Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Three Credit Unions Sign Up for Bankjoy’s Mobile Banking Technology.

Around the web

  • Bluefin Payment Systems powers payment processing solution for ticketing and ecommerce platform, AudienceView.
  • Almaviva develops new Consent and Data Rights Management solution courtesy of partnership with Trunomi.
  • Mitek to provide AML and KYC compliance technology for European blockchain firm, Nocks.
  • InComm Canada was named the North West Company’s General Merchandise Vendor of the Year for 2016.
  • Jemstep Partners with SSG to offer Advisor Pro Platform to over 1,500 RIA Client Firms.

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.

Configo Unveils Live App Editor

Configo Unveils Live App Editor

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Just weeks after its debut at FinovateEurope, customer personalization specialist Configo has announced a new addition to its Live Mobile Experience platform. The new feature, Live App Editor, makes it easier for designers to change and modify the platform’s interface in as few as 17 seconds.

“Configo takes personalization very personal when it comes to mobile experiences,” company co-founder and CEO Yosi Dahan wrote this morning in a statement. “As the world continuously shifts to mobile, real time targeting and personalization will determine success. We enable enterprises to create a customer-centric, live mobile experience that drives sales and engagement.”

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

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, and founded in 2015, Configo demonstrated its Live Mobile Experience at FinovateEurope 2017 earlier this month. Configo’s technology helps marketing and product development teams in financial services improve and optimize their mobile apps in real-time while avoiding a lengthy R&D process. Configo’s platform enables in-app personalized campaigns, A/B app testing, and deep segmentation that allows more accurate targeting of app users by location, usage patterns, and other data. The privately-held company has more than ten pilot projects with the largest banks and credit card companies in Europe.

Configo’s live demo from FinovateEurope will be available in our video archives in a couple of weeks.

AutoGravity Earns Multi-Million Euro Investment from Daimler

AutoGravity Earns Multi-Million Euro Investment from Daimler

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AutoGravity, one of FinovateFall’s Best of Show winners, picked up a major, “double-digit million euro investment” from Daimler Financial Services. The funding adds to the $50 million AutoGravity has raised since its founding in the fall of 2015, and comes as the company’s nationwide rollout reaches 46 states in the U.S.

Bodo Uebber, member of Daimler AG’s board of management, said the investment in AutoGravity was a “strategic step” in opening digital sales channels in leasing and financing. “We believe AutoGravity and its technology have the potential to revolutionize the sector for online financing while, at the same time, offering a digital platform for other financial services providers and automotive manufacturers,” Uebber said. Daimler Financial Services board chairman Klaus Entenmann called AutoGravity “a new star rising in the digital world.”

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Pictured: AutoGravity CMO Serge Vartanov demonstrating the company’s auto financing solution at FinovateFall 2016.

Quoted in AutoFinanceNews, AutoGravity Chief Marketing Officer Serge Vartanov added that the investment from Daimler was a major show of confidence in the company’s platform and potential for growth. “That Daimler has recognized the technology and sees the potential in transforming that shopping and financing experience for the consumer,” Vartanov said, “I think is a really good validation of what we’ve been building.” He added that because AutoGravity is lender-agnostic, Daimler’s investment in the technology will benefit not just its loan originations at its own Mercedez-Benz Financial Services, but will help auto lending more broadly, as well.

AutoGravity’s mobile app gives prospective new and used car buyers and leasers the ability to search for vehicles, complete credit applications, and get up to four personalized financing offers. With more than 150,000 downloads, the free app is available in iOS and Android. Read more about AutoGravity in our profile from earlier this year.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Irvine, California, AutoGravity won Best of Show at its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall 2016. In November, the company announced that its technology would power the digital auto sales and finance app from Fletcher Jones Motorcars. AutoGravity’s app was listed by Forbes in September as one of the “best new personal finance apps and sites.” Andy Hinrichs is CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • AutoGravity Earns Multi-Million Euro Investment from Daimler.
  • Roostify to Power Self-Serve Mortgage Platform for Chase Bank.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Payoneer Launches Cross-Border, Mass Payment APIs

Around the web

  • Northern California’s Kaiperm Diablo FCU to deploy core banking technology from NYMBUS.
  • Shopkeep integrates its POS technology with First Data’s Clover platform in extension of current partnership.
  • Arxan launches Arxan Application Protection for JavaScript to protect JavaScript-based applications.
  • CuBroadcast interviews CUneXus CEO Dave Buerger.

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.

Best of Show Winner Swych Unveils P2P Gifting Bot

Best of Show Winner Swych Unveils P2P Gifting Bot

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Fresh off its Best of Show winning performance at its debut at FinovateFall last September, mobile gift card innovator, Swych, has announced the beta release of its P2P gifting bot. The technology enables the user to generate and send e-gifts to any desktop, smartphone or tablet from within a chat, messaging, or virtual assistant app. Swych’s GiftBot preserves the same functionality as the mobile app, including the ability to “swych” the gift for another item from more than one hundred of Swych’s retail partners. GiftBot identifies recipients by first name, makes gift recommendations, and lets the sender add a personalized message.

“Most mobile usage studies show that consumers prefer to interact with friends, family, and colleagues predominately in social media apps such as Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, Instagram, Slack, or WhatsApp,” Swych Chief Revenue Officer Robert Sabella explained. “The use of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home is also growing at a very fast clip. Swych’s GiftBot platform opens the door for our gifting brand partners to take advantage of this trend and connect to their consumers in an entirely new way,” he said.

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Pictured (left to right): Swych co-founders Deepak Jain (CEO) and Robert Sabella (CRO) demonstrating the Swych Mobile Gifting Platform at FinovateFall 2016.

Swych CEO and co-founder Deepak Jain sees his company’s GiftBot technology as part of a wave of technologies – including artificial intelligence and virtual/augmented reality – that are “gearing up to overtake traditional web- and app-based commerce.” He added, “We are proud to be the first mobile gifting service to bring machine learning, AI, and advanced data analytics into the fast growing digital gifting space.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Plano, Texas, Swych took home Best of Show honors during its Finovate debut last fall for its mobile gifting platform. Swych is a private-held company funded by veteran angel investors from the banking, financial services, and enterprise computing industries.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVr APIntelligence

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FinDEVr New York is just over one month away. Visit our registration page today and save your spot as our developer’s conference returns to New York City, March 21 & 22, for two days of APIs, SDKs, case studies, coding examples, and more.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Braintree Hires John MacIlwaine as New CTO.

The latest from FinDEVr New York presenters. Catch them at FinDEVr New York next month!

  • ChartIQ to provide Fidessa with HTML5 charting options.

  • Clutch recognizes Softjourn as one of the top web and software developers in the Ukraine.

  • Fiserv wins inaugural Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Fintech ADVANCE Award for its Verifast palm authentication technology.

  • Vantiv to provide debit, credit, and ATM processing services for Financial Technology Solutions International.

  • Massachusetts-based bank, Salem Five ($4.2 billion in assets) picks Fiserv as its new technology partner.

  • Vantiv partners with CardFlight to Offer EMV Mobile POS Solution.

Alumni updates

  • Intuit deploys VersaPay ARC for its SME customers and accountant clients.

  • Wave to offer OnDeck business loans and lines of credit courtesy of new partnership.

  • IBM leverages Hyperledger Fabric to support a trade finance-oriented blockchain project in Dubai.

  • Entersekt CIO Gerhard Oosthuizen shares advice on passwords and protecting personal data in Moneyweb.

  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Chargebacks911 to help merchants handle fraudulent chargebacks.

  • MoneyGram using Mobile Verify from Mitek to meet AML requirements.

  • Envestnet | Yodlee partners with mobile-only banking startup, Varo Money.

  • Xero partners with Sasfin Bank to offer next generation financial management to small businesses.

  • Betterment unveils new multi-plan offering with access to human advisors.

  • Fidor partners with EPAM Systems to gain access to additional product development and software engineering talent.

  • Avoka names former KPMG executive Matt Lewis as new CFO.

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

Finovate Alumni News

Around the web

  • Qumram wins “Most Innovative FinTech” at 4th Annual WealthBriefing Swiss Awards for 2017.
  • Jack Henry presents newlly-resdesigned Banno website.
  • Intuit deploys VersaPay ARC for its SME customers and accountant clients.
  • ChartIQ to provide Fidessa with HTML5 charting options. See ChartIQ at FinDEVr New York next month.
  • Temenos acquires long-time partner Rubik Financial for $50 million.
  • Dwolla looks at how Bento used Access API for ACH-powered fund transfer to develop its platform.
  • Clutch recognizes Softjourn as one of the top web and software developers in the Ukraine. Join Softjourn in New York next month for our developer’s conference, FinDEVr.
  • PYMNTS.com features CSI globalVCard on the eve of its global expansion.
  • Credit Karma unveils new free tax preparation 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.

CREALOGIX Wins First Best of Show Award at FinovateEurope; Appoints New CEO

CREALOGIX Wins First Best of Show Award at FinovateEurope; Appoints New CEO

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February has been a big month for the innovators of Swiss digital banking leader, CREALOGIX. The company won its first Best of Show award at FinovateEurope last week, taking home top honors for its live demonstration of a virtual reality interface integrated into its digital banking hub. The technology is geared toward millennial and Generation Z customers, the company explained from the Finovate stage last week, to deliver a user experience that incorporates emotion, creativity, and logic into financial decision-making.

“Normally, online banking is a dry affair,” Head of Sales and CMO at CREALOGIX, Marc Stähli said. “Our technology, however, is an invitation to active discovery.” Beyond the immersion of the virtual reality experience, CREALOGIX Predictive Banking in Virtual Reality also features intelligent algorithms to calculate “what if” scenarios that can be explored in depth simply by following lines of vision and gesture.

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CREALOGIX also has a new CEO. Thomas Schneider (pictured), who served as managing director for UBS in Zurich for more than 21 years, will take the helm of the company’s Swiss digital banking business. Schneider’s expertise includes implementing electronic customer systems and internal control systems. He has also served as a consultant for CREALOGIX, as well as for Accenture and via his own TSC Consulting firm. “Through my consulting work at CREALOGIX, I have been able to get to know the business unit and the tasks very well over the past few years and am now looking forward to my new operational role,” Schneider said in a statement. Schneider was educated at Albert Ludwigs Universitat Freiburg, and has a Ph.D from the University of Freiburg.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, CREALOGIX demonstrated its Digital Banking Hub / Predictive Banking in Virtual Reality technology at FinovateEurope, winning Best of Show. A Finovate alum since 2011, CREALOGIX named Phillipe Wirth as CFO in January. Wirth, former head of finance and controlling at subsidiaries of Mettler Toledo Group in Switzerland and the U.S., will join the company officially in May.

FinovateEurope 2017: Tweetspotting

FinovateEurope 2017: Tweetspotting

Twitterlogo_lightblueWith more than one wit referring to the new President of the United States as the “Tweeter in Chief,” it is clear that the Age of Trump means one thing if nothing else: time to up your Twitter game.

While the majority of the action at Finovate conferences takes place on stage or in the networking hall, our live Twitter feed @Finovate is often an attraction in and of itself. Curious what the hot trends are in fintech heading into FinovateEurope? Our Twitter audience has you covered. Got a sharp observation or spontaneous insight on a company’s technology midway through its live demonstration? No better place than Twitter to share it. Wondering if startup ABC has an inside track to a Best of Show award? A quick heat check on Twitter can tip you off to likely frontrunners and crowd-favorites.

And, of course, if you can’t be at our conference live and in person, there’s no better way to follow the action than via our @Finovate live Twitter feed. This year’s FinovateEurope tweets are a mix of live and remote viewpoints – including many in languages other than English – all asking questions, praising impressive performances, and encouraging our presenting companies to show us (not tell us) how their solutions will solve some of our most persistent problems when it comes to everything from authentication and e-commerce to payments and wealth management.

This year, our Twitter coverage is complimented by the observations of frequent Finovate sponsor, Hotwire. Felicity Hudson (pictured), Head of Hotwire’s Fintech practice, kept a sharp eye on #Finovate over the two days of the conference and here’s what she saw:

Hotwire_FelicityHudsonGreat. Exciting, Fab, Impressive, Cool, Smart, Delight, Proud … are some of the most popular words to appear in the 4,620 tweets around this year’s event in London. After ‘great’ and ‘#fintech’, the next most talked topic was PSD2, reflecting the amount of debate this upcoming regulation is stirring up. The general consensus from this audience is that this major legislative shift represents an opportunity, rather than a threat for banks.

The top Tweeters over the few days were Global Data Financial and Finovate, followed by brands including EarlyBird, Meniga, Wealthify, and Memento Payments, with the latter going on to win a Best of Show award. The most prolific tweeter was Private Banker reporter John Schaffer, with Robby Hilkowitz taking the investor crown. And the most vocal publication? FinTech Futures.

And with that, let’s take a look at some tweets from the week.

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Rippleshot Racks Up $2.6 Million in Second Seed Round

Rippleshot Racks Up $2.6 Million in Second Seed Round

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Chicago-based anti-fraud, transaction monitoring specialist Rippleshot has raised an additional $2.6 million in seed funding. The investment, led by the venture capital arm of CUNA Mutual Group, CMFG Ventures, takes the company’s total funding to $4.6 million. Rippleshot will use the additional capital to add technical talent, specifically developers and data scientists, and will leverage its relationship with CMFG to market its solutions to 9,000 of CMFG’s affiliated credit unions.

Rippleshot co-founder and CEO Canh Tran said that the funding comes as his company finds itself “in a unique place to help bridge the fraud detection gap between issuers and merchants.” Rippleshot’s technology enables card issuers to catch card data breaches early, track trends in compromised card activity to identify future vulnerabilities, reissue new cards to customers whose cards have been compromised, and issue real-time declines to limit losses. Rippleshot’s cloud-based technology monitors millions of credit card transactions a day and the company says it can prevent “more than half of the fraudulent spend from compromised cards.”

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Pictured: Rippleshot Chief Scientist and Co-Founder Randal Cox demonstrating Rippleshot’s platform at FinovateFall 2014.

In addition to the funding from CMFG, Rippleshot announced that emerging payments specialist – and former PYMNTS.com president – Gloria Colgan will join the company’s advisory board. Tran said that Colgan’s presence on Rippleshot’s board “will be invaluable as we take the next step in growing our footprint.” Colgan was managing director for Market Platform Dynamics and an SVP at both Discover Financial Services and JP Morgan Chase.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Rippleshot demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014. Last fall, the company was recognized by H2 Ventures and KPMG as one of its “50 Emerging Stars.” And last June, Rippleshot’s card-compromise detection solution, Sonar, was endorsed by the American Bankers Association. A graduate of the SixThirty accelerator program, Rippleshot was a finalist in BBVA’s Open Talent Competition.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate

  • Rippleshot Racks Up $2.6 Million in Second Seed Round.

Around the web

  • Wave to offer OnDeck business loans and lines of credit courtesy of new partnership.
  • Poland’s Alior Bank ($15 billion USD) to deploy FusionCapital from Misys.
  • UK-based Revolut launches new customer service chatbot, Rita – “Revolut’s Intelligent Troubleshooting Assistant.”
  • IBM leverages Hyperledger Fabric to support a trade finance-oriented blockchain project in Dubai.
  • Fiserv wins inaugural Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Fintech ADVANCE Award for its Verifast palm authentication technology.

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.

You’ve Got Mail: Vera Launches Security Solution for Enterprise Communications

You’ve Got Mail: Vera Launches Security Solution for Enterprise Communications

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With Vera for Mail, Palo Alto-based data security specialist Vera gives businesses the ability to protect and audit corporate communications, restrict sharing, and revoke access to sent emails. “With Vera for Mail,” said Vera co-founder and CEO Ajay Arora, “the days of email leaks are finally over.”

Vera for Mail enables enterprise customers to take advantage of the convenience of email while enjoying the seamless protection of Vera’s data-centric security platform. From a single console, administrators have complete control and “360 degree visibility” over the contents and attachments in enterprise email communications even after emails have been downloaded, forwarded, or accessed offline. And both email senders and recipients can use the technology without having to rely on key exchanges or proprietary plug-ins.

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Pictured: Vera co-founder and CEO Ajay Arora demonstrating Vera Security at FinovateSpring 2016.

Ajay Arora, Vera co-founder and CEO referred to Vera for Mail as “the next stage in our long-term quest to protect enterprise data through the last mile, secure every collaboration channel, and ensure the confidentiality and integrity of our customers’ most valuable data.” Calling data encryption, access, and auditing “an absolute necessity” in an increasingly collaborative corporate environment, Arora pointed out that other solutions often fail due to being too complicated or not “foolproof enough” to be relied on for everyday use in the enterprise. In its press release, the company noted a 2017 Cybersecurity Report from Cisco that said that while email continues to be “the primary tool” for transmitting and sharing sensitive data, only 12% of cybersecurity professionals queried said they trusted their firm’s current email security strategy.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Vera demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016. The company’s solutions – including Vera for Files and Vera Platform – are used by more than 300,000 professionals across the Fortune 100, and Vera notes that it actively secures more than 10 million files for its corporate clients.

A finalist in the 2016 RSA Innovation Sandbox Competition in the “Most Innovative Startup” category, and recognized as a SINET 16 winner by Security Innovation Network, Vera was honored as a 2017 SC Magazine Trust Award Finalist for Cloud Computing Security in January. The company has raised $35 million in funding, with its most recent investment a $21 million Series B completed in the spring of 2016.