Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Xero and ZenPayroll Win Honors at CPA Practice Advisor 2015 Reader’s Choice Awards
  • Finovate Debuts: Using Financial Media Solutions’ MAPPS to Create Videographics

Around the Web

  • MasterQueue, powered by Intellaegis, partners with Whitepages Pro.
  • Bitpost lists Coinbase and Blockchain as 2 of the top 5 bitcoin wallets on Android.
  • EVO Payments partners with Boomtown to simplify tech support for POS developers and merchants.
  • Fintech Today reports: With Paydiant, PayPal Will Be a Huge Hit with Merchants.
  • Blackhawk to integrate Kofax Mobile Capture SDK into its digital services platform.
  • Team One CU to pilot MShift’s AnyWhereMobile payment-network with a locally owned restaurant in Michigan.
  • SecondMarket’s Bitcoin Desk Relaunches as Genesis Trading.
  • Taulia named by AlwaysOn as a 2015 OnFinance Top 100 Company.
  • According to Gartner, Check Point Software Technologies lead the worldwide market share for firewall equipment in Q4 2014 and FY 2014.

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.

 

Xero and ZenPayroll Win Honors at CPA Practice Advisor 2015 Reader’s Choice Awards

Xero and ZenPayroll Win Honors at CPA Practice Advisor 2015 Reader’s Choice Awards

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Two Finovate alums, Xero and ZenPayroll, have won first place in their respective categories at the CPA Practice Advisor 2015 Reader’s Choice Awards.

According to CPA Practice Advisor, more than 5,000 readers participated in the 11th edition of the awards. The goal is to give accounting firms a “professional-to-professional” opinion as to which systems are “most beneficial” for those working in the tax and public accounting industry.

ZenPayrollLogoZenPayroll won the payroll category, beating out competing technologies from QuickBooks, AMS, PayChex, and ADP. Xero won best “Online Invoicing/Bill Payment Solutions” in a category that included solutions from Intuit, Bill.com, and FreshBooks.

We recently featured ZenPayroll and the company’s $60 million funding in a round led by Google Capital. The company opened up its API to small-business technology providers last September 2014.

An alum of FinovateSpring 2014, ZenPayroll is headquartered in San Francisco, and was founded in October 2011 by Joshua Reeves (CEO), Tomer London (CPO), and Edward Kim (CTO).

Xero_logo_hi-resXero participated in FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, and is an alum of Finovate conferences, as well, most recently FinovateSpring 2011 in San Francisco. Earlier this week, we reported on Xero’s partnership with TransferWise to help small and medium-sized businesses save on international currency-transfer fees.

Xero was founded in July 2006, is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, and has offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Denver, and San Francisco, where the company’s U.S. headquarters is located. With more than 400,000 customers in more than 100 countries, Xero has raised more than $250 million in funding, and is led by CEO and Executive Director, Rod Drury.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Xero & TransferWise Team Up to Save SMBs on Foreign Currency Exchange Fees

Around the Web

  • Bloomberg interviews LendingTree founder and CEO Doug Lebda.
  • Nashville Business Journal features iQuantifi and its recent study on millennials and their money.
  • Safeco grants Insuritas “Premier Partner” status.
  • Fenergo appoints former Adobe Systems executive Colm Heffernan to chief operating officer.
  • Mitek launches DoubleNet Pay financial app to help workers pay bills and fund savings. See the technology live at FinovateSpring in San Jose.
  • PYMNTS.com looks at the status of Prosper as tech’s latest “unicorn.”
  • Realty Mogul launches commercial offering.
  • BBVA acquires leading user experience firm Spring Studio.
  • Toshl Finance launches new features with WalletGear 2.0.
  • New York Tech Journal profiles Qapital.
  • InComm Partners with KUBRA to Simplify Cash Payments for Customers.
  • Tuition.io launches flex395.com, an employee-benefits product that enables employers to contribute directly to their employees’ student loans.
  • Air France-KLM to use Tradeshift for global e-invoicing.

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.

AuthenticID Teams Up with MyECheck to Provide Document Authentication

AuthenticID Teams Up with MyECheck to Provide Document Authentication

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What happens when you combine a biometric ID-authentication specialist with an innovator in the field of electronic checks?

AuthenticID is partnering with MyECheck to bring Automated Forensic Document Authentication to electronic checking. Blair Cohen, founder and CEO of AuthenticID, said that his company’s technology will help MyECheck spot counterfeit documents, as well as documents that have been tampered with. Said Cohen, “[MyECheck] will benefit from our cloud-based, real-time solution that runs on the web, mobile devices, and tablets and its readily available APIs.”

The partnership means AuthenticID’s CatfishAIR ID-authentication technology will be integrated into MyECheck’s mobile payment solution, MyEPay. This includes AuthenticID’s check imaging technology, as well.

Ed Starrs, chairman and CEO of MyECheck, says that his company has a strong record of defending against fraud. He pointed out that after clearing more than 10 million electronic checks, his company has “no incidences” of fraud. “But by partnering with AuthenticID and integrating biometric facial recognition technology into our mobile app,” Starrs says MyECheck is “furthering its commitment to security.”

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AuthenticID founder and CEO Blair Cohen demonstrated his company’s technology at FinovateFall 2013

AuthenticID’s biometric authentication works by combining Automated Forensic Document Authentication (AFDA) and a Facial Recognition Engine (FRE). Consumers take a selfie-style picture of themselves with their mobile phone, which is then compared to a photo of the consumer that is on the official ID document such as that on a driver’s license or passport.

The result is a two-factor biometric authentication-solution that is unique, fast, and accurate. Starrs said the technology would help provide authentication that was “light-years ahead of other payment methods.”

An alum of both FinovateSpring and FinovateFall in 2013, AuthenticID was founded in January 2012 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • AuthenticID Teams Up with MyECheck to Provide Document Authentication

Around the Web

  • OEM agreement between Kofax and BlackHawk Network enables mobile capture on GoWallet digital wallet.
  • Early Warning and BioCatch to collaborate in new data-sharing consortium.
  • Q2 teams up with Acculynk to provide real-time P2P payment service.
  • The Netbanker Blog is Moving to Finovate.com.
  • Lending Club and Citi partner with Varadero Capital to facilitate up to $150 million in loans to provide affordable credit to underserved borrowers and communities.
  • Options trading tool, Orca, partners with Tradier for its Brokerage API.
  • Prosper and OnDeck partner to offer customers more lending options.
  • GDS Link integrates MiiCard’s DirectID into its Credit Risk Management platform to reduce risk and increase conversion rates.
  • Lendio acquires Business Bounce to accelerate business lending on its marketplace platform.
  • PaySimple awarded Marketing Team of the Year by Marketo.
  • TechCrunch reports: SecondMarket launching product to put more control over secondary sales in the hands of startups.

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.

AlwaysOn’s OnFinance Top 100 Features 30 Finovate Alums

AlwaysOn’s OnFinance Top 100 Features 30 Finovate Alums

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More than a quarter of the companies recognized in AlwaysOn’s first OnFinance Top 100 roster are Finovate alums.

The OnFinance Top 100 is designed to recognize the Top 100 private companies in fintech. The list was chosen by the AlwaysOn editorial team, along with several venture capital firms and industry experts. The criteria included degree of innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and “media buzz.”

The list is divided into six categories, and Finovate alums are well represented in each. Category winners will be announced at Always On’s event at the NASDAQ OMX in New York City at the end of April 2015.

Banking and corporate finance

Big data and analytics

Capital markets and investing

Digital currencies

Payment platforms

Personal finance management

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, AlwaysOn was founded in 2003 by Tony Perkins, founder and editor of Red Herring magazine. The company serves as a networking and social media platform for technology professionals in variety of fields, and has a membership of more than 5,000.

SaveUp Purchased by Chicago-area Entrepreneur Paul J. Burt

SaveUp Purchased by Chicago-area Entrepreneur Paul J. Burt

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SaveUp has officially been sold to Chicago-based entrepreneur Paul J. Burt.

SaveUp helps millennials and Gen Y consumers improve their personal finances through a combination of behavioral economics and gamification. Founded in April 2011 by the late Priya Haji and Sammy Shreibati, the company demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2012 and again at FinovateSpring 2014, where it won Best of Show honors.

As part of the deal, SaveUp has been relocated from Silicon Valley to Lake Forest, Illinois. The purchase was made in December 31, 2014, and closed on April 8, 2015. Terms were not disclosed. SaveUp had raised $7 million in funding as of July 2012.

SaveUp_PaulJBurtPaul J. Burt is the founder and CEO of Westlake Financial Group, an employee benefits company for mid- to large-sized companies. The firm has more than 50 employees, and serves more than 150 corporate and healthcare clients around the country.

Burt is also the founder of an incubator program, Entanglement, also based in Lake Forest. Entanglement provides a forum for local students and community members interested in new technologies. He founded Cera Solutions in 2013, which developed a mobile employee-benefit onboarding solution.

SaveUp is free and available on both iOS and Android, as well as online at SaveUp.com. To use the platform, users link their credit, student loan, savings, and other accounts, and then earn points for every dollar they spend toward either reducing debt or growing savings. Points can then be used to play games and enter contests to win prizes, as well as compete for a $2 million jackpot.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • AlwaysOn’s OnFinance Top 100 Features 30 Finovate Alums
  • SaveUp Purchased by Chicago-Area Entrepreneur Paul J. Burt

Around the Web

  • Turk Ekonomi Bankasi (TEB) launches digital banking service developed by Monitise.
  • Dragon Wealth earns spot in Startupbootcamp FinTEch’s inaugural Singapore program.
  • Ayeyarwady Bank (AYA Bank) to deploy Bankworld ATM platform from CR2.
  • Virtual Piggy hires Viant Capital to provide financial advice on strategic options.
  • MasterCard presents its PFM “in-reach” benefits-platform to help issuers engage millennials.
  • iQuantifi teams up with MTSU Jones College of Business to produce inaugural Millennial Money Mindset Survey.
  • Motif updates its iPhone app to enable search-and-browse capability of motif catalogues directly from the app.
  • FreeAgent launches first iOS app to help manage invoices and expenses on the go.
  • PYMNTS features predictions from Blackhawk Network, Bluefin Payments, CashStar, Experian, FIS, Fiserv, and SimplyTapp.
  • Xero Denver named Top Workplace by Denver Post.
  • American Banker examines how Malauzai is helping small banks get a head start on Apple Watch.
  • PayPal confirms bitcoin acceptance option in SEC filing.

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 Sneak Peek: Part 2

FinovateSpring 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 2

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FinovateSpring 2015 is just over a month away. Our annual spring conference returns to San Jose, 12/13 May for two days of live demos of the latest in fintech innovation.

Today we introduce you to another seven companies that will be on stage presenting their technical solutions to some of the financial community’s biggest challenges—from improving engagement through mobile and social channels to improving security and reducing friction for business and individual consumers.

Be sure to check out Part 1 of our Sneak Peek series featuring Alpha Payments Cloud, CUneXus, DRAFT, FundAmerica, SayPay, StockViews, and TrueAccord, as well.

Tickets are going fast. Register today and save your spot at our second Finovate show in San Jose.


Bento_logo_box_snaggit_resizeBento for Business provides financial solutions that fit small businesses, combining the security of a bank with the ease and convenience of a modern technology company.

Features:

  • The Bento Prepaid Commercial MasterCard provides small business owners with controls, such as where, when, and how much their employees can spend without putting their owners’ personal credit at risk.

Why it’s great
Bento’s solutions are designed to save owners time and help eliminate expense ‘leaks,’ a type of fraud that can cost them up to 5% of their revenue each year.

Presenters

Bento_FAhamd_cropFarhan Ahmad, Co-founder and CEO

Ahmad was formerly managing director at Barclays and the global head of emerging payments and prepaid for Discover Financial Services. He has held leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase, Bank One and First USA.
LinkedIn

 

Bento_SAnderson_cropSean Anderson, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer

Anderson was formerly senior director of emerging products at Blackhawk Network, where he built and launched their open API platform, launched an offers platform, and developed a prepaid processing platform.
LinkedIn

 


DoubleNetPay_logo_box_snaggit_resizeDoubleNet Pay automatically pays bills and funds savings goals directly from an employee’s paycheck, eliminating guesswork, late fees, and budgeting hassles.

Features:

  • Seamless integration with major payroll processors
  • Allows an employee to simply snap a picture of a current bill stub
  • Employees can easily create, fund, and redeem custom savings goals

Why it’s great
Bills are paid and savings funded automatically on payday, just like payroll taxes.

Presenters

DoubleNetPay_BCosgray_cropBrian Cosgray, Founder and CEO

Cosgray has spent his entire career in financial services. Working with customers across the economic spectrum convinced him of the need to simplify and automate how people pay bills and save money.
LinkedIn

 

DoubleNetPay_CLaird_cropCody Laird, Co-founder and COO

Laird is a financial technology veteran. Prior to co-founding DoubleNet Pay, Cody spent 21 years with SunTrust Bank helping to design and build their current retail banking platform.
LinkedIn

 

DoubleNetPay_BLevy_cropBret Levy, Co-founder and CTO

Levy has been responsible for the architecture of many innovative, highly scalable software systems, most notably the Scientific Games system that powers most state lotteries.
LinkedIn

 


KarmicLabs_Dash_logoKarmic Labs provides API-based payment and SaaS solutions for card issuance (initially commercial market). Karmic offers Dash, FIS, and also uses Karmic’s APIs to offer its own product to FIs.

Features:

  • Robust API infrastructure for commercial card issuance
  • Payment virtualization layer
  • Creates a marketplace of innovative financial technology and SaaS solutions for the commercial market.

Why it’s great
Karmic labs offers API-based payment and SaaS solutions, of which its first product is Dash; the APIs are also used by FIS, a global leader in banking and payments technology, for its own product to FIs.

Presenters

KarmicLabs_RWeidenmiller_new_small_cropRyan Weidenmiller, CEO

Weidenmiller is an entrepreneur who built a top-ranked venture capital fund in China, now working on Karmic Labs’.
LinkedIn

 

KarmicLabs_CAgerton_crop2Chris Agerton, CTO

Agerton was previously at Google, and was a founding engineer at Pinterest, responsible for developing high-availability architecture at Scribd.
LinkedIn

FIS_TLand_FS15Troy Land, Group Executive of Emerging Commerce, FIS

Land is the group executive of emerging commerce at FIS within the retail payments division; he holds expertise in business and product development.
LinkedIn

 


SizeUp_logoSizeUp: SizeUp FI (financial insitutions) is big-data for small businesses. It enables FIs to provide their customers with business intelligence through the FI’s own website.

Features of SizeUp FI:

  • Enable your FI’s customers to :
    • Compare their business performance with that of industry competitors
    • Find customers, suppliers, and competitors
    • Discover best locations to advertise

Why it’s great
SizeUp FI delivers a deeper business-customer partnership through success assistance; “sticky” client engagement; FI services awareness; and big-data insights that SMEs couldn’t previously access.

Presenters

SizeUp_AUbalde_cropAnatalio Ubalde, CEO and Co-founder

Ubalde is a successful entrepreneur leading Software as a Service (SaaS) ventures focused on data-driven solutions for small businesses and economic development.
LinkedIn

 

SizeUp_TBarron_cropThomas Barron, VP Business Development

Barron has developed corporate partnerships for 15 years from Fortunte 500 companies to 5-person startups. He previously worked at Visa developing strategic partnerships.
LinkedIn

 


Stratos_logo_snaggitfromboxStratos consolidates cards into one dynamic card, making payments secure and smart. Stratos Digital Card Issuance Platform allows cards to download instantly, digitizing physical fulfillment.

Features:

  • Ensures virtual top of wallet, increases consumer engagement and loyalty
  • Provides secure card and wallet data
  • Eliminates costly physical card fulfillment

Why it’s great
Starts card working with Stratos Digital Card Issuance Platform to reinvent, not only your wallet, but also cards—just like the iPod and iTunes reinvented your CD collection.

Presenters

Stratos_TOlson_cropThiago Olson, Co-founder, CEO

Olson worked at CERN and the Department of Defense and is a leader in next generation payments. He graduated with honors in engineering and physics at Vanderbilt.
LinkedIn

 

Stratos_HBalanon_cropHenry Balanon, Co-founder, CTO

Balanon brings technical leadership and expertise to Stratos from his previous experience as co-founder of Detroit Labs, a leading mobile-app agency.
LinkedIn

 


TickerTags_logoTickerTags connects trending social content to investable companies through the monitoring of 250,000+ crowdsourced Tags that have the potential to impact a company’s business.

Features:

  • Track social velocity and sentiment of products/brands driving your investment
  • Create your own Tags to associate with Tickers for personalized trending notifications
  • It’s free

Why it’s great
We are a community-maintained platform intent on democratizing information-flow by evolving new monitoring from view-limited tickers to social -monitored tags.

Presenters

TickerTags_CCamillo_cropChris Camillo, Co-founder, CEO

A pioneer in social arbitrage investing, Camillo’s audited portfolio has averaged 84% annual returns over the past 8 years.
LinkedIn

 


Trulioo_logoTrulioo’s bank-grade AML/KYC identity-verification product, GlobalGateway, enables businesses to perform frictionless ID verification for 3 billion people in more than 40 countries via 140 data sources.

Features:

  • Builds confidence and trust by preventing fraud and identity theft
  • Saves time, money, and resources through automated online ID-checks
  • Eliminates barriers to market entry

Why it’s great
Trulioo’s GlobalGateway provides advanced analytics from cyber and traditional data sources to verify identities online by powering fraud and compliance systems worldwide, increasing trust and safety.

Presenters

Trulioo_SUfford_cropStephen Ufford, Founder, CEO

Ufford has founded four data-focused startups over the last decade while working in the role of CEO. As a serial entrepreneur, he challenges the status quo and if it’s broken, he likes to fix it.
LinkedIn

 

Trulioo_AKvitnitsky_cropAnatoly Kvitnitsky, Director of Corporate Development

With solid startup and corporate experience, Kvitnitsky leads strategic partnerships and data acquisition for Trulioo.
LinkedIn

Patch of Land Earns $23 Million Investment Led by SF Capital Group

Patch of Land Earns $23 Million Investment Led by SF Capital Group

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FinovateFall 2014 alum Patch of Land has raised more than $23 million in a Series A round. SF Capital Group led the investment, which included the participation of Ron Suber, president of Prosper Marketplace.

The investment is a major infusion of capital for the company. Patch of Land’s total funding now stands at $25 million. Neil Wolfs, SF Capital Group president, will join Patch of Land’s board of directors.

An innovator in the field of real estate crowdfunding, Patch of Land sees the investment as an opportunity to provide the loan products, such as construction and buy-to-rent loans. In this, building bigger and better relationships with institutional investors is key. “We look at them as our capital firepower,” COO Jason Fritton said. Additionally, the capital will help Patch of Land build out its team, adding loan officers, underwriters, and others.

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Left: CMO AdaPia D’Errico and CTO Brian Fritton demonstrated the Patch of Land platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

According to The Real Deal, the investment makes Patch of Land “one of the best-funded real estate crowdfunding platforms” in the country. The company has generated 12% annual returns for investors since inception, which is what may have helped spur interest among institutional investors. Issuing $17 million in short-term, commercial real estate loans without a single default likely provided additional impetus for larger investors to get involved in the real estate crowdfunder.

“We are excited to work with this dynamic team and help them capture the tremendous opportunity they have identified,” said Wolfson. “Patch of Land was one of the first companies to focus exclusively on real estate debt investments and the first to offer pretended loans, which dramatically shortens the time developers wait to get funded.”

Patch of Land was founded in February 2013 by Carlo Tabibi, CEO; Brian Fritton, CTO; and Jason Fritton, COO, and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company has 10 employees; more than 2,500 investors; and more than 280 loans in its pipeline, with an average loan size of $240,000.

FreeAgent Scores $5 Million Line of Credit

FreeAgent Scores $5 Million Line of Credit

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U.K.-based online accounting system provider Free Agent has raised $5 million in new debt financing courtesy of SaaS Capital. The new funding will be used helping the company acquire new customers.

Todd Gardner, founder and managing director of SaaS Capital said, “Free Agent is exactly the type of company we were looking to assist when we announced our new fund last month … (They) simply needed more capital to seize the market opportunity in front of them.”

Free Agent CEO Ed Molyneux says SaaS Capital’s investment was a unique opportunity. “We have historically raised equity and also used some venture debt, but we found the SaaS Capital solution to be a great way to finance our growth compared to those other options.”

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FreeAgent CEO Ed Molyneux presented at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

The financing from SaaS Capital comes in the form of a “revenue-based line of credit.” According to FreeAgent, this funding strategy will give the company the ability to deploy capital for longer periods than other lenders, as well as more flexibility when it comes to funding its own longer-term goals. Note that Finovate alum, Lighter Capital, specializes in this kind of financing.

FreeAgent’s cloud-based accounting system is geared toward freelance workers and what the company calls “micro-businesses” for whom other solutions are often too expensive and/or too complex. The company’s platform offers a wide variety of features to help manage business operations from tracking expenses to sending invoicing, to tax planning and filing.

FreeAgent was most recently in the headlines for its partnership with small-business booking-platform Appointedd announced in February, and last December, FreeAgent was selected to be a part of Lloyds Banking Groups new Business Toolbox.

Founded in April 2007 and headquartered in Edinburg, United Kingdom, FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013, where its online accounting system was demoed. The company has 50 employees and more than 27,000 paying customers. Ed Molyneux is CEO.

Dealstruck Raises $8 Million in Funding, $50 Million for New Credit Facility

Dealstruck Raises $8 Million in Funding, $50 Million for New Credit Facility

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In an investment that brings its total lending capacity to more than $100 million, direct lender Dealstruck has raised $58 million in new funding. The funding comes in the form of a $50 million credit facility led by Brevet Capital Management and the completion of a Series A round led by Trinity Ventures.

Co-founder and CEO of Dealstruck Ethan Senturia said, “Recent IPOs by alternative lenders validate an increasing need for new sources of growth capital. We look forward to building on our growth to date by setting even more businesses on the path to becoming bankable.”

The funding will be used to provide funding to small businesses across the country. Dealstruck has loaned more than $50 million since inception, and says it is the fastest online direct lender to reach and surpass the “$50 million lent” milestone.

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(Left to right): Dealstruck CTO Russell McLoughlin and CEO Ethan Senturia presented at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Talking about his firm’s investment, Doug Monticciolo of Brevet Capital focused on Dealstruck’s role in supporting small businesses, which Monticciolo called “an important engine of economic growth.” Added Noel Fenton of Trinity Ventures, “When small businesses succeed, it’s a win for everyone. Dealstruck is poised to help thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses grow.”

Operating in 43 states, Dealstruck offers three loan products: a term loan, an asset-based line of credit, and an inventory line of credit. Term loans are available up to $250,000, with lines of credit available as high as $500,000. Approved loans are funded within 48 hours.

Dealstruck made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose, where it demonstrated its Investor API. The company was founded in July 2012 by Ethan Senturia, CEO, and Russell McLoughlin, CTO, and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.