Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • Robo Advisor Wealthfront Launches Line of Credit to Make Users More Liquid.
  • Our latest FinovateSpring Sneak Peeks are up! Meet Unison, Hedgeable AI Lab, AccountScore, SynapsePay, and HEDG.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Xero Sees $26.4 Million Investment

Around the web

  • Money management app, TD MySpend from TD Bank, closes in on one million users.
  • mBank launches mobile app with Android Pay.
  • ACI Worldwide broadens its relationship with Ant Financial Services mobile payment provider, Alipay.
  • PYMNTS reportsTransferWise To Move Headquarters Out Of UK Due To Brexit.
  • NICE Actimize Launches ActimizeWatch, a Fraud Analytics Optimization Solution.
  • Fiserv to power core processing for SouthEast bank.

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.

Narrative Science Raises $11 Million Series E

Narrative Science Raises $11 Million Series E

NarrativeScience_homepage_April2017

In a round co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Jump Capital, advanced natural-language generation technology innovator Narrative Science has raised $11 million. The Series E round takes the company’s total funding to more than $40 million. Quoted in Crain’s Chicago Business, Sapphire Ventures partner Jai Das wasted few words in explaining Narrative Science’s edge. “People like to read,” Das said. In other words, it’s all about the Advanced NLG.

Narrative Science specializes in using advanced natural-language generation technology to turn ordinary numeric and symbolic data and visualizations into what the company calls “intelligent narratives.” These narratives express in language indistinguishable from that of a human author all the relevant insights and context from the chosen data. This data can take a variety of forms, including business intelligence reports, customer communications, and regulatory filings – any information that is based on quantifiable data can be turned into an intelligent narrative. “People who don’t have skill with spreadsheets, people who might not have skills with visualizations … they can still get to the insights within that data,” Kris Hammon, Narrative Science Chief Scientist explained during the company’s demo at FinovateFall.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Narrative Science demonstrated its Quill Financial solution at FinovateFall 2013. The company, which celebrated its seventh anniversary in April, has been on a partnership spree in recent months. A deal with Sisense in February will put Narrative Science’s Narratives for Business Intelligence API to work for the company’s business intelligence technology, Sisense Everywhere. Also in February, Narrative Science partnered with FactSet to integrate automated portfolio commentary within FactSet’s analytics and client reporting platform. We featured Narrative Science in our look at artificial intelligence in fintech back at the beginning of the year. Stuart Frankel is CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: unblu Delivers an In-Person Customer Experience Online.
  • Check out our latest Sneak Peeks of upcoming FinovateSpring demos from Newchip, IBM Trusteer, Divy, CallVU, Finicity, GoodData, & NCR Corporation.
  • Narrative Science Raises $11 Million Series E.

Around the web

  • MaxMyInterest members gain access to increased FDIC insurance and competitive yields on cash balances courtesy of new partnership with UFB Direct.
  • Bahrain-based Bank ABC goes live with omni-channel digital banking service using Backbase’s platform.
  • Revolut joins forces with UK online mortgage broker, Trussle, enabling prospective homebuyers to begin the application process on mobile phones.
  • PayPal teams with Android to launch a new way to pay.
  • Lending Club launches mobile app for investors.
  • Handpoint launches analytics dashboard.
  • ProfitStars and Tyfone partner to offer digital banking and billpay 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.

Coca-Cola Credit Union Chooses Bankjoy As New Mobile Banking Provider

Coca-Cola Credit Union Chooses Bankjoy As New Mobile Banking Provider

Bankjoy_homepage_April2017

Coca-Cola CU (CCCU), an Atlanta-based credit union serving the employees of The Coca-Cola Company and their immediate families, has picked Bankjoy to provide online and mobile banking services for its members. The new platform will include billpay, mobile deposit, PFM, card services, and wire transfers, as well as a major redesign of CCCU’s website.

CCCU IT manager Farhan Jadavji found a lot to like in Bankjoy’s offering, crediting the technology for being “agile and innovative” and “supporting the trends of cross-generational demographics.” Jadavji listed “greater productivity, improved efficiencies, and increased security” among the reasons why it was “easy to select Bankjoy as our partner.” Bankjoy CEO Michael Duncan added, “Coca-Cola Credit Union has a clear vision of the omnichannel experience it wants to create for its members. No two credit unions are the same, nor should they be.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Bankjoy demonstrated its Bankjoy API at FinovateFall 2016. The company has been on a tear in recent months, signing partnerships with three credit unions last month. And these partnerships are in addition to the deployments with two other FCUs that Bankjoy announced back in December. The Y-Combinator alum partnered with payments solution provider Payveris in February, leveraging the company’s suite of open APIs to add to the features like business payments and external account transfers to its offerings for credit unions.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Coca-Cola Credit Union Chooses Bankjoy as New Mobile Banking Partner.
  • What’s in it for Me? Real Estate Investment Technology: A comparison of Realty Mogul, CK Mack, Patch of Land, and other real estate investment platforms.

Around the web

  • GMC Software announces new partner advantage program.
  • Uniken appoints Nishant Kaushik as Chief Technology Officer.
  • i-exceed earns Gartner Magic Quadrant recognition as notable vendor in Asia Pacific for mobile app development platforms.

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.

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Microblink

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Microblink

microblink_homepage_April2017b

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

BlinkReceipt SDK is a real-time retail receipt scanner for mobile apps from Microblink. The solution automatically extracts all details from consumer purchase receipts on an item level.

Features

  • Automatic extraction in real-time and locally on a device
  • High accuracy and infinitely scalable
  • Easy integration into any app and on all platforms

Why it’s great
BlinkReceipt is the most cost-effective way to collect consumer purchase data and can be used for purchase validation, loyalty and rewards programs, market research, PFM, etc.

Microblink_IzetZdralovicPresenters

Izet Ždralović, Co-founder / SMD
Besides extensive experience in sales, marketing, and management, Ždralović has a comprehensive business view of innovative technologies. He loves solving problems with mobile technologies to improve UX.
LinkedIn

 

Microblink_DarrenBassmanDarren Bassman, Head of Product, BlinkReceipt
Bassman is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for the intersection of technology and the real world.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: HotDocs

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: HotDocs

HotDocs_homepage_April2017

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

HotDocs, the global leader in document automation technology, is used by financial institutions worldwide to reduce risk, aid compliance, and create efficiency with document production.

Features

  • Create sophisticated financial documents in minutes instead of hours
  • Completely eliminate document errors
  • Easily manage document templates throughout your organization

Why it’s great
See how so many of the world’s largest banks and insurance companies have saved millions of dollars and saved countless hours using HotDocs.

HotDocs_MarkSettlePresenters

Mark Settle, Director of Technical Services
For nearly 20 years, Settle has worked in the document automation field supporting hundreds of clients worldwide in banking, insurance, legal, corporate, and government industries.
LinkedIn

 

HotDocs_JulieRotzJulie Rotz, Senior Consultant
For more than 18 years, Rotz has provided document automation training, consulting, project management, and template development for clients worldwide.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Lleida.net and SATEC

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Lleida.net and SATEC

Lleidanet_homepage_April2017

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

TopayZ is a financial platform supplying a white-label bank for merchants, banks, or collectives, providing its customers with a virtual banking enabler.

Features

  • White-label bank for merchants without compliance requirements
  • Banks can create new prescription channel
  • Registered and certified transactions issued by Lleida.net as trusted third party

Why it’s great
Get your own bank in three weeks for collectives and merchants without banking compliance requirements.

Lleidanet_SiscoSapenaPresenters

Sisco Sapena, CEO
Sapena studied technical agricultural engineering and holds a postgraduate degree in Telematics. He is one of Spain’s internet pioneers and takes Lleida.net around the world, always focusing on innovation.
LinkedIn

 

Lleidanet_AlexArgudoAlex G. Argudo, TOPAYz CEO and Head of Banking and Insurance at SATEC
Argudo studied at HBS, Berkeley, and MIT in Business and Technology. He is a former executive at Santander.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: RFM

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: RFM

RFM_homepage_April2017

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

RFM provides the new risk architecture for lenders of all sizes. With unprecedented situational awareness of risk exposure/reserve needs, users of the technology can run scenarios, simplify regulatory compliance, and rapidly deploy models.

Features

  • Stress Testing automation simplifies regulatory compliance
  • Production deployment of models reduced from months to days
  • ‘Model Injection’ integration means no complex re-engineering required

Why it’s great
‘Risk Cockpits’ reduce the cost and effort of stress testing and regulatory compliance. ‘Model Injection’ integrates model engine with credit systems so updates propagate instantly and automatically.

RFM_NIckStavrouPresenters

Nick Stavrou, Managing Director
Stavrou is former Executive Director at Goldman Sachs, Global Head of Credit Models at National Australia Bank, founder of risk consulting firm Q-Risk Strategies, and co-founder of RFM.
LinkedIn

 

RFM_MarkZangariMark Zangari, CTO
Zangari is a software innovator and senior executive with 25 years experience. He is formerly CTO of Spatialinfo, launching U.S. division in 2000, was co-founder and CEO of modeling/machine learning firm Quantellia since 2010, and joined RFM in 2016.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: TALK Accounting

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: TALK Accounting

AutoKept_TalkAccounting_homepage_April2017

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

The new TALK app from AutoKept is the first AI and voice recognition add-on to popular software that wipes out 90% of daily bookkeeping and tax records for small businesses.

Features

  • Documents go directly into QuickBooks
  • AI understands a voice memo about transactions to code automatically
  • Platform captures the purpose of the transaction so books are done right, instantly

Why it’s great
TALK Accounting is the easiest and cheapest bookkeeping app available for business owners who want good books done automatically at a fraction of the normal labor cost.

TALKAccounting_KCTrubyPresenter                                  

KC Truby, President
Truby started his first bookkeeping business in 1968. Watching his clients struggle with finances inspired him to create the TALK accounting app.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Capsilon

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Capsilon

Capsilon_homepage_April2017b

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Capsilon transforms the speed and economics of the mortgage production process by leveraging intelligent automation to transform your existing mortgage process into a modern digital mortgage factory.

Features

  • Order of magnitude velocity improvement in both speed and costs
  • Optimal workflows based only exception-only handling
  • Highest integrity processes that are repeatable, scalable

Why it’s great
Capsilon powers the shift to a high-velocity, digital mortgage factory with intelligent process automation.

Presenters

Ted Hicks, Director of Product Management

Sanjeev Malaney, CEO

Finovate Debuts: Configo Empowers FIs to Build Customized Customer Journeys

Finovate Debuts: Configo Empowers FIs to Build Customized Customer Journeys

Configo_homepage_March2017

At FinovateEurope earlier this year, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Configo demonstrated its contribution to the cause of greater customer engagement in financial services. The technology, Configo Live Mobile Experience Platform, enables banking marketing professionals and product specialists to design customer experiences that are, in the words of Configo co-founder and CEO Yosi Dahan, “personalized and contextual.”

Dahan warned that nonbanks have done a better job than most banks when it comes to meeting customer expectations of being more innovative and “human-centric.” He said that by leveraging Configo’s ability to bring targeted content to targeted audiences in real time, banks and other traditional financial institutions have the opportunity to regain that lost ground.

Configo_stage_FEU2017

Pictured (left to right): Configo co-founders Natan Abramov (CTO) and Yosi Dahan (CEO) demonstrating Configo Live Mobile Experience at FinovateEurope 2017.

For the live demonstration Configo CTO Natan Abramov showed how the Configo platform scanned the screens of the banking app, and enabled the user to make changes that would appear simultaneously in the app when saved. In addition to being able to make cosmetic changes to text, color, and other features, the platform also supports pushing custom content to user-defined segments such as low-income, families, etc. Virtually any data point, from account balance to age to geolocation to app usage – can be used to define a segment for receiving certain app customizations, targeted messages, or special offers.

Configo also provides for in-app campaigns to send promotional messages to customers. Users can upload their own design or use one of Configo’s templates, then simply add text, images, and a call to action. Schedule the ad to pop-up at any one of a number of cues: a specific time or when a button on an app is pushed, and the campaign is ready to go. Configo’s platform provides for A/B testing, and works with iOS, Android, native, and hybrid systems.

app UI editor

Once the app’s screens are scanned into the Configo platform, individual content items can be tagged for management later.

“By providing contextual offers and content in real time, you are actively optimizing your customer interaction, driving better engagement and increasing mobile sales,” Dahan said. Emphasizing the ease of adopting the technology (“up and running with virtually no integration and without messing around with code in just a couple of days”), he said his company’s platform ensures that FIs gain “total control of your customer’s journey in your mobile application.”

Company Facts

  • Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel
  • Founded in 2015
  • Running more than 10 pilots with banks and credit card companies in Europe

We met with Dahan (pictured) and Abramov, co-founders of Configo, at FinovateEurope in London and followed up with a Configo_Yosi_Dahanfew questions for Dahan by e-mail. Here are his responses.

Finovate: What problem does your technology solve?

Yosi Dahan: Product and marketing managers require rapid iterations, prototyping, and optimizations of their mobile banking product to increase conversion and engagement. Working agile has its benefits, but the release and update cycles are still measured in weeks as most of the tasks go through the R&D teams.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Dahan: Financial institutions.

Finovate: How does your solution solve the problem better?

Dahan: Product and marketing leaders get access to a variety of tools in our platform to simply create new customer experiences, optimizing the customer’s journey and interaction. Configo integrates with any existing mobile app using an SDK and provides a dashboard for management. Segmenting users, running A/B test experiments, launching campaigns, and personalizing the app’s user interface, can be achieved without a single line of code. Configo has managed to cut the time-to-market of app changes and business tasks by over 15%.

in-app campaign stats

The Configo platform supports in-app campaigns and provides total control over how the ads look and appear to the user.

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

Dahan: The team behind Configo has more than nine years of experience of developing mobile apps. Prior to starting Configo, we conducted research involving more than 50 financial institutions around the world in order to understand how their app release cycles look like and how we can reduce the time-to-market to meet customer expectations. Configo has managed to cut the time-to-market of app changes and business tasks by over 15%.

segmentation

Customers can be segmented based on any datapoint – age, account balance, app usage – on the Configo platform.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Configo that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Dahan: We’ll be introducing new tools for both marketing and product managers to help them better understand their customers’ journey as well as increase engagement, decrease churn rate, and provide exceptional user experience. We are also working on creating a solution for the online (web) channel.

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

Dahan: Our goal is to help financial institutions around the world shape their mobile channel. We are planning on delivering a custom experience to 50 million mobile banking users by 2019.


Configo’s Yosi Dahan (CEO & Co-Founder) and Natan Abramov (CTO & Co-Founder) demonstrating Configo Live Mobile Experience at FinovateEurope 2017.