Author: David Penn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: RMS

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: RMS
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2015 Sneak Peek, RMS

RMS_homepage

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference here, and we’ll see you in New York!

RMS_logoRMS is an engagement solution provider focused on acquisition, cross-sell, rewards and referral marketing solutions for financial institutions. Our featured referral solution is presently YAP.

Features

  • YAP supports one or all lines of business simultaneously
  • Real-time performance analytics provide your performance impact
  • Leverages incentives of any type and price, per tier

Why it’s Great

RMS’s referral solution YAP delivers an engaging way for financial institutions to reward accountholders while generating valuable leads, saving up to 35% on acquisition costs.

Presenters

Baron Unbehagen, CEO
Unbehagen is behind RMS’s product strategies and overall vision. Previously, he spent over 20 years working with financial services companies in self-service channels and payments.
LinkedIn

Matt Domanico, SVP, Marketing
Domanico heads up marketing, program management, and product design. He brings 20 years experience in the financial services industry driving successful marketing and product strategies.
LinkedIn

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: North Side

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: North Side
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2015 Sneak Peek, North Side

NorthSide_homepage

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference here, and we’ll see you in New York!

NorthSide_logoNorth Side enables customers to use their own words (speech or typing) to access your applications and information. Customers can clarify their intent naturally, using conversation.

Features:

  • Customers get precise, cost-effective, self-help online
  • Mobile and web transactions transacted through speech or typing
  • Know your customers better and sell them what they need.

Why it’s great

VerbalAccess enables customers to access your products and services conversationally, get precise answers to questions, and conduct transactions easily, using their own words.

Presenters

This is #1 !Eugene Joseph, CEO
Joseph has developed intuitive person-computer interfaces for the last 30 years: Natural Language Understanding tech at North Side and interactive dynamics graphics software at Virtual Prototypes.
LinkedIn

 

Christian 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.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Blockchain, PayPal, Prosper, SigFig, Top Image Systems, Zopa

Around the web

  • Zopa CEO Giles Andrews quoted in The Financial Times column on the growth of P2P lending in Asia.
  • Daily Fintech looks at SigFig and its turn toward a B2B business model in the wake of the Yodlee acquisition.
  • Consumer Reports calls Betterment a “top 5” in customer service.
  • Top Image Systems announces “multiyear, multimillion” deal with a “top 5 U.S. bank”
  • Hot Topic names multiple Finovate and FinDEVr alum leaders in its list of top 100 in the industry.
  • Blockchain achieves 4 million bitcoin wallets.
  • Prosper moves into new headquarters after growing from 88 to 500 employees since 2013.
  • PayPal ranks in the top 5 of payments companies based on market cap.

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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LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches

LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Loop

LoopPay_homepage_2015

Move over, Apple Pay. Featuring technology from Finovate Best of Show winner LoopPay, Samsung’s Samsung Pay mobile payment service is on its way. We spotted founder Will Grayling on the CBS Evening News last night demoing the technology at a Manhattan retailer.

Samsung’s decision to acquire LoopPay in February for $250 million clearly signifies that Samsung is stepping up to the challenge of Apple’s mobile payment technology, Apple Pay. Samsung has since announced its unique take on mobile payments will launch in South Korea on 20 August and in the United States on 28 September. Next up: Launches in Spain and China.

Samsung Pay will be preloaded on Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5. The technology will be available for free download on Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

Loop_stage_FS2014

CEO Will Graylin demonstrated LoopPay’s mobile payment technology at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

LoopPay’s magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology enables mobile devices to communicate with the mag-stripe readers of point-of-sale payment terminals. By placing the mobile device near the reader, consumers can pay for purchases with a variety of stored credit and debit cards (although LoopPay is quick to point out that due to tokenization, no credit or debit information is stored on the device or actually transmitted during the transaction).

Authentication comes courtesy of either fingerprint, or pass-code. MST technology—being compatible with much of the existing POS technology—differentiates it from Apple Pay which relies solely on near field communication (NFC) to transmit information; Samsung Pay uses both NFC and MST.

Read more about the differences between Apple Pay and Samsung Pay (with Android Pay thrown in for good measure) here.

Talking about his company’s acquisition by Samsung shortly after the announcement, LoopPay CEO Will Graylin pointed out that Apple Pay wasn’t in mind when his company and Samsung began working together.

“A lot of the focus was really ‘How do we solve a bigger problem, which is consumer adoption,'” Graylin said in an interview with USA Today. “Consumers are not going to adopt if they can’t use a vast majority of their cards at a vast majority of merchants.”

LoopPay was founded in August 2013 and, post-acquisition, remains headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2014 for its demonstration of Loop and LoopWallet.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Encap, Loop, mShift, PayPal, Realty Mogul, SocietyOne, ThreatMetrix, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “LoopPay-powered Samsung Pay Launches“

Around the web

  • MSN Money interviews Betterment CEO Jon Stein on the relationship between Baby Boomers and robo-advisors.
  • Xero announces plan to help SMEs get bank loans.
  • Jessica Ellerm talks with Mitchel Harad, SocietyOne CMO.
  • Discussion on multifactor authentication features insights from Thomas Bostrom Jorgensen, CEO of Encap Security.
  • Fox News looks at Realty Mogul in a feature on real estate investing for non-millionaires.
  • Blackberry selects PayPal for its P2P Payments provider.
  • ThreatMetrix appoints Armen Najarian as chief marketing officer.
  • Team One Credit Union and Mshift expand pilot tests of MShift’s AnyWhereMobile by bringing more merchants on board.

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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New Investment in Tyfone Takes Total Capital to $12 Million

New Investment in Tyfone Takes Total Capital to $12 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Tyfone

Tyfone_homepage_Aug2015

Mobile banking specialist Tyfone has more than doubled its total capital, courtesy of a summer funding round led by RPX Corporation.

The $6.6 million investment from RPX Corporation and existing investors—such as In-Q-Tel and individual investors like Steve Pawlowski and David Petraeus—puts Tyfone’s total capital at $12 million. The funds will be used to help speed the worldwide deployment of Tyfone’s ID- and transaction-security platform, and further develop the company’s banking and payment products for FIs.

Siva G. Narendra, Tyfone CEO, pointed to his company’s embrace of both biometric identity data and what he calls “securing the transaction data at the point of origin” as a difference-maker in the industry. Narendra said this “fundamentally [changes] the way companies and institutions address cybersecurity and transaction threats, be it for banking, payment or any enterprise applications.” Serving customers in a variety of industries, from banking and commerce to healthcare and government, Tyfone’s U4i1 platform and Connected Smart Card provide both a high-level identity-authentication via decentralized private keys, as well as more traditional security via single-use passwords and software keys.

Tyfone_homepage2_Aug2015

With more than 100 issued and pending patents and customers including two of the top-10 credit unions in the U.S., Tyfone was named one of the “10 Most Promising Mobile Banking Solutions Providers for 2015” by Banking CIO Outlook in July. The company is the first equity investment by RPX Corporation, according to the Portland Business Journal, which has been following the funding round since May. Geoffrey Barker, co-founder and executive director of RPX, joins Tyfone’s board of directors as part of the deal.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Tyfone demonstrated its Mobile Contactless Payments with Memory Card solution at FinovateSpring 2008 in San Francisco.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 3E Software, Avoka, Backbase, Bluefin Payment Systems, Cardlytics, CrowdFlower, Dwolla, FIS, Kabbage, Lending Club, Prosper, Tradeshift, Tyfone, WePay

On Finovate.com

  • “FinDEVr San Francisco Very-Early-Bird Ticket Discount Ends Friday“
  • “Finovate Debuts: 3E Software’s Teslar is a Toolbox for Credit Management”
  • “New Investment in Tyfone Takes Total Capital to $12 Million”

Around the web

  • FIS to purchase SunGard for $9.1 billion.
  • Lending Club launches its Open Integration program, unveiling a suite of APIs for online advisers and broker-dealers.
  • In Gartner’s latest report, Backbase scores twice in the top 5 for the B2C Informational and B2C Transactional use cases.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems partners with EchoSat to protect point-of-sale systems from security breaches.
  • Inc. ranks Kabbage as 36, WePay as 62, Prosper as 86, and Cardlytics as 88 in a list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America.
  • Column in Stars and Stripes highlights CrowdFlower in discussion on micro-work.
  • TradeShift to acquire Merchantry for $30 million.
  • Dwolla adds two-factor authentication for full account holders.

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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Mogl Earns $8 Million Investment Ahead of FinovateFall Debut

Mogl Earns $8 Million Investment Ahead of FinovateFall Debut
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mogl

Mogl_homepage_Aug2015

E-commerce innovator Mogl raised $8 million in new funding. The investment was led by Aequitas Capital Management and featured participation by Avalon Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Monroe Capital, Moore Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, and Sysco Ventures.

Mogl’s total capital now stands at more than $50 million. The company says the additional funding will help Mogl build out its Mogl Network. The network closes the gap between online advertising and offline purchases, providing cash back for dining at selected restaurants.

Quoted in Let’s Talk Payments, Mogl CEO Jon Carder said, “When I show the Mogl Network to experts in the space, they’re excited that there is a solution that is so simple and easy for both merchants and consumers. It finally connects the online world to the offline world.”

Mogl specializes in a field called Online-to-Offline Commerce. Thanks to partnerships with companies like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, the Mogl Network is able to track a consumer from the moment they see an online ad to the moment they make the offline purchase. The Network works when offline merchants display offers and rewards on websites and apps of those participating in the Network. Consumers see and select the offer, then link their debit or credit card to the website or app, so that when the purchase is made offline, the reward can be credited instantly. Mogl serves 40 million cardholders and has 20,000 merchants in its network

Founded in 2010 and based in San Diego, California, Mogl will make its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City next month. To see Mogl and more than 70 other fintech innovators live on stage, visit our FinovateFall 2015 page and pick up your ticket today.

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VATBox Locks Up $24 Million Growth Equity Investment

VATBox Locks Up $24 Million Growth Equity Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: VATBox

VATBox_homepage_Aug2015

In a round led by Viola Private Equity, VATBox raised $24 million in growth equity funding. The company says the new capital will be instrumental in driving growth and taking advantage of a market plagued by “inefficient, risky, non-visible, and limited” manual service providers.

“As the first and only tech player in this market,” VATBox CEO Isaac Saft said in a statement, “we provide fully secure and easy-to-use solutions that maximize VAT recovery, while adding an essential compliance and governance layer that has not been available before.”

The investment is the first major funding for VATBox, which was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Herzilliya, Israel. VATBox provides cloud-based VAT (value-added tax) recovery solutions for multinational companies. Importantly, VATBox also provides a compliance and governance layer that provides full accountability and transparency for both CFO and controller.

VATBox_stage_FEU2015

VATBox CEO Issac Saft demonstrated the VATBox Automated VAT Recovery and Visibility platform at FinovateEurope 2015.

VATBox tells users how much international VAT has been spent across the entire business, as well as the likely amount of VAT that can be reclaimed—by country, date, and expense type. The optimization features of VATBox show, for example, the difference between potential and actual VAT returns, and information on lost VAT refunds.

As Saft explained from the FinovateEurope statge: “As a business, if I know how much of what I spend is the VAT part, if I have the evidence [to] prove that business expense [and] if I am familiar with a practical way of getting my money back, I can go and take my money.”

“There is nothing about ‘taxes’ here,” Saft said. “It is all about getting your money back.”

In June, VATBox announced a partnership with Concur, bringing VATBox’s VAT-recovery functionality to clients of Concur’s expense-reporting platform. The technology is available in 40 different countries—from Australia and Canada to Taiwan and the United States—and the company plans to use its new capital to help fuel “aggressive” growth in both new and existing markets. VATBox made its debut at FinovateEurope 2015 in London when it demonstrated its Automated VAT Recovery and Visibility platform.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BancVue, Check Point, CurrencyTransfer, edo Interactive, Flint Mobile, Insuritas, Kasasa, Mogl, Nymi, Top Image Systems, Tradeshift, VATBox

On Finovate.com

  • “Mogl Earns $8 Million Investment Ahead of FinovateFall Debut”
  • “VATBox Locks Up $24 Million Growth Equity Investment”

Around the web

  • edo Interactive launches Blended Activation to give advertisers flexibility in how offers are redeemed.
  • nymi teams up with TD Bank and MasterCard to develop heartbeat-based, biometric authentication for contactless payments.
  • Generations Federal Credit Union hires Insuritas to upgrade its insurance agency offerings.
  • Intrade Magazine interviews Daniel Abrahams, CurrencyTransfer CEO.
  • Top Image Systems reports Q2 revenue growth of 21%.
  • Flint Mobile enhances its iOS app that leverages Apple’s digital wallet ecosystem.
  • Check Point Software Technologies and Wavecrest Computing partner to integrate Wavecrest’s Cyfin reporting tool with Check Point’s Next Generation Threat Prevention solution.
  • Austin Business Journal ranks BancVue’s Kasasa as number 6 in its 2015 Best Places to Work contest.
  • Tradeshift acquires Merchantry, a cloud-based, product-information-management provider for $30 million in cash and stock.

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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Holy Yodlee! Envestnet To Buy Yodlee for $660 Million

Holy Yodlee! Envestnet To Buy Yodlee for $660 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Yodlee

Yodlee_homepage_Aug2015

Yodlee—a Finovate alum and FinDEVr 2015 sponsor—has agreed to be acquired by Envestnet. Envestnet will pay $660 million in cash and stock, valuing the company’s shares at $18.88.

The acquisition comes less than a year after the company went public, trading under the ticker YDLE on the Nasdaq exchange. The acquisition price of $18.88 is a premium of nearly 50% over both the stock’s closing price on Monday, as well as its closing price on the day of its IPO—$12.60 and $13.44, respectively. According to American Banker, Envestnet secured $200 million in debt financing commitments to fund the deal, as well as using cash from its own balance sheet.

Yodlee CEO Anil Arora will continue to run Yodlee, and has been named vice chairman of the combined entity. In a statement, Arora praised the acquisition, saying it would “create a company unmatched in its ability to improve and simplify people financial lives around the world.”

Yodlee_stage_FS2015

From left: CMO David Lee; John Bird, VP of product marketing; Katy Gibson, VP of product applications, demonstrated Sense, Yodlee’s PFM app, at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Bill Crager, Envestnet president, says Yodlee would bring a “more interactive and informative digital advice experience” for Envestnet clients, especially in the areas of data mining and predictive analytics. The goal is to give Envestnet more firepower as it tries to win over financial advisers who are not affiliated with larger firms, such as Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley. Envestnet was founded in 1999, and is based in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

Yodlee has distinguished itself both as an innovative aggregator of data for technology companies working in the financial services space, as well as a compelling solution-builder in its own right. The company powers financial solutions for more than 20 million users and more than 850 FIs, and produced revenues greater than $98 million for the 12-months ending 30 June 2015.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Redwood City, Yodlee is a veteran of both Finovate and FinDEVr conferences. The multiple Best of Show winner’s last Finovate appearance was at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose. Yodlee was a presenter at the inaugural FinDEVr 2014 conference in San Francisco last fall.

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Artificial Intelligence Innovator Kensho Boosts Total Capital to $58 Million

Artificial Intelligence Innovator Kensho Boosts Total Capital to $58 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Kensho

Kensho_homepage_Aug2015

Update: Artificial intelligence specialist Kensho has raised an additional $33 million in new funding, according to regulatory filings filed last week. The $47.8 million figure originally reported includes $15 million raised in November 2014 in a round led by Goldman Sachs.

Investors in the most recent capital infusion were not specified. The latest investment takes Kensho’s total funding to more than $58 million.

Kensho’s previous investors include Accel Partners, Devonshire Investors, General Catalyst Partners, Google Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Promus Ventures, Work-Bench, and Xfund.

Kensho_stage_FEU2014

From left: Kensho’s Adam Broun, head of strategy and business development, and CEO Daniel Nadler demonstrated Warren, an interactive research environment from Kensho, at FinovateEurope 2014 in London.

Kensho has built what it calls the world’s “first computational knowledge engine for the financial industry.” The company leverages massively parallel, real-time, statistical computing and advances in unstructured data engineering to create Warren, an “interactive research environment” that is able to answer more than a million queries posed to it in natural language. Portfolio managers and market researchers can ask Warren questions—such as the short-tern history of Apple’s share price after an earnings announcement or the effect of North Korean missile tests on the South Korean stock market—and get answers in minutes.

Recently featured in a review of Boston-area startups, Kensho was named to OnFinance’s “50 Companies to Watch” roster in April. The company forged a partnership with NBC Universal News Group last fall, providing unique analysis to the viewers of the financial news network, CNBC. Later that month, Kensho announced a $15 million fundraising led by Goldman Sachs.

Founded out of MIT and Harvard in 2013 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kensho demoed Warren at FinovateEurope 2014 in London.

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