Author: David Penn

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Kontomatik

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

Kontomatik_homepage_Dec2015

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

Kontomatik_logo-FEU2016_new

Kontomatik is a banking API solution with Sign In Widget, a multilingual tool that is available for 7 countries and can be deployed in just 3 minutes. It is mobile friendly, too.

Features:

  • Our widget supports multiple languages
  • It can be used in multiple countries
  • Works perfectly on mobile devices

Why it’s great
Kontomatik API is here to bring your services fully online. Kontomatik Sign In Widget is here to bring your services to a global scale and allow a smooth adoption on mobile devices.

Presenters:

Kontomatik_M_TruszelMarcin Truszel, CEO
Truszel is CEO and founder of Kontomatik, a data-aggregation solution that is here to make the world of finance more innovative.
LinkedIn

 

 

Kontomatik_P_HiekmannPeter Hiekmann, VP Sales
Hiekmann has been in the financial services industry for more than 25 years and now he is approaching more and more financial and banking leaders to start leveraging data aggregation technology.
LinkedIn

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: North Side

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

NorthSide_homepage_Dec2015

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

NorthSide_hi-res_logo_FEU16

North Side enables people to access financial services, make transactions, and get help in context through speech or typing. Through dialogue, we clarify ambiguities and incomplete information.

Features:

  • Hands-off banking, as you drive or ride your bike
  • Personalized contextual help in the authenticated environment
  • Customers discover needed products and services through dialogue

Why it’s great
Banking through speech or typing is easy, natural, intuitive, and will be the next big thing.

Presenters

This is #1 !Eugene Joseph, CEO
Joseph developed intuitive person-computer interfaces for 30 years. He is Natural Language Understanding tech at North Side and data-driven, interactive graphics at Virtual Prototypes (now Presagis)
LinkedIn

 

Christian Hogan Lemieux, Technology Evangelist
With a strong background in linguistics, Lemieux works on various facets of the North Side NLU pipeline and semantic databases, and occasionally presents them publicly.
(not pictured)

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Capitalise

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

Capitalise_homepage_Dec2015

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

Capitalise_logo-resized

Capitalise uses the simplicity of words to turn investment ideas into executable and optimized investment strategies.

Features:

  • Trade and invest using your own words
  • Built-in investment prediction and optimization
  • Unlimited ideas and auto-execution when conditions are met

Why it’s great
Capitalise simplifies the investment process by bridging between the simplicity of common words and the complex words of automated trading.

Presenters:

Capitalise_S_RabinShahar Rabin, CEO, Co-founder
Rabin is a futures day-trader and formerly a trading product manager at eToro.
LinkedIn

 

 

Capitalise_A_ShiovichAmir Shiovich, CTO & Co-founder
Shiovich is formerly a R&D Team Leader at SuperDerivatives.
LinkedIn

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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

 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

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

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook