Author: David Penn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Payever

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Payever
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek, Payever

Payever_homepage_Dec2015

FEU2016_logo_withdateA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

payever_hi-res_logo_FEU16

The vision of Payever is to make commerce easy. They do this by solving problems faced in buying and selling everyday.

Features:

  • Point-of-sale self-financing in retail stores
  • Buying network for personal offers
  • Apps providing business with all the tools Amazon has

Why it’s great
We are solving the huge problem: to “pay everywhere,” with your preferred payment option.

Presenter:

Payever_A_SchlahtArtur Schlaht, CEO
Schlaht is truly an internet entrepreneur. He started his first business at 18 and never stopped.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Ethoca

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Ethoca
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ethoca, FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek

Ethoca_homepage_Dec2015b

FEU2016_logo_withdateA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

Ethoca_hi-res_logo_FEU16

Ethoca Alerts eliminates fraud and chargebacks through a merchant-issuer collaboration network that allows participants to share fraud and customer-dispute intelligence in real time.

 

Features:

  • Eliminate chargebacks and control chargeback ratios
  • Stop the fulfillment of fraudulent orders
  • Drive higher acceptance

Why it’s great
Ethoca Alerts provides an unparalleled source of cardholder-confirmed fraud and customer-dispute information that arrives much faster than the inefficient chargeback process.

Presenters:

Ethoca_J_Fergerson_2Julie Fergerson, SVP, Industry Solutions
With 20-plus years of experience, Fergerson is one of the industry’s foremost experts on internet payments fraud.

 

 

Ethoca_S_DurneySteve Durney, SVP, Issuer Relations
After spending 20 years working with a top-3 issuer, Durney is an expert in fraud prevention, dispute recovery, and cost reduction.

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Finovate Alums Take Silver and Bronze at UBS Future of Finance

Finovate Alums Take Silver and Bronze at UBS Future of Finance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: WealthForge

UBS_TheFutureofFinance

Finovate newcomer Capital Preferences and alum WealthForge won second and third place respectively at the UBS Future of Finance Challenge Finals last week. Aesthetic Integration, which specializes in the qualitative analysis of financial algorithms, took first place.

The first-prize winner was awarded $50,000. Capital Preferences earned $20,000, and WealthForge won $10,000. Along with the other 60 regional finalists, all three companies will have access to UBS’s expert mentors and partners, and three months of intensive support and acceleration to get innovations market ready. The competition featured more than 600 applicants.

WealthForge_logo_FS15_200pxOn making the finals last month, WealthForge Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder Mat Dellorso focused on how his company could help firms like UBS add “significant scalability to (its) network of financial advisers and investment banking professionals.” WealthForge earned its spot in the finals with its Invest Now button, demonstrated earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2015.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, WealthForge recently added Bill Robbins as chief revenue officer. A financial services veteran with more than 20 years of experience in building brokerage platforms, and a former president of BB&T Securities Services, Robbins will lead WealthForge’s sales, marketing and platform development.

Capital_Preferences_hi_res_logoIncorporated in 2014, Capital Preferences uses game theory, econometrics, and experimental economics to provide a unique client-risk profiling system for financial institutions. Calling client profiling “a major area of weakness for most advice firms,” Capital Preferences co-founder and CEO Bernard Del Rey credited UBS for recognizing his company’s technology and giving it a spot in the finals. He says the demand “for our technology and patent-pending methods” is from all sides of the industry and includes “bespoke private banks, regulators, and large-scale consumer-credit players in the U.S. and Australia.”

Capital Preferences makes its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. To find out more about our upcoming February fintech conference, visit our FinovateEurope 2016 page.

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Trulioo Raises $15 Million with Help from American Express Ventures

Trulioo Raises $15 Million with Help from American Express Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Trulioo

Trulioo_homepage_Dec2016

Identity-verification specialist Trulioo picked up $15 million in new funding to help fuel growth. The round featured participation from American Express Ventures, along with existing investors BDC Capital, Blumberg Capital, and Tenfore Holdings. Trulioo’s total capital now stands at more than $23 million.

Trulioo CEO Stephen Ufford called the investment a vote of confidence in the company’s ability to help FIs deal with the complexity of cross-border compliance. Specializing in AML (anti-money laundering) and KYC (know your customer) verification, Trulioo’s technology enables businesses to provide frictionless ID verification in more than 40 countries around the world.

Trulioo_stage_FinovateFall 2015

Anatoly Kvitnitsky, director of corporate development for Trulioo, demonstrated GlobalGateway at FinovateFall 2015.

Rohit Bodas of American Express Ventures highlighted Trulioo’s global reach as one of the reasons for backing the company, and called cross-border compliance “a complex problem and an important issue for the financial industry.” GlobalGateway, Trulioo’s identity-verification platform, leverages 145 different data sources, including alternative sources such as mobile apps, social media, and ad networks to verify online identities. The technology is effective in developing markets such as China, Brazil and India, and developers can integrate the technology via Trulioo’s web portal, XML Direct, or through a Normalized API.

Trulioo recently partnered with fellow Finovate alum Avoka and integrated GlobalGateway with the latter’s Transact technology. Trulioo expanded its coverage to India in October, taking its total reach to four billion worldwide.

American Express Ventures focuses on startups with technologies that can help it expand its core capabilities as well as grow in digital commerce and financial inclusion. The firm includes Finovate alums Bill.com, LearnVest, and Radius among its investments.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Trulioo demonstrated its GlobalGateway platform at FinovateFall 2015. The company also presented at the inaugural FinDEVr developers conference in 2014.

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Julie Parrish Joins Check Point as New Chief Marketing Officer

Julie Parrish Joins Check Point as New Chief Marketing Officer
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Check Point

CheckPoint_homepage_Dec2015

Former NetApp CMO Julie Parrish will join Check Point Software as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer.

“(Julie) is a key addition to our executive team,” Check Point president Amnon Bar-Lev said. He added that Parrish will help the company focus on “delivering best-of-breed products” and growing Check Point’s brand awareness in the security space.

Julie_Parrish_Checkpoint_cropParrish, who also served as SVP for worldwide channels sales at NetApp, pointed to Check Point’s “20-year track record” of innovation and said she looked forward to having “the opportunity to extend Check Point’s lead in the market.”

Prior to her work at NetApp, Parrish held leadership positions in marketing and channels sales at a number of Fortune 1,000 companies including Symantec, Nokia, and 3Com. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University .

Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP) specializes in providing online security solutions for both the enterprise and the consumer. With more than 3,400 employees, Check Point secures more than 100,000 businesses and “millions of users” around the world.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in San Carlos, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, Check Point Software Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2008. In July, the company’s consumer division, ZoneAlarm launched its Windows 10 compatible antivirus software, and in April Check Point partnered with FireEye to share threat intelligence.

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Lenny Loves Dwolla: Digital Payment Network Helps Bring Microloans to Millennials

Lenny Loves Dwolla: Digital Payment Network Helps Bring Microloans to Millennials
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dwolla

Dwolla_API_homepage_Dec2015

What happens when a millennial microlending app teams up with the white-label API of a digital payment network?

Courtesy of a new commercial agreement between Lenny and Dwolla, we will soon find out.

“Our goal is to provide a seamless and highly secure platform for our users’ transactions,” said Lenny founder and CEO Joe Bayen. “And Dwolla definitely meets all of our safety and security requirements.”

Dwolla_stage_FS2015_solo

Jordan Lampe, Dwolla’s director of communications and policy affairs,
demonstrated FiSync at FinovateSpring 2015.

Lenny focuses on providing microloans (up to $500 initially) to college-age students, using their educational background in general and their GPAs in specific, to help establish creditworthiness. Lenny is available at a limited number of universities in the U.S. now and plans to go nationwide with its iOS app in 2016.

Lenny will take advantage of Dwolla’s new white-label API to provide branded transfer, account creation, and verification services. Dwolla CEO Ben Milne said that his company’s platform would allow Lenny “to put their resources behind their core business: building a credit history for people who need one.”

Lenny_homepage_Dec2015

News of the partnership with Lenny comes just a week after Dwolla announced it would power P2P money transfers for Swedish payment processor, Seamless. In October, Dwolla inked a deal with the CME Group, bringing on-demand payment-capability to the exchange’s clearing and settlement operations. And in September, Dwolla teamed up with Comenity Capital Bank to add a new credit payment feature to its platform.

Founded in 2008 and based in Des Moines, Iowa, Dwolla has raised more than $32 million in funding. The company demonstrated its FiSynch technology at FinovateSpring 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, BankersLab, CAN Capital, Coinbase, Dwolla, Fenergo, Kony, Misys, Ripple, ThetaRay, TransferWise, Twilio

On Finovate.com

  • “CAN Capital’s CAN Connect APIs Now Offer iPayment Merchants Access to Funds”
  • “Lenny Loves Dwolla: Digital Payment Network Helps Bring Microloans to Millennials”
  • “BankersLab Closes on Undisclosed Amount in Angel Funding Round” Come to FinovateEurope 2016 to see their live demo.

Around the web

  • TransferWise chooses UP Framework from ACI Worldwide to enhance its ability to grow network and add payment types.
  • Fenergo launches its Data Integration Manager, integrates with Avox, Omgeo, and Clariet Global.
  • Pakistan’s Habib Bank (HBL) to implement FusionBanking Corporate Channels from Misys.
  • TechCrunch interviews CEO Jeff Lawson of Twilio.
  • ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit talks about the cyber attacks of the future for Infosecurity Magazine.
  • Coinbase to offer volume-based rebates for trades placed on Coinbase Exchange starting next week.
  • Kony launches Mobile Field Service solution to help enterprises mobilize and modernize their field service operations.
  • Microsoft’s Azure blockchain-as-a-service partners with Ripple, now operating a Ripple validating node for Ripple’s bank users.

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.

 

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Rippleshot Raises $1.2 Million in Round Led by KGC Capital

Rippleshot Raises $1.2 Million in Round Led by KGC Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Rippleshot

Rippleshot_homepage_Dec2015

Chicago-area cybersecurity specialist Rippleshot has raised $1.2 million in new funding. The investment round was led by KGC Capital and featured participation from UMB Bank; Wintrust; and SixThirty, the fintech accelerator based out of St. Louis.

Rippleshot says the new financing will help grow its team from eight to more than 30 in 2016. Developers, account managers, and sales staff are among the kinds of talent the company is looking for.

Rippleshot_stage_FF2014

Rippleshot Chief Scientist Randal Cox, co-founder, demonstrated the Rippleshot platform at FinovateFall 2014.

The company also announced that the co-founder of PerkStreet Financial, Jason Henrichs, will be joining the Rippleshot board of directors. Henrichs was also an early investor in anti-fraud analytics firm, Memento.

Rippleshot leverages big-data analytics and machine learning to detect and track down bankcard data-breaches. The company’s cloud-based technology focuses on the merchant side rather than the customer side, analyzing millions of daily credit card transactions for suspicious patterns. This approach provides a granular level of detail, enabling investigators to zero in on the specific stores, specific days, and even the specific POS terminals from which data has been stolen.

Founded in June 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, Rippleshot demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014. In November 2015, Rippleshot joined the fall cohort of the SixThirty accelerator program; in August, was a finalist in the BBVA Open Talent Competition; and this spring, earned a finalist spot in the MRC METAwards along with fellow Finovate alum, BioCatch. Canh Tran is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ayondo, BehavioSec, CAN Capital, Check Point, Coinbase, CurrencyTransfer, Encap, Holvi, Klarna, Lending Club, LOYAL3, Meniga, Mint, PrivatBank, Rippleshot, SmartyPig, SocietyOne, Tink, TransferWise, Trustly

On Finovate.com

  • “Rippleshot Raises $1.2 Million in Round Led by KGC Capital”
  • “SocietyOne Offering Car Loans to Uber Drivers in Australia”

Around the web

  • Xero adds two-step authentication to its accounting platform.
  • CAN Capital teams up with iPayment to help SMEs get access to working capital.
  • Let’s Talk Payments features Klarna, Holvi, BehavioSec, Trustly, Meniga, and Tink in a roundup of top Nordic fintech startups. Remember FinovateEurope 2016 comes to London on February 9 and 10.
  • “Check Point Names Julie Parrish as Chief Marketing Officer”
  • MyBankTracker names Mint, SmartyPig, Lending Club, Coinbase, and Loyal3 on its list of companies every millennial should know about.
  • “ayondo CEO Robert Lempka Explains Innovative Trading Solutions Live on CNBC Asia”
  • TechCrunch looks at TransferWise’s growth.
  • PaymentEye interviews Daniel Abrahams, CEO and co-founder of CurrencyTransfer.com.
  • Bankless Times talks with Encap Security CEO Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen on current trends in authentication technology.

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

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ThetaRay Lands $5 Million Investment from Alibaba, Partners with PwC

ThetaRay Lands $5 Million Investment from Alibaba, Partners with PwC
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ThetaRay

Thetaray_homepage_Dec2015

Israeli anti-fraud and cybersecurity specialist ThetaRay has locked in a $5 million investment from Chinese e-commerce titan, Alibaba. The investment is part of a larger $20 million round-in-progress that includes participation from General Electric, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Poalim Capital Markets, along with other investors.

ThetaRay’s technology specializes in detecting and preventing advanced persistent threat (APT), which is a type of network attack designed to steal information rather than simply destroy or damage a network or organization. The company’s solution also works against “zero-day” attacks—attacks via security vulnerabilities unknown to the vendor—within minutes of detection.

Thetaray_stage_FF2015

Pictured: ThetaRay VP of Product Udi Solomon demonstrated the ThetaRay platform at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

ThetaRay this week announced a new partnership with PwC, a global advisory firm specializing in audit and assurance, tax, and consulting services. The Global Joint Business Relationship will make ThetaRay technology a part of PwC’s advanced data-analytics service, and is PwC’s first with an Israeli cybersecurity firm.

“Using ThetaRay’s technology, we can help businesses utilize existing big data to discover opportunities, mitigate risks and increase revenues and profitability,” said Yaron Blachman, PwC Israel’s leader of technology and forensics consulting.

Founded in April 2013, with offices in Israel and the U.S., ThetaRay demonstrated its fraud and credit risk solution at FinovateFall 2015. The company was named “Most Innovative Industrial Internet Technology” at the Minds + Machines 2015 Conference sponsored by General Electric.

 

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Onovative Raises $1.2 Million in New Funding

Onovative Raises $1.2 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Onovative

Onovative_homepage_Dec2015

Onovative, which introduced its Core iQ bank marketing software at FinovateSpring earlier this year, has raised $1.2 million in a second round of funding. The investment takes the company’s total funding to more than $1.6 million.

“We’re very excited by the early reception of Core iQ in the marketplace,” said Onovative co-founder and CEO Michael Browning. “[We] feel that this round of funding gives us the ability to continue to achieve our vision of providing community banks and credit unions with software that is simple to use and affordable.”

Onovative_stage_FS2015

Pictured (left to right): Onovative co-founders Michael Browning and Clay Turner demonstrated Core iQ at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

The round was led by the Bluegrass Angels Fund. Also participating were the Sequel Fund, the Enterprise Angels Community Fund, the Kentucky Enterprise Fund, and Commonwealth Seed Capital, along with individual investors. Onovative says the funds will go toward “fuel[ing] sales growth and product development.” As part of the investment, Onovative relocated from its offices in Jeffersonville, Indiana, to its new headquarters in downtown, Louisville, Kentucky.

Onovative’s Core iQ helps FIs leverage their customer data to create personalized, sophisticated marketing campaigns, including automated distribution of print mail, email, and SMS text messages and outbound phone calls. Currently deployed in banks and credit unions across the U.S., the platform automates cross-selling and marketing communication for more than one million accounts a day.

Founded in June 2013, Onovative demonstrated its Core iQ technology at FinovateSpring 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BancVue, Meniga, NICE Systems, Radius, TradeHero, wipro, Xero, Zopa

Around the web

  • Financial Times talks with Zopa CEO Giles Andrews and his plan to disrupt banks.
  • Wipro acquires Cellent in 73 million euro deal.
  • Actimize from NICE Systems reaches 150 million customer milestone with its anti-fraud, cybercrime protections.
  • Radius launches improvements to its Global Payroll tool by introducing a way for employers to consolidate payroll across jurisdictions.
  • Xero introduces podcast series for small business.
  • Tech in Asia names Tradehero one of five interesting startups from Singapore.
  • Meniga partners with Bankdata to provide personal finance management to 11 banks in Denmark.
  • First Castle Federal Credit Union partners with BancVue.

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.

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