Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aerospike, Alkami Technology, Infosys, LoanNow, Taulia, TransferTo, Venmo

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • Akamai’s New Bot Manager Offers Insight into Bot Activity.

Around the web

  • Morocco-based microfinancier, Albaraka implements core banking system and CRM from Infosys Finacle.
  • Aerospike unveils version 3.7 of its NoSQL database. Aerospike returns to FinDEVr on 29 & 30 March 2016 in New York City.
  • TransferTo forges partnership with Vodafone Group to bring real-time international money transfers to M-Pesa Mobile Money accounts.
  • LoanNow begins reporting loan repayment behavior data to TransUnion.
  • Taulia partners with supplier information management solutions company Lavante.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

BluePay Acquires Billhighway

BluePay Acquires Billhighway
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Billhighway, Mergers & Acquisitions

Billhighway_homepage_Feb2016

Billhighway, developer of cloud-based financial management solutions for non-profit and member-based organizations, has been acquired by card processor and gateway provider, BluePay.

John Rante, BluePay CEO, highlighted Billhighway’s “innovative technology, a strong annual growth rate, and incredible customer satisfaction.” Rante said Billhighway’s nonprofit vertical was a “great fit” for BluePay and sees the acquisition as an opportunity to grow BluePay’s integrated merchant base.

Billhighway Chairman and Founder Vince Thomas added that the merger will help “improve the level of products and services” the company provides its member-based association and not-for-profit clients.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The announcement comes less than a month after Billhighway was again recognized as one of the “Best and Brightest” companies to work for. Billhighway offers a range of products, from its enterprise-grade financial management platform to its prepaid card (which won the “Head of the Class” PayBefore Award in 2014), to the mobile-fundraising solution the company demoed at FinovateFall 2012.

Last fall, Billhighway earned a spot on Deloittes 2015 Technology Fast 500 for North America for the third year in a row. That summer, the company adopted the SnapApp platform to enable development and publishing of interactive content. In March, Billhighway picked up a Silver Stevie Award for Innovation in Customer Service in the Financial Services Industry category, its second win at the Stevies since 2013.

Founded in 1999, Billhighway is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fiserv Announces New CFO, Robert Hau

Fiserv Announces New CFO, Robert Hau
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fiserv

Fiserv_homepage_Feb2016

Three things for fintech fans to look forward to in March:

  1. The beginning of March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament
  2. The launch of FinDEVr New York 2016
  3. The end of a first quarter flurry of announcements

Fiserv_RobertHauAnd one big first-quarter announcement is a new appointment at Fiserv. The company has named Robert Hau as its new Chief Financial Officer. Hau, formerly a TE Connectivity executive, will take the helm on March 14. Hau replaces Tom Hirsch who is retiring after a 21-year career with the company.

Fiserv CEO and president Jeffery Yabuki credited Hau’s experience as a public company CFO at TE Connectivity, and his “strong operational approach to finance.” Before TE Connectivity, Hau was EVP and CFO for Lennox International and, previously had served in a variety of capacities at Honeywell International, including CFO of the company’s Aerospace Business Group.

Hau has a master’s degree in business administration from the USC Marshall School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University.

Recent headlines for Fiserv include the company’s purchase of ACI Worldwide’s Community Financial Services division for $200 million in January, and deployments of the company’s DNA core account processing technology at United Nations Federal Credit Union ($4.3 billion in assets) and Gate City Bank ($1.9 billion in assets). In its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2015, Fiserv demoed its technology that enables cash ATM withdrawals by smartphone.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateEurope 2016: Tweets By the Thames

FinovateEurope 2016: Tweets By the Thames
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

Twitterlogo_lightblueFollowing our conferences via Twitter is a great way for both those attending the show live as well as those following the action remotely to share their insights and opinions.

And browsing through the online conversation afterwards provides a wonderful reminder of what shocked and awed our audiences the most at this year’s event.

So, courtesy of Twitter and #Finovate, here is a small sample of FinovateEurope 2016’s more memorable observations and fintech-savvy tweets:

BoS_Tweet_Start

BoS_Tweet_IDscan

BoS_Tweet_Drivewealth

BoS_Tweet_JPNinvestingdisruptionBoS_Tweets_Swipestox

BoS_Tweet_fashion

BoS_Tweet_multicurrency

BoS_Tweets_JPN_makethecase

BoS_Tweet_noloyaltylending

BoS_Tweet_Crowd1

BoS_Tweet_Skinner_Fitbit

BoS_Tweets_Capitalise

BoS_Tweet_Eyeveryfiy

BoS_Tweet_Valuto

BoS_Tweet_Exciting

BoS_Tweet_Duena

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

i-exceed Teams Up with Mindtree to Bring Mobile Tech to BFSI Sector

i-exceed Teams Up with Mindtree to Bring Mobile Tech to BFSI Sector
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: i-exceed

i-exceed_homepage_Feb2016

Via a new partnership with Mindtree, Bangalore-based i-exceed technology solutions looks to bring mobility solutions to the BFSI (banking, financial services, insurance) sector.

Quoted in ETCIO.com, i-exceed’s Managing Director Joseph John said the agreement showed the increased traction Appzillon was gaining in the marketplace. “With our long-standing experience in the banking sector, coupled with Appzillon’s technical prowess, Mindtree can enhance their mobility edge in record time,” John said.

iexceed_stage_FA2013

From left: i-exceed’s Kapil Gupta, technology solutions director, and Sudhir Babu, VP of technology, demonstrated Appzillon at FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore.

A mobile app-development platform, Appzillon has reduced app develop-and-deploy times by as much as 60%. The technology helps developers manage the security and integration challenges of building for enterprise back-end systems, including the ability to deploy predesigned B2B, B2C, and B2E banking apps. The latter is a particular point of emphasis for i-exceed, whose aim is to bring to market faster, via the new partnership, “strategic, prebuilt solutions for the banking industry.”

i-exceed released version 3.1 of its mobile app development platform last summer. Its features include enhanced security via a new user interface along with new style editors and additional default themes. In September, i-exceed announced deployment of its Appzillon Origination System (AOS) at one of the oldest public sector banks in India. This followed the company’s new partnership with Kris FinSoftware to help promote the greater mobility in the Philippines.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bangalore, India, i-exceed demonstrated Appzillon at FinovateAsia 2013.

Join i-exceed as it makes its FinDEVr debut next month in New York City. Our developers conference is 29/30 March and tickets are available now. Visit our FinDEVr New York 2016 page for more information.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

East Coast Credit Fund Puts $250 Million to Work on Patch of Land Platform

East Coast Credit Fund Puts $250 Million to Work on Patch of Land Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Patch of Land

PatchofLand_homepage_Feb2016

An East Coast credit fund will invest $250 million across the Patch of Land platform. The investment comes in the form of an agreement to buy loans in a “forward flow arrangement,” and represents the credit fund’s first move into the P2P marketplace lending space.

CEO and Co-founder of Patch of Land Jason Fritton said the partnership will enable his company to “fill loans on a programmatic basis, creating a higher level of validation for the entire industry.”

PatchofLand_stage_FF2014b

Pictured (left to right): Patch of Land’s AdaPia d’Errico (CMO) and Brian Fritton (CTO and co-founder) demonstrating the company’s platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Fritton added that individual accredited investors – more than 95% of Patch of Land’s loan funding to date – will continue to be a priority. “We will continue to deliver quality product for the portfolios of large institutional players and the thousands of accredited investors who invest in our loans every day.”

In the two years since its launch, Patch of Land has funded more than 200 projects with an average blended rate of return of 12%. Patch of Land has returned more than $20 million in principal and interest to investors, who have suffered no loss of principal. The company’s platform offers proprietary risk scoring and pricing models which, in the words of Patch of Land EVP of business development, Jillian Jaccard, “appeal not only to institutional buyers, but also the company’s individual investors.”

Patch of Land added commercial real estate to its platform in August 2015, and last spring announced a $23 million Series A round led by SF Capital Group. The company was featured in Forbes magazine in the summer of 2015 in a column on top fintech trends, and was named by Entrepreneur magazine as “1 of 100 brilliant companies to watch” in 2015.

Founded in February 2013 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Patch of Land demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BizEquity, FIS, Lending Club, Mitek, Patch of Land, Swipestox, Wallaby Financial

On Finovate.com

  • i-exceed Teams Up with Mindtree to Bring Mobile Tech to BFSI Sector.
  • FinovateEurope 2016: Tweets by the Thames.

Around the web

  • Popular Community Bank and Oriental Bank to deploy Cardless Cash, a mobile banking technology from FIS.
  • Mitek to combine its Mobile Verify solution with fraud prevention and risk management technology from IdentityMind Global.
  • Lending Club reports second quarterly profit since going public in December 2014.
  • BizEquity launches ‘Smarter Prospecting’ feature for its Advisor Office platform.
  • Wallaby’s Chrome 2.0 provides access to credit card advice in the browser.
  • Swipestox partners with German bank Hauck & Aufhäuser to offer its users foreign currency and securities trading.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: DriveWealth, eToro, Fastacash, Kapitall, LOYAL3, Malauzai Software, Motif Investing, Prairie Cloudware

Around the web:

  • Fastacash to boost global growth via new partnership with mobile wallet provider, Cellum.
  • Let’s Talk Payments profiles LOYAL3, Motif Investing, Kapitall, DriveWealth, and eToro in a look at millennials and investing.
  • ATM Marketplace quotes Robb Gaynor of Malauzai Software on the importance of app design in the mobile UX, and Prairie Cloudware’s Michael Carter on the debate over branded mobile wallets and banking apps.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Best of Show, Capitali.se, DriveWealth, EyeVerify, FinovateEurope 2016, IDscan Biometrics, Swipestox, Valuto

IMG_1153

With winter winds whipping up white caps on the typically mild-mannered Thames, another FinovateEurope is officially in the books.

We could not be more grateful to all those who demonstrated their latest fintech innovations live on stage in front of our record-setting audience here at Old Billingsgate Market Hall. After two days of demos, our attendees have weighed in on which technologies will earn the coveted title of Best of Show.

So with no further ado, let’s take a look at what our 1,500+ fintech fans feel are the innovations that are getting us that much closer to a world of better engagement, friction-free and secure payments and e-commerce, and broader financial opportunities for all.

Here are the Best of Show winners of FinovateEurope 2016 (in alphabetic order):


Capitalise-(capitali Capitali.se for its technology that uses natural language to enable trade automation, turning investment ideas into auto-managed investment portfolios.

 

drivewealth-logo DriveWealth for its cloud-based/API technologies that enable real-time, fractional share investing and trading in U.S. equities for mass retail investors around the world.

 

Eyeverify---Hi-Res EyeVerify for its biometric authentication, Eyeprint ID technology that turns an ordinary selfie into a key that protects your digital life.

 

IDscan---Hi-Res IDscan Biometrics for its market-leading, digital, onboarding suite with a powerful, state-of-the-art facial  recognition algorithm.

 

SwipeStox---Hi-Res SwipeStox for its mobile social trading app that allows anyone to trade forex, market indicies, and CFDs by copying single trades.

 

Valuto---Hi-Res Valuto for its multi-currency account powered by an open API that enables seamless integration with SaaS accounting, e-invoicing, B2B marketplace, and e-commerce platforms.

FinovateEurope 2016 was a blast, and we hope you enjoyed the conference as much as we enjoyed hosting it. As always, a thousand thanks to everyone who attended, sponsored, partnered with, and demonstrated their latest fintech innovations at FinovateEurope 2016. We’ll see you next year!

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 ballot 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.

 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016: Day 2

Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016: Day 2
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

FEU_image

Are you ready for day two of FinovateEurope 2016?

Our first conference of the year began Tuesday with 40 demonstrations of the latest in fintech innovation. Day two begins Wednesday morning with registration opening at 8:00 AM and the first demo starting at 8:45 AM.

Here is the lineup for Wednesday. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2016.

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

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

Demo session 7: 1:00 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2016.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Expensify, Markit, Nutmeg, VISA, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com:

  • Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016, Day Two.
  • FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced.

Around the web:

  • Betterment and Wealthfront featured in Bloomberg column on the disruptive power of roboadvisors.
  • Reduced costs for Nutmeg yield lower fees for investors using the platform.
  • Markit acquires systems-integration technology from JP Morgan.
  • VISA launches Consumer Transaction Controls for card-issuing FIs.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at Expensify and its expansion into Europe.

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.

 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Xignite Raises $20 Million in New Partnership with Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation

Xignite Raises $20 Million in New Partnership with Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Xignite

Xignite_homepage_Feb2016

Go east, young provider of cloud-based market data solutions.

A $20.5 million Series C investment led by Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation has boosted Xignite’s total funding to more than $37 million, and signaled the company’s intention to expand into the Asian market.

Pointing to the “hyper-growth” in Asia and calling the region “the world’s largest fintech frontier,” QUICK president and CEO Noboru Yoshioka said the partnership between his company and Xignite will yield a “unique opportunity to capture growth in this market.” Xignite CEO and founder Stephane Dubois, whose company is demonstrating its latest technologies at FinovateEurope this week, referred to both the flexibility and the openness of his company’s solution as key to providing financial services customers with the data they need.

Xignite_stage_FF2015

Pictured: Stephane Dubois, Xignite CEO and founder, demonstrated Xignite Cloud Streaming at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

“Financial institutions can no longer afford to operate rigid and proprietary data infrastructures,” Dubois said in a statement. “These legacy institutions must innovate and simultaneously cut costs if they want to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.”

Also participating in the funding round were Altos Ventures, Startup Capital Ventures, and StarVest Partners.

The investment will enable Xignite to increase its sales, marketing, and production capacities in order to keep up with the company’s growth. As part of the deal, QUICK managing director, Atsuyuki Nakajima will join Xignite’s board of directors. QUICK Corporation is a part of the Nikkei Group, and is the largest financial information provider in Japan.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Xignite demonstrated its Cloud Streaming technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company’s solution is scalable, based on open standards, and has “zero footprint” for clients. Helping power some of fintech’s most innovative companies, e.g., Betterment and Currency Cloud, Xignite has more than 1,000 customers in fields ranging from investing and trading to wealth management. Xignite grew its bookings by more than 50% in 2015, serving more than 455 billion API calls.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook