity to learn more about fintech in the Far East, here are a few last minute details to ensure you are able to make the most of your time at FinovateAsia this year.

First, know that FinovateAsia 2017 is a two-day fintech conference featuring some of the most innovative companies and technologies developing and marketing solutions for the Asia-Pacific market. With more than 450 attendees and more than 30 presenting companies, each day will feature a combination of both live fintech demonstrations as well as keynotes and panel discussions. Our single track format means you will be able to see every minute of every presentation. Check out our agenda for more information on what’s coming.

Second, this year FinovateAsia will be held at the JW Marriott, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong. Easily accessible via public transportation, including rail, the JW Marriott is a world-class venue located in the heart of Hong Kong.

The conference takes place on Tuesday, November 7 and continues through Wednesday, November 8. Registration begins at 8:00 on Tuesday, and the program begins at 9:00 with Welcome Remarks. There are two live demo sessions on Day One – the first beginning at 10:40 and the second at 13:30 – two keynote addresses and four panel discussions.

On Wednesday, Day Two, registration begins at 8:00, with Welcome Remarks at 8:45. The accelerator showcase starts the program at 9:10, followed by our first keynote of the day. The first live demo session on Wednesday begins at 11:10 and the second at 13:30. Day Two will feature a total of three panel discussions. See our agenda for more details.

Last but not least, be sure to join our FinovateAsia community on our event app. Search for “Finovate” at your preferred app store, download the app, and use the same email address you used to register for the conference to login. The FinovateAsia app provides access to the agenda, more information about our demoing companies, as well as our speakers, sponsors, and partners. You can also use the app to reach out to your fellow attendees, make connections, and schedule meetings. If you have any trouble with the app, please email us at asia@finovate.com or ask one of our Finovate staffers at the registration desk at the venue.

Remember FinovateAsia tickets are still available. If you’re interested in learning how innovative fintech companies are leveraging exciting technologies like artificial intelligence, the blockchain, machine learning and more, then FinovateAsia is the place to be this week. So be sure to pick up your ticket and save your spot. We’re looking forward to seeing you here in Hong Kong!

FinovateAsia 2017 is sponsored by: Invest Hong Kong, CeleritiFintech, Lleida.net, and Barlings Capital.

FinovateAsia 2017 is partners with: 500 Startups, Agorize, Aite Group, Asia Cloud Computing Association, BankersHub, BayPay, Banking Technology, BeFast.TV, BigData-MadeSimple.com, BlockExplorer, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, CB Insights, Celent, Conventus Law, EbankingNews, FemTech, Financial IT, FINOLAB, Fintech Association of Hong Kong, Fintech Finance, Fintech News Hong Kong, FinTechTime, Forrester, Headcount, Holland Fintech, Hong Kong Economic Times, The Hong Kong Foreign Financial Institutions Association, IBS Intelligence, Innovate Finance, Insight Alpha, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Mercator Advisory Group, NexChange, The Nilson Report, Ovum, The Paypers, Plug and Play, PR Newswire, Regulation Asia, RFi Group, Singapore FinTech Association, SME Finance Forum, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, WHub, and World Fintech Association.

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Symbiont Wins Distributed Ledger Technology Award for Second Year in a Row

Symbiont Wins Distributed Ledger Technology Award for Second Year in a Row
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Symbiont

When it comes to award-winning, buy-side, distributed ledger technologies, the smart contract solutions from Symbiont are apparently pretty hard to beat.

For the second consecutive year, the New York-based company has won the Buy-Side Technology Award for Best Distributed Ledger Technology Project by Waters Technology. In accepting the award, Symbiont CEO and co-founder Mark Smith emphasized the technology’s applicability to the buy-side, calling it a “founding principle” to help “upgrade settlement processes in capital markets via blockchain and smart contracts.” Smith highlighted the decentralized nature of Symbiont’s platform, with each network node being equal, as another advantage. “Because there are no gatekeepers in Symbiont networks,” Smith said, “the balance of power is fair to everyone and we appreciate the buy-side recognizing the value of this.”

Adam Krellenstein, Symbiont CTO and co-founder, during his presentation, “Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts” at FinDEVr New York 2016.

Symbiont Chairman and President Caitlin Long was even more specific, adding that the “long-only buy-side” is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of blockchain technology. This is because many of the costs increasingly borne by the buy-side – latency, capital requirements, counterparty risk – can be reduced with blockchain-based solutions, Long explained.

Founded in 2015, Symbiont has supported a number of major blockchain projects including its joint venture with Ipreo – a 19-party pilot for syndicated loans – and its work with the Delaware Blockchain Initiative. Last month, the company joined the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance as a corporate member, and this summer, Symbiont announced a strategic investment from Medici Ventures. A partnership with Privatemarket.io to build an alternative investment marketplace for closed-end funds announced in June and an investment from China’s Hundsun Technologies in May further characterize a busy year for Symbiont.

Company CTO and co-founder Adam Krellenstein presented “Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts” at FinDEVr New York 2016 where he explained the differences between Symbiont’s Smart Securities system and traditional distributed databases.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, CardFlight, Diebold, Neustar, PayNearMe, Revolut, Symbiont, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • Symbiont Wins Distributed Ledger Technology Award for a Second Year in a Row.

Around the web

  • FinTech Insider News interviews Revolut founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky.
  • Diebold Nixdorf SVP of Software Alan Kerr talks omnichannel ecommerce with PYMNTS.com.
  • Betterment’s Nick Holeman discusses spotting bull markets on CNBC.
  • CardFlight to power mobile POS offering from Beyond.
  • Quotatis Pro highlights Xero in its list of top apps to help you run your business.
  • Neustar joins Visa ID Intelligence as a digital identity partner.
  • PayNearMe teams up with New York City Department of Finance to enable parking ticket fines at more than 100 area 7-Elevens.

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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TransferWise Raises $280 Million in Series E

TransferWise Raises $280 Million in Series E
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, TransferWise

In a round led by Old Mutual Global Investors and venture capital firm IVP, TransferWise has raised $280 million in new funding. The new capital, which takes the London-based fintech’s total financing to more than $396 million, will be used to help the money transfer innovator grow its services and expand its global presence – particularly in Asia. The Series D also will enable TransferWise to build on its newly-launched service that helps SMEs reduce or even avoid conversion fees by letting them hold money in different currencies.

Also participating in the round were new investors Sapphire Ventures and World Innovation Lab, as well as existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Ballie Gifford, and Richard Branson. TransferWise now has an estimated valuation of $1.6 billion.

Quoted in Reuters, TransferWise finance director Matthew Briers noted that the company was “moving significant amounts of money on a monthly basis,” but there is still room for growth. “There are still many trillions of dollars that are moving cross-border,” he said. In addition to plans to expand into the Asia-Pacific region, TransferWise added that it will launch in India “within the next year.” An API that will enable financial institutions to readily access Transferwise’s platform is also in the cards, the company said. Bloomberg’s coverage of the news also featured company chairman and former CEO Taavet Hinrikus hinting at the “very high likelihood” of TransferWise becoming a public company, though Hinrikus added it was “still quite a number of years away.”

TransferWise demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2013. Founded in 2010, the company has more than two million customers and more than 750 currency routes. Last month, TransferWise unveiled new fees for GBP transfers, a month after the company was named to the European Fintech Awards & Conference’s European Fintech 100. Bringing its Borderless Accounts solution to Canada in August, TransferWise announced in July that its customers could use ApplePay to send money globally via its platform – the same month co-founder Kristo Käärmann took over as CEO of the company. With more than $1 billion in transferred funds each month, TransferWise reached profitability in May of this year.

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Clinc Goes Global With Deployments in Six Countries, Signs Deal with Turkey’s Biggest Private Bank

Clinc Goes Global With Deployments in Six Countries, Signs Deal with Turkey’s Biggest Private Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clinc

Conversational AI innovator Clinc has partnered with Işbank, the largest private bank in Turkey, which will deploy the Finovate Best of Show winner’s technology within its two mobile banking apps. The bank’s mobile banking app will provide users with a voice-activated intelligent personal assistant, while the bank’s mobile wallet payments app will feature Clinc’s AI brain and enable in-store payments and money transfers.

The announcement makes Işbank the first global FI to offer conversational AI with multi-language support. It also means that Clinc’s natural language platform, Finie, is now deployed in six countries and in 80 different languages. The partnership with Isbank alone will put Clinc’s technology in the hands of more than 4.5 million app users.

Clinc CEO and co-founder Dr. Jason Mars demonstrating Finie, a conversational AI platform, at FinovateSpring 2016.

“In contrast to the rule-based, bot-approach taken by all other vendors in the market, the fundamentals of our deep neural-network architecture enable us to break down the barriers to global adoption of conversational A.I.,” Clinc CEO Dr. Jason Mars said. “We can deploy to a bank in Istanbul or Singapore just as quickly and easily as we can deploy to a bank in Chicago or New York.”

Leveraging advanced natural language processing, machine learning, and deep neural networks, Clinc’s conversational AI platform is able to comprehend, recall, and respond to unstructured, everyday human speech. The technology understands speech patterns, word and sentence structure, and sentiment, surpassing other solutions that merely convert speech to text and rely on a set of pre-coded responses. This is also key to the multi-language capabilities of Clinc’s technology. “We’re miles ahead because the only other way to do multi-language is to start from scratch, and to code new rules and new grammar for every new language,” Mars explained.

Clinc demonstrated its Finie conversational AI technology at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show. Last month, the company announced a partnership with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Enacomm that will make it easier for smaller banks and credit unions to adopt AI chatbot technology. In August, Clinc integrated its technology with the Alexa skill for members of USAA.

Founded in 2015 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Clinc has raised $7.75 million in funding and includes Drive Capital, Cahoots Holdings, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and individual investor Stuart Porter among its investors. Company co-founder and CEO Mars was named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative CEOs in Banking 2017 by Bank Innovation. Check out his thoughts on what it takes to become a successful fintech start-up in our roundtable conversation from earlier this year.

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