PRUDENA Launches Online Marketplace for Stock Market Research

PRUDENA Launches Online Marketplace for Stock Market Research

Prudena_homepage_Nov2015

PRUDENA launched its online stock market research marketplace last week, helping retail investors and independent financial advisers access the same kind of quantified stock market research used by institutional money managers for years.

For PRUDENA co-founder and CEO Charlie Strout, the new online marketplace is the latest example of the “sharing economy” applied to financial technology. “Investors love our product because they can essentially hire a talented analyst that previously sold their research only to large institutions,” Strout explained. “Analysts love us because we give them loads of tools to save them time when producing their research and provide a platform where they can better monetize their work.”

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Prudena founder and CEO Charlie Strout presented at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

PRUDENA emphasizes quantitative research because this kind of research is typically too expensive for individual investors and independent financial advisers. Using data aggregation, financial modeling, and report-generation wizards, PRUDENA focuses on behavioral economics and finance, value investing, and quantitative financial analysis to give insights to investors and advisers that differ from the qualitative research many investors rely on. And with more than 500 registered users on its platform, Strout believes PRUDENA’s crowdfunding approach is making this kind of quantitative research easier to get and more affordable.

PRUDENA is available for free and by subscription. Free features include portfolio-monitoring tools and alerts, and modeling for the stocks in the S&P 500 and Dow industrials. Subscription services provide modeling for all stocks, brokerage-account aggregation, and more support options, including email, phone, and a one-on-one “Get Started” session. All subscribers receive a copy of “The Morning Monte” market analysis newsletter, as well.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York City, PRUDENA demonstrated how its platform automates the analysis of financial statements at the inaugural FinDEVr conference in 2014 in San Francisco.

Blooom Named “One in a Million” in Kauffman Foundation Startup Competition

Blooom Named “One in a Million” in Kauffman Foundation Startup Competition

Blooom_homepage_November2015

Just over a month after securing $4 million in an investment round led by QED Investors, 401(k) innovator Blooom has been named “One in a Million” in the startup competition sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.

“All of the finalists were incredibly talented,” said Chris Costello, Blooom CEO. “I was humbled to be considered among the best from across the nation. And we are very proud to have won in our hometown.”

Blooom beat out more than 350 startups to win the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s “One in a Million” competition this week. The company will take home a grand prize of $10,000.

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Blooom co-founders (left) Chris Costello and Randy AufDerHeide demonstrated the Blooom platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Wendy Guillies, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO, said that the competition was designed to highlight companies that participated in the Foundation’s “1 Million Cups” events, which showcase entrepreneurs from a variety of fields.

“We created the 1 Million Cups program to help educate, engage, and connect entrepreneurs within their own communities,” Guillies explained. The program holds events weekly in more than 70 communities in the United States, culminating with the “One in a Million” contest held as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Learn more about the Kauffman Foundation.

Earning a second place prize of $5,000 was David Naumann, founding partner of wet phone rescue kiosk maker, DryBox. Third place and $1,000 went to Matthew Rooda, founder of SwineTech, which uses technology to help keep “piglets from being crushed by their mothers.”

Blooom calls itself a “new way to 401(k).” Taking advantage of the fact that 401(k) owners can be among the least engaged in their own investment finances, blooom has created a platform that essentially provides roboadvisory services specifically for 401(k) and other employer-provided retirement accounts. Signing up for the service is easy, and accounts stay at their current institutions. Blooom provides free 401(k) analysis and charges $1 per month on accounts less than $20,000 and $15 per month for larger accounts.

Founded in February 2013 and headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, blooom demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014.

Coinbase Unveils America’s First Bitcoin Debit Card

Coinbase Unveils America’s First Bitcoin Debit Card

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It may be fashionable these days to praise the blockchain while dismissing bitcoin. But the news today that Coinbase is launching a new bitcoin debit card in the United States is a reminder that bitcoin is alive, well, and working its way closer to the mainstream economy.

Coinbase’s new The Shift Card is the product of a partnership between Coinbase and Shift Payments. The card can be used in 24 states in the United States and at more than 38 million merchants around the world. There is a $10 issuance fee with no additional fees “for a limited time.” Cards will begin arriving after November 20th.

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Coinbase Business Development Managers Nahid Samsami and Roger Gu demonstrated Coinbase Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014.

Adam White, Coinbase VP for business development and strategy, called the Shift Card “a key element” in making bitcoin easier to buy, sell, and transact with. Both Coinbase and Dwolla accounts are supported. Users in eligible states can order the card by connecting to their Coinbase account, and authorizing the fee (paid in bitcoin). Shift relies on Coinbase Connect which provides integration, permissions, and authentications to more than 2.8 million Coinbase users.

The Shift Card is accompanied by the Shift app that provides account balances and transactions. Available in iOS and Android, the Shift Card works anywhere Visa is accepted. Plans are to enable cardholders to connect to banks, airline miles and other alternative-currency accounts in the near future.

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Shift Card’s fee structure includes a 3% fee for international transactions; $3.50, international ATMs; $2.50, domestic ATMs. There is no annual fee and no charge for domestic transactions. There is a daily spending limit of $1,000 and daily ATM withdrawal limits of $500 from Dwolla accounts and $200 from Coinbase accounts. More information on fees is here.

Coinbase has had a busy autumn. In November alone the company announced a partnership with Fidelity Charitable to enable bitcoin contributions to donor-advised funds, launched mobile price charts, international translations, and consolidated accounts for bitcoin, and teamed up with USAA to make it easier for members to use bitcoin. Coinbase also added support for 3D Secure credit and debit cards in October and launched in Singapore in September.

Founded in July 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2014. Brian Armstrong is CEO. The company has raised more than $106 million in funding and includes Andreessen Horowitz, BBVA Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) among its investors.

Finovate Debuts: DriveWealth Brings U.S. Stocks to Overseas Investors

Finovate Debuts: DriveWealth Brings U.S. Stocks to Overseas Investors

DriveWealth_homepage_Nov2015

For the majority of people living in the developing world, it is easier to buy a pair of Nike shoes than it is to buy a share of Nike stock.

DriveWealth is changing this dynamic through its retail investing platform, designed to give consumers around the globe access to the U.S. stock market. DriveWealth calls its full-stack platform, “Brokerage-As-A-Service” because it can handle the entire customer lifecycle from onboarding to trade execution. “No middle men, no friction,” explained Michael Fitzgerald, DriveWealth’s head of corporate strategy, during the week of FinovateSpring 2015. Among other things, lack of a middle man enables DriveWealth to provide B2C pricing of $2.99 per trade.

At Finovate, DriveWealth demonstrated its BaaS platform, reminding attendees that with most of the retail wealth coming from developing markets, the opportunity is wide open to provide investors in emerging markets with the ability to trade in stocks of some of the best-known—and most successful—companies in the world.

Company facts:

  • founded in May 2012
  • headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey
  • raised more than $10 million in funding
  • serves more customers in more than 140 countries
  • Robert Cortright is CEO

How it works

DriveWealth works by partnering with global companies to offer their customers access to U.S. stocks on their platform. “Historically,” Fitzgerald pointed out, “only the wealthiest foreign investors could access these stocks.” DriveWealth provides the widget, and companies using the platform get to use their own brand and interface.

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Michael Fitzgerald, DriveWealth head of corporate strategy, demonstrated the DriveWealth Brokerage-as-a-Service platform at FinovateSpring 2015.

Getting started on DriveWealth is straightforward, with investors able to fund their accounts through a wide variety of methods: credit, debit, SafetyPay, wire transfers, paper checks—even using the services of fellow Finovate alums like Dwolla and TransferWise.

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As a trading and investing platform, DriveWealth is available as a white-label service, and can be deployed in a day or two. Using a mock-up brokerage in their demo, Taj Mahal Securities, we can see an example of the interface. Investors can see which stocks are available for investment, review favorite lists, analyze metrics about the underlying company, study charts of price action and, ultimately, buy shares.

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Technically, DriveWealth provides its partners with both low-level APIs and high-level HTML5 widgets. APIs are available as RESTful APIs, which provide login, accounts, orders, and trades functionality, as well as fully FIX-compliant APIs for those FIs familiar with the FIX protocol. Both APIs support order types such as market, stop, and limit.

For FIs seeking an even greater level of integration, DriveWealth provides a set of embeddable HTML5 widgets. These widgets can be embedded into websites or trading apps to provide functions such as reporting, funding, trading, and onboarding.

The future

DriveWealth_stage_FS2015_006DriveWealth is most interested in meeting global financial service companies with large customer bases who offer local securities and want access to the U.S. equity markets. The company recently launched with a Chinese partner with more than 100 million customers. And Fitzgerald also mentioned the Indian stock market as a very actively traded market where Indian investors would likely take advantage of access to U.S. stocks. He also notes that global payment providers are also potential partners with DriveWealth. “We’re going for the other 99%, including the mass retail investor,” Fitzgerald explains, “and a lot of them are looking to start with a few thousand dollars rather than $100,000, so low-cost payment-transfers matter.”

“We are also interested in meeting fintech companies with products available here in the U.S., but who want access to global retail customers,” Fitzgerald said, noting that the DriveWealth platform can be leveraged for other purposes, other services. “We have a partnership structure as a B2B platform,” he said. “(Our partners) don’t have to be brokerages. They can be customer-centric companies that just want to provide the access.”

Currently in the pipeline are plans to launch with a number of large global partners. DriveWealth is also planning to offer fractional shares for investors, supporting the company’s focus on retail investors. “People can put $100 a week or a month aside and build their portfolio that way,” Fitzgerald said.

Looking further into the future, DriveWealth is interested in initiatives such as expanding aftermarket trading, which Fitzgerald says is “key for international trading and investing.” He added that DriveWealth is also looking to expand the ways investors can fund their accounts. “Debit cards, Dwolla, bitcoin …” he offered. “We want to remove as much friction as possible.”

DriveWealth will be among the more than 70 companies demonstrating their technologies at FinovateEurope 2016 in London in February. For more about our upcoming conference in the United Kingdom, visit our FinovateEurope 2016 page.


Check out the video from DriveWealth’s FinovateSpring 2015 demonstration.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate Debuts: DriveWealth Brings U.S. Stocks to Overseas Investors”
  • “FinovateEurope 2016 Presenting Companies Announced
  • “Personal Capital Lowers Investment Minimum from $100,000 to $25,000″

Around the web

  • Intuit teams up with Kiva to provide small business financing via QuickBooks financing platform.
  • National Bank of Abu Dhabi, (Nbad) Egypt, to deploy BankWorld from CR2.
  • Xero announces new partnerships with Bigcommerce and KPMG.
  • Open Bank Project partners with Ulster Bank to organize Hack Make the Bank, Jan 29 thru 31, 2016.
  • CIBC and Thinking Capital partner to expand SMB lending in Canada.
  • Entrust Datacard releases Datacard MX Series Laser 350 that provides new personalization features.
  • CardFlight announces EMV approval and certifications via TSYS for mPOS solution.
  • Taulia joins the OFS portal community.
  • Fidelity Charitable partners with Coinbase to allow people to contribute bitcoin to their donor-advised funds.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Tuition.io Raises $5 Million in Series A

Tuition.io Raises $5 Million in Series A

Tuitionio_homepage_Nov2015

Student-loan management specialist Tuition.io has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Participating in the round were MassMutual Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Wildcat Venture Partners.

The funding takes Tuition.io’s total capital to more than $8 million. Tuition.io plans to use the capital to help acquire more enterprise customers, as well as to grow its customer service, engineering, and sales teams.

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Tuition.io founder and CEO Brendon McQueen demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.

Calling the investment a “testament to the headway” the company has made, Tuition.io founder and CEO Brendon McQueen pointed to his company’s status as a first-mover in the field as key. “We are proud to have been the first to market at scale with an innovative financial wellness platform that enables employers to offer student-loan payments as a benefit for hiring and retention,” McQueen said. He credited Tuition.io for “helping global companies attract and engage competitive talent while simultaneously addressing the $1.3 trillion student loan crisis in the U.S.”

Bryan Stolle, a general partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures, referred to Tuition.io as a “real game-changer for recruiting millennials.” He credited the company’s enterprise platform for “empowering employers to recruit and retain employees with student-loan contributions as a benefit.”

Tuition.io helps student-loan borrowers manage their debts. The platform uses graphical visualization to make it easier for borrowers to see how much they owe, to whom, and how to pay it off sooner. In April, Tuition.io launched a new student loan benefit solution, Flex395 that lets employers directly contribute to employees’ student-loan repayments to accelerate the payoff.

Announcing the new Flex395 initiative this spring, McQueen suggested that for many young professionals entering the workforce, retiring student loan debt is a higher priority than investing in their 401(k)s. “Young people neither willingly adopt nor care about 401(k) products,” McQueen said. “However, 70% of college graduates are finishing school with student loan balances averaging nearly $30,000.”

“The question is not whether 401(k)s are beneficial—of course, they are—but rather what benefits employers can offer that are most relevant and attractive to young, talented employees,” McQueen explained.

Founded in October 2011 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Tuition.io demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2012. Since inception, the company has helped thousands of borrowers manage more than $2 billion in outstanding student loans.

Banking Technology Awards Recognize Finovate Alums

Banking Technology Awards Recognize Finovate Alums

PrintFidor Bank won in the “Best Use of IT in Retail Banking” category at the 16th Annual Banking Technology 2015 awards this week. Earning recognition in the Readers’ Choice component of the awards were Temenos, FIS, and Misys.

The awards ceremony was held last week in London. The winning companies were chosen from more than 120 entries by eight judges from the fintech industry. Readers’ choice awards were granted based on online voting results from readers of both Banking Technology magazine and bankingtech.com.

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Fidor Bank won with its Smart Current Account that offers customers easy onboarding, no credit check, no maximum balance, and a competitive interest rate. Deposits are insured up to the GBP equivalent of €100,000, and the company is running a promotion whereby every “Like” Fidor U.K. gets on its Facebook page increases the amount of interest paid to Smart Current Accountholders.

Talking about the launch of the Smart Current Account back in September, Fidor CEO Matthias Kroner told The Memo’s Alex Wood:

Customers will be able to do a lot more than just transfer money. Customers can move their money abroad, or move it into other services, such as savings bonds and eventually into platforms including P2P lending, precious metals, crowdfunding projects, and so on.

MisysIn the Readers’ Choice competition, Temenos won an award for Best Core Banking Product/Service; FIS won Best Payments Product/Service with its Clear2Pay; and Misys won Best Risk Management Product/Service for its FusionRisk Credit solution. All three companies were also winners of the Banking Technology Readers’ Choice Awards last year, along with fellow alum Fiserv, which in 2014 won an award for Best Financial Crime Product or Service.

Fidor-Bank-logoFidor Bank participated in FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco this fall, discussing its approach to No Stack Banking. The company’s last Finovate appearance was at FinovateEurope 2011 in London.

Temenos_FinDEVr2015_logoTemenos also presented at FinDEVr 2015, unveiling its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace, and earlier in the year demonstrated its Temenos Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015.

FIS LOGO WHITE GRADIENT 1.22.13FIS demonstrated its Cardless Cash solution at FinovateSpring 2015. Misys presented its FusionBanking Essence Digital platform at FinovateEurope 2015, and Fiserv introduced fintech audiences to its Mobility Enterprise technology at FinovateFall 2015.


Interested in fintech in the U.K. and Europe? FinovateEurope returns to London, England on 9/10 February 2016 for our next fintech conference. Find out more at our FinovateEurope 2016 page .

Finovate Alums Earn Spots Among UBS Future of Finance Finalists

Finovate Alums Earn Spots Among UBS Future of Finance Finalists

UBS_logo_FutureofFinanceSayPay Technologies, Stratos, and Wealthforge will compete for top honors at the UBS Future of Finance Challenge on 10/December in Zurich. The three will join nine other finalists vying for $50,000, 300+ hours of mentoring, and the opportunity to develop their technology in a UBS innovation center.

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(Click image to watch video)

The Future of Finance Challenge had more than 600 applicants. Regional Finals were held this month in Zurich, London, Singapore, and New York. To be eligible, entrants must not have received a Series A or total funding of more than $10 million. Solutions presented could be an idea, concept, or a functional demo and needed to either “focus directly on, or have a potential connection or application with, banking and financial services.”

SayPay-logo-noshadowsAll three Finovate alums reaching the finals made their Finovate debuts at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose. SayPay Technologies, a finalist from the Singapore round, will go into the finals with its Customer Authentication Experience. SayPay CEO Steve Hoffman said, “The distinguished panel of UBS judges was quick to recognize how SayPay transforms fragmented current authentication solutions into a seamless, enjoyable customer interaction with their financial institutions.” SayPay was founded in February 2014 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. The company launched its BillPay and Secure Web Sign-In at FinovateSpring 2015 in May.

Stratos_logo_snaggitfromboxStratos presented its wallet-simplifying, Bluetooth Connected Card with enhanced security, and emerged from the same New York round as fellow Finovate alum, Wealthforge. Stratos demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2015 in May. It was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Thiago Olsen is CEO.

WealthForge logo copyWealthforge impressed UBS judges with its automated, integrated risk management solution for issuers and intermediaries. Mat Dellorso, CEO and co-founder, wrote at his company’s blog: “With the WealthForge Invest Button, anyone raising private capital can take advantage of an intuitive, modern approach to managing the process of raising more capital in less time.” Wealthforge was founded in 2011 and is based in Richmond, Virginia. Wealthforge gave Finovate audiences a look at the Invest Button during its demo at FinovateSpring 2015.

Also competing in the New York round were Finovate alums, MaxMyInterest and Coinalytics. FinovateEurope 2015 veteran CashSentinel represented Finovate alums in the Zurich round.

Joining SayPay Technologies, Stratos, and Wealthforge in Zurich will be:


European fintech fans! Join us in February as Finovate returns to London for FinovateEurope 2016. For more information, and to save your spot, visit our FinovateEurope page.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate Alums Earn Spots Among Finalists in UBS Future of Finance”

Around the web

  • Arxan announces Cyber Security scholarship program.
  • PYMNTS.com interviews Adam White, Coinbase VP and product manager, on the “killer app” phase of bitcoin.
  • CNBC looks at Fastacash and the launch of its remittance app, XOPO.
  • CenturyLink adds former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to their board.
  • Banking CIO Outlook magazine features Praesidio.
  • Credit Karma gives away one-billionth free credit score since its 2008 launch.
  • Kony appoints Stephen J. Rohleder, former Accenture COO, to its advisory board.
  • Xero pilots program to allow users to file their GST returns.
  • Bloomberg: Banks Catching Up with Amazon Turn to Iceland Startup Meniga for Ideas.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Debuts: Persistent Systems Introduces Social Payment Solution BuddyPay

Finovate Debuts: Persistent Systems Introduces Social Payment Solution BuddyPay

PersistentSystems_homepage_Nov2015

Persistent Systems made its Finovate debut in May with a new solution called BuddyPay. The technology makes it easy for one person to pay for goods or services purchased online by someone else. Think about a parent helping a son or daughter pay for expenses while away at school. Or a caregiver paying for a service bought by a senior in their charge. Rather than sending money back and forth, BuddyPay converts the consumer into a “Payer” and a “Buyer” in real time and lets the Payer handle the payment while the Buyer receives the product or service.

Company facts:

  • Founded in May 1990
  • Headquartered in Pune, MH, India
  • Earned more than 20% revenue CAGR for the past five years
  • Named one of the top ten companies for Indian investor relations by Thomson Reuters Extel Survey Awards

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Shriram Natarajan, VP technology consulting for persistent systems, demoed BuddyPay at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose, California.

How it works

BuddyPay is an app that sits on the merchant platform and shows up as a “BuddyPay” button. A shopper, or “Buyer,” finds a product and then notifies or “pokes” the person on his “Buddy List,” such as a parent, to pay for it.

The person notified, the “Payer,” can then look at the item. If the Payer agrees, they send a notification back to the Buyer who returns to the online shopping cart to complete the transaction.

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The Payment Request notification from the Buyer enables the Payer to see exactly what is in the Buyer’s shopping cart. The Payer can then choose their preferred payment method and pay for the item. Once the order is processed, both parties are notified of the completed transaction, and the Buyer can then make shipping arrangements.

The future

Another use-case includes employees paying for work expenses or even someone picking up the tab for a group of friends dining at a restaurant. The technology is ready to be integrated: Persistent Systems has developed SDKs for mobile app and e-commerce engine deployment and is eager to work with both merchants and banks.

Persistent Systems has made headlines recently, announcing the design and implementation of online communities for cloud-managed, enterprise wi-fi solution provider, AirTight Networks. The company was also involved in the Digital Pune Hackathon. Launched last month and organized by the Sakal Media Group and 14C in partnership with Persistent Systems, the Hackathon gave 180 students the opportunity to use technology to solve problems within the areas of transportation, public health, and water management. Top projects will be implemented by local organizations such as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA).


Check out the demo video from Persistent Systems from FinovateSpring 2015

VATBox Wins Spot in Inaugural Global MasterCard Start Path Class

VATBox Wins Spot in Inaugural Global MasterCard Start Path Class

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VATBox will join three other startups in the inaugural global class of the MasterCard Start Path program.

The six-month class includes “immersion weeks” hosted in Berlin and Singapore, as well as ongoing support from the MasterCard network. The companies will also be invited to attend the Start Path Global Partner Summit to meet and network with representatives from more than 20 banking, retail, and technology companies such as Samsung Card, TSYS, and Bank of Montreal.

The four startups will have access to the nearly 40 companies that have been previously mentored by, or partnered with, Start Path, including Finovate alums, Big Data Scoring, CardFlight, nymi, and Rippleshot.

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VATBox CEO and co-founder Isaac Saft demonstrated the VATBox Automated VAT Recovery and Visibility solution at FinovateEurope 2015.

Stephane Wyper, global lead for MasterCard Start Path, said that the program was designed to be “more globally inclusive” and “provide startups access to new markets without uprooting them.” To qualify for the program, startups must have a live product in the market and have received initial funding. Joining VATBox will be payment analytics startup, Control; Japanese PFM innovator Moneytree; and artificial intelligence specialist, Rainbird.

Launched in 2014, MasterCard Start Path supports early stage startups working on the next generation of e-commerce solutions, including building big data, mobile, and cloud-based applications. The program seeks diversity among participating startups, encouraging companies with different levels of funding, team sizes, revenues earned and place of origin to apply. There were more than 200 applicants to this incoming inaugural global class.

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In addition to making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2015 in London in February, VATBox raised $24 million in growth equity investment in August. The company provides an automated VAT (value-added tax) recovery solution that helps maximize VAT returns in a transparent and compliant way.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Herzilliya, Israel, VATBox demonstrated its Automated VAT Recovery and Visibility platform at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. Isaac Saft is CEO and co-founder.

ID Analytics, Payfone Win at 2015 Fierce Innovation Awards

ID Analytics, Payfone Win at 2015 Fierce Innovation Awards

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ID Analytics won first place in its category at the 2015 Fierce Innovation Awards: Telecom Edition. The company impressed judges with its ID Connect solution, launched in September, which makes it easier to onboard and enroll customers digitally.

IDAnalytics_logoID Connect validates identity with a minimal amount of information, helping businesses increase conversions and lower abandonments. The solution auto-fills application fields and risk assesses the user in seconds. The SaaS technology can be combined with ID Connect Photo, which uses a government-issued ID card to populate fields.

Also taking top honors at the event was Payfone. Payfone won the Over-the-Top (OTT) Monetization category with its Payfone Signature technology, and also won the Customer Security category with its Identity Certainty Platform.

Payfone_logo_Nov2015Payfone Signature is a deterministic, trusted mobile identity that, according to the company, “cannot be forged, cloned, spoofed, or hacked.” The technology uses data from the mobile network operator level to “permanently bind, verify, and subscribe” mobile identity at the account level. The result is what Payfone calls “a persistent mobile ID.” Identity Certainty leverages the Signature technology to provide organizations with the ability to provide seamless yet secure access to sensitive business information.

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The Fierce Innovation Awards span 24 different categories and feature an additional six companies singled out for “Best in Show” recognition. Judges for this year’s competition included representatives from the Verizon Innovation Program, TeliaSonera International Carrier, Comcast, and T-Mobile USA. Companies were judged based on:

  • technological innovation
  • financial impact
  • market validation
  • compatibility with existing network environments
  • end-user customer experience

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in San Diego, ID Analytics demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2015. Payfone demoed its 1 Touch Checkout solution at FinovateFall 2012. Payfone was founded in 2008 and is based in New York City.