Author: David Penn

OnDeck Adds New Small Business Lending Options

OnDeck Adds New Small Business Lending Options
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: On Deck Capital

OnDeck_homepage_Oct2015

Online SME lender OnDeck has announced a significant expansion of its product line for small businesses.

The expanded product suite includes broader loan terms—increasing the maximum loan amount from $250,000 to $500,000—and granting borrowers up to 36 months to repay (from 24 months). Lines of credit will be available up to $100,000 (from $20,000) for a monthly fee of $20 and no “draw fees.” Repeat customers will be eligible for annual rates as low as 5.99%, as well as loyalty pricing benefits.

Calling the new product line a “natural expansion,” OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow said the new options would give customers more ways to finance their growth. The combination of OnDeck’s “fifth-generation OnDeck Score,” its economies of scale, and its customer service, he said, meant the company was now able provide “credit solutions for virtually any small business financing need.”

OnDeck_stage_FinDEVr2014

From left: Ondeck’s Miranda Lanzillotti, marketing communications manager, and Pamela Rice, senior vice president of technology, discussed lending APIs at FinDEVr 2014.

One of the pioneers in alternative lending, OnDeck has used data aggregation and digital payment technology to provide small and medium businesses with capital since 2007. Since inception, the company has delivered more than $3 billion in funds to companies working in more than 700 industries. OnDeck provides its third-party partners with APIs that deliver fully integrated lending functionality that includes loan applications, preapprovals, and prequalifications.

Just this week, OnDeck announced it was expanding its partnership with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. And last month, the company teamed up with Intuit to launch a $100 million lending fund for small businesses.

Fortune magazine listed OnDeck as one of the 100 Best Places to Work for Millennials. The company was highlighted among the top 25 alternative lending startups by Let’s Talk Payments, and ranked in the top 20 of Selling Power’s list of 2015 Best Companies to Sell For.

OnDeck presented at FinDEVr 2014 in San Francisco and returned this year to FinDEVr 2015. In 2012, OnDeck demonstrated OnDeck Connect at FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in New York City. OnDeck went public in December 2014, raising $200 million and earning a valuation of $1.3 billion.

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SumUp Brings its mPOS Technology to America

SumUp Brings its mPOS Technology to America
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: SumUp, VISA

SumUp_homepage_Oct2015

SumUp, a leading European mPOS (mobile point of sale) innovator, is launching in the United States.

And if you ask SumUp CEO Daniel Klein, the company has arrived just in time.

“We are here to help U.S. merchants and partners, such as cash register vendors, to transition quickly and securely to EMV, by making payments as easy as possible for their customers,” Klein said. He pointed out that SumUp is the “platform of choice for EMV transactions in 14 countries” serving tens of thousands of merchants.

SumUp_stage_FEU2013b

SumUp CMO and co-founder Stefan Jeschonnek demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

As part of its U.S. launch, SumUp will be unveiling a new EMV contactless card terminal, available for pre-order at $99. The new terminal is designed specifically for the U.S. market, enabling merchants to accept electronic and e-wallet, Apple Pay and Android Pay payments via NFC, as well as accept payments with EMV chip-cards. “The shift to EMV chip-cards puts more costly fraud liability on stores without chip terminals,” Klein added, “but only half of small businesses are even aware of EMV liability.”

SumUp provides end-to-end payment-processing solutions supported by its own proprietary EMV card terminals, and mobile apps. U.S. merchants using the technology will be able to accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express payments. SumUp will charge a transaction fee of 2.75%. The company plans to announce strategic partnerships with “major U.S. companies” soon.

One company already partnered with SumUp is Visa, whose SVP for Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Bill Gajda, praised SumUp’s “impact on the conversion of cash to electronic commerce” around the world. Gajda added that encouraging EMV adoption was also important. “We are focused on encouraging and supporting the adoption of EMV chip technology in the U.S. as quickly and efficiently as possible, so that everyone can realize the powerful security benefits that EMV chips provide,” he said.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, SumUp demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. The company has more than $56 million in funding.

For more information about our upcoming FinovateEurope 2016 conference, visit our information page.

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Xpenditure Raises $5.7 Million in Series A

Xpenditure Raises $5.7 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Xpenditure

Xpenditure_homepage_Oct2015

FinovateEurope 2014 alum Xpenditure has just raised $5.7 million in new funding. The investment takes the Belgium-based expense management solution provider’s total capital to more than $9 million.

The Series A round was led by a variety of private investors, including current shareholder Bart Swanson, along with Lorenz Bogaert, Toon Coppens, and Jonas Dhaenens.

Writing about the investment at the Xpenditure blog, company CEO and co-founder Boris Bogaert said the investment comes as the company is poised for growth in Europe and beyond. Bogaert added that Xpenditure plans on “doubling the team in the next four months” as well as making additional investments in technology.

CardWise_Xpenditure_stage_FEU2014

From left: Co-founder and COO Wim Derkinderen and Head of Product Koen Christiaens demonstrated Xpenditure at FinovateEurope 2014.

Xpenditure specializes in providing alternatives to traditional, often manual, expense report management. Or, as Bogaert is quoted in TechCrunch, “We want to kill the monthly expense report.” He pointed out that creating worthwhile solutions requires more than simply recreating manual processes in digital form, as some software companies have tried to do.

Instead, Xpenditure provides businesses with a solution that handles the entire expense management process from receipt to accounting. Xpenditure’s mobile app allows users to scan and upload receipt data directly to their online account. A dashboard enables transparency and easy expense management. Businesses can generate PDF reports or create them within their accounting and ERP software such as Intuit’s QuickBooks and Xero.

Founded in 2011 and officially launched in March 2013, Xpenditure demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2014 in London. The company has offices in New York, Brazil, Germany, and Belgium, and serves customers in more than 22 countries around the world.

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IDology Announces “Significant” Strategic Equity Investment in Payfone

IDology Announces “Significant” Strategic Equity Investment in Payfone
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: IDology, Payfone

IDology_homepage_Oct2015

IDology, an identity-verification specialist out of Atlanta, has made a strategic equity investment in mobile authentication startup and fellow Finovate alum, Payfone.

Terms were not immediately available, but the investment was described as “significant” by IDology, according to reporting at American Banker. And as part of the investment, IDology has integrated Payfone’s network authentication into its ExpectID Mobile solution.

With this move, IDology will add both network authentication and transaction monitoring to its ID verification and anti-fraud solutions. ExpectID Mobile works by establishing a persistent mobile identity for each consumer that can be maintained through multiple life cycle change events. The mobile identity is resistant to mobile fraud tactics and can be created with or without ID verification.

Payfone_homepage_Oct2015

IDology CEO John Dancu added that the partnership reflects IDology’s commitment to mobile technology that “strike(s) a balance between convenience and security” and provides “frictionless access to products and services.” Payfone CEO Rodger Desai called IDology an “excellent strategic partner” and said the new relationship also would be an opportunity for his company to fight fraud in markets such as alternative finance and payment gateways.

Recent headlines for IDology include the fall 2015 launch of its email validation technology, ExpectID Email in September, and picking up the Southeastern Software Association Impact Award from the Technology Association of Georgia in the Technology Solutions Provider category in May. A finalist in the 2015 Business Intelligence Group (BIG) Innovation Awards, Payfone made a major pivot two years ago to focus its technology away from payments and toward authentication. Read more about Payfone in an interview with Desai in the New York Business Journal.

Founded in 2003, IDology demoed its ExpectID Enterprise solution at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. Payfone also made its Finovate debut at the fall conference in New York in 2012. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in New York City, the company demonstrated its 1 Touch Checkout solution.

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Worldpay Goes Public; Shares Rally on Trading Debut

Worldpay Goes Public; Shares Rally on Trading Debut
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: WorldPay

Worldpay_homepage_Oct2015

With a successful FinDEVr 2015 behind us, and an exciting FinovateEurope 2016 around the corner, it is hard for us to hide our excitement over the IPO of FinDEVr 2015 newcomer, Worldpay. The British payment processor went public last week on the London Stock Exchange, opening at 240 pence ($3.68) per share on Tuesday and ending the session up more than 5% at 253 pence. Later in the week, shares were trading above 260 pence.

Worldpay, which is owned by private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital, has earned a valuation of more than $7 billion (£4.8 billion). The company offered 900 million shares, and is expected to raise more than £2 billion through the IPO, more than £947 million of which will return to WorldPay.

As the Financial Times reported, the Worldpay IPO was the biggest initial public offering in the U.K. in two years, and the largest ever of a private equity owned company in the U.K.

Worldpay_1101

Worldpay SVP and Head of Strategy Chester Ritchie demonstrated Worldpay’s Securenet API at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.

Worldpay CEO Philip Jansen referred to the public offering as a milestone, but contextualized it with investments the company itself has made to build its business. “We have already invested over £1 billion in our technology, people, and capabilities,” Jansen told the FT. “(We’ve) become an advanced and sophisticated technology-led organization with great potential.”

Worldpay was created out of the Royal Bank of Scotland as a standalone entity in 2010. With revenues of more than £860 million ($974 million USD) in 2014, the company processes more than 30 million mobile, online, and card transactions daily. The company’s IPO contrasts with that of First Data, a U.S. payment processor that also went public this week in the largest pubic offering of the year (First Data sought to raise $3.7 billion). Shares of First Data failed to gain traction with investors, with the stock finishing the week slightly below its IPO price of $16.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley led the offering with Lazard serving as financial adviser for Worldpay.

For its FinDEVr debut earlier this month, Worldpay introduced its Securenet API. The technology enables developers to add secure payments to websites, apps, and mobile devices. Worldpay’s experience with APIs includes winning Best New Product of the Year in the SMB category of the Best in Biz Awards 2015 International for its payments-integration solutions.

Live video of Worldpay’s FinDEVr presentation will be available soon.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA Compass, blooom, Cloud Lending, CurrencyFair, Expensify, Fastacash, IDology, Interactions, Kantox, Payfone, PayPal, Persistent Systems, SnoopWall, TransferWise, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

  • “IDology Announces “Significant,” Strategic Equity Investment in Payfone“
  • “Worldpay Goes Public; Shares Rally on Trading Debut”

Around the web

  • Fastacash announces strategic investment in Myanmar-focused, MyPAY.
  • American Banker interviews CEO Manolo Sanchez, BBVA Compass.
  • Persistent Systems announces technology partnership with Municipal Corporation.
  • Independent.IE features CurrencyFair, Expensify, and PayPal in a review of 20 PFM apps.
  • Fox Business interviews Blooom President Greg Smith on the future of 401(k) plans.
  • Silicon Review lists SnoopWall as 1 of 20 fastest growing security companies.
  • The Hindu features Cloud Lending Solutions’ co-founder Snehal Fulzele.
  • Interactions wins bronze Stevie Award in the Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year category. This is its fourth consecutive Stevie Award.
  • Slush.org interviews Kristo Kaarmann, TransferWise co-founder.
  • The Culture Trip highlights Kantox in its review of successful Barcelona startups.

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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Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors

Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: blooom, Funding, Fundings

blooom_homepage_Oct2015

In its first outside-capital raise, personal investment-management platform Blooom has hauled in $4 million. The Series A round was led by QED Investors, a firm that has invested in a variety of fintech startups—and Finovate alums—in recent years, ranging from Braintree and Credit Karma to Prosper and LendUp.

Also participating in the round were DST Systems Inc., Commerce Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and UMB.

Blooom_stage_FF2014

Blooom Co-Founders Chris Costello and Randy AufDerHeide demonstrated at FinovateFall 2014.

Blooom operates in one of the more interesting niches in personal investment management, 401(k) accounts. Unlike other investors, many 401(k) account holders never asked for them—they were simply a job benefit. As such, 401(k) investors represent a potentially huge market of investors who need help managing these accounts wisely.

The company’s leadership team includes former investment banker Greg Smith who penned the notorious “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs” piece for the New York Times in 2012. Now president of Blooom, Smith feels he is finally with an organization that “aligns with his values” and the issues of customer service and putting clients first he wrote about in his critical NYT op-ed.

Blooom works by giving investors a short questionnaire about their current financial status, risk tolerance, and investment preferences. Consumers can take advantage of the free 401(k) comparative analysis or sign up for ongoing account management, including rebalancing and allocation adjustments. Price is either $1 a month for clients with account values below $20,000, or $15 a month for larger accounts.

Read more about Blooom in its Finovate debut feature from last fall.

Recent headlines for Blooom include winning a grant last month from LaunchKC. The company has been profiled in Forbes, highlighted as a member of the “Silicon Prairie” in Inc, and referred to as “the future of retail savings” by COOConnect.

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

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Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA

Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Roostify

Roostify_homepage_Oct2015

While deal-terms were not disclosed, we learned late Wednesday that mortgage-transaction technology innovator Roostify has wrapped up a Series A investment round led by USAA.

“Roostify is innovating the home-buying process for consumers and lenders through a platform that brings simplicity and efficiency to something that sorely needs it,” said Michael Smith, USAA executive director for corporate development.

Roostify CEO Rajesh Bhat asserts the solution “brings a user friendliness to the process that benefits lenders and applicants by streamlining the process. (It cuts) the time to close loans and lessens errors in the applications.”

Roostify_stage_FS2014

From left: Roostify Lead Engineer Jonathan Kirst and CEO Rajesh Bhat demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose, California.

Also participating in the funding were Colchis Capital and “two tier-1 banks.” Bhat said the funding will help grow the technology and bring more lenders to the platform.

Roostify simplifies the challenging process of buying a home for all parties involved. Home-buyers using the platform benefit from 100% transparency and greater control over the process, resulting in greater accountability and lower costs. Lenders can approve and process more loans faster using Roostify, having processed thousands of applications through the platform since its launch in early 2014.

Founded in March 2013 and headquartered in Burlingame, California, Roostify made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Avalara, BizEquity, blooom, eMoney Advisor, Kontomatik, LOYAL3, Misys, MX, Roostify, Tradeshift, Tradier

On Finovate.com

  • “Mortgagetech on the Move as Roostify Closes Series A Round Led by USAA”
  • “Blooom Announces $4 Million Series A Round Led by QED Investors”

Around the web

  • BizEquity announces strategic partnership with eMoney Advisor.
  • Vietnam Public Joint Stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank) deploys digital banking platform from Misys.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Konstantin Rabin, Kontomatik CMO.
  • BAI Retail Delivery conference attendees select MX as the Innovation Showcase Award winner.
  • Global AutoTrading integrates with Tradier to extend brokerage services.
  • Avalara announces sales-tax accuracy guarantee.
  • LOYAL3 Securities will act as co-manager for Square’s IPO.
  • Customers of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV rollout will automatically have free access to Tradeshift’s e-invoicing solution.
  • Arxan now secures applications running on 500+ million devices.

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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Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology

Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Hoyos Labs

HoyosLabs_homepage_Oct2015

When it comes to biometric touch-based authentication, Hoyos Labs believes four points are better than one.

The authentication infrastructure specialist unveiled its 4F biometric technology at the Biometrics 2015 show in London this week. The smartphone technology simultaneously captures four fingerprints and works in any environment, leveraging the mobile device’s photo flash as a light source. Company founder and CEO, Hector Hoyos says the technology is “touch-less, four-finger acquisition with 150 degrees of freedom.”

HoyosLabs_stage_FF2014

Hoyos Labs CEO Hector Hoyos demonstratied the mobile app of the Hoyos ID Identity Assertion platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Using facial, voice, and fingerprint technologies such as 4F, Hoyos specializes in mobile biometric authentication solutions, seeking to move digital asset security beyond the world of passcodes, PINs, and tokens. The company’s open protocol standard was approved by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in September, certifying the technology as an internet and mobile device-authentication global standard. Hoyos Labs joined the FIDO Alliance in March 2015.

Hoyos Labs was founded in December 2013 and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Boston, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Bucharest, Beijing, and Oxford (U.K.). The company demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2014.

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American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features 11 Finovate Alums

American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features 11 Finovate Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AcceptEmail, Avoka, BioCatch, Feedzai, Fenergo, Gro Solutions, Intellaegis, Ripple, Trunomi

FintechForward_AmericanBanker_BAIIn the same way that celebrities examine the memoirs of other celebrities to see if and how frequently their names are mentioned, I admit my first thought upon seeing American Banker’s roster of “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” was: “How many Finovate/FinDEVr alums?!”

American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” feature is a part of Fintech Forward, its collaboration with BAI. The goal of the partnership is to “identify the forces and trends that are motivating banks’ technology investment.”

Companies for the list were selected by a panel of judges from American Banker, BAI, Citi, Santander, and Rockland Trust, who focused on three criteria:

  • Does a company offer innovative technology?
  • Does it solve a real business problem?
  • Is it ready for prime time?

So with the bar set, here are the Finovate alums that made the cut.

Rounding out the top 20 were Untapt, Gigaspaces Technologies, IdentityMind Global, Addepar, Zenbanx, nCino, Moneythink, InAuth, and Iovation.

In addition to its “20 Fintech Companies to Watch,” Fintech Forward has produced its “Top 100 Companies in Fintech” and “Top 25 Enterprise Companies” rankings. Both rosters feature numerous Finovate and FinDEVr alums, as well.

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Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion

Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Moven

Moven_homepage_Oct2015

Mobile banking innovator Moven has picked up $12 million in new funding. The investment round was led by Route 66 Ventures, and takes Moven’s total capital to more than $24 million. Anthemis Group, Atlas Asset Management, NY Angels, and Raptor Group’s Jim Palotta also participated in the series B round.

The new capital will help Moven expand internationally, particularly into Canada and New Zealand. Moven announced a partnership with TD Canada last December, and has been working with New Zealand’s Westpac since August 2014.

Moven_stage_FS2015

Moven CEO and founder Brett King demonstrated Moven Financial Health Platform at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

In addition to deals with TD Canada and Westpac, Moven inked a deal with Accenture in May, in which the two would “jointly develop next-generation digital banking solutions.” The agreement also called for building solutions that will help banks worldwide adopt digital technology faster, more efficiently, and less expensively.

Winner of a Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2015 for its Financial Health Platform, Moven was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York City. The company launched its mobile-first bank to the public in March 2014, and has since partnered with MoneyDesktop (now MX), and taken its mobile technology to wearables via Motorola’s Moto 360 and Samsung Gear smartwatches. Moven’s CEO and founder Brett King is the host of Breaking Banks, a weekly radio program on disruption in banking.

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