Alumni News– July 25, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgFox Business News features Kabbage’s small business lending process.
  • Huffington Post describes how DemystData’s big data analytics help evaluate creditworthiness.
  • Cartera Commerce’s CFO Karen Cambray named a finalist in Boston Business Journal’s 2014 CFO of the Year Awards.
  • Bloomberg: BillGuard programmers code in bomb shelters.
  • Coinbase launches Coinbase Vault to Better Secure Your Bitcoins.
  • MoneyDesktop appoints Brandon Dewitt as its first ever CTO.
  • SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert stepping down in order to refocus his attention solely on bitcoin.
  • InvestmentNews features roboadvisors Jemstep, FutureAdvisor, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital.
  • The Irish Times looks at Holvi’s move into Ireland.
  • CMS Wire: Actiance wants to help companies curb social media mistakes.
  • Karen Webster of Market Platform Dynamics interviews Zooz CEO Oren Levy.
  • eToro announces new version of OpenBook for iOS.
  • Mobile Entertainment talks with Adam Levene, SVP of Strategy at Monitise Create.
  • LendingTree launches personalization platform.
  • Pymnts takes a look at the partnership between Malauzai Software and Trusteer. See Malauzai at FinovateFall in September.
  • Fortune.com interviews Bill Siegel, interim CEO of SecondMarket.
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.

LendingTree Launches Personalization Platform

LendingTree Launches Personalization Platform
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Calling it “the next step forward to help(ing) consumers take control of their financial lives,” Doug Lebda, CEO and founder of LendingTree, announced the launch of the new LendingTree personalization platform.

The platform incorporates LendingTree’s VantageScore 3.0, credit scoring technology designed for the post-financial crisis era. VantageScore is a tri-bureau credit scoring model that can generate credit ratings for more than 30 million more consumers than with traditional methods.

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Peer comparisons and credit education are also components of the platform, giving users a level of transparency to the credit-scoring process. And by integrating users’ financial accounts, LendingTree’s personalization platform gives consumers the ability to see an analyze their overall credit profile, as well as spot opportunities to save money.
The key is LendingTree’s ability to leverage its network of banks, peer-to-peer lending platforms, and other credit and financial institutions to provide users with insights into how their behavior affects their credit profile. It also is easier to provide consumers with cost-saving offers that are more relevant and more likely to be used.
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A leading online lender, LendingTree has facilitated more than 30 million loan requests and more than $200 billion in closed-loan transactions. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was founded in 1996. LendingTree demoed its mobile app at our spring conference in San Jose this year. See a video of the company at FinovateSpring 2014 here.

Coinbase Launches Coinbase Vault to Better Secure Your Bitcoins

Coinbase Launches Coinbase Vault to Better Secure Your Bitcoins
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If you follow digital currency news, it’s likely you remember the crumbling of Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in February. The site went bankrupt when 850,000 Bitcoins (then worth around $450 million) were stolen from users’ accounts.

Coinbase today launched a new product, Coinbase Vault, that aims to keep it from sharing Mt Gox’s fate by keeping a portion of users’ bitcoin safe from hackers and unauthorized withdrawals.

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The free new account has three features that contribute to increased security:

    • Time-delayed withdrawals
      There is a 48-hour waiting period before withdrawals are transferred from the Vault account. During the waiting period, the transaction can be cancelled at any time.
    • Multiple approvers
      For joint accounts, approval from multiple parties is required in order to begin the withdrawal.
    • Offline storage
      97% of bitcoin is held offline in safe deposit boxes.

Coinbase showcased Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. You can check out the demo video here.

LoopPay Earns Investment from Visa

LoopPay Earns Investment from Visa

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You know you’re a Finovate fan when you skip over the report that Visa and Apple are talking just to get to the news that Visa has made an investment in mobile wallet innovator, LoopPay.

In a statement, LoopPay CEO, Will Graylin said he was “thrilled to have Visa as a partner and investor.” Visa SVP of innovation and strategic partnerships Jim McCarthy praised the company’s technology, particularly the fact that merchants can accept payment via LoopPay using their existing point-of-sale infrastructure.

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The investment from Visa is part of the larger funding round LoopPay announced a few weeks ago. Amounts have not been disclosed.
LoopPay’s innovation is its expertise in Magnetic Secure Transmission™ (MST) technology. The technology uses an app, a secure chip, and an embedded magnetic loop to collect, store, and transmit mag stripe data from our added cards to the POS terminal when making a payment.  The loop is built into accessories such as the fob and, most recently, the LoopPay ChargeCase.
LoopPay made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose, winning Best of Show honors. The company was founded in 2013, and is based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

TipRanks Announces $3 Million Investment

TipRanks Announces $3 Million Investment

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Featuring former New York State attorney general, governor, and so-called “Sheriff of Wall Street” Eliot Spitzer as one of its investors, TipRanks has just closed an initial round of funding, raising $3 million.

Also participating in the Series A round were Roni Michaely, a professor of finance from Cornell University, and John Nakamura, an angel investor. The completed round takes the company’s total funding to $3.7 million.

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TipRanks leverages machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze and rank more than 6,500 financial analysts and bloggers online. This enables the company to provide accurate performance measurements on anyone giving investment or stock trading advice online.
Uri Gruenbaum, TipRanks CEO and co-founder, explained, “Let’s face it, not all analysts are created equal.”
“By scanning leading (financial) websites for analyst recommendations, TipRanks is able to provide its users (with) relevant information regarding the analyst’s performance history.”
TipRanks was founded in 2012 by Uri Gruenbaum (CEO) and Gilad Gat (CTO). The company includes Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi among its financial institution customers. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, TipRanks demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2013, taking home Best of Show honors. See TipRanks in action here.

Alumni News– July 23, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTaulia raises $27 million in series D funding.
  • CU Service Network partners with Insuritas to generate fee income for credit unions.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions partners with top five commercial bank in the U.S. to implement a prepaid mobile platform for supermarket chain.
  • BioCatch raises $10 million in Series A round. See them demo at FinovateFall 2014.
  • Malauzai Software partners with Trusteer to bring mobile security solutions to Customers Bancorp. Join Malauzai in New York in September for FinovateFall.
  • Place2Give launches MyPlace2Give.com to enable individuals to set up their own charitable giving fund.
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.

BioCatch Raises $10 Million in Series A Round

BioCatch Raises $10 Million in Series A Round
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Israel-based biometric security specialist BioCatch announced today that it had raised $10 million in an initial Series A funding round.

The Series A was led by Blumberg Capital and equity crowd funding firm, OurCrowd, and included participation from unnamed existing investors. The company says that the new funding will go toward research and development, as well as expanding the service in North America, Europe, and Latin America.
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BioCatch CEO Benny Rosebaum said in a statement, “This funding will allow us to continue strengthening our offering and expand our globe reach in strategic markets, while keeping the world’s largest and most influential institutions safe and secure.”
BioCatch is an innovator in the biometric authentication space. The company’s technology examines more than 400 behavioral, cognitive, and physiological markers to help determine when unusual activity is taking place. These markers range from how a person’s finger tends to move across a trackpad or interface, or even the angle at which a mobile device is typically held while being used.
And while stopping fraud is the important, headline goal, the more fundamental objective of the technology is eliminating friction. This translates into both a more secure experience for online and mobile banking customers and e-commerce consumers, as well as a more efficient and seamless transacting process.
BioCatch cyber strategy chief Uri Rivner suggested as much in an interview with Gigaom. “The problem today is not necessarily fraud, but (that) they want to make sure it’s really you, so they add a lot of security, which is friction.”
“We’ve demonstrated that we can reduce that friction and operational costs.”
Founded in 2011, BioCatch will make its Finovate debut this September. To take advantage of early-bird pricing to the New York City event, register here.

Taulia Raises $27 Million in Series D Funding

Taulia Raises $27 Million in Series D Funding

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Taulia, a company that aims to ease cash flow issues faced by small and medium sized businesses, announced today it raised $27 million in Series D funding.

This newest installment, which brings Taulia’s total funding to $67.2 million, comes from QuestMark Partners, which led the round, and existing investors Trinity Ventures, Matrix Partners, Lakestar and DAG Ventures.

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When Taulia launched in 2009, its primary service was Dynamic Discounting, a product that helps suppliers receive faster cash flow, and gives buyers more flexibility and discounts if they pay early. Now Taulia offers seven products, including einvoicing and supplier management tools that help small businesses interact with their suppliers.

Of the 225,000 suppliers on Taulia’s platform, 55 rank among the largest corporate companies. The San Francisco-based company plans to use the funding to sign more large corporate clients and expand into Asia.

Taulia is now valued at $200 million.

To learn more about Taulia, check out its FinovateSpring 2012 demo where it debuted its Early Payment Network.

Alumni News– July 18, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgInnotribe finalists include early stage companies CurrencyTransfer and LendingRobot.
  • Innotribe finalists include growth stage companies Advanced Merchant Payments, Fastacash, Mambu, and Wallaby.
  • Pymnts talks with PaySimple CEO and founder Eric Remer to discuss how PaySimple looks at B2B payments.
  • Check announces major expansion of photo bill pay beta.
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.

Dashlane Launches Password Management for Teams

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Password management platform Dashlane recently released an update that will give organizations more control over accounts that need to be shared across team members.

The New York-based company’s latest release will include three major upgrades:

1) Sharing Center, a dashboard that displays all of a user’s accounts synched with Dashlane. It enables them to share the passwords with others, automatically informing all users when a shared password changes.
From the Sharing Center, users can also manage access levels, giving others full rights or limited rights to the password.
2) Emergency Contacts gives users the ability to provide a trusted emergency contact with access to select accounts in case of emergency.
3) View Password History gives users a comprehensive view of all of the passwords they have previously held in Dashlane.
 

In addition to the new sharing functionality, it is also releasing an upgrade to its user interface.

Dashlane was founded in 2009. At FinovateEurope 2013 it demoed how its online and mobile interfaces make online transactions easier and faster.

Alumni News– July 17, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPaySimple to enable SMBs to accept payments and automate billing under Zen Planner’s software solution.
  • Dashlane launches password management for teams.
  • Top Image Systems acquires eGistics for $18 million.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Alumni News– July 16, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgpeerTransfer and Nelnet expand partnership, enhancing international payment options for educational institutions.
  • Xero MD Chris Ridd featured on Qantas radio. Check out Xero at FinDEVr, the first event for fintech developers.
  • Micronotes releases Mobile-SMS to automate the referral process through the mobile SMS channel to drive more sales.
  • Lendio launches program for brokers that helps more SMBs find financing by giving brokers and ISOs access to Lendio’s lending options.
  • New app from The Members Group alerts Google Glass wearers if a Dwolla-accepting merchant is nearby.
  • mBank deploys authentication technology from HID Global.
  • Jack Henry launches jhaEnterprise Workflow solution.
  • Coinbase integration brings bitcoin payments to Shopify merchants.
  • Zooz raises $12 million in round led by Blumberg Capital.
  • MasterCard’s MasterPass to enable in-app payments by August.
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.