FinovateSpring 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateSpring 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced

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Heading into FinovateSpring 2016, we knew that one of the big themes would be the use of video for everything from authentication to improving customer engagement. And it seems like the hundreds of votes cast in our FinovateSpring 2016 Best of Show awards saw it the same way. Of the six Best of Show trophies awarded on Wednesday afternoon, two went to companies—SaleMove and Silver6that are helping to make visual technology a bigger part of fintech innovation.

In fact, the more we think about it, the more we see how Best of Show award winner Quid—with its interactive maps that help businesses better navigate big data—is part of this larger trend toward leveraging the visual. Whether to better connect customers and clients with merchants and advisers, or to help make data more accessible and actionable, when it comes to fintech innovation, the “eyes” have it.

Our Best of Show voters were also impressed by the way innovators are using technology to solve the challenges of refugee populations and the underbanked (BanQu); the cash-flow struggles of working families (PayActiv); and even to help middle-class investors better track their finances across peer lending platforms (LendingRobot). This year’s Best of Show vote is real testament to both the diversity and social engagement that defines fintech in 2016. And truth told, it is a beautiful thing to see.

So let’s take a closer look at the award winners for Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2016 (in alphabetic order):

BanQu - true vector copyBanQu for its blockchain-based identity platform that enables financial inclusion and empowers the underbanked to join the global economy.

 

 

LendingRobot copyLendingRobot for its dashboard that helps investors track investments across peer lending platforms like Lending Club and Prosper.

 

PayActiv Logos CMYKPayActiv for its real-world alternative to payday loans that gives workers access to earned but unpaid wages.

 

Quid copyQuid for its web-based intelligence platform that leverages big data analytics, natural language processing, and network science to turn data searches into visual explorations.

 

SaleMoveSaleMove for its engagement platform that creates high-touch customer interactions using video, voice, and chat.

 

Silver6 copySilver6 for its financial video platform that enables businesses to use video personalization to provide custom communications.

 

We hope you enjoyed FinovateSpring 2016. We had a great time hosting this year’s event and are already looking forward to our return to San Jose next year. Many thanks to all those who supported, attended, sponsored, partnered with, and demoed their latest and greatest innovations live on stage. We’ll see you again in 2017!


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from FinovateEurope 2015 are here. Best of Show winners from FinovateSpring 2015 are here. Best of Show winners from FinovateFall 2015 are here. Best of Show winners from FinovateEurope 2016 are here.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “FinovateSpring 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced
  • “Vera Reels in Strategic Investment; Adds Former Veritas CEO & Founder to Board”

Around the web

  • Virtual Piggy appoints John R. Coyne as its new CEO.
  • Envestnet | Yodlee initiates strategic partnership with African incubator, AlphaCode.
  • Fiserv launches accounting suite, Prologue Financials.
  • Tuition.io announces support for repayment of Federal Parent PLUS loans.
  • IBM unveils Watson for Cyber Security in collaboration with eight leading universities.

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.

Vera Reels in Strategic Investment; Adds Former Veritas CEO & Founder to Board

Vera Reels in Strategic Investment; Adds Former Veritas CEO & Founder to Board

VeraSecurity_homepage_May2016 What a week for Vera! Within hours of the data security startup’s Finovate debut, the company announced that it had landed a strategic investment from Capital One Growth Ventures. The investment adds to Vera Security’s oversubscribed Series B round, taking the company’s total funding to $35 million.

The Series B was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with existing investors Amplify Partners and Battery Ventures also participating. Vera_MarkLeslie

The funding news comes with word that former Veritas Software founder, chairman, and CEO, Mark Leslie (pictured right) will join Vera’s board of directors. A 30-year veteran of the Silicon Valley technology scene who served as president and CEO of Synapse Computer and Rugged Digital Systems in the 1980s, Leslie called Vera a leader among a “new class of security startups working  globally to secure data in a completely new way.”

Speaking for Capital One Growth Ventures, Adam Boutin praised Vera’s “elegant solution for securing data through its entire lifecycle” that avoids compromising access, control, or transparency. “We are thrilled to invest in Vera and have been impressed with their team and their ability to build a solution that balances complex functionality with ease-of-use,” Boutin said.

With more than a quarter-of-a-million users at Fortune 500 companies in verticals ranging from finance to manufacturing to entertainment, Vera specializes in providing data protection and encryption that both tracks and secures digital content across apps, devices, users, and platforms in real-time. Emerging from stealth just over a year ago, Vera was a finalist in the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Contest in February, the same month the company was named one of the 20 coolest cloud security vendors of the 2016 Cloud 100 by CRN. Also in February, Vera teamed up with Richard Fleischman and Associates (RFA) to provide U.S. hedge funds, private equity firms, and asset managers with its advanced data security technology. Vera unveiled its cloud-based IRM-as-a-Service (Information Rights Management-as-a-Service) platform in March, enabling businesses to “protect and manage access to any data generated by custom-built business applications.”

Led by CEO Ajay Arora, Vera demonstrated its data security technology at FinovateSpring 2016. The video of the company’s demo will be available soon.

Welcome to FinovateSpring 2016: Day 2

Welcome to FinovateSpring 2016: Day 2

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Day Two of FinovateSpring is here! We hope you enjoyed Day One of the conference and are looking forward to another morning and afternoon of live demos and great networking.

Wednesday will feature three sessions of demos from 32 presenting companies. So grab a cup of your favorite morning beverage and join us for what promises to be a fascinating look at the future of fintech today.

Here’s a look at Wednesday’s agenda:

Registration opens at 8 a.m.

Demo Session 5: 8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Intermission with refreshments: 10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Demo Session 6: 10:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

Lunch: 12:05 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Demo Session 7: 1 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

Networking with open bar & appetizers: 2:40 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Best of Show Awards Ceremony: 4:15 p.m.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2016. Videos of the live demos will be available in our video archives in a few weeks.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Welcome to FinovateSpring 2016: Day 2″

Around the web

  • Personetics launches its Personetics Anywhere chatbot, enabling FIs to provide personalized service to customers via popular messaging apps.
  • Q2 Holdings unveils its cloud-based, open API platform for developers, CorePro.
  • Jack Henry & Associates announces availability of Banno Mobile for Windows 10 and launch of Banno People, a user profile management solution.
  • Corezoid’s platform-as-a-service technology now available in the U.S. and Western Europe.
  • Jumio agrees to acquisition by Centana Growth Partners.

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.

Lending Club’s Laplanche Resigns; Scott Sanborn to Serve as Acting CEO

Lending Club’s Laplanche Resigns; Scott Sanborn to Serve as Acting CEO

LendingClub_homepage_May2016

According to Lending Club president and new acting CEO Scott Sanborn, the first rule of Lending Club is to “maintain the highest levels of trust with borrowers.”

Sanborn’s remarks come as the online lending marketplace announces both its Q1 results as well as the resignation of Renaud Laplanche as Chairman and CEO. Laplanche is stepping down in the wake of an internal review by the company’s board of directors that questioned a $22 million sale of near-prime loans to a single investor. Sanborn (pictured below) will be assisted by director Hans Morris, who will also serve in a newly created role of executive chairman.

LendingClub_ScottSanbornMorris emphasized that while the “lack of full disclosure” during the review process was “unacceptable,” he added that the sum involved was “minor” and would have no financial impact on the company. Lending Club’s Q1 results underscored this, with the company reporting year-over-year operating revenue gains of 87% and an increase of more than 137% in year-over-year, adjusted EBITDA.

Other positive metrics from Lending Club for the quarter include a servicing portfolio of more than $10 billion, a gain of more than $5 billion year-over-year, and scoring its first month with more than $1 billion of originations. This included two days “at or above $99 million.” Speaking of the quarter, Lending Club CFO, Carrie Dolan said that flexibility of the model was key in helping the company “respond to market challenges such as economic uncertainty, capital market disruptions and negative seasonality.” She added, “We were pleased with the company’s growth in the face of these challenges.”

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and founded in 2006, Lending Club is one of Finovate’s oldest alums, having demonstrated its platform at the first Finovate conference in 2007.

 

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Business Insider profiles the all-female management team of Betterment for Business.
  • The Des Moines Register reports on Dwolla and how its FiSync payments network could serve as a model for a nationwide effort.

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.

The Way to San Jose: FinovateSpring Has Sprung!

The Way to San Jose: FinovateSpring Has Sprung!

FS2016_TitlesWordCloud_FinalWho goes all the way to San Jose, California, for a fintech conference, you ask? A better question might be, who doesn’t? On Friday, we learned that FinovateSpring 2016 had sold more than 1,500 tickets, making it the biggest ever. But don’t worry if you haven’t picked up your ticket yet, there’s still plenty of time.

FinovateSpring is less than 48 hours away. And while presenters, attendees, and even a few members of the Finovate team are still making their way toward California’s third largest city (and home of the San Jose Sharks!), rest assured that we’ll be ready with everything you need for two rewarding days of live fintech demos and networking starting bright and early Tuesday.

On that note, here are a few tips and reminders to help you make the most of your week.

Schedule
Registration begins at 8:00 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The first demo on both days begins at 8:45 AM. Tuesday’s demos will wrap up at about 4:00 PM. The final demo on Wednesday will end at approximately 2:40 pm. Networking with an open bar will close out each day with Best of Show winners announced during Wednesday’s networking session.

We hope to see you here in sunny San Jose this week for what promises to be a great spring event. There’s still time to pick up your ticket—visit our registration page and save your spot today.

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Venue
FinovateSpring returns to the City National Civic facility in downtown San Jose, California.

135  West San Carlos Street
San Jose, CA 95113

Presenters
FinovateSpring features 72 companies demonstrating the latest in fintech innovation in live, seven-minute presentations from the stage. No slides. No videos. No Powerpoint. Just the tech, the whole tech, and nothing but the tech.

Learn more about our presenting companies through our FinovateSpring Sneak Peek series, as well as at our FinovateSpring Presenters Page.

FS2016_PresentingCompanies_ART

Get Social
And once you’re registered for FinovateSpring 2016, be sure to let the world know you’re coming via Bizzabo, our social events app.

Download the Bizzabo app from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or use Bizzabo’s online web interface. Search for “Finovate” and use the same email address that you used to register for the conference as your login.

We’re super-excited about another FinovateSpring here in San Jose and hope that you’ll join us in person or online (follow the conference on Twitter @Finovate!). Until then, check out our FAQ page for answers to common questions and for answers to uncommon questions, shoot us an email at [email protected].


FinovateSpring 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, AccentureAssociation for Financial Technology, Cyberport/InvestHK, FT Partners, Greater Zurich Area/Swiss Business Hub,  Hudson Cook, KPMG, and Leverage PR.

FinovateSpring 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market IntelligenceAite Group, American Bankers AssociationBank Innovators CouncilBankersHubBankless TimesBayPay Forum, Bitcoin MagazinebobsguideBreaking Banks, Byte AcademyCalifornia Bankers AssociationCanadian Trade Commissioner ServiceCelentCointelegraphDigital Currency CouncilEbankingNews, FemTechLeadersFilene Research Institute, The Fintech TimesIDC Financial InsightsJavelin, Juniper ResearchKorea FinTech ForumMercator Advisory GroupPayments & Cards NetworkThe Paypers,PitchBookPlug and PlaySME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “The Way to San Jose: FinovateSpring Has Sprung!”

Around the web

  • CFO interviews Michael Levine, Payoneer‘s Chief Financial Officer.
  • The Ruby Rogues talk with Ruby-developer Greg Baugues of Twilio.
  • Entrust Datacard announces EMV instant-issuance milestone of more than 10 million cards issued in the U.S. in one year.
  • Benzinga interviews Justin Zhen and Gregory Ugwi, Thinknum co-founders.

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

Around the web

  • Blooom CEO Chris Costello participates in a discussion on youth and savings.
  • NCR partners with Huntington Technology Finance, providing lease financing for NCR ATMs. See NCR in San Jose next week at FinovateSpring.
  • Crowdfundinsider features an interview with Cloud Lending CEO Snehal Fulzele.
  • PaySimple teams up with Fundera, a small-business-lending marketplace.=
  • Xero and Expensify form partnership.

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 Debuts: myInvenio Turns Data Analysis into Process Intelligence

Finovate Debuts: myInvenio Turns Data Analysis into Process Intelligence

myinvenio_homepage_May2016

With its first product, myInvenio, Cognitive Technology brings the blessings of big-data visualization to the banking industry.

myInvenio analyzes the structured and unstructured data that financial institutions already have in their logs to help managers uncover inefficiencies and discover roadblocks. Leveraging Cognitive Technology’s talents in process intelligence, big data analytics, and data mining, myInvenio enables CIOs to analyze, monitor, and optimize banking processes.

“With myInvenio you can analyze the past, the present, and you can predict the future of your processes, providing the banking organization with a perfect solution for the process and operations governance,” says Massimiliano Delsante, myInvenio’s CEO.

Like most data-visualizing technologies, seeing is believing. So be sure to check out myInvenio’s demo video from FinovateEurope for the full effect. The technology uses color, arrows, and even animated images to automatically visualize—and in some instances dramatize—business activities such as loan issuance. Accessing different views via an analytics dashboard allows managers to spot areas of potential non-compliance or to drill down to determine which processes are the most time-consuming and inefficient.

myinvenio_FEU2016_stage

Pictured (left to right): Cognitive Technology’s Modesta Jonauskyte, sales and marketing, and CEO Massimiliano Delsante demonstrated myInvenio at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

“Imagine how much time you would spend to get this kind of information using a traditional business-process-analysis approach,” myInvenio’s Modesta Jonauskyte said from the Finovate stage in London. “Instead of hiring a consultant, taking weeks or even months to interview all of the resources involved in the process, here you have myInvenio immediately indicating to you the most critical activities and resources involved.”

Managers can take advantage of the cloud-based, responsive technology to track process performance remotely via iPad, as well. The Performance View allows users to run an animation that follows a timeline of the various processes. KPIs, waiting times, waiting queues, resource allocation, and more.

myInvenio_CrossPlatform

myInvenio integrates with BPM and BI platforms and is fully compatible with BPMN2.0 and XPDL2.1. And courtesy of the myInvenio Connector for Qlikview and Qlik Sense, users of this popular business-intelligence solution now have access to myInvenio’s data-visualization technology, turning “data analysis into process analysis.”

Company facts:

  • Founded in 2013
  • Headquartered in Sliema, Malta
  • More than 200 registered users
  • Employs 14
  • Launched myInvenio in January 2015

We spoke with Delsante and Jonauskyte about myInvenio on rehearsal day during FinovateEurope in February 2016. We followed up by email.

Finovate: What problems does myInvenio solve?

Massimiliano Delsante: Nowadays, organizations need a solution to quickly react to the fast-paced financial market. myInvenio is a Process Mining and Operational Intelligence solution that allows you to manage your financial process transformation by automatically reading the data and analyzing banking/financial processes. myInvenio constantly monitors your banking processes, performances, and compliance. It identifies bottlenecks, critical activities and resources, as well as suggests the improvements and transformations needed in order to anticipate the trends of the market.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Delsante: Although business-process analysts can be advantageous optimizing any business process, so far myInvenio solution has been successfully implemented within financial, automotive and manufacturing industries. These industries remain at the top of myInvenio priority.

myInvenio_ConformanceComplianceCheck

Finovate: How does myInvenio solve the problem better?

Delsante: myInvenio is a disruptive solution to automatically analyze your banking processes, identifying your process behaviour, compliance, performances, the resources involved and the resource collaboration. It provides advanced analytics features to constantly monitor process deviation, KPIs alignment, and the bottlenecks of resources, and activities.

Also, myInvenio is a cross platform, multi-user solution that is available to be used on any device. It is flexible and scalable. You can either start analyzing a single area of your organization’s data using myInvenio cloud online version covering your overall banking processes, or you can move to the on-premise solution when in need to manage big data analysis.

myInvenio has a very friendly user interface, so finance analysts without technical IT backgrounds can quickly get a grip of myInvenio features and to analyze their organization’s processes. It has a well-defined dashboard that ensures 100% analytics reliability besides reducing banking process analysis time and costs.

myInvenio_ActivityMap

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of myInvenio.

Delsante: myInvenio was implemented within a large-scale banking organization, Credem, that has a wide banking network in Italy. Credem used myInvenio to optimise their loan application process and to later constantly monitor the process performance following the events happening in real time.

The bank is moving toward the adoption of myInvenio as the solution for banking process governance and operational intelligence.

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

Delsante: myInvenio team benefits from 20 years of experience in process management and analysis across banking, automotive, and fashion industries. Working with many customers and helping them tackle process-management issues, the development of an effective and easy-to-use Process Mining solution became a necessity.

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

Delsante: Following the success of Finovate, myInvenio is being presented at many other events and conferences with the focus on financial industries and digital business transformation. On 5th of May, myInvenio will be present at FinTechStage hosted in Milan and the 7th of June, myInvenio success stories in automotive industry will be presented at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello by Ferrari CIO and other important representatives.

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

Delsante: myInvenio’s main goal remains to meet the highest expectations of its customers as well as to become a standard solution for the business process digital transformation in financial, automotive, and manufacturing industries.


Check out myInvenio’s demonstration video from FinovateEurope.

From Billpay to Blockchain: The Themes of FinovateSpring

From Billpay to Blockchain: The Themes of FinovateSpring

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What’s changed between last year and the themes that are dominating FinovateSpring 2016?

“Mobile,” “Payments,” “Banking,” “Apps,” and “Investing” are key concepts again this year. But there may be no better metaphor for the changing landscape of fintech than the fact that “Billpay,” one of the larger themes of 2015, is out and “Blockchain” is in.

FS2016_Theme_Cloud_FinalThat said, there’s more to 12 months of fintech innovation than the spread of distributed-ledger technologies and the mainstreaming of personal finance (note that “PFM” failed to make FinovateSpring’s theme-cloud for the second year in a row). “Voice” appears for the first time as a significant theme in our cloud as more companies explore voice technologies as a solution for everything from authentication to customer engagement. And the rise of artificial intelligence is revealed by new themes, such as “Predictive,” as in Predictive Analytics, or “Cognitive,” as in cognitive computing, and even “Workflow,” which recognizes the way AI and machine learning are combining to automate and improve business processes for banks and other financial institutions.

This is the kind of peek into the future of fintech that FinovateSpring provides. Join us next week in San Jose as 72 companies from around the world take the stage for two days of innovation and high-caliber networking. Tickets are on sale now, so be sure to register today and join more than 1,500 fellow fintech professionals, our biggest Bay Area event ever, at one of the key events in the fintech calendar.

And if your appetite needs further whetting, here’s an updated look at the innovators that will be demoing their technologies live on stage May 10 & 11.

We hope we’ll see you there! In the meanwhile, learn more about the companies that will be on stage in our FinovateSpring Sneak Peek series, and please visit our FAQ or email us at [email protected] with any questions.


FinovateSpring 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, AccentureAssociation for Financial Technology, Cyberport/InvestHK, FT Partners, Greater Zurich Area/Swiss Business Hub,  Hudson Cook, KPMG, and Leverage PR.

FinovateSpring 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market IntelligenceAite Group, American Bankers AssociationBank Innovators CouncilBankersHubBankless TimesBayPay Forum, Bitcoin MagazinebobsguideBreaking Banks, Byte AcademyCalifornia Bankers AssociationCanadian Trade Commissioner ServiceCelentCointelegraphDigital Currency CouncilEbankingNews, FemTechLeadersFilene Research Institute, The Fintech TimesIDC Financial InsightsJavelin, Juniper ResearchKorea FinTech ForumMercator Advisory GroupPayments & Cards NetworkThe Paypers,PitchBookPlug and PlaySME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.