Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

On FinDEVr.com

  • Braintree Hires John MacIlwaine as New CTO.

Around the web

  • First national private bank of Turkey, Yapi Kredi to deploy Eyeprint ID from EyeVerify for mobile logins. Join EyeVerify in London for FinovateEurope.
  • Envestnet | Yodlee partners with mobile-only banking startup, Varo Money.
  • Bloomberg Technology talks with Misys CEO Nadeem Syed on IPO plans, AI, and P2P lending. See Misys at FinovateEurope in London next week.
  • OutsideIQ’s Founder and CEO featured in InfoWorld.
  • Xero partners with Sasfin Bank to offer next generation financial management to small businesses.
  • Prosper Appoints Usama Ashraf Chief Financial Officer.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Betterment unveils new multi-plan offering with access to human advisors.
  • Green Dot to acquire UniRush and its prepaid card business, RushCard, for $167 million.
  • Fidor partners with EPAM Systems to gain access to additional product development and software engineering talent.
  • D3 reports record revenue in 2016, up 160% from 2015.

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.

Zopa Surpasses £2 Billion Loan Mark

Zopa Surpasses £2 Billion Loan Mark

Zopa_homepage_January2017

P2P lender Zopa had a busy Q4. The company earned accolades at the AltFi and F5 Awards, unveiled a new look, announced a plan to launch a challenger bank, and partnered with Airbnb. And growth begets growth: today the company announced it has broken past the Ā£2 billion ($2.5 billion USD) loan milestone. “We’re excited to be the first UK peer-to-peer lender to pass the 2 billion milestone,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. “Over the last 12 years, we’re proud to say we’ve helped over a third of a million people get better interest rates for both borrowing and lending.”

Zopa loans help consumers make automobile purchases, pay for home improvements, or finance debt consolidation. UK residents over the age of 19 with an income of at least Ā£12,000 a year are eligible to apply for loans ranging from Ā£1,000 to Ā£25,000 and terms from 1 to 5 years. Applying for loans takes only three minutes and will not affect the applicant’s credit score. Both individuals and businesses (as long as they are not lenders themselves) are allowed to lend money through Zopa for investment purposes. Lending capital is distributed across different loan terms (up to five years) and lenders receive monthly payments from borrowers. Annualized projected returns to lenders range from 3.1% to 6.3%, and the platform also provides a “Sell My Loan” feature that enables lenders to sell their loans to other lenders on the platform (1% fee may be required).

One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company was recognized as Personal Loan Provider of the Year for the fourth year in a row at the Consumer Moneyfacts Awards in January. Zopa partnered with UK money management app, Pariti, to help millennial consumers better manage credit card debt last September, and the company’s executive chairman and co-founder, Giles Andrews, was named one of the 40 most exciting people in fintech in the United Kingdom by Business Insider. Zopa has raised more than $68 million in funding, and includes Augmentum Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners among its investors.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Zopa Surpasses Ā£2 Billion Loan Milestone.

Around the web

  • Crealogix selects Philippe Wirth as new CFO starting in May.
  • QIIB to deploy Sharia-compliant, core banking technology from Misys.
  • Wipro announces new partnership in and investment with Tradeshift.
  • Skipton International to upgrade its legacy platform with core banking technology from Temenos.
  • Avoka names former KPMG executive Matt Lewis as new CFO. Join Avoka in London for FinovateEurope in February.
  • Vantiv partners with CardFlight to Offer EMV Mobile POS Solution.
  • Equifax and Fiserv join forces to provide income and employment verification services to auto lenders.
  • Forbes features GainX founder Angelique Mohring. Come see GainX’s demo live at FinovateEurope next week.

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.

New Robo Fund from LendingRobot Leverages Automation and the Blockchain

New Robo Fund from LendingRobot Leverages Automation and the Blockchain

LendingRobotSeries_homepage_January2017

With the stock market rallying to new highs, the new robo fund from LendingRobot may have arrived just in time for people looking to diversify their portfolios with investments in the alternative lending market. LendingRobot Series makes it easy for peer lending investors to put money to work in different timeframes and risk exposures with returns ranging from 6.86% to more than 9%. The solution – part roboadvisory, part hedge fund – converts clients’ contributions into units which are invested across four leading lending marketplaces – Funding Circle, Lending Club, Lending Home, and Prosper. LendingRobot CEO Emmanuel Marot says that the new solution is designed to take advantage of the “excellent performance” of alternative lending investments and help investors avoid the problem of “fragmentation” that adds complexity to the process.

“That’s why we’ve created LendingRobot Series: to provide investors that understand the value of investing in alternative lending with the confidence that comes from intelligent automation, easy liquidity, and complete transparency,” Marot explained.

LendingRobot_stage_January2017

Pictured: LendingRobot CEO Emmanuel Marot demonstrating his platform’s dashboard at FinovateSpring 2016.

That “complete transparency” comes courtesy of LendingRobot’s decision to leverage blockchain technology to create a detailed, weekly ledger of the fund’s holdings. LendingRobot Series uses a hash code signature and notarization by Ethereum’s blockchain, to prevent data tampering, and assets are held in a bankruptcy protection vehicle with no liabilities other than its investors. The service charges a flat 1% a year management fee and caps fund expenses at 0.59% with no performance fees.. These compare favorably with the notorious “2% and 20%” demanded by most hedge funds.

LendingRobot supports four “Series” investors can choose from based on their investment preferences: short term aggressive and conservative, and long term aggressive and conservative. Average performance ranges from 6.86% for short-term conservative to 9.66% for long-term aggressive. Average maturity for short term series is 18 months. Long-term series maturities are 30-31 months.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, LendingRobot demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016, where it won Best of Show. The company has raised $3 million in funding, and includes Runa Capital and Club Italia Investimenti among its investors. TechCrunch profiled the company last summer, quoting Marot’s optimism toward the “insane growth in the peer lending market.” LendingRobot launched its P2P investment tracking mobile app – dubbed “Mint for P2P Lending Accounts” – last spring.

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Aqubix

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Aqubix

Aqubix_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Aqubix is a complete, centralized, management tool for all your customer due diligence (CDD), compliance, and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.

Features

  • Embedded, secure, recordable, face-to-face video interviews
  • Automated risk factoring including market changes with notifications
  • Instant organigram generation with real-time transaction monitoring

Why it’s great
Dubbed as the “Rolls Royce of Compliance,” KYC Portal is the most concise portal on the market allowing organizations to manage the burden of due-diligence whilst reducing its impact on customers.

Presenters

Aqubix_KristoffZammitCiantarKristoff Zammit Ciantar, CEO
Working in IT for over 15 years and a business analyst consultant by profession, Ciantar has years of experience bridging the gap between the business requirements and technical deliverables.
LinkedIn

 

Stefan Camilleri, Director
Camilleri is a proven professional with a long history in large companies as well as small start-ups. He has hands-on Aqubix_StefanCamilleriexperience in all areas of IT, including as a developer, consultant, and trainer in many industries.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: modeFinance

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: modeFinance

modeFinance_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

modeFinance is the first fintech credit rating agency. The company evaluates more than 200 million companies and more than 25,000 banks worldwide.

Features

  • S-peek: The democratization of the credit rating
  • Starting today, everyone can access the rating of every company in Europe, from Portugal to Russia, from Turkey to Iceland.

Why it’s great
Thanks to our Big Data technology, we can issue the credit rating of more than 200 million companies worldwide, even without financials. Transparency. Independence. Technology.

Presenter

modeFinance_ValentinoPedirodaValentino Pediroda, CEO
Founder and CEO of modeFinance, Pediroda has a Ph.D in Numerical Methods and is a Big Data and machine learning specialist.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: i-exceed Technologies

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: i-exceed Technologies

i-exceed_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Appzillon Digital Banking from i-exceed provides pre-built, omni-channel solutions for all stakeholders of banks and helps around 50 banks worldwide in their digital transformation journey.

Features

  • Omni-channel solutions with superior user experience
  • Low-code platform enables automated development and facilitates DevOps
  • Post-app features like built-in chatbots and social media banking

Why it’s great
Going digital is not about targeting retail customers alone. Appzillon enables banks to provide digital experience to all stakeholders including corporate customers and internal staff.

Presenters

Karthik Sivaprakasam, VP Solution Engineering and Partnerships
Sivaprakasam is responsible for Appzillon’s architecture and solutions strategy and leads new SDK initiatives for the platform. He has worked extensively with global banks on their digital transformations.
LinkedIn

Rahul Khanna, Manager, Marketing
Khanna heads product marketing for Appzillon. He has worked widely on digital banking and app development and is addicted to bringing innovative products to global markets.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Avoka

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Avoka

Avoka_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

With Avoka Transact, increase your loan book by 40% using frictionless digital customer acquisition.

Features

  • Complete lending applications in three minutes
  • Identify exact entries causing abandonment
  • Offers agile changes and instant measured improvement

Why it’s great
Avoka has increased digital loan application approvals by 40% by making it easy for customers to succeed.

Presenter

Avoka_HaliKhanHali Khan, Director of Business Development, Avoka EMEA
Khan is a director responsible for digital transformation initiatives across financial services customers in Avoka’s EMEA region.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Engage Insight

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Engage Insight

EngageInsight_ModelOffice_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Model Office by Engage Insight is a first of its kind fintech and regtech platform that benchmarks financial service firms’ professional practice against five years of research and industry regulations.

Features

  • Benchmarks professional development against five performance keys
  • Uses algorithms to produce radar charts and dynamic steers to improve scores
  • Provides strategic plans and CPD certificate via scoreboard

Why it’s great
Model Office assesses your regulatory, business, and people professional development all in one place and uses gamification to improve compliance and business development performance.

Presenter

EngageInsight_ChrisDaviesChris Davies, Managing Director
Davies has over 25 years of U.K. and international experience in retail financial services, working within private client wealth management, and developing innovative technology to improve performance.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: ITSector

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: ITSector

ITSector_homepage_January2017

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

ITSector, a software development company specialized in the digital transformation in financial sector, presents a new IM customer service with autonomous “bots” for its credit solutions.

Features

  • Mobile app that allows clients to get to know in-store purchase loan conditions (using AR)
  • A text contact center solution (using IM platforms)
  • An automatic answering system (using “bots”)

Why it’s great
ITSector will demonstrate a real-time and non-traditional way of accessing banking solutions and customer services through every day instant messaging bots.

Presenters

ITSector_JoaoPinto2João Pinto, CEO
LinkedIn

 

 

 

Patrícia Soares, Business DeveloperITSector_Patrícia Soares

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • WorkFusion Closes $35 Million in Funding

Around the web

  • Klarna teams up with ASOS Partners to bring “pay after delivery” to Nordics.
  • Luxembourg’s Rakuten Europe Bank goes live with core and digital banking technology from Temenos.
  • Wipro to acquire Brazilian IT banking services provider, InfoSERVER.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Kontomatik CEO Marcin Truszel.
  • Financial transactions optimized using Nomis Solutions technology exceeds $1.5 trillion in 2016.
  • Finextra: Worldpay partners UnionPay for bumper Chinese New Year.
  • Truphone launches Global SMS recording solving the Blackberry migration challenge.
  • Sberbank launches a new corporate online banking platform designed together with IBM iX.
  • WISeKey partners with Stratumn to use Blockchain for real-time accountability and traceability.

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.