Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Forbes column on a “$30 trillion customer service experience” features insights from Motif Investing CEO Hardeep Walia.
  • Wells Fargo funding authorizes ApproveIt Web Server from Silanis Technology as part of their approved e-signature solutions program.
  • Sun Sentinel article highlights Toshl Finance in a discussion on the eight things you should know before going to college.
  • Column on RIAs and the active ETF market quotes AlphaClone CEO Mazin Jadallah.
  • Bright Funds establishes six disaster-response funds to support Nepal disaster relief.
  • The Economist features Lending Club, Prosper, Zopa, and Kreditech in its look at P2P lending and “financial democracy.”
  • Axis Bank launches Ping Pay, a multisocial payment app, in partnership with Fastcash.
  • PYMNTS.com considers what itBit’s New York banking license and $25M funding means for the broader bitcoin community. See itBit at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose this week.
  • ACI Worldwide signs Letter of Commitment to support U.K. Faster Payments Scheme’s New Access Model.

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.

FinovateSpring 2015: We’re On the Way to San Jose

FinovateSpring 2015: We’re On the Way to San Jose

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Spring has sprung! And with it, the return of FinovateSpring to the Bay Area for our second event in San Jose!

This year we will miss the throngs of San Jose Sharks fans marching down the street, packing the pubs, and enjoying the performance of their beloved NHL playoff contender. But we are looking forward to the throngs of financial technology fans who have already saved their spots at what is shaping up to be the biggest FinovateSpring to date.

So, whether you will be joining us here in San Jose, or following us online via Twitter feed (@Finovate) or our Live Blog here at Finovate.com, here’s everything you need to know to be ready when the lights go up on the Finovate stage Tuesday morning.

Schedule
Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 12 May. The first demo begins at 8:55 a.m. The final demo of Day One begins at 4:02 p.m.

On Wednesday, registration begins at 8:00 a.m. The first demo will start at 8:55 a.m. The final demo of Day Two begins at 2:28 p.m., with the Best of Show award ceremony at 4:15 p.m.

There’s still time to be a part of our record-breaking audience. Visit our registration page and pick up your ticket today.

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Venue
FinovateSpring returns to the City National Civic, near the campus of San Jose State University. Here’s the address for those of you joining us in person:

135 West San Carlos Street
San Jose, California 95113

Presenters
Over the course of two days, FinovateSpring 2015 will feature 72 companies demonstrating the latest in fintech innovation live on stage. Take a peek at our presenters below, and learn more about them at our presenters page, as well as in our Sneak Peek preview series.

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We hope to see you in San Jose! For more information, visit our FAQ page or email us at info@finovate.com.

itBit Raises $25 Million, Earns New York State Trust Charter Ahead of Finovate Debut

itBit Raises $25 Million, Earns New York State Trust Charter Ahead of Finovate Debut

itBit_homepage

Days away from its debut at FinovateSpring in San Jose, itBit has earned an investment of $25 million from new and existing investors. Participating in the round were Liberty City Venture, RRE Ventures, and individual investor, Jay W. Jordan II, as well as James Pallotta, chairman of Raptor Capital Management.

The round takes itBit’s total funding to more than $30 million. The company said in a statement that the capital will be used for both increasing investment in future products and services, as well as hiring talent in a wide variety of areas from engineering and operations to marketing and customer service.

The investment comes as itBit announces that it has won approval as a New York State trust company. This makes itBit the only federal and New York state compliant, U.S.-chartered and managed bitcoin exchange.

Charles Cascarilla, itBit co-founder and CEO, explained that the approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) will allow itBit to “serve as a custodian for our clients’ assets” and take advantage of the large pool of bitcoin traders in the U.S. Accounts will be dollar-denominated and FDIC-insured.

“Our mission at itBit has always been to create a trusted, institutional-grade exchange. Regulatory compliance is an important pillar of that mission,” Cascarilla said.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, itBit provides a platform for both institutional and retail traders and investors to buy and sell bitcoin. The company recently announced major additions to its board of directors: former FDIC chair Sheila Bair, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, and former FASB Chair Robert H.Herz.

Join itBit in San Jose for FinovateSpring 2015 next week. Seats are going quickly as we head for another record-breaking attendance at our annual spring event. Visit our registration page and save your spot today.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • itBit Raises $25 Million, Earns New York State Trust Charter Ahead of Finovate Debut Next Week in San Jose

Around the web

  • The Fiscal Times features Wealthfront, Betterment, Personal Capital, FutureAdvisor, SigFig, and Motif Investing in a column on the rise of the robo-adviser.
  • FierceFinanceIT highlights Lending Club and Prosper in its look at growing investment in P2P lenders by Wall Street.
  • Version 3.5 of Wallaby Financial’s new Android app provides ambient alerts to help consumers save on gasoline.
  • MiiCard CEO James Varga quoted in a column on Edinburgh’s tech pioneers.
  • CAN Capital reaches milestone of $5 billion in working capital facilitated through its platform.
  • Report on fintech in The Economist references Lending Club among key disruptors.
  • Nokia partners with Checkpoint for telco cloud security.
  • MyECheck completes acquisition and integration of Seergate.
  • Yodlee adds LearnVest acquirer, Northwestern Mutual, as client.
  • Javelin Strategy & Research lists 4 trends to watch at Finovate next week. Come see them unfold live at FinovateSpring 12/13 May.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

Around the web

  • itBit wins New York State Trust Company charter. See itBit at FinovateSpring 2015 next week.
  • PC Magazine features Arxan Technologies in a column on security and the “internet of things.”
  • London Evening Standard highlights TransferWise in its tribute to the young unicorns of London’s Silicon Circles.
  • PYMNTS.com looks at Lending Club and sees good things for the P2P marketplace.
  • NuMARK Credit Union deploys digital banking solutions powered by Digital Insight.

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.

Trizic Raises $3 Million in Seed Funding from Operative Capital

Trizic Raises $3 Million in Seed Funding from Operative Capital

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Less than a week away from its Finovate debut in San Jose, wealth-advisory technology innovator, Trizic has closed a $3 million seed funding round with Operative Capital.

Operative Capital initially invested $1 million in Trizic, and this week increased its investment by another $2 million. The funding will help the company roll out Trizic Accelerator, its digital wealth-advisory platform for broker-dealers and asset managers, as well as FIs and wealth-management firms.

Speaking for Operative Capital, founding partner Drew Sievers highlighted Trizic’s potential for disruption in the wealth-advisory digital space and the fact that, as a technology company, Trizic does not compete with its customers. Sievers is the former CEO and founder of mFoundry, (a Finovate alum).

“Well-known, direct-to-investor sites offering their solution to financial firms, asset managers, and RIAs have a direct conflict: Trizic isn’t a competitive threat to the wealth-management providers that are implementing Trizic Accelerator,” says Sievers.

Available as a white-label offering, Trizic Accelerator helps wealth-management professionals onboard and manage both new and existing clients, and automates up to 80% of back-office functions. Wealth managers can create model portfolios and execute trades. The platform’s algorithms ensure that processes are “tax-aware” and meet regulatory and fiduciary requirements. Clients can have different degrees of access to the platform on the front end based on their own technological and financial sophistication.

Founded in 2012, Trizic is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Brad Matthews is founder and CEO. See the company’s technology live on stage at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Wallaby Financial partners with NXT-ID to bring Wocket Smart Wallet to Wallaby customers.
  • Asseco SEE teams up with UniCredit CEE to launch its fully native new generation tablet banking solution in six Eastern European countries.
  • Nomis Solutions taps Michael DeGusta as vice president and chief architect.
  • Service Credit Union offers mobile banking services with Touch ID, courtesy of pilot program run by Digital Insight.
  • Financeit partners with eOriginal Inc., bringing eSignature technology to Financeit customers.
  • Studio Movie Grill launches digital gift cards powered by CashStar.
  • Banking Exchange column on real-time payments in the U.S. features FIS, Dwolla, and Ripple.
  • Zopa to help provide financing for Uber drivers looking to buy their cars, rather than rent them.
  • American Banker features LendKey. Check them out at FinovateSpring next week in San Jose.
  • American Banker reports that partnerships fuel Lending Club’s unexpectedly fast growth.
  • BizEquity launches new ‘Adviser Office’ service.
  • Pepperi partners with Xero to extend cloud accounting with mobile sales automation.

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.

Get Your Kicks: DriveWealth Earns Investment from Route 66 Ventures

Get Your Kicks: DriveWealth Earns Investment from Route 66 Ventures

DriveWealth_homepage

Just in time for its debut at FinovateSpring 2015 next week, DriveWealth has picked up its first institutional investor: Route 66 Ventures.

The amount of the Series A investment was not immediately available. DriveWealth plans to use the new capital to help onboard the company’s partners and customers, as part of its goal to “bring affordable investing to everyone, everywhere,” in the words of Robert Cortright, CEO and founder. Route 66’s managing partner, Michael Meyer pointed to two factors that had encouraged his firm to throw its support behind DriveWealth: experienced management and the company’s location in a “high growth” area within the global financial services industry. “We are excited to partner with the DriveWealth team to build a truly global retail investing platform,” Meyer said.

DriveWealth makes it easier for global investors to access U.S. stock markets. The brokerage-as-a-service platform provides apps, APIs, and other solutions for financial services companies in more than 135 countries around the world, enabling investors and traders to buy and sell U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and other assets.

DriveWealth was founded in May 2012 and is headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey. See them at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Get Your Kicks: DriveWealth Earns Investment from Route 66 Ventures. See DriveWealth make its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 next week in San Jose.

Around the web

  • India’s Karnataka Bank deploys “e-lobby” services from FIS. See FIS in action at FinovateSpring 2015.
  • Ayasdi earns spot on Computer Reseller News’ Big Data 100 for the third year in a row.
  • WhatTheyThink interviews Didier Rouillard, VP of service provider business for GMC Software Technologies.
  • Ventana Research highlights Nomis Solutions in report on price- and revenue-optimization software.
  • KUBRA to integrate InComm’s Cashtie API into its services.
  • Boku launches carrier billing technology on Google Play in Saudi Arabia.
  • Re/code: FutureAdvisor Launches Free Service to Manage College Investments
  • Killer Startups profiles oneID and its “internet without passwords.”

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.

Last Call for FinovateSpring 2015 Tickets

Last Call for FinovateSpring 2015 Tickets

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FinovateSpring 2015 is right around the corner and we are as excited as ever to see live and up close what our roster of 72 fintech innovators has in store. Have you picked up your ticket yet?

We hope you’ll join us. In fact, with registrations zooming past the 1,000 mark more than a week ago, there may be no better time than now to save your spot at the show.

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We think you’ll like what you see on stage this year with our lineup of live demos at FinvoateSpring 2015. But, as we hinted earlier this week with our Attendee Title Word Cloud, much of what makes Finovate events special results from the live “introductions” between fellow attendees that happens during the networking opportunities throughout the day.

To give you a feel of the caliber of the crowd you’ll be joining at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose, take a look at a sample of the more than 500 companies attending this year’s conference.

  • Accenture
  • Aite
  • Alliance Credit Union
  • Alliant Credit Union
  • Ally Bank
  • Alten Capital
  • Altpoint Ventures
  • America First Credit Union
  • American Express
  • ANZ
  • AXA Lab
  • Backbase
  • Baird Capital Partners
  • BancVue
  • Bank of America
  • Bank of Internet
  • Bank of the West
  • Barclays
  • BBCN Bank
  • BBVA
  • BDCV Venture
  • Blackrock
  • Bluerun Ventures
  • BNY Mellon
  • Bridge Bank
  • C1 Bank
  • Capital One
  • Capital Source
  • Celent
  • Celtic Bank
  • Charles Schwab
  • Chase Paymentech
  • Citi Ventures
  • City National Bank
  • Clipper Ventures
  • Commerz Ventures
  • Co-op Financial Services
  • Credit Karma
  • CU Central of Canada
  • Credit Suisse
  • Crosslink Capital
  • CUTech
  • CUNA Mutual Group
  • Darling Ventures
  • dataconomy
  • Deseret First Credit Union
  • Desert Schools FCU
  • Digital Insight
  • Discover Financial Services
  • Eastman Credit Union
  • Educators Credit Union
  • eFirstBank
  • E*Trade
  • Endeavour
  • Enova
  • Envestment
  • Equifax
  • Everbank
  • Experian
  • Ernst & Young
  • Federal Reserve of Chicago
  • Federal Reserve San Francisco
  • Fidelity
  • Filene Research Institute
  • Financial Products Research
  • Finovera
  • FIS
  • Fiserv
  • First Annapolis
  • First National Bank
  • First Republic Bank
  • First Tennessee Bank
  • Forbes
  • Forrester Research
  • Foundation Capital
  • Fujitsu Research Institute
  • Gartner Research
  • GE
  • General Atlantic
  • Gibraltar
  • Golden 1 CU
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Google
  • H&R Block
  • Harland Clarke
  • Hills Bank and Trust
  • Hudson City
  • Hyundai
  • IBM
  • Innovest
  • Intuit
  • Intellectual Ventures
  • J.P. Morgan Chase
  • Jack Henry & Associates
  • Javelin Strategy & Research
  • Jumio
  • Justice Federal CU
  • KeyBank
  • KPMG
  • Lending Club
  • LexisNexis
  • Libro Credit Union
  • Life.SREDA
  • MasterCard
  • Maybank
  • Mercator Advisory Group
  • Metropolitan Capital
  • Mindful Insights
  • Mountain America CU
  • NASDAQ
  • New York Life
  • North Hill Ventures
  • Obvious Ventures
  • Ohio Valley Bank
  • PayPal
  • PNC
  • PT Money
  • Privat Bank
  • PostFinance
  • Primerica
  • Public Service Credit Union
  • PSCU
  • Quantum Capital
  • Quicken Loans
  • RedStar Ventures
  • Rockville Bank
  • Route 66 Ventures
  • Royal Bank of Scotland
  • Safe Credit Union
  • Santander
  • Seattle Metropolitan CU
  • ScotiaBank
  • Silicon Valley Bank
  • Silvergate Bank
  • Square1 Bank
  • Solarity Credit Union
  • Sony Bank
  • Sorenson Capital
  • Stanford Federal Credit Union
  • Star One Credit Union
  • State Farm
  • Stockpile
  • Sumitomo Mitsui
  • Susquehanna Growth Equity
  • Swisscom
  • Target
  • TD Ameritrade
  • TD Bank
  • Tech Credit Union
  • Technology Crossover Venture
  • TDECU
  • The Bancorp
  • TPG
  • Transunion
  • TSYS
  • TwinStar Credit Union
  • Umpqua Bank
  • UBS
  • USAA
  • UW Credit Union
  • Visa
  • Wallaby
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Wells Fargo
  • Western Independent Bankers
  • Western Union
  • Wharton
  • William Mills
  • WSECU
  • Yodlee
  • Zions Bank

If these folks sound like your kind of people, then why not join them and us for an exciting two days of live demos and high-caliber networking at FinovateSpring 2015? Visit our registration page today and we’ll see you in San Jose next week.


FinovateSpring 2015 is sponsored by The Bancorp, CapitalSource, City National Bank, Envestnet, Financial Technology Partners, Hudson Cook LLP, KPMG, Kyriba, Life.SREDA, and Zions DirectTV.

FinovateSpring 2015 is partners with Aite Group, American Banker’s Association (ABA), Bank Innovators Council, Bankers Hub, BayPay Forum, bob’s guide, Breaking Banks, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, ebankingnews, Filene Research Institute, fin-tech.org, HotWire, Javelin Strategy & Research, Mercator Advisory Group, The Paypers, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Last Call for FinovateSpring 2015 Tickets! Join us in San Jose next week!

Around the web

  • Venture Scanner Insights features Motif Investing and TransferWise.
  • Top Image Systems names Carsten Nelk as chief technology officer.
  • DeviceFidelity picks up patent for its implementation of NFC.
  • CSI globalV Card wins multiple honors at the 2015 Communicator Awards.
  • Alcatel launches smartphone with EyeVerify biometric technology.
  • Striata partners with e-signature provider, CIC, to enable document execution via email.
  • Actiance now supports Skype for Business and Yammer.
  • ebankIT launches Watch Bank, an app that allows you to perform banking transactions on the Apple Watch.

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.

 

MX Raises $30 Million in Series A Investment

MX Raises $30 Million in Series A Investment

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Five-time Best of Show award winner, MX, has boosted its total capital to more than $50 million with this week’s raise of $30 million. The Series A round was led by USAA (via a subsidiary), and featured participation from existing investor Commerce Ventures and new investor Digital Garage, based out of Tokyo.

TechCrunch’s coverage of the fundraising cites Pitchbook’s valuation of the company formerly known as “MoneyDesktop” at more than $270 million after this week’s investment.

The strategic implications of the investment in MX include the opportunity to bring its personal/digital finance management technology to the more than 10 million customers of USAA. Vic Pascucci, head of corporate development at USAA, said, “We see an opportunity for MX’s technologies to benefit our members, and our investment is one way we plan to explore that opportunity.”

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With Digital Garage onboard, MX will leverage the firm’s experience in helping companies like Twitter expand overseas to do some international expansion of its own. President and Group CEO Kaoru Hayashi called MX “a dominant force in the U.S.” and referred to financial institutions in Japan as being “hungry for (the) full-stack solutions” that MX can provide.

Headquartered in Provo, Utah (“the heart of Utah’s Silicon Slopes”), MX specializes in helping banks and financial institutions provide omnichannel, “customer-centric” banking experiences. MX was founded in 2010 by Ryan Caldwell (CEO), and partners with more than 500 FIs and 30 online banking, core, and payment network providers. Providing a “truly cross-platform” experience—the company’s last demo at FinovateFall 2014 featured the platform running on more than eight different devices—MX is better able to ensure that their technology will integrate seamlessly with an FI’s current system and processes.