Author: David Penn

Five Finovate Alums Named 2015 Technology Pioneers by World Economic Forum

Five Finovate Alums Named 2015 Technology Pioneers by World Economic Forum
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ayasdi, FutureAdvisor, Ripple, Sedicii, TransferWise

WorldEconomicForum_homepage

According to the World Economic Forum, whatever it takes to be a Technology Pioneer in 2015, a quintet of Finovate alums has got it.

Ayasdi, FutureAdvisor, Ripple Labs, Sedicii Innovations, and TransferWise were named as 2015 Technology Pioneers in the World Economic Forum’s Information Technology category.

AyasdiLogo_FF2014The Technology Pioneers program was launched in 2000 to give recognition to early stage companies developing new technologies that will have a “significant impact on business and society.” Previous winners have included AirBnB, Google, Next, SoundCloud, and Twitter.

futureadvisorlogoThe World Economic Forum chooses approximately 30 companies each year out of a pool of “hundreds” of applicants. The field is winnowed by a selection committee consisting of top technology experts, academics, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists who review the applications and submit a recommendation to the World Economic Forum. Since the program began, 600 companies from five continents have been represented in the Technology Pioneer program.

RippleLabs_logoCompanies interested in the 2016 program should apply before February 5, 2016. Applicants will be notified by mid-July 2016. More information about the program is available here.

Sedicii_logo_high-resAyasdi made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in New York. The company raised $55 million in funding this spring, taking its total to more than $100 million. FutureAdvisor recently unveiled its FutureGift solution, to make it easier for friends and family to make contributions to a child’s college savings plan. The San Francisco-based company demoed its platform at FinovateFall 2013, and has total capital of more than $20 million.

Transferwise_logo_newRipple Labs picked up a $28 million investment and hired former Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse as its new chief operating officer in April. Irish startup Sedicii demoed its authentication solution at FinovateEurope 2015, and TransferWise, making its Finovate appearance at FinovateEurope 2013, began 2015 with a $58 million fundraising led by Andreessen Horowitz that boosted the company’s total capital to more than $90 million.

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Friday is the Final Day to Save Big on FinovateFall 2015 Tickets

Friday is the Final Day to Save Big on FinovateFall 2015 Tickets
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2015

FinovateFall2014_stage_balconyview_800

At Finovate, the Early Bird gets the hundred-dollar discount.

This Friday is the final day of Early Bird ticket sales for FinovateFall 2015. Our fall conference returns to New York City, 16/17 September for two days of live fintech demonstrations and high-caliber networking. The show will take place at the New York Hilton Midtown on the Avenue of the Americas. Find out more about the venue and local hotels here.

We hope you’ll join us. And we really hope you’ll take advantage of our early bird discount and save $100 off the ticket price by registering before the end of the week.

FF2015LogoRevLarge

We began introducing the companies that will be presenting at FinovateFall 2015 last month. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share more information, background, and insights into the entrepreneurs and innovations that will be on stage next month in New York City. Take a peek at the current roster below, and look for the full list of presenters the first few days of September.

FF2015_Presenters_Graphic

With 10 hours of live fintech demonstrations and another eight hours dedicated to networking among attendees, presenters, sponsors, and partners, FinovateFall 2015 is a unique opportunity to meet with some of the biggest problem-solvers and solution-builders in fintech. Come for the live demos. Stay for the Best of Show voting and celebration. And enjoy a sneak peek at what some of our industry’s most innovative entrepreneurs and organizations have to offer.

Time is running out, so we’ll let you take it from here. Early bird savings on tickets to our fall conference end on Friday. Stop by our FinovateFall 2015 page and register today.

FinovateFall is sponsored by The Bancorp, CapitalSource, Envestment, Financial Technology Partners, Hudson Cook, KPMG, and Zions SBIC.

FinovateFall is partners with Aite, American Bankers Association, Bank Innovators Council,BankersHub, bobsguide, Breaking Banks, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, CoinTelegraph, Crowdfund Beat, Ebanking News, Hotwire, IDC Financial Insights, Javelin,Let’s Talk Payments, Mapa Research, Mercator Advisory Group, MergerMarket, The New Economy, NYPAY, The Paypers, SME Finance Forum, and World Finance.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ayasdi, Corezoid.com, Dragon Wealth, EverSafe, Flint Mobile, FutureAdvisor, Global Debt Registry, MaxMyInterest, PayNearMe, Q2, Qapital, Socure, Tradier, Xignite

On Finovate.com

  • “Socure Secures $2.5 Million in Debt Financing”
  • “Five Finovate Alums Named 2015 Technology Pioneers by World Economic Forum”

Around the web

  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Stephane Dubois, Xignite CEO and founder. See Xignite at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco in October.
  • Flint Mobile upgrades its iOS mobile app to improve compatibility with Apple Wallet.
  • Cloud OS Corezoid is now available via the Amazon Marketplace (in Russian).
  • Forbes notes MaxMyInterest, Dragon Wealth, and EverSafe in a feature on the global growth of fintech accelerators.
  • Market Visual integrates with the Tradier API to enable investors to manage stock portfolios and trade on a single platform.
  • Q2 Holdings acquires Centrix Solutions for $20 million.
  • Ayasdi named a 2015 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum.
  • Delaware Business Times profiles Global Debt Registry.
  • RateFuel asks if Qapital represents the “future of banking.”
  • PayNearMe partners with The California Department of Child Support Services to offer a new payment option for cash-paying customers.
  • FutureAdvisor launches FutureGift to help friends and family easily contribute to kids’ college funds.

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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Socure Secures $2.5 Million in Debt Financing

Socure Secures $2.5 Million in Debt Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Socure

Socure_homepage_Aug2015

Finovate has confirmed that ID-authentication specialist Socure has raised $2.5 million in debt financing. This supports a recent report that Socure CEO Sunil Madhu had filed a Form D with the SEC in late July.

The debt financing adds to the more than $4 million in equity capital Socure has earned. The company’s last fundraising was a $2.5 million investment Novembe 2014 that featured participation from ff Venture Capital, Founder Collective, and Two Sigma Ventures.

Socure_stage_FF2013

From left: Socure CEO Sunil Madhu and Johnny Ayers, SVP of business development, demonstrated their company’s Social Biometrics technology at FinovateFall 2013.

Socure provides a real-time identity-verification technology to help payments-remittance companies, FIs, and online merchants combat identity fraud. The company’s Social Biometrics platform is an SaaS solution that combines artificial intelligence, machine learning, and social behavior-pattern analysis to distinguish qualified logins from attempted logins by fraudsters and bots.

Socure announced last month that it had earned U.S.-EU and U.S. Switzerland Safe Harbor Certification. This assures customers that the company’s handling of sensitive data meets the privacy requirements of both the European Union and the Swiss government. In June, Socure was profiled in PYMNTS.com, which interviewed co-founder Johnny Ayers, SVP of business development, and Ken Allen, SVP operations.

Founded in August 2012 and headquartered in New York, Socure demonstrated its Social Biometrics solution at FinovateFall 2013. The company returns to the Finovate stage in September for FinovateFall 2015. To learn more about our upcoming conference in New York City, visit our FinovateFall 2015 page.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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