Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CSI globalVCard, EZBOB, FIS, GMC Software Technology, Infosys, Kapitall, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, ReadyForZero, Revolut, Sedicii, SigFig, SmartAsset, TransferWise

On Finovate.com

  • SigFig Brings on New Advisory Board Members and $1 Million in Funding
  • Alt-Lender EZBOB Deepens Pockets by $46 Million

Around the web

  • InvestorCentral looks at market simulators and trading with Kapitall.
  • Alaska Air picks FIS as its partner for upcoming strategic payment initiatives including EMV.
  • Delicious Nutritious chooses globalVCard Spend Secure for its business payments.
  • Kiplinger highlights Motif Investing among “brokers that pay you to open an account.”
  • GMC Software Technology to provide GMC Inspire to Mail Handling Services.
  • Personal Capital launches app for the Apple Watch.
  • ReadyForZero interviews Michael Carvin, CEO of SmartAsset. Check out SmartAsset’s new technology at FinovateSpring.
  • Revolut and Sedicii win finalist spots in the Innotribe Startup Challenge.
  • American Banker features bitcoin exchange itBit. Watch itBit’s live demo at FinovateSpring.
  • TechCrunch: Infosys to acquire Kallidus for $120 million.
  • A look at “billion dollar” British startups at Forbes.com features TransferWise.

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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FinovateSpring 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 6

FinovateSpring 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 6
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Credit Sesame, Hip Pocket, itBit, Kofax, Mitek, NAMU Systems, Persistent Systems

FS2014_image_networking_women

FinovateSpring 2015 is right around the corner. And with news this morning that attendance has already topped 1,000, now is a great time to register and save your spot at our annual spring event on May 12 and 13.

A total of 72 companies will be on stage at the City National Civic in San Jose, California, to demonstrate the latest in financial technology live in front of our audience of industry professionals, venture capitalists, bankers, media, and more. And along with more than 500 minutes of live demos, we make sure you’ve got plenty of time to meet, greet, and network with presenters, sponsors, and fellow attendees alike.

Today in our Sneak Peek Preview series, we’re featuring another seven companies to help you get to know a little more about the companies that will be presenting next month at FinovateSpring 2015.

Check out the previous installments of our Sneak Peek series below. And stayed tuned for more introductions to our FinovateSpring 2015 presenters next week.

FS15_CreditSesame_logo_reducedCredit Sesame helps millions of consumers access, monitor, and manage their credit, improve their finances and protect their credit and identity for free.

Features:

  • Mobile integration combined with the power of voice control and TouchID
  • Manage, monitor, and protect your credit and identity anytime, anywhere
  • White label / turn-key solution

Why it’s great
Credit Sesame makes it easier than ever for mobile users to access, monitor, and manage their credit, improve their finances, and protect their identity on the go.

Presenters

CreditSesame_ANazari_cropAdrian Nazari, CEO
Nazari is a serial entrepreneur, an acknowledged industry expert, and founder of Credit Sesame Inc.
LinkedIn

 

 

CreditSesame_JLevey_cropJesse Levey, Head of Product
Levey is a product innovator and growth expert with more than 12 years experience in technology and financial services.
LinkedIn

 

 

HipPocket_logo_FS15

Hip Pocket engages your mobile and website visitors by using social influence and personalized consultation to generate new, qualified mortgage leads.

Features:

  • Unique peer-group comparisons
  • Real-time integration and personalization savings estimates
  • Results and call-to-action are customized to each user’s situation

Why it’s great
Hip Pocket allows your institution to provide an engaging, intuitive user experience that marries the emotional and logical decision-making processes.

Presenters

HipPocket_MZmarzly_cropMark Zmarzly, CEO, Founder
Zmarzly is a passionate innovator and thought leader in the financial industry. He has delivered multiple TEDx talks and presented for the ABA, BAI, and JD Power & Associates.
LinkedIn

 

HipPocket_TCramer_cropTodd Cramer, Head of Digital Experience & Design
Cramer is a MBA with more than five years of experience in branding, user experience and eCommerce for a $5B bank enterprise.
LinkedIn

 

FS15_itBit_logoitBit is a global bitcoin exchange offering institutional and retail investors a powerful platform to buy and sell bitcoin.

Features:

  • Trusted, institutional-grade exchange
  • Available around the clock
  • Offers the best security, privacy, and asset protection

Why it’s great
itBit is the most trusted and secure platform for trading bitcoin.

Presenters

itBit_CCascarilla_cropCharles Cascarilla, CEO, Co-founder
As a bitcoin early adopter with more than 15 years’ experience in financial services, Cascarilla has a unique perspective and interest in integrating bitcoin with traditional systems.
LinkedIn

 

itBit_BCho_cropBobby Cho, Director of Institutional Client Group (ICG)
As the head of itBit’s ICG team, Cho provides tailored client relationships trading services to itBit’s global network of institutional clients.
LinkedIn

 

FS15_Kofax_logoAnyone can hit a baseball thrown straight down the middle, but Kofax’s robust mobile new account opening platform can accommodate curveballs, screwballs, and the off-speed pitches in life.

Features:

  • Mobile capture of IDs and supporting documents
  • Intelligent decisioning allows complex exception and compliance management
  • Seamless multichannel customer experience

Why it’s great
Paramount to mobile onboarding is giving customers the right product at the right time with the right risk-assessment profile in a completely automated fashion.

Presenters

Kofax_DHyatt_cropDrew Hyatt, Senior Vice President, Mobile Applications
Hyatt is a leading domain expert in mobile image-capture and is responsible for Kofax’s mobile product roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and product positioning.
LinkedIn

 

 

Kofax_DMorgan_cropDiane Morgan, Senior Business Development Manager
As Senior Mobile Business Development Manager at Kofax, Morgan partners with financial institutions to identify, develop, and execute their mobile capture and imaging strategies.
LinkedIn

 

FS15_Mitek_logoMitek, the leading innovator of mobile imaging for financial transactions and identification, will demonstrate how to optimize mobile for secure customer acquisition.

Features:

  • Increase mobile form completion by 30-50%
  • Double number of accounts booked via mobile
  • Meet KYC requirements and complete ID check in mobile channel

Why it’s great
Mobile account opening starts are dramatically increasing while desktop is declining. Mitek’s next innovations will do for account opening what it did for check deposits.

Presenters

Mitek_MNelson_cropMichael Nelson, Vice President for Business Development
Nelson leads the business-development team focused on expanding mobile-imaging usage within banking and beyond.
LinkedIn

 

 

Mitek_SClark_cropSarah Clark, Vice President Product Owner
Clark directs product strategy and the roadmap for our mobile-imaging platform and suite of products including mobile deposit, our market leading MiSnap SDK and Mobile Identity product line.
LinkedIn

 

FS15_NAMU_logoWith the growing importance of the user experience and customer intelligence in digital channels, NAMU Systems sets a new standard in mobile banking.

Features:

  • Highly visual user experience—connecting money with memories
  • Targeted advertising based on social spending patterns
  • Google-like search in banking

Why it’s great
NAMU helps your customer to have joyful banking experiences with relevant connection to memories and a beautiful user interface backed by NAMU’s patent-pending platform.

Presenters

NAMU_TKo_cropThomas Ko, President, Co-founder
Ko is ex-global head of mobile banking at Citibank, developing the most successful corporate mobile banking solution worldwide.
LinkedIn

 

 

NAMU_PBudzinski_cropPiotr Budzinski, CEO, Co-founder
Prior to NAMU, he led strategic technology projects for European banks and U.S. asset managers, including UniCredit and Franklin Templeton.
LinkedIn

 

FS15_Persistent_logoBuddyPay from Persistent Systems is a real-time payment-switching mechanism. The control of payment is shifted from buyer to payer for online/in-store purchases of products and services in real-time.

Features:

  • The Payment Switching Mechanism can be used while selling/fulfilling literally anything
  • Sell physical goods, insurance, billpay, flight and hotel booking
  • Intuitive mobile app

Why it’s great
You can “sell” products/services to people who don’t have money to “buy” it!

Presenters

Persistent_AModak_cropAbhiram Modak, Principal Business Analyst & Industry Expert
Modak has multiple years of diverse experience and is an innovator at heart. He can come up with solutions to most complex business problem with his domain knowledge and technology understanding.
LinkedIn

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems, Financial Guard, Global Debt Registry, Jemstep, LendingTree, Malauzai Software, Motif Investing, Nymi, PayNearMe, Rippleshot, ThreatMetrix, TickSmith

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Financial-Planning provides an in-depth profile of Motif Investing.
  • Rippleshot to join SixThirty accelerator’s Spring 2015 cohort.
  • The Globe and Mail highlights Nymi’s take on wearable security.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems partners with Paydunk to offer an all-in-one mobile security and integrated e-commerce payment solution.
  • ThreatMetrix wins Best Anti-Malware Product and Hot Company in MFA at 2015 Cyber Defense Magazine Awards.
  • Orion Advisor Services partners with Jemstep to bring independent advisers who use Orion’s platform the benefits of robo-adviser automation.
  • PayNearMe enables Philadelphia bike-share program-members to pay their fees using cash.
  • TickSmith adds Book Replay Module to Its TickVault Platform.
  • Barron’s feature on robo-advisers quotes Kevin Pohmer, president of Financial Guard.
  • Global Debt Registry names Kathy Simmermon as EVP of business development.
  • Fox Business interviews Lending Tree CEO Doug Lebda.
  • Feature on card controls highlights solutions developed by Malauzai Software. See Malauzai at FinovateSpring 2015 in 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.

 

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FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco: We’re Bringing Builders Back

FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco: We’re Bringing Builders Back
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

FinDEVr15SF_horizontalbanner1

For two days in October, the city by the bay once again will be a bastion of fintech builders.

We are excited to announce our second annual event for fintech developers, software architects, CTOs, and other IT professionals: FinDEVr 2015 on 6/7 October in San Francisco, California.

Last year’s event featured speakers from 50 key fintech backbone companies such as Yodlee, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, TD Ameritrade, and Google, along with startups like Forte, Plaid, and Knox Payments (full list here). And we expect even more this year.

FinDEVr_SF2014_crowdshot1

Earlier this year we talked to most of last year’s presenters and many attendees about our inaugural FinDEVr conference in 2014. We found overwhelming support for an event focused on the TECHNOLOGY used in building modern financial services.

And that’s why we’re heading back to our favorite venue in San Francisco: the conference center on the campus of UCSF Mission Bay. It’s convenient and super comfortable, but it holds only about 700 people, so act fast as tickets will sell out.

Last year we experimented with various presentation lengths. Based on feedback, we are standardizing with TED-style, 20-minute speaker slots focused on financial tools and technology, along with actual case study detail. At least five minutes of each presentation will be devoted to questions submitted by the audience.

And to allow attendees to better fine-tune their schedule to their technical interests and needs, FinDEVr will be dual-track for both days.

FinDEVr2014_SF_networkingshot

Finally, all the presenters will be readily accessible during lunch, breaks, and end-of-the-day happy hour to answer your questions and resolve hurdles you may be facing in adopting specific technologies.

We hope you’ll join us. Tickets for fintech builders are currently less than $500 (50% off) as part of our “presale.” So act now and save.

And if you’d like to be one of our presenters at FinDEVr 2015, please send us an email at [email protected]. Let us know how you’re applying the latest technologies to help make financial services faster, safer and more efficient for businesses and consumers everywhere.

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LendKey to Power Online Student Lending at Navy Federal Credit Union

LendKey to Power Online Student Lending at Navy Federal Credit Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: LendKey

LendKey_homepage_800px

Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world, is making a splash in the student-loan market with news that its online student lending program will be powered by LendKey.

Aaron Aggerwal, assistant vice president of education lending at Navy Federal, says, “We’re excited to provide students, and their families, the funding they need for school when federal loans, grants, and scholarships are not enough.”

“LendKey’s customizable platform was the right solution for our members and the implementation process ran very smoothly,” he adds.

Using LendKey’s technology, Navy Federal CU will provide both consolidation and private student loans to its members. Navy Federal CU has over $64 billion in assets and more than 5 million members. The institution serves active duty civilian and contractor personnel and their families working with the Department of Defense and Coast Guard.

LendKey has more than 300 community banks and credit unions using the platform, providing loans to more than 35,000 consumers. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York, LendKey announced earlier this month a commitment of up to $1 billion from MidCap Financial to purchase students’ consolidation loans originated on the LendKey platform. The company inked a deal with TrueCar to integrate auto buying and lending in March, and another student lending partnership, with the Western Independent Bankers, in September. Vince Passione is founder and CEO.

LendKey is scheduled to make its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose next month. To see them live on stage, pick up your tickets to our spring conference today.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bazaarvoice, Betterment, blooom, Credit Karma, D3 Banking, Fiserv, FutureAdvisor, InComm, LendKey, Linkable Networks, Motif Investing, Quantopian, Stocktwits, Tradier, Trustev, TSYS, Wallaby Financial, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com

  • LendKey to Power Online Student Lending at Navy Federal Credit Union. See LendKey at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose in May
  • Credit Karma Now Serves Americans with Thin Credit Files

Around the web

  • D3 Banking taps Jeffrey Hale as chief business development officer.
  • Business & Leadership features “Irish success story” Trustev and its CEO and co-founder, Pat Phelan.
  • MarketWatch looks at Betterment, Blooom, FutureAdvisor, Motif Investing, and Wealthfront in its column on the “battle” between human and robo-advisers.
  • Northwest Community Credit Union to deploy Portico from Fiserv.
  • Wallaby Financial launches Wallaby for Apple Watch.
  • TSYS enables full-service payment-processing for American Express OptBlue program.
  • Bazaarvoice hires Sara Spivey as its new chief marketing officer.
  • WSJ mentions StockTwits’ role in social media for investing.
  • Fierce Finance IT: Tradier’s API platform sees explosion of firms looking to build robo-advisers.
  • Linkable Networks launches Omnyverse affiliate network with digital offers, promotions and incentives.
  • InComm enables Budget Mobile to offer Airfair Lifeline Reload services through 90,000 retail stores.

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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HedgeCoVest Takes Top Honors at 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards

HedgeCoVest Takes Top Honors at 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, iBillionaire, iQuantifi, LikeFolio, Market Prophit, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, Thinknum, TipRanks, Trunomi

benzinga_fintech_awards_philip3

The votes are in! HedgeCoVest is the winner of the Overall category at the 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards.

HedgeCoVest earned its first-place award at the Benzinga Fintech Awards Gala Event held earlier this month in New York City. The company picked up 5 million ad impressions and a one-year license to the Benzinga Pro Real-Time News & Data feed. Second- and third-place prizes were also awarded.

In attendance at the event were more than 50 CEOs, more than 100 fintech companies, about 20 venture capital firms, 10 major U.S. retail brokerages, and four fintech accelerators, as well as a host of press and media.

HedgeCoVest also performed well in individual categories, winning the Alternative Investment category, and earning runner-up recognition in the Most Disruptive category. Finovate alums taking home individual awards are listed below. See a full list of all winners, runners-up, and finalists.

Betterment: winner: Robo Advisor Tools, Founder of the Year (Jon Stein); runner-up: “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned”

iBillionaire: finalist: Idea Generation Creating Proprietary Data

iQuantifi: finalist: Robo Advisor Tools, “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned,” Idea Generation Strategy

LikeFolio: winner: Idea Generation Research Platforms & Tools

Market Prophit: runner-up: Idea Generation Creating Proprietary Data

Motif Investing: winner: Most Disruptive; finalist: Founder of the Year (Hardeep Walia), Alternative Investment

Personal Capital: runner-up: Idea Generation Strategy; finalist: “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned”

Thinknum: finalist: Best Use of the Crowd, Most Promising Startup

TipRanks: winner: Idea Generation Trade Recommendations

Trunomi:. finalist: Best Enterprise Solution

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Authentify, Backbase, Cachet Financial Solutions, Currency Cloud, Emida, EZBOB, Five Degrees, HedgeCoVest, Kony Solutions, Motif Investing, OneID, PayNearMe, Sekur.me, Trulioo, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • HedgeCoVest Wins Top Honors at 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards

Around the web

  • oneID launches its simple, free solution to secure personal information online across all devices.
  • Born2Invest talks about “thematic investing” in its review of Motif Investing.
  • Currency Cloud opens offices in New York, kicking off its U.S. expansion.
  • Select Mobile Money from Cachet Financial Solutions now supports Apple Watch.
  • Sberbank launches new digital platform based on technology from Backbase.
  • Five Degrees named winner of Dutch FinTech Awards in Banking & IT category.
  • PYMNTS looks at Ezbob’s role in SMB lending in the United Kingdom.
  • PayNearMe enables customers of LA Covered to pay their monthly premiums in cash.
  • Critical Mass radio show interviews Sekur.me CEO Jack Bicer.
  • Trulioo wins Europe’s 2015 Digital Identity Innovation Award. Watch Trulioo demo live at FinovateSpring.
  • NAB links core API technology to Xero’s accounting cloud ecosystems, connecting client’s online bank to their Xero account.
  • Authentify enables E-Transfer Technologies to protect currency trading accounts with mobile multifactor authentication.
  • Forbes: Kony and Soasta partner to close the mobile development and monitoring loop.

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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Global Debt Registry Teams Up with TransUnion to Better Serve Debt Industry

Global Debt Registry Teams Up with TransUnion to Better Serve Debt Industry
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Global Debt Registry

GlobalDebtRegistry_homepage_800px

In the race to provide better information to all the different parties in the debt-ownership and -collections industry, Global Debt Registry has just hitched itself to a rocket.

Courtesy of a new partnership, TransUnion will begin marketing the services of Global Debt Registry. TransUnion is a major provider of information for collections departments at large banks and other financial institutions, and is ranked among the top three credit bureaus in the world.

“The ability to team up with GDR to offer our clients GDR tools to manage account information post charge-off—and to support validation of a given debt—is a natural extension to our core services offered to financial institutions, debt collectors, and consumers,” said Peter Ghiselli, vice president in TransUnion’s specialized risk business unit.

GlobalDebtRegistry_FF14_stageshot

Above: Global Debt Registry Chief Commercial Officer Charles Moore demonstrated his company’s technology at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Mark Parsells, Chairman and CEO of Global Debt Registry, pointed to TransUnion’s leadership role in providing data and information to the collections community. “GDR and TransUnion’s mutual customers will benefit from our collaboration, which offers a broader market of debt buyers, collectors and financial institutions to reduce costs and risks, improve transparency and efficiencies to the debt-ownership industry.”

Founded in 1968, TransUnion serves more than 45,000 businesses, and more than 500 million consumers in more than 30 countries around the world. The company has been active in the direct-to-consumer market since 20o2, followings its acquisition of TrueCredit in 2002.

Global Debt Registry is a clearinghouse for the debt industry, giving debt owners, collection agents, financial institutions, and consumers a new level of transparency and insight into the “chain of title.” This transparency makes it easier for those working in the industry to accurately identify the true owners of debt for collection purposes. Through a consumer portal, Debt LookUp, Global Debt Registry’s platform can be used, for example, to ensure that repayment on a debt is being made to the correct individual.

Global Debt Registry made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014. The company was founded in 2009, and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. GDR announced a $7 million Series A round in January. Read our interview with CEO Parsells from the beginning of the year.

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Mint Bills Brings Mobile BillPay to One Million Customers of Questar Gas

Mint Bills Brings Mobile BillPay to One Million Customers of Questar Gas
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mint Bills

MintBills_homepage_800px

Who knew one of the beneficiaries of the energy boom in the Mountain West would be Mint Bills?

Intuit’s Mint Bills today announced a partnership with natural gas utility Questar Gas that will provide online and mobile billpay services to almost one million customers in Idaho, Montana, and Utah.

Brad Markus, general manager for customer service at Questar Gas, said that while providing a wide variety of payment options was a priority for his customers, pedigree was also important. “Mint Bills was the perfect partner for us. We not only liked the mobile bill pay product, but also that it’s a part of Intuit, a trusted brand,” he said.

MintBills_artUtility companies have been an area of focus for Mint Bills for years. In addition to its new partnership with Questar Gas, Mint Bills is working with two other players in the natural gas world, UGI Utilities and New Jersey Natural Gas, providing multichannel billpay for more than two million households combined.

Steve Schultz, general manager of biller services for Mint Bills, said, “Given the increasing adoption of mobile devices, we’re seeing more natural gas utilities starting to offer electronic payment options for their customers.” Schultz added that the cost-effectiveness of Mint Bills was also a big factor for utilities companies like Questar, which are looking for mobile payment technology “for little to no cost.”

Mint Bills makes it easy for consumers to manage and pay their bills. The app monitors all connected accounts—savings, checking, credit—and provides configurable alerts to let users know when bills are nearing due dates. Users can sign up online, or download the iOS or Android versions to use the mobile app.

Mint Bills was launched by Intuit late last year, following the company’s acquisition of Check (formerly Pageonce) in May 2014.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AcceptEmail, BBVA, Bento for Business, Betterment, Global Debt Registry, Interactions, Lending Club, Mint Bills, Motif Investing, On Deck Capital, Prosper, WealthForge, Wealthfront, Yoyo

On Finovate.com

  • Britain’s Second Largest Mobile Wallet, Yoyo, Pulls $10 Million in Funding
  • Mint Bills Brings Mobile Billpay to One Million Customers of Quester Gas
  • Global Debt Registry Teams Up with TransUnion to Better Serve Debt Industry

Around the web

  • Bento for Business founder and CEO weighs in on the future of tech accelerators. See Bento for Business at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose next month.
  • Global Market Solutions joins the Misys InFusion Partner program.
  • TechCrunch column on fintech regulation features Lending Club, Motif Investing, Betterment, OnDeck, Wealthfront, Prosper, and WealthForge. Join WealthForge in San Jose for FinovateSpring 2015.
  • OnDeck partners with Angie’s List to offer financing to its service providers.
  • Paybefore selects InComm as a 2015 Paybefore Awards Europe winner in the Change Agent of the Year category.
  • Banking Exchange: Kabbage hopes to harvest more bank partnerships.
  • Check Point Software and FireEye partner to share threat intelligence to protect customers from modern advanced attacks.
  • Bank Innovation’s look at Voice Assisted Banking features Interactions.

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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Finovate Debuts: Xsolla Leverages its Billing Platform to Build a Better Payment System

Finovate Debuts: Xsolla Leverages its Billing Platform to Build a Better Payment System
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, Xsolla

Xsolla_homepage_800x

Xsolla is taking its expertise in providing billing services for gaming platforms into the world of payments and commerce. At FinovateEurope 2015, Xsolla demonstrated its white-label, customizable billing platform for financial institutions. Aiman Seksembaeva, Xsolla’s manager of business development, said, “We believe our solution has been perfected and molded by millions of daily transactions that can actually help reinvent e-commerce.”

The stats:

  • Founded in 2006
  • Headquartered in Sherman Oaks, California
  • Maintains workforce of 170
  • Alexander Agapitov is CEO

The story

Xsolla’s payment-gateway comes with advanced analytics and reporting tools, as well as advanced antifraud and chargeback management. The technology can be used by online merchants looking to make it easier for consumers to make transactions in the manner and currency of their choice. Xsolla believes this flexibility is critical, pointing out that enabling consumers to transact in local currencies increases engagement which can lead to higher revenues for both small businesses and their bank partners.

Xsolla_FEU15_stageart1

Users choose a country and coverage, or have them selected automatically. Some advanced users of the platform may transact in one set of currencies, yet want payouts in an entirely different set of currencies. Seksembaeva points out that this kind of functionality within larger payment gateways has been available for years, and now with Xsolla, these options are available to small and medium-sized merchants as well.

Xsolla_FEU15_stage2

Banks and clients alike have access to the platform’s analytic and reporting dashboard, a 24/7 analytics suite that helps merchants monitor and manage the “flow and health of their business.” Users can see all transactions made on the platform, the volume of sales, taxes if applicable, payout amounts and types, and review fees, courtesy of detailed reports on each payment method.

The bank workspace, Semsekbaeva points out, is not just a “big-data analytics solution capable of producing customized reports” but a resource that allows FIs to communicate directly with clients. It can be used for cross-selling; marketing credit lines for SMEs; as well as handling complex offers from merchants and other vendors.

The future

Xsolla has been busy making friends in the weeks and months since its Finovate debut in London in February. The company announced partnerships with Ubisoft and CipSoft in April, following a string of successful deals from late 2014. Teaming up with other platforms in the spring has led to sales increases of more than 30% and significant gains in conversion rates from PayPal, credit cards, and other payment methods.

Xsolla_FEU15_ASeksembaeva_stage0

Above: Xsolla Business Development Manager Aiman Seksembaeva presented at FinovateEurope 2015.

The key will be convincing FIs that Xsolla, which already has a strong presence in the world of online gaming, is making a real commitment to helping banks provide a range of options for their small business clients looking for variety in payment options.

“We’ve been experiencing a lot of demand from businesses for a solution like ours,” Seksembaeva said of the company technology. “But we truly believe this is not Xsolla’s place to be. This is a bank’s business.”

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