Author: David Penn

T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Lead $130 Million Investment in Twilio

T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Lead $130 Million Investment in Twilio
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco, Twilio

Twilio_homepage_Aug2015

An investment of $130 million has boosted the total capital of cloud communication innovator Twilio to more than $233 million. The Series E round was led by T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, and included participation from Salesforce Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Arrowpoint Partners, Amazon.com, and Altimeter Capital.

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson praised the way Fidelity and T. Rowe Price understood his company’s “developer-first, platform business model.” Twilio plans to use the new capital to speed up its product roadmap, particularly its Real-time Communications Suite; pursue new markets internationally; and expand its presence in the enterprise.

Twilio provides developers with APIs that make it easier to add voice, messaging, and video functionality into their mobile and web apps. The company launched its Programmable Voice solution in 2008, and now gives builders access to SMS, MMS, VoIP, authentication, video, and IP messaging. Twilio will make its FinDEVr debut at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco in September.

Twilio_homepage_API_Aug2015

Recent headlines for Twilio include the launch of Twilio IP Messaging in May, and Twilio Video in April. In February, Twilio made its first acquisition, purchasing authentication specialist, Authy, for an undisclosed sum. Twilio counts among its customers companies as diverse as Home Depot and Uber, Box and Coca-Cola.

findevrIn May, Twilio announced a $50 million development fund. In partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and DFJ, the fund will kickstart companies that have built solutions based on Twilio’s technology. The first company to be funded was conference calling app, Speakeasy, to the tune of $5 million.

Twilio is headquartered in San Francisco, and has offices in New York, London, Estonia, Columbia, Germany, Hong Kong, and Ireland. Join them at FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco next month.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Patch Of Land Adds Commercial Real Estate to Platform

Patch Of Land Adds Commercial Real Estate to Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Patch of Land

PatchofLand_commercial_homepage

Real-estate crowdlender, Patch of Land, has gone commercial.

Investors on the crowdlending platform will now be able to put their capital in commercial real estate opportunities instead of simply residential ones. Patch of Land said the addition of commercial real estate gives investors greater diversification, provides the opportunity for “consistent cash-flowing returns” and serves as a “complement” to the platform’s shorter-term residential real estate investment opportunities.

Patch of Land says investors can expect annual yields of between 6% to 10% with the commercial real estate, and terms of as few as 12 months and as many as 60 months are expected to be offered.

PatchofLand_stage_FF2014

From left: Patch of Land CMO AdaPia d’Errico, and CTO Brian Fritton, co-founder, demonstrated the Patch of Land platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

One of the largest real estate crowdfunding platforms in the United States with more than $32 million invested through the platform, Patch of Land is a peer-to-real-estate (P2RE) marketplace that connect accredited and institutional investors seeking asset-backed, high-yielding, short-term investments with borrowers looking for alternative funding sources.

Patch of Land was named to Entrepreneur magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies to Watch 2015 earlier this year. The company raised $23 million in new funding in a round led by SF Capital Group in April.

Here are a few more metrics on Patch of Land since inception in October 2013:

  • Total loans funded: $40,148, 500
  • Number of loans funded: 134
  • Total funds returned to investors: $6,866,745
  • Average loan size: $301,110

Patch of Land has investments in 25 states including California, Texas, New York, Florida, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Just over half (56%) of the projects funded by Patch of Land have been single-family residential, with multifamily residential coming in second at 36%. It will be worth watching to see how these numbers change now that commercial real estate is available as an investment option on the platform.

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

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, CR2, FutureAdvisor, i-exceed, NICE Systems, Patch of Land, Personal Capital, Radius, Thinknum, Twilio, Vanguard, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com

  • “T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Lead $130 Million Investment in Twilio“
  • “i-exceed Unveils Appzillon 3.1 with Enhanced Security, UX”
  • “Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund”

Around the web

  • Daily Fintech profiles financial analysis platform, Thinknum.
  • Patch of Land adds commercial real estate to its crowdfunding platform.
  • CR2 appoints Tammo van Leeuwen as market strategy director.
  • NerdWallet looks at Wealthfront, Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Personal Capital, and Vanguard in feature on how automation disrupts investing.
  • Dough Roller features FutureAdvisor as a free service to manage your child’s college fund.
  • Battery Ventures, a tech-focused investment firm, has agreed to acquire Physical Security Business Unit, part of the security division of NICE Systems in a deal valued up to $100 million.

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

Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund

Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Radius

Radius_homepage_July2015

An investment of $50 million gives predictive analytics innovator, Radius, total capital of more than $125 million and a valuation of somewhere between $500 million and true unicorn status: $1 billion, according to Fortune.

The round was led by Founders Fund, and featured participation from a host of other investors, including AME Cloud Ventures (Jerry Yang), BlueRun Ventures, Formation 8, Glynn Capital Management, Salesforce Ventures, and Yuan Capital. The new funding will support product development, as well as developing what Radius CEO Darian Shirazi called “the Radius customer success organization.”

In a statement, Joe Lonsdale, a founding member of Formation 8, highlighted the rapid adoption of Radius’ technology as a reason to support the company. “The team at Radius has pulled ahead with a clear network effect, which means that their data is getting updated hundreds of millions of times a day,” Lonsdale said. “It’s no surprise they are becoming the leading platform for marketing to businesses, and it’s clear they’re just getting started.”

Radius_FS2014_stage

Radius CEO Darian Shirazi demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Speaking of the struggle marketing professionals often have when working the data to better engage and reach customers, Shirazi said, “We address the challenge with a single, beautifully designed application that allows CMOs to navigate, define, expand, and acquire their entire customer universe.”

The capital infusion comes just a few weeks after Radius made headlines with a quartet of executive hires. In June, Radius added Chief Operating Officer David Obrand; Vice President of Sales Jerry Clarno; Senior Vice President of Strategy Andrew Garvin; and Senior Vice President of Marketing Angela Zener.

Radius specializes in providing businesses with big-data technology that helps them better understand their customers, identify new market opportunities, and intensify their marketing efforts. Solutions like the Radius Intelligence Cloud and Business Graph, according to Shirazi, make it easier for marketing teams to reach specific audiences. The company’s proprietary technology within The Intelligence Cloud uses data on more than 30 million SMEs in the United States, and more than 50 billion data points to help businesses turn their customer data into actionable marketing opportunities.

Radius was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

i-exceed Unveils Appzillon 3.1 with Enhanced Security, UX

i-exceed Unveils Appzillon 3.1 with Enhanced Security, UX
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: i-exceed

Appzillion3_1_screenshot

Meet the new Appzillon.

i-exceed technologies announced the release of Appzillon 3.1 this week. The company’s flagship mobile application development platform now comes equipped with a number of new enhancements designed to make it easier to create “fully functional, omnichannel apps.”

New widgets, style editors, additional default themes, and over-the-air (OTA) support have been added to the platform. New security features include static analyses reporting, enforced geo-fencing, biometric authentication, as well as the ability to add multiple encryption layers for further security automatically.

App testing has also been enhanced on the platform so that a single test can now be executed automatically across a number of different channels. The admin module has been upgraded to provide detailed analytics on app usage and performance.

 

iexceed_homepage_July2015

Recent headlines for i-exceed include the company’s partnership with Kris FinSoftware to spur development of the mobile internet in the Philippines—announced in July. i-exceed also notched a major deployment with Exim Bank in March, and began the year with an agreement with Indonesia’s Telkosigma to help the company build and market mobile versions of its banking, financial, and capital markets solutions.

i-exceed was founded in May 2011 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India. The company demonstrated its Appzillon platform as part of FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Behalf Closes $119 Million Series B

Behalf Closes $119 Million Series B
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Behalf

Behalf_homepage_July2015

Check out the big raise for Behalf.

Alternative small-business financier Behalf announced a $119 million investment that takes the company’s total capital to $129 million. The Series B round was led by MissionOG, an early to growth-stage VC firm, and the new funding will go toward adding staff, as well as providing more and larger working capital lines to SMEs.

Joining MissionOG in the Series B were Maverick Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, and Victory Park Capital. Victory Park Capital provided a credit facility as well as an equity contribution.

Behalf also announced the opening of new headquarters in New York City.

Behalf_stage_FF2014

From left: Behalf VP of Product Meeka Metzger; Director of Product, Andrew Abshere; and founder and CEO Benjy Feinberg presented the Behalf’s Vendor Platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Behalf enables small businesses to buy up to a $50,000 inventory. The company directly pays vendors for the small business, and the business pays Behalf back on terms ranging from $10-$30 per $1,000 per month. Behalf uses its proprietary credit-scoring technology to approve as many as 40% of its applicants, and can provide credit decisions in less than four minutes.

Merchants appreciate being able to pay vendors on whatever terms their vendors demand, and repay Behalf on terms that may be more flexible and favorable to them.

The company began 2015 with a new collaboration involving MasterCard and Comdata, to provide financing options for small businesses using MasterCard. In February, Behalf CEO Benjy Feinberg was interviewed by Ideamensch, and in March, the company was a finalist in the “Best B2B Innovation” category at the 2015 PYMNTS Innovator Awards 2015. Founded in 2011 and based in New York City, Behalf demonstrated its Vendor Platform at its Finovate debut, FinovateFall 2014.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Neon Release Adds Touch ID and Enhanced Notifications to Oink 2.0

Neon Release Adds Touch ID and Enhanced Notifications to Oink 2.0
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Oink, Virtual Piggy

Oink_app_homepage_July2015

Touch ID authentication and an enhanced notification engine are among the features in the Neon release of the new mobile app from Oink.

The upgrades balance greater functionality for younger millennials and generation Z on the one hand, with increased transparency for parents and regulators on the other. Dr. Jo Webber, CEO and founder of Oink (formerly Virtual Piggy), acknowledged that specific challenge. “By adhering to U.S. COPPA laws we are delivering the appropriate controls and safeguards to allow Oink money-transfers to be used by all members of the family,” she said.

Oink_Neon_screenshot_250xOink 2.0 is available for download from the Apple Store. The app is optimized for iPhone 5 and requires iOS 7.0 or later.

The app was introduced in early June. It features a new P2P capability that allowed family to deposit funds into an Oink account that could be used to fund a parent-supervised Oink card. The new notifications engine will give parents “complete visibility” into who is funding their children’s accounts, as well as the ability to manage individual funders, and to freeze spending from the account.

This past spring, the app was featured in USA Today’s list of “5 financial musts for college grads.” Oink was founded in February 2008, and is headquartered in Hermosa Beach, California. The company demonstrated its mobile app at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco, having won Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope 2013 in London earlier in the year.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

ShopKeep Rings Up $60 Million Investment

ShopKeep Rings Up $60 Million Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ShopKeep POS

ShopKeep_homepage_July2015

In a Series D round led by Activant Capital, ShopKeep has raised $60 million in new funding. The investment boosts the company’s total capital to more than $97 million.

The company plans to use the new financing to “grow its overall customer base, strengthen industry partnerships, and launch international operations, starting with the U.K. this month.”

Steve Sarracino, Activant Capital founder, who will be joining ShopKeep’s board of directors, put ShopKeep at the front of an “evolution” in the world of mobile payments and small business technology. “We see tremendous opportunity for the company to build on its existing success as the operating system for small business and retail.”

ShopKeep_stage_FF2012

From left: ShopKeep co-founders, CEO Jason Richelson and COO David Olk, demonstrated ShopKeep POS at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.

ShopKeep president and CEO, Norm Merritt added that he sees his company’s role as more than just providing SMEs with a point-of-sale system. “We now play the role of an IT department to small business owners, democratizing invaluable business-management tools previously accessible only to the big-box retailers.”

ShopKeep has developed an iPad-based point-of-sale system and business-management platform for small businesses. The company has more than 2,000 users of its technology; more than 18,000 customers; and processed more than $6 billion in transactions via its network in the past year.

The company was honored with a 2015 Silver Stevie Award for Customer Service in March. Also that month, ShopKeep acquired Payment Revolution for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition added payment processing to the ShopKeep platform. In January, ShopKeep launched its Pocket app that included real-time reporting functionality.

ShopKeep was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New York. The company demoed its point-of-sale system, ShopKeep POS, at FinovateFall 2012. While no valuation was released, based on this funding we added the company to our Fintech Near-Unicorn list.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arroweye Solutions, Behalf, Betterment, Dashlane, Expensify, HelloWallet, InComm, LoanNow, MasterCard, Oink, PayPal, Qapital, ShopKeep POS, SimplyTapp, Social Money, Taulia, TransferWise, Virtual Piggy

On Finovate.com

  • “Behalf Closes $119 Million Series D”
  • “Neon Release Adds Touch ID and Enhanced Notifications to Oink 2.0″
  • “ShopKeep Rings Up $60 Million Investment”

Around the web

  • Citibank India and MasterCard launch digital wallet, Citi MasterPass, in India.
  • This is Money features TransferWise in a look at the lack of transparency in exchange fees.
  • LoanNow earns #4 spot in Orange County Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work in Orange County 2015” roster.
  • PYMNTS looks at how PayPal’s Paydiant is powering Subway’s mobile-payments app.
  • Payments Views talks with Doug Yeager, HCE inventor and CEO of SimplyTapp, in its latest podcast.
  • Expensify launches New Investment Fund, Expensify Ventures, for fintech startups.
  • American Banker considers how banks are using startups such as Social Money and Qapital to bolster their offerings.
  • Dashlane launches One-Tap Password Changer for Apple Watch and iPhone.
  • John Hancock Retirement Plan Services now offers Morningstar’s HelloWallet financial wellness tool to plan-sponsors on its Total Retirement Solution platform.
  • Arroweye Solutions to provide EMV Credit and Debit Cards for Mountain America Credit Union.
  • TechCrunch: Betterment tops 100,000 customers and $2.5 billion AUM.
  • Taulia reports record revenue and ten customer wins for Q2 2015.
  • Mobile Payments Today looks at InComm’s drive to bring open-loop prepaid to mobile wallets.

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

The Full FinDEVr: A Look at the Final Line-Up for FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

The Full FinDEVr: A Look at the Final Line-Up for FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

FinDEVr2014_stage_large

We’ve been teasing you for weeks with previews of the companies that will be taking the stage at FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco.

Today we’re happy to unveil FinDEVr 2015’s full roster of platform-builders, API-developers, and tool-makers whose cutting-edge technologies are an indispensable part of fintech innovation.

FinDEVr returns to San Francisco, 6/7 October, for two days of demonstrations, discussions, and networking with a diverse group of fintech CTOs, engineers, and builders. Visit our registration page today and take advantage of “very early bird” savings. We hope you’ll join us.

FinDEVr 2015 will also feature at least two additional companies, one still in stealth mode.

The premier event for fintech developers, FinDEVr 2015 brings together everyone from CTOs to independent builders, engineers, and hackathon veterans. Read our Guide to FinDEVr 2015, and find out:

  • What makes FinDEVr special?
  • How big is the audience?
  • Who will attend?
  • Information about our 2-day, dual-track format, with more than 14 hours of demonstrations and presentations on the latest in platforms, APIs, software tools, and more.

See for yourself what all the talk is about. Check out our demo videos from last year’s inaugural FinDEVr event.

Early bird discount pricing is still available. But the savings won’t last forever. So visit our registration page today and save your spot at the fintech developer event of the year. We’ll see you in San Francisco!

FinDEVr is sponsored by Yodlee Interactive. Our event partners are the Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, California Bankers Association, Celent, The CoinTelegraph, Mercator Advisory Group, and SF Fintech.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr APIintelligence

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVr2015LogoV2Date

Are you building new financial technology? Be sure to register soon for the only event exclusively for fintech developers, FinDEVr 2015, on 6/7 October in San Francisco.

Industry news

  • SETL uses blockchain to help facilitate settlement of market transactions.
  • PaymentsViews interviews Doug Yeager, inventor of Host Card Emulation (HCE)
  • Let’s Talk Payments looks at how the financial services industry is learning to love the blockchain.

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr 2015 presenters

  • Worldpay and Paymetric team up to launch integrated payments solution for international commerce.
  • Marketing Mag interviews new VP of marketing for Thinking Capital, Roshni Wijayashinha.
  • ScriptRock updates its DevOps platform with new data visualization and search.
  • Coin Telegraph talks with Fidor Bank AG Product Manager for Cryptocurrencies and Assets, Vladimir Tomic (in German).

Alumni updates

  • Giftbit earns spot in Techstars Seattle 2015 accelerator.
  • Google Cloud Platform’s customer-supplied encryption keys now available in beta.
  • Bitcoin.com ranks Blockchain.info as the most-visited website in the bitcoin ecosystem.
  • Pich Technologies launches new website.
  • SimplyTapp President Ted Fifelski quoted in Mobile Commerce Daily feature on mobile payments.
  • CopSonic wins two prizes at Innocherche Awards, is named “Favorite of the Public.”

Stay up to date on daily developments by following FinDEVr on Twitter.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Coinbase, i-exceed, NAMU Systems, On Deck Capital, Ripple, Zooz

Around the web

  • i-exceed introduces Appzillon 3.1, featuring new widgets, style editors, over-the-air (OTA) support and more.
  • OnDeck unveils mobile app for small business owners.
  • Ripple Labs appoints former Treasury Department official, Michael Barr, as an adviser.
  • Zooz teams up with Bitnet to enable bitcoin payments on its platform.
  • Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to deploy Appian BPM platform.
  • NAMU Systems wins “Most Personalized Banking Experience” award from EPAM at the 2015 Citi Mobile Challenge in EMEA.
  • Coinbase earns a spot in MIT Technology Review’s 50 Smartest Companies in 2015.

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