Capriza Raises $23 Million in Series C

Capriza Raises $23 Million in Series C

Capriza_homepage_July2016

In a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, enterprise-mobility specialist Capriza has raised $23 million in new capital. Participating in the round, which takes the company’s total to $73 million, were existing investors Charles River Ventures, Harmony Partners, and Tenaya Capital, as well as new investors Entre Capital and Vintage Investment.

“In the last 24 months, we have made enormous strides, and this latest round of funding is a testament to our momentum and our world-class customer list,” Capriza CEO Yuval Scarlat said. “The world is shifting from mobile-first to mobile-only, and we believe organizations who make mobile applications a priority today are the ones that will win.”

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Left to right: Stephen Insdorf, senior solution engineer, and Ivan Prafder, VP, regional business development demonstrated the Capriza platform at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Capriza demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company specializes in turning business workflows into mobile applications without requiring coding, APIs, upgrades, or integrations. The technology enables legacy applications to be used on multiple channels including tablet, smartphone, and desktop. Capriza’s solutions are compatible with widely used applications like Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP, and can also be custom-configured. For more, check out our Finovate Debuts profile of Capriza from earlier this year.

Recent headlines for Capriza include earning a finalist spot in the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge sponsored by Amazon web services in June, and news of the company’s new CMO, Lance Walter, hired in May. The City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge is an initiative to help local governments become more efficient through innovative technologies in areas ranging from city planning to healthcare. Capriza made it to the finals with its enterprise-mobility platform, which helped the City of Los Angeles build a suite of mini-mobile apps called Zapps for its 48,000 employees and city officials

MaxMyInterest Unveils Laser App Integration to Speed Onboarding

MaxMyInterest Unveils Laser App Integration to Speed Onboarding

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MaxMyInterest unveiled a new integration to make it easier for financial advisors to bring smart cash management to their clients. Leveraging forms automation and management technology from Laser App Software, advisors will be able use their own CRM systems to “pre-onboard” clients to the Max platform. The client’s new Max account is linked to the advisor, whose read-only access to cash balance data ensures a holistic overview of cash and other accounts.

According to founder and CEO Gary Zimmerman, the integration helps advisers who are using leading CRM platforms to add MaxMyInterest as an option for their clients. Robert Powell, VP marketing and sales for Laser App, calls the technology a “one-of-a-kind front-end system” and says the partnership is a “great opportunity for us to learn from leading innovators.”

MaxMyInterest’s intelligent cash-management platform helps savers earn higher yields while maintaining FDIC protection. Like a robo-adviser intelligently rebalancing a stock portfolio, MaxMyInterest tracks interest rates and reallocates cash toward higher-yielding accounts as part of an automated monthly optimization. Customers can also move cash between accounts on their own using MaxMyInterest’s Intelligent Funds Transfer feature. The company reports that those saving with Max “typically can earn 0.70% to 0.90% more than traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ banks” and favorably compares its 0.99% average to the national average of 0.11%

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York, MaxMyInterest demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014. The company celebrated its third anniversary this month, announcing support for TD Bank, and launched its client invitation Feature—another onboarding enhancement—in May. Read more about MaxMyInterest in our Finovate Debut profile.

Expensify Unveils ReceiptBurner and Price-to-Beat

Expensify Unveils ReceiptBurner and Price-to-Beat

Expensify_homepage_July2015

With the summer travel season in full swing, expense-management specialist Expensify is busy launching new solutions to make it easier for business travelers to manage expenses. Last week, Expensify unveiled ReceiptBurner, a new integration platform that automatically pulls data from receipts regardless of source. And this week, the company announced a new feature, Price to Beat, that gives companies insight into how an employee’s spending on typical travel items—flights, hotel reservations, and rental cars—compares to the average cost. Employees with below-average spending can be given a portion of the savings via Expensify Rewards.

Expensify CEO David Barrett (founder) says both Price to Beat and Expensify Rewards offer ways to “gamify corporate travel by giving employees a share of their company’s cost savings.” He said the combined features bring transparency to corporate travel and spending, pointing out that beyond expense reports, his company is dedicated to “streamlining business travel so that organizations can spend time focusing on building their teams and products instead of getting bogged down by the hassles of travel logistics.”

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Left to right: Expensify Director of Strategy and Marketing Ryan Schaffer and founder/CEO David Barrett demonstrated Expensify Invoices at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.

Businesses need both Price to Beat and Expensify in order to create the employee reward, which appears as a reimbursable item on the worker’s expense report. The procedure is straightforward; employees or administrators simply forward their travel receipts to receipts@expensify within 24 hours of incurring charges and Expensify automatically calculates any potential savings and processes the reward. Price to Beat is still officially in beta and Expensify made the announcement during the annual Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) convention.

Note that Expensify’s ReceiptBurner has already been launched by partners Uber, Revel Systems, and Fujitsu ScanSnap. The solution automatically creates an expense report when an Uber ride is completed and when a transaction is made with a merchant using a Revel Systems POS system. “Our dream is for receipts to become the next floppy disc,” Barnett said.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, Expensify demonstrated its Expensify Invoices solution at FinovateSpring 2013. This spring, the company announced that it would power Uber’s new Auto-Expense feature. And in May, Expensify announced that it had forged a strategic partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Xero. The company in 2015 was called one of the hottest startups by Forbes, and named to Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Company list.

Finovate Debuts: Walletron Helps Brands Build a Presence in Digital Wallets

Finovate Debuts: Walletron Helps Brands Build a Presence in Digital Wallets

Walletron_homepage_May2016

If you like having your boarding pass on your smartphone, then you’re going to love Walletron.

With a background in payments as well as loyalty, coupons, and rewards, CEO Garrett Baird and the Walletron team are trying to finish off paper statements for good. Walletron already leverages the technology that puts your boarding pass in your digital wallet to do the same for gift cards. Now they are doing the same thing for paper bills.

Baird says Walletron’s proposition is delivering their (brand) presence in the digital wallet, as well as “the communication that goes along with it, with the actual payment relying on the billers themselves to process.” Baird emphasized this point, insisting that FIs and organizations use their existing processes to complete the payment. “We are the communication part,” he underscored, “piggybacking on top.”

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Walletron CEO Garrett Baird presented moBills at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

At FinovateFall 2015, Walletron CEO Garrett Baird demonstrated moBills, the new billpay component of Walletron. moBills enables billers to open a payment and communication channel on their customer’s smartphones through which everything from payment reminders to confirmations can be provided. Payments can be made with a few taps on the app, and users remain authenticated after enrolling in moBills, so there is no need for a subsequent login process.

“People have been waiting for electronic payments to take over since 2000,” Baird said. “But it hasn’t happened yet. There are still very tiny adoption rates. This solution will finally move the needle.”

Company facts:

  • Founded in 2013
  • Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Wallets as commerce and communication channel

For Baird, it all begins with the digital wallet and the idea that people cling to paper statements because they are both a reminder and a source of information to complete the transaction: account numbers, user names, routing numbers, and so on. “There are not enough brands taking advantage of the mobile wallet and other wallets,” Baird said. “Airlines have nailed it—great use-case for boarding passes.”

Walletron_mobills_imageThe irony is that mobile devices excel at both of these functions, without the cost and inefficiency of paper. All that is needed is an intermediate layer. And that layer is Walletron. “There is a new communication channel in these wallets,” Baird said. “[It’s] very easy for brands to get up and running. [And] billing data is all Walletron needs.”

Within the digital wallet, the user sees all the billing relationships that have been set up: auto loans, mobile phone company, and so on. On the front of the individual card is basic billing information, with links to pay the bill, read the statement, or change notification preferences on the back. Customers enroll in the moBills program by visiting the company’s online billing website and selecting the moBills option for either Apple Wallet (formerly Passport) or Android Pay (formerly Google Wallet).

As soon as a customer makes a selection, the current billing statement appears in their digital wallet. The customer then makes notification preferences (i.e., due-in-five-days reminder, payment-received notification, etc.). “And there’s no app for the customer to download because they already have the app on their phone,” Baird said from the Finovate stage. “And now the relationship lives in the (digital) wallet.”

Walletron’s growth strategy involves working with the largest billers, including FIs, mortgage and auto loan companies, as well as processors (and fellow Finovate alums) such as FIS, Jack Henry, ACI Worldwide, and Fiserv. In March, the company inked its first deal with Australia-based FlexiGroup, which will offer moBills to hundreds of thousands of customers. “The industry hasn’t yet seen a mobile option which truly eliminates the need for a paper statement,” Baird said during the announcement, “We believe moBills has.”


Check out Walletron’s demonstration video from FinovateFall 2015.

SuiteBox Appoints Isaac Young as CTO

SuiteBox Appoints Isaac Young as CTO

SuiteBox_homepage_July2016

With more than 10 years experience in financial services technology, Isaac Young will be the new CTO for SuiteBox. Young comes to the New Zealand-based fintech startup after working with global banks like Commerzbank, Rabobank, and UBS. At SuiteBox, he will be responsible for directing the company’s integration initiatives with large channel partners.

“It is a key strategy of ours to bring on channel partners through which the SuiteBox offering can be deployed to large groups of financial advisers,” SuiteBox CEO Ian Dunbar said. “Isaac’s global technology management experience makes him ideally suited to leading these critical projects.” As a software architect for major financial services firms, Young helped design, develop, maintain core banking platforms, automated trading systems, and other critical systems. He was educated at Victoria University of Wellington, where he earned a bachelor of science in chemistry.

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SuiteBox CEO Ian Dunbar demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

The SuiteBox platform gives financial professionals a secure, virtual workspace in which to engage their clients. The technology supports video conferences, document collaboration and screen sharing, meeting recording, e-signatures, and embedded web forms. Available as a standalone solution as well as an API, SuiteBox reduces reliance on emails and databases while increasing the quality of client engagement especially for financial professionals with a growing, and/or geographically diverse, client base.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, SuiteBox demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2016. In May, the company announced a partnership with Midwinter to give investment advisers new tools to make compliance easier, and in April, SuiteBox took home the Best Technology award at the Melbourne Showcase. That was the company’s second award-winning performance of the year, having won the Mobile category of the KPMG Fintech Innovation Challenge in January.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • MoneyHub Teams Up with Unbiased to Help People Manage their Finances
  • Expensify Unveils ReceiptBurner and Price-to-Beat
  • Finovate Debuts: Walletron Helps Brands Build a Presence in Digital Wallets

Around the web

  • Concur to deploy SilverRail API to enable European travelers to search, plan, and schedule travel by rail.
  • CSI globalVCard moves global partnership-operations team to Dallas; Nan Dawson promoted to SVP of partnership operations.
  • Lending Club announces new Chief Capital Officer, Patrick Dunne.
  • CoinTelegraph names Braintree, Chain, and Ripple as three companies that will shape the future of money.
  • Sberbank Capitalizes On Pokémon Go Marketing Opportunity
  • Over the last year, 50 new customers added Guardian Analytics Wire to protect their customers from the Business Email Compromise scam.
  • Simple celebrates its 7th anniversary, now with 300,000 customers and a little over 300 staff.

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.

Neustar Taps Former Walmart Executive Venkat Achanta as First Chief Data Officer

Neustar Taps Former Walmart Executive Venkat Achanta as First Chief Data Officer

Neustar_homepage_July2016

Cloud-based information services specialist Neustar hired former Walmart Chief Data Officer Venkat Achanta to be its Chief Data and Analytics Officer. Achanta will develop and manage Neustar’s identity and attribution platform

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Steven Wolfe Pereira called Achanta “a real thought leader” and pointed out that attracting top data-science talent is no easy feat. Pereira said that the position, newly created for Achanta, was a “great match” in part because of the way data science interacts with the entire company, from marketing and financial services to security and telecommunications.

Neustar_VenkatAchantaAchanta comes to Neustar after working as Chief Data Officer for Walmart since 2014 where he was responsible for enterprise-wide data and analytics delivery and platforms. Before that, Achanta served as SVP, global head of analytics and big data at AIG; vice president of enterprise data services at Capital One; and VP, global product development and delivery for Experian. Achanta has a bachelor of science in computer science and systems engineering from Andhra University; and MBAs from the National University of Singapore and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. In his role as chief data and analytics officer for Neustar, he will report to company CEO and president, Lisa Hook, who called Achanta “uniquely qualified to lead Neustar’s data science innovations.”

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Sterling, Virginia, Neustar demonstrated its PlatformOne solution at FinovateSpring 2016. The company announced in June that it would split into two companies—one based on call-routing for telecoms and the other on information services. This month, Neustar reported that it was working with Experian to make data onboarding easier for marketers by combining its strength in real-time information services with Experian’s vast national consumer database.

CREALOGIX Wins Best Web Development at Systems in the City Awards 2016

CREALOGIX Wins Best Web Development at Systems in the City Awards 2016

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In 2015, CREALOGIX CEO Dr. Mike Bradford won a Lifetime Achievement Award from Systems in the City. Today we learn that the Swiss digital banking software innovator is back in the Systems in the City winner’s circle, having earned top honors for “Best Web Development”.

“The winning of the award means a huge amount to the entire CREALOGIX team,” said Ben Mann, head of web development for CREALOGIX. “It is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the company as a whole, as well as serving as a challenge for us in the year ahead, to continue to be at the forefront of quality web development in the fintech arena.”

Specifically, CREALOGIX won accolades for its implementation of its Digital Banking Hub with Tilney Bestinvest, a U.K. brokerage firm with 240 financial planners, 120 investment managers, and 20 billion pounds under management. With newly added features to improve the platform’s utility to brokerages, CREALOGIX’s Digital Banking Hub offers wealth managers the ability to readily integrate personalized advice into all systems.

Nominees for the Systems in the City Awards are made by members of London’s financial services sector, including stockbrokers, wealth managers, and investment bankers. An independent panel of “prominent City professionals” determines the final award. CREALOGIX’s Bradford said that the award helped highlight his company’s “technical excellence and position at the forefront of fintech in the U.K.”

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, CREALOGIX demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2016. The Systems in the City award news comes just a week after the announcement that CREALOGIX had partnered with fellow Finovate alum, Entersekt, to build a new authentication solution. The company began the year by forging a digital banking partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Mudra Bank Chooses i-exceed’s Appzillon for Mobile Banking App

Mudra Bank Chooses i-exceed’s Appzillon for Mobile Banking App

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i-exceed technologies has paid off with a mobile app, Mudra Mitra, that provides both banking services and information. Using Appzillon, the app was able to go live “in record time” on both mobile phone and tablet interfaces and is now available for download at both the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores.

Pointing to the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in obtaining financial assistance, i-exceed Managing Director Joseph John praised Mudra Bank for being the “financial support provider for the bottom-of-the-pyramid customers” and “filling the void” between would-be business owners and the financing they need to get started. “i-exceed looks [forward to] a long-term association with Mudra Bank in their journey of fostering entrepreneurship,” John said.

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Mudra CEO Jiji Mammen highlighted the app’s user-friendliness and said more features would be added over time with the goal of creating “an end-to-end solution for the borrowers to access micro finance in a hassle-free manner.” Mudra, which stands for Micro Unites Development & Refinance Agency, was created by the Indian government to help support the country’s micro-enterprise industries with micro and small business loans.

Headquartered in Bangalore, India, i-exceed demonstrated its Appzillion app-development platform at FinovateAsia 2013, and participated in FinDEVr New York earlier this year. The company, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in May, announced a partnership with Mindtree in February, the same month it earned a spot in Gartner’s 2016 look at MADP vendors around the world.


Looking to make a splash in Asia with your latest fintech innovation? Join us this fall as FinovateAsia moves to Hong Kong for a one-day conference on November 8. Email us at asia@finovate.com for information on presenting. Want to be a part of our audience of fintech professionals? Visit our FinovateAsia registration page and save your spot today.

Finovate Debuts: Student Loan Genius Gives Employers Tools to Help Millennial Workers Tackle Debt

Finovate Debuts: Student Loan Genius Gives Employers Tools to Help Millennial Workers Tackle Debt

StudentLoanGenius_homepage_July2016

A generation ago, employers were enlisted in the movement to help employees save for their retirement. Today, Student Loan Genius is inviting employers to do the same thing when it comes to millennial workers and student loan debt. The Austin, Texas-based startup has built a platform that allows employers to match their employee’s student debt payments, as well as help them manage the balance between paying off debt and saving for retirement.

“We are working with great organizations like Teach for America, Twilio, BP3 in Austin to help shave off tens of thousands of their student loans,” Student Loan Genius founder and CEO Tony Aguilar said. Aguilar, who was the first person in his family to go to college, is also the first person in his family to be saddled with potentially crushing student loan debt. He even carries the amount—$100,000—etched on a business card.

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Left to right: Co-founders Emiliano Villarreal and Tony Aguilar demonstrated Student Loan Genius’s Genius Match 401k Contribution feature at FinovateSpring 2016 in San Jose.

The Student Loan Genius solution is straightforward. Clients create an account on its website and answer a set of questions to provide basic information to see what possible repayment programs may be available (i.e., veterans discounts, better terms based on higher credit score, etc.). The platform pulls data from outstanding student loans from various loan servicers and uses algorithms to determine the optimal repayment plan.  The plan also projects forward so the student can see the difference in savings between repayment alternatives.

At FinovateSpring, Student Loan Genius unveiled its Genius Save feature. This feature helps clients manage the challenge of trying to repay debt and save at the same time. Genius Save, as Aguilar explained it, allows companies to attach a student loan benefit to their 401(k) contribution. This enables young workers in particular to focus on paying back debt as quickly as possible, while not losing out on the benefits of saving for retirement as they begin earning an income. “With the flip of a switch,” Aguilar said of his hypothetical millennial employee during his FinovateSpring presentation earlier this year, “she’ll have an additional $170,000 at retirement just by doing what she does every single month: pay her student loans.” Student Loan Genius estimates an average annual savings of more than $3,000 with its platform.

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Student Loan Genius is in the process of rolling out pilot projects with financial services companies like Prudential. Just this week Student Loan Genius announced a new partnership with TrendKite, a PR analytics firm that will offer the Student Loan Genius benefit to all of its employees and their immediate family members. “For us, taking care of our team means reaching outside of our office walls and doing whatever we can to make [our employees’] lives better,” VP of People at TrendKite Jennifer Cantu said. “When we saw the data, we knew student loan benefits were a requirement, not an option.”

Company facts:

  • Founded in 2013
  • Headquartered in Austin, Texas
  • Employs 14
  • Investors include Gibraltar Ventures, Kapor Capital, Capital Factory, and Village Capital
  • Provides benefits to 45 organizations in the United States

StudentLoanGenius_JovanHackleyWe spoke by phone with Student Loan Genius Director of Marketing and PR Jovan Hackley during FinovateSpring 2016 and followed up with a few questions by email.

Finovate: What problem does Student Loan Genius solve?

Jovan Hackley: Our Genius Platform helps companies and employees significantly reduce the nation’s nearly $1.3 trillion in student loan debt that the Congressional Budget Office projects will double to $2.4 trillion by 2024.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Hackley: Our primary customers are companies and our users are their employees with student loan debt.

Finovate: How does the Student Loan Genius platform tackle the problem of student loan debt?

Hackley: The Student Loan Genius Platform is the only holistic solution for helping employees pursue freedom from student loan debt. The platform includes:

  • Genius Advisor [enables] online tool access and one-on-one advising to help employees find the best repayment plan and scenario for their goals.
  • Genius Pay  lets employees make student loan payments directly from payroll
  • Genius Match allows employers to make a direct contribution toward paying down an employee’s student debt.
  • Genius Save helps employees increase their  funds/401k by using their student loan payment as a trigger.

Overall, the benefit helps employers attract and retain top talent and helps employees pay down student loans.

Finovate: Do you have a favorite feature of the platform?

Hackley: My favorite part of our technology is Genius Save, which not only helps build wealth, but also shows employees the long-term impact of reducing their student debt.

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

Hackley: Our CEO is a former financial planner who helped millennials achieve financial wellness.  The spreadsheets, insights, and presentation he developed were the foundation for helping the thousands of users we work with today. 

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

Hackley:  Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing how some of the largest companies and partners are leveraging student loan benefits to create financial wellness. This is in addition to a few new platform/benefit enhancements. 

Finovate: Where do you see Student Loan Genius a year or two from now?

Hackley: Our aim is to be the student-loan benefit-provider for companies across the nation and a key player in creating the legislative progress that ends the personal financial crisis of student [debt] that faces millions of Americans.  


Check out the demo video from Student Loan Genius

Buzz Points Unveils New Online Dashboard, Buzz Insight

Buzz Points Unveils New Online Dashboard, Buzz Insight

BuzzPoints_homepage_July2016

One month after picking up a $1.8 million investment, Austin, Texas-based Buzz Points is unveiling its new online management portal, Buzz Insight for its rewards and marketing platform. Buzz Points CEO Dwayne Spradlin says that Buzz Insight will “enable community banks and credit unions to better comprehend how their customers and members are interacting within their communities, giv[ing] them the power to implement more targeted and effective campaigns and offers.”

Buzz Insight is geared toward community financial institutions (CFIs) like credit unions and smaller banks, giving them visibility into customers’ and local business data. With the Insight dashboard, CFIs will get real-time program management and reporting, as well as cardholder analytics, behavior, and other metrics, making it easier for CFIs to enroll and engage with their customers. “With Buzz Insight,” Spradlin said, “in-depth analysis and innovation come together to drive revenue and retention.”

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Director of Product Michael Hall demonstrated the Buzz Points Mobile App at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

More than just a rewards and loyalty program, Buzz Points seeks to empower local commerce by incentivizing its members to buy locally produced goods and services. At the same time, Buzz Points’ technology helps those local businesses better understand the preferences of consumers in their communities and successfully compete against national and regional chains. The goal is to create a “pro-local message” that creates an “emotional connection” between cardholders and local merchants. Emotion aside, Buzz Points reports its users are bigger debit card users than the national average (52% above), have 26% higher average monthly spend, and yield $5 in interchange fees per account each month.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Buzz Points demonstrated its mobile app at FinovateFall 2015. The company joined Jack Henry’s Symitar vendor-integration program earlier this month and in May, Buzz Points announced a partnership that will bring its loyalty rewards program to the “customer-owners” of  credit union service organization (CUSO), Xtend.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Buzz Points Unveils New Online Dashboard, Buzz Insight
  • Mudra Bank Chooses i-exceed’s Appzillion for Mobile Banking App
  • Finovate Debuts: Student Loan Genius Gives Employers Tools To Help Millennial Workers Tackle Debt

Around the web

  • Bank of the Ozarks deploys instant card-issuance solution from Entrust Datacard.
  • IBM unveils secure, online service to help businesses conduct blockchain testing.

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.