FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Bitbond

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Bitbond

Bitbond_homepage_August2016

FF2016-Logo-wdate-largeA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

Bitbond is the first global marketplace-lending platform for small business loans. The company will showcase its automated and country independent SME scoring.

Features:

  • Instant approval of SME loan applicants
  • Consistent scoring quality across countries for investors
  • High scoring efficiency and scalability

Why it’s great
Bitbond scores SME borrowers consistently and efficiently across different countries.

Bitbond_Radoslav-AlbrechtPresenters

Radoslav Albrecht, CEO and Founder
Albrecht is the founder and CEO of Bitbond; previously, he was a senior consultant at Roland Berger and worked at Deutsche Bank London.
LinkedIn

 

Bitbond_Jaroslaw-NowotkaJaroslaw Nowotka, CTO
Nowotka is the CTO of Bitbond. He is an experienced software developer and previously ran Helloslash, a website builder.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: TokBox

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: TokBox

Tokbox_homepage_August2016

FF2016-Logo-wdate-largeA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 8 2016. Register today.

TokBox, a Telefonica company, developed and operates OpenTok, a global cloud platform for embedding live video, voice, messaging, and screen sharing into website and mobile applications.

Features:

  • Secure real-time video, voice, and messaging
  • Collaboration features including screen sharing and annotation
  • Easy to embed into your existing interface

Why it’s great
TokBox makes it quick and easy to embed secure real-time communications into financial service applications to offer high-touch customer service to clients online.

TokBox_Badri_RajasekarPresenter: Badri Rajasekar, CTO and SVP of Engineering
Rajasekar is the CTO and SVP of engineering at TokBox, the provider of OpenTok, the leading real-time communications platform. At TokBox, he leads the core engineering and operations teams.
LinkedIn

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: How the Kore Bots Deliver More than Your Average Chatbot
  • DriveWealth Expands APIs for Wealth Managers
  • Braintree, Finicity, and Twilio Take Top Honors at API World Awards

Around the web

  • BankBazaar wins “Emerging Brand of the Year” and “CEO of the Year” at seventh CMO Asia Awards.
  • Fintech News Switzerland highlights Currency Cloud and Zopa in a look at London’s top rising fintech stars.
  • Boku brings direct carrier billing to Windows 10 phones in the United Kingdom and Italy.
  • Markit enhances WSO software suite to offer new levels of automation for syndicated loan market.

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.

 

Automobile Title Lending Platform Finova Financial Raises $52.5 Million

Automobile Title Lending Platform Finova Financial Raises $52.5 Million

FinovaFinancial_homepage_August2016

In a round led by a host of Silicon Valley and international investors, auto-title lending-platform developer Finova Financial has raised $52.5 million in combined equity and debt. The investment is one of the largest initial investments in a fintech company and will be used to help grow what Finova calls “the industry’s first all-digital lending platform serving the auto-title loan-marketplace.”

Finova Financial CEO Gregory Keough said that his company and its technology were about more than just helping auto buyers get the funding they need while avoiding the “high interest rates, inconvenient application processes and restrictive terms” he said are all too common in the auto title lending business. “We see Finova Financial as being an advocate for consumer financial well-being through improved access to credit, better repayment terms and lower costs,” Keough said.

FinovaFinancial_stage_FS2016b

Finova Financial CEO Gregory Keough demonstrated the Car Equity Line of Credit (C-LOC) at FinovateSpring 2016 in San Jose, California.

Investors participating in the round included 500 Startups, the UAE-based Al Hamra Group, Metamorphic Venture, MHS Capital, and Refractor Capital. Individual investors included Sam Hodges, co-founder and managing director of Funding Circle, and Jake Gibson, cofounder of NerdWallet. The credit facility was provided by CoVenture.

Finova Financial’s Car Equity Line of Credit enables borrowers to leverage the equity in their car to obtain affordable, same-day, emergency cash funding. Finova provides instant approval decisions with up to 12-month terms, and customers can apply for loans as well as make payments online or via mobile device. In addition, the company has partnered with 32,000 retail outlets in the U.S. to facilitate in-person payments. Finova notes that 70 million underserved Americans spend $138 billion a year in fees and interest on alternative financial products and says that auto title loans in particular charge upwards of 300% in interest. In contrast, Finova Financial’s C-LOC charges a maximum APR of 30%, and all fees, such as DMV lien fees, are rolled into the life of the loan.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, Finova Financial demonstrated its Car Equity Line of Credit (C-LOC) solution at FinovateSpring 2016.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Interactions Garners $56 Million in its Largest Funding Round Yet
  • Automobile Title Lending Platform Finova Financial Raises $52.5 Million
  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.

Around the web

  • Kontomatik’s Konstantin Rabin shares his thoughts on successful lending in The Paypers.
  • Forbes features Jon Stein, Betterment CEO and cofounder.
  • San Diego Business Journal names eMoney Advisor one of the “Best Places to Work in San Diego.”
  • Envestnet | Yodlee launches Transaction Data Enrichment to offer transparency into transactions.
  • TradeRiver Finance reaches milestone of lending GBP100 million to U.K. businesses.
  • Portland Business Journal takes a look inside Simple’s new office.

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.

Holvi and SumUp Join Forces to Serve SMEs and the Self-Employed

Holvi and SumUp Join Forces to Serve SMEs and the Self-Employed

Holvi_homepage_August2016

SumUp helps merchants accept card payments, and Holvi provides banking services to small businesses. The just-announced partnership between the two will give small businesses and the self-employed a more complete range of financial services without having to rely on traditional banks.

“The cooperation with SumUp is the next logical step for us, because the payment (market) is moving more and more toward the card payments in Germany,” said Leah Marie Zeppos, Holvi DACH country manager. The opportunity is especially large among the self-employed, which has grown by nearly 40% in the past decade to total more than 1.3 million Germans.

SumUp_Germany_homepage_August2016

“With the Holvi business account, our customers can concentrate on the essentials,” says Maximilian Stella, SumUp’s VP of business development. “Independence has never been so easy.” SumUp and Holvi see the partnership has helping encourage entrepreneurship in way that is more cost-effective and efficient for smaller companies and individual businesses.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in London, SumUp demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. The company acquired payleven this spring, creating a €1 billion-a-year payment-processing giant that provides services in 15 countries including Germany and Brazil. Daniel Klein is CEO.

Holvi provides small business customers with an online business banking account, a Business MasterCard, and digital accounting and bookkeeping. Referred to by Wired magazine as one of the “hottest startups in Finland,” the company was acquired by BBVA in March. Johan Lorenzen joined Holvi as CEO in 2013, the same year the Helsinki-based startup made its most recent Finovate appearance.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Holvi and SumUp Join Forces to Serve SMEs and the Self-Employed
  • CUneXus Closes $5 million Series A

Around the web

  • Cybersecurity innovator DefenseStorm adds Libertyville Savings Bank and PrimeRevenue as clients.
  • Prasac, the largest microfinance institution in Cambodia, launches mobile banking services courtesy of TranzWare from Compass Plus.
  • Cachet Financial Services partners with the Central Bank of Kansas City to roll out a reloadable prepaid card program.
  • OutsideIQ Brings Due Diligence Platform DDIQ to New International Markets
  • TSYS EVP and CIO Patricia Watson writes about the importance of strong enterprise architecture in fintech for CIO Review.

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.

Alpine Data Partners with Pivotal to Bring Smart App Building Blocks to Businesses

Alpine Data Partners with Pivotal to Bring Smart App Building Blocks to Businesses

AlpineData_homepage_August2016

A new partnership announced last week between Alpine Data Labs and Pivotal is designed to help enterprises “attain business value from their investment in modern data platforms.” Specifically, Alpine Data Labs will use its collaborative platform for advanced analytics, Chorus, as a link between the Pivotal Big Data Suite and the Pivotal Cloud Foundry.

“With Chorus and Pivotal BDS,” Alpine Data’s Collin Cook wrote at the company blog, “you can easily build machine learning models that leverage data from any data source, expedite the process of building scoring engines around your models and quickly deploy them as micro services within the Pivotal Cloud Foundry.” Cook called the combined solution a way to reduce the friction that often develops between data scientists, IT professionals and business users.

AlpineData_stage_FF2015

Alpine Data cofounder and CPO Steven Hillion demonstrated Alpine Touchpoints at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Alpine Data specializes in technologies that help turn big data into predictive insights and analysis. The company’s Chorus solution is a comprehensive, advanced analytics platform for big data and Hadoop that has been deployed in a variety of verticals from financial services to healthcare. Version 6, launched in May, provides tools to annotate analytics assets (data, scripts, models), build and share machine learning and ETL workflows, deploy models, and leverage predictive applications like Alpine’s Touchpoints to make data more digestible for non-technical co-workers and customers.

The partnership between Alpine Data and Pivotal may be new, but the relationship between the two companies’ technologies goes back to a time before Alpine Data was founded as its own entity. Alpine’s Workflow Editor and analytics engine began as research projects in the open source, massively parallel data warehouse known as Pivotal Greenplum. “Customers running Chorus on top of Pivotal BDS will be able to get up and running very easily,” says Cook, “without having to deal with any big-data infrastructure hurdles.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Alpine Data demonstrated its Touchpoints technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company has raised more than $23 million in funding and includes among its investors Mission Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Sierra Ventures, Stanford University, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, and UMC Capital. Read our Finovate Debut profile of Alpine Data from earlier this year.

Avalara Unveils Enhanced Compliance Document Managent Solution, CertCapture

Avalara_certcapture_homepage_August2016

Seattle-based Avalara unveiled a trio of enhancements to its compliance document-management solution, CertCapture. The new features are designed to make it easier for SMEs to capture, manage, and analyze tax documents in real time.

“CertCapture’s new features simplify the ever-increasing burden of tax compliance while enabling customers to run their businesses more efficiently and with the highest level of security,” says Matt Tormollen, Avalara’s EVP and GM. The enhancements include a simplified user interface for POS systems, a single sign-on for customer exemption status management, and additional visual reporting features to better spot trends and manage compliance materials.

“Commerce happens in real time and we want to empower clients to manage more of their tax compliance in real time,” Tormollen said.

Avalara_stage_FDSF15

Loke Uei Tan, senior manager of developer relations for Avalara, presented “The Wacky World of Sales Tax” at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015.

Avalara specializes in APIs that enable developers to bring transactional tax computation and management to their platforms. From helping SMEs calculate sales taxes for e-commerce transactions to empowering businesses with global customers to better negotiate the complex world of VATs and import/export taxes, Avalara’s solutions support tax calculation (Avalara AvaTax), returns and filing (Avalara Returns), tax document management (Avalara CertCapture), and professional services.

In June, Avalara announced a new integration with Stripe, the same month the company was twice recognized by American Business Awards, earning a silver prize for Executive of the Year – Computer FinDEVr2015-AlumniV2Services and a bronze for New Product or Service of the Year – Software. Earlier this year, Avalara partnered with eCommerce platform WooCommerce to help online merchants calculate sales taxes more accurately.

Founded in 2004, Avalara presented at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015, showing how its technology helps businesses deal with the complexity of sales taxes and other transactional fees. The company has raised more than $223 million in funding, and includes Arthur Ventures, Battery Ventures, Sageview Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Warburg Pincus among its investors.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Avalara Unveils Enhanced Compliance Document Management Solution, CertCapture
  • Alpine Data Partners with Pivotal to Bring Smart App Building Blocks to Businesses

On FinDEVr.com

  • GreenKey Launches Design Partner Program

Around the web

  • GreenKey launches Design Partner Program with interdealer brokers, Tradition and Tullett Prebon.
  • iSignthis inks card-acquiring and -settlement partnership with National Australia Bank.
  • ACI Worldwide hosts “Coding for Girls” camp.
  • Transfers from Brazil now live on TransferWise.

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.

Dashlane and Google Partner to Improve Online Security via Open YOLO

Dashlane and Google Partner to Improve Online Security via Open YOLO

dashlane_homepage_Aug2016

Dashlane and Google have teamed up to develop an open API for app developers called Open YOLO, which stands for “You Only Login Once.” The technology makes it easier for Android apps to work with password managers.

“To stay one step ahead of the market demand,” Dashlane’s Malaika Nicholas wrote on the company blog, “Google and Dashlane are helping create a seamless, universally acceptable Android app-authentication solution to increase your online security.” Nicholas added that Dashlane’s development team opted for an open source solution because it gives users a cross-platform security option. She noted that in February, Dashlane announced support for FIDO’s Alliances Universal Second Factor (U2F) authentication standard, the first password manager to do so.
Dashlane_stage2_FEU2013

Left to right: CEO Emmanuel Schalit and Nishant Mani, VP partnerships and marketing, demonstrated Dashlane at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

While Dashlane is pioneering the Open YOLO effort, other password managers are expected to be involved in the project, and other non-Android operating systems are to be added as well. Among those other password managers expressing interest according to reporting in TechCrunch, are 1Password, LastPass, Keeper, and Keepass. “This is an important initiative for our industry and for the state of user security,” Dashlane CEO Emmanuel Schalit said, “Collectively, we are committed to increasing user security and believe that the best way to do this is to champion open source security projects.” According to a Dashlane spokesperson, more information on the project, including technical documentation and code will be made public soon.

With more than five million users of its technology, Dashlane provides a free consumer app for use on a single device and a premium service for use on an unlimited number of devices for $39.99 a year. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York City, Dashlane demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. The company launched its Spaces for Mobile solution in July and introduced its redesigned app for iPhone and iPad in June. In May, Dashlane raised $22.5 million in a round led by TransUnion that took the company’s total capital to more than $52 million. And in March, the company announced that former Fab.com executive David Lapter was joining Dashlane as its new CFO.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, Google demonstrated its Google Advisor technology at FinovateFall 2011. The company also participated in the inaugural FinDEVr New York developers conference this spring with a presentation titled “TensorFlow Machine Learning with Financial Data on the Google Cloud Platform.”

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Dashlane and Google Partner to Improve Online Security via Open YOLO
  • Prosper Closes in on $5 Billion Commitment for New Loans

Around the web

  • FIS and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson extend VC FinTech Accelerator program to 2018.
  • Revolut app tops 250,000 users.
  • Narrative Science launches Solution Provider program.
  • Oprah Winfrey Network names WorthFM founder and CEO Amanda Steinberg to the inaugural Opray Winfrey Network SuperSoul 100.
  • Banking technology interviews Rivi Varghese, CEO of CustomerXPs Software.
  • American Banker: Profits, Revenue Forecast Rise at Green Dot
  • Zopa gives a rundown of its four-year history.

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.