David Penn, Author at Finovate

Red Zebra Analytics Brings its Card-Linked Offers Service to Germany

By David Penn Posted on January 27, 2015
Categories: Red Zebra

Courtesy of a five-year extension of its partnership with Red Zebra Analytics, cash-back offers are coming to customers of Germany’s Wüstenrot Bank.

“We bring together consumers, banks, and retailers, with highly targeted rewards based on spending patterns,” explained Red Zebra Analytics CEO Attul Sehgal.

“With our innovative card-link loyalty programme, banks build a closer relationship with their customers by personalizing the services and cash-back offers according to individual preferences.”

Red Zebra notes that its card-link offers service is the “first of its kind in Germany and second in Europe.” Without relying on vouchers or coupons, the service automatically presents customers with offers when they log into their online bank or credit card accounts. Customers choose the offers they want, and those offers are activated when the customer purchases the item or service using their bank debit or credit card. Discount are granted as cash payments on a monthly basis.

Red Zebra’s technology takes advantage of real-time data to enable the kind of targeted campaigns that will better engage and retain customers. Consumers benefit from increased savings on the debit and credit cards they are already using.

(Above, left to right: Ina Meixner, Marketing Manager, Europe; Attul Sehgal, CEO at FinovateEurope 2014)

The Wüstenrot Bank launch is the product of a collaboration that began in June 2013, and was piloted in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in London, Red Zebra Analytics demoed its 3D OFFERS loyalty program at FinovateEurope 2014. It was around that time that the company earned a “seven-figure investment” from SBT Venture Capital, widely believed to be in the area of $8 million.

We talked with Red Zebra Analytics CEO Attul Sehgal last week about the company’s 2014 as well as the year ahead.

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TransferWise Raises $58 Million in Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz

By David Penn Posted on January 26, 2015
Categories: TransferWise

TransferWise is starting off the year with a funding bang: the company has raised $58 million in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

The investment takes TransferWise’s total capital to more than $90 million. Existing investors Richard Branson, IA Ventures, Index Ventures, Valar Ventures, and Seedcamp also participated in the round.

Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise said: “Andreessen Horowitz’s investment in TransferWise shows how ripe financial services are for disruption.”

“For too long, legacy providers’ dominance of the market has allowed consumers to be hoodwinked into paying huge hidden charges for services as basic as currency exchange.”

Ben Horowitz, founder of Andreessen Horowitz, referred to this insight the discovery of “an important secret” and called TransferWise “uniquely prepared to pursue it.”

He added: “Not only is (TransferWise’s) solution 10 times better than the old way of exchanging foreign currency, but it could not have come at a better time.” Both Hinrikus and Horowitz pointed to the lack of innovation as a “massive opportunity” for companies like TransferWise.

The company plans to use the capital to drive global expansion. TransferWise is opening an office in the United States in February according to reporting by TechCrunch, and are looking to open offices in Germany and Austria in the first half of 2015, as well. The goal for the year is to open an additional 300 “currency routes.”

(Above, left to right: Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, co-founders of TransferWise at FinovateEurope 2013)

TransferWise enables money transfers between the U.S. and Canadian dollars as well as the euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and another 10 European currencies. Customers using the platform can also transfer these currencies into a number of Asian currencies including the Australian, Hong Kong and Singaporean dollars, and the Indian rupee. See the full list here.

A few metrics for TransferWise:

Launched in 2011
Headquartered in London
Staffs 250
Maintains more than 290 currency routes
Enabled customer transfers of £3 billion for a savings of £135 million

The company has been making headlines, as well, appearing in Motley Fool’s list of fintech startups that can help consumer handle their money in 2015, and with its peers Azimo and CurrencyFair in a recent look at disruption in traditional money exchange from Forbes.com. In December, TransferWise was named one of KPMG’s Fintech Innovators of 2014.

TransferWise demoed its technology as part of FinovateEurope 2013.

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Alumni News– January 26, 2015

By David Penn Posted on January 26, 2015
Categories: Actiance, Bill Guard, Coinbase, Credit Sesame, Experian, Feedzai, Fiserv, Google, Kabbage, Lending Club, Misys, TransferWise, Zumigo

MIT Technology Review features Feedzai and Zumigo in a discussion on mobile authentication technologies.

Loan origination platform LoanLaunch (formerly Common Origination Platform) now available from Fiserv.

Experian partners with BillGuard to boost effectiveness of its anti-fraud solution, ProtectMyID.

Misys unveils FusionBanking Lending.

American Banker takes a look at the relationship between Google and Lending Club.

Kabbage named one of America’s top 100 Most Promising Companies

Coinbase to open the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the U.S.

Actiance announces support for IBM Verse and IBM Connections Social Cloud.

Credit Sesame launches iOS app with Siri integration in its credit monitoring feature.

Themes and Presenters at FinovateEurope 2015.

Google Wallet partners with WePay to put its Instant Buy API in 200,000 e-commerce shops.

TransferWise Raises $58 Million in Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz.

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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FT Partners Publishes Post-IPO Profile of Lending Club

By David Penn Posted on January 23, 2015
Categories: Lending Club, On Deck Capital

Now that the dust has settled on fintech’s biggest startup IPO ever, FT Partners has put together an extensive profile of Lending Club. Lending Club’s IPO last year was one of the major events that helped put fintech in the headlines of not just technology news, but business news, as well. And FT Partners’ report so far serves as the definitive document on just how the alternative lender did it and gives clues to what comes next.

The data-rich, 60-page document focuses mostly on Lending Club, though small business lender, OnDeck, is also covered. The review of Lending Club before, during, and after its public offering includes industry reaction as well as summaries of analyst coverage.

Key milestones in the rise of Lending Club are shown graphically, from its launch in 2007, through the company’s first $25 million institutional investment five years later. An industry timeline shows Lending Club’s place in the evolution of the alternative lending market (interestingly contrasted with a graph of the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield).

The report discusses Lending Club’s competitive strengths, opportunities for growth, and includes seven pages of loan statistics and another nine pages of financial analysis focusing on revenue and revenue comparisons.

Perhaps my favorite part is the 16-page section “Selected Alternative Lending Transactions.” Looking at the variety of financing, M&A, and other transactions in both the consumer and small business markets provides a robust sense of the history and diversity of the alternative lending space.

The full report is available here.

Financial Technology Partners is an investment banking firm dedicated to the financial technology sector. The company was founded by Steve McLaughlin and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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Akimbo Financial Acquired by Payment Data Systems

By David Penn Posted on January 23, 2015
Categories: Akimbo Financial

At a purchase price of $3 million dollars, Akimbo Financial has agreed to be acquired by payments solutions provider, Payment Data Systems.

“We believe joining the Payment Data Systems family will help further our goal of reinventing the prepaid card,” Akimbo co-founder and CEO Houston Frost said. “We look forward to growing our program at FiCentive and making the Akimbo card product an industry leader and trendsetter.”

Payment Data Systems plans to integrate Akimbo’s prepaid card technology with the backend prepaid card processing platform of its subsidiary, FiCentive. The resulting technology, per Frost, will provide consumers with “new features and functionality”, better customer service, and lower costs.

Added Louis Hoch, FiCentive president and CEO, “Not only will FiCentive have access to new and significant prepaid card front-end technology including mobile applications, but will also be acquiring significant human capital with deep prepaid card industry knowledge.

(above: Akimbo Financial co-founder and CEO Houston Frost at FinovateFall 2013)

Akimbo Financial specializes in white-label, prepaid card programs for banks and credit unions. The company’s technology supports social payments and prepaid card management, making it easy for consumer to share money by email or over social networks, and to automate the management of their cards and accounts. The Akimbo Visa Prepaid Card, the company’s signature solution, can be used with a mobile app (both iOS and Android) to take advantage of the budgeting, money sharing, and card management features on the go.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, Akimbo Financial demonstrated its prepaid P2P payments solution at FinovateFall 2013.

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Alumni News– January 23, 2015

By David Penn Posted on January 23, 2015
Categories: Akimbo Financial, BankBazaar, Betterment, Bill.com, BlueVine, Encap, EZBOB, FutureAdvisor, Google Cloud Platform, Jemstep, Kreditech, LearnVest, MaxMyInterest, Mifos Initiative, Motif Investing, On Deck Capital, Personal Capital, SigFig, Toshl, TradeKing, Wealthfront

Internet Retailer looks at the relationship between product reviews and revenue courtesy of a new report from Baazarvoice.

Xero highlighted as “our best purchase of 2014” by Business Betties.

MakeMoneyYourWay profiles EZBOB and its new business loan promotion, the New Year’s Revolution.

Zee News’ Money Guru interviews Abhishek Dwivedi, vice president operations at BankBazaar.com.

Liverpool Echo features Toshl Finance in its list of must-have apps for busy moms.

Investopedia’s guide to choosing roboadvisors spotlights nine Finovate alums: Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, LearnVest, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, SigFig, TradeKing, and Wealthfront.

Benzinga Fintech Awards publishes its video interview with Gary Zimmerman, CEO of MaxMyInterest.

American Banker covers OnDeck’s small business loan marketplace for institutional investors.

Pymnts interviews René Lacerte, CEO and Founder of Bill.com about how to simplify B2B payments.

Mifos welcomes new partners: SkooliLabs and iSystems

Google Cloud Platform releases beta of Google Container Registry for secure hosting, sharing, and management of private container repositories.

BlueVine Grabs $18.5 Million to Increase Small-Business Lending.

Encap Security CEO Thomas Bostrom Jorgensen asks if biometrics provide a “false sense of security” in a column for Bob’s Guide.

Akimbo Financial acquired by Payment Data Systems.

Kreditech Secures $200 Million Line of Credit.

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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FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 4

By David Penn Posted on January 22, 2015
Categories: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, CPB Software AG, FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek, Ixaris, JSC Delta Bank, QCR, Topicus

Will you be joining us live for FinovateEurope 2015? Following the action via the Finovate Live Blog and Twitter feed (@Finovate)?

However you plan on participating in the first Finovate conference of the year, our Sneak Peek series helps you get to know the presenting companies before they hit the stage next month.

We’ve already highlighted 18 out of the more than 70 companies demonstrating their latest technologies. If you missed them, you can get up to speed with Parts 1, 2 and 3 of our Sneak Peek series below.

Sneak Peek Part 1: ebankIT, Jumio, SOFORT, TradeRiver Finance, Xignite, and Yoyo

Sneak Peek Part 2: AlphaPoint, Avoka, Encap Security, investUP, Nostrum Group, and StreetShares

Sneak Peek Part 3: CoinJar, EVRY, FOBISS, Strands, Trunomi, VATBox

Today we bring you another set of six presenters: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, CPB SOFTWARE, Ixaris, JSC Delta Bank, QCR, and Topicus.Finance.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank have a long, 156-year history of innovation. Our latest innovation is redy, a mobile commerce platform.

Features

A mobile commerce platform that connects shoppers, businesses, and the community for a common cause
Fast and secure mobile payments
Easy, fast, and secure donations

Why it’s great

redy is a fast and secure mobile commerce platform that improves the shopping experience and connects shoppers, businesses, and communities for a common cause.

Presenters

Robert Musgrove, Executive Community Engagement

Musgrove played a pivotal role in the expansion of Community Bank. He is always on the lookout for ways to give back to his community.

Rick vanEmmerik, Mobility Manager

vanEmmerik has been with Bendigo and Adelaide Group for 7 years. He has been part of the redy team since its inception.

CPB SOFTWARE offers profound expertise, creativity, flexibility, and high quality financial software solutions including premium ASP and BPO services.

Features

PROFOS is the app for bankers
Manage your clients anytime and anywhere
The best way to support your advisors and clients

Why it’s great

PROFOS – The Bank is where Clients are!

Presenters

Peter Thomayer, CEO

Thomayer is founding member and since 2000 CEO of CPB Software. Areas of responsibility: strategy, human resources, marketing, and sales. Held different leading positions in some banks before.

Barbara Aigner, Consultant

Aigner is founder and CEO of emotion banking, a consultant company for banks and founder of victor, the main analysis and championship for banks in the German-speaking area.

Markus Nekham, Consultant / Advisory Board

Nekham is founder and CEO of networx business services. He is lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and a negotiation and communication consultant and coach.

Ixaris is a fintech company specializing in the delivery of next generation card programs.

Features

Extend your card programs offering with apps from our App Store
Reduce burden on your IT through an on-the-cloud platform
Reduce card program management overheads with self-service tools

Why it’s great

Card programs tailored to your customer needs by your own customers

Presenters

Patrick Abela, Product Director

Abela has 15 years experience specializing in leveraging technology to deliver innovative and competitive payment products and solutions.

Reno Scerri, Pre-sales and Solutioning Manager

Scerri has over 10 years’ experience in technology products, with special focus on design and delivery of solutions for the payments industry.

JSC Data Bank is a Ukranian innovative universal bank that provides a wide range of products and services for all types of clients.

Features

Transfer money via Facebook
Transfer money using only the recipient’s mobile phone number
Service is available without registration for everyone

Why it’s great

Pay2You is a service that makes your communication channels available for transferring money.

Presenter

Stanislav Ostrovsky, Head of R&D Department

QCR has developed RiskAware, an innovative credit risk assessment technology which can add major value to existing risk management practices at financial institutions.

Features

Drastically improved corporate default predicting power
Deeper credit risk analysis and more accurate quantification of credit risk
Faster credit risk management, quicker SLA times

Why it’s great

Through faster and more accurate credit risk management, RiskAware can save millions of USD a year in credit losses for financial institutions.

Presenters

Tamas Varkonyi, Founder and CEO

Varkonyi’s professional career in credit risk management spans 12 years. Before founding QCR, he managed a credit portfolio at CIT Group and underwrote loans at Barclays.

Sandor Kocso, CTO

Kocso is a seasoned technologist with 10 years of experience developing financial software applications at Morgan Stanley and Leonteq Securities, Switzerland.

Topicus.Finance is a flexible, process-oriented business lending platform with self-service capabilities.

Features

With FORCE Business Lending:

Enable automatic loan origination
Achieve seamless fulfillment for all parties
Facilitate everything from orientation to a fully-repaid debt

Why it’s great

“Customer centric” is no longer a hollow phrase. FORCE Business Lending enables your employees to fully focus on (the business of) your customer.

Presenters

Michiel Schipper, Managing Director

Jamie Burink, Head of Business Lending

FinovateEurope 2015 will be held February 10 and 11 in London. Pick up your tickets today and join us for the first Finovate conference of the year.

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Alumni News– January 22, 2015

By David Penn Posted on January 22, 2015
Categories: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Braintree, Coinbase, CPB Software AG, Digital Retail Apps, GMC Software Technology, Ixaris, JSC Delta Bank, Kreditech, planwise, QCR, Realty Mogul, Silanis Technology, Temenos, Topicus, TradeKing, Trustev

Kreditech secures $200 million credit line from Victory Park Capital.

GMC Software and Silanis Technology partner to integrate eSignLive with Inspire.

Internet Retailer features Trustev CEO Pat Phelan in discussion on consumer fraud.

TradeKing unveils Risk Assist to protect clients against steep market declines.

Braintree completes initial integration with Coinbase; opens up private beta access.

Financial Post business section features Digital Retail Apps in its look at digital payments in 2015.

Realty Mogul adds new Senior VP of Mortgage Operations, Kendra King.

Temenos forges strategic alliance with EFT processor, Elan Financial Services.

Check out our latest FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek, Part 4 featuring Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, CPB Software AG, Ixaris, JSC Delta Bank, QCR, and Topicus Financial.

Planwise launches Connect, leveraging affordability tools to help real estate agents engage potential buyers.

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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True Link Raises $3 Million in Round Led by Cambia Health Solutions

By David Penn Posted on January 21, 2015
Categories: True Link

Recently highlighted by The Wall Street Journal as a top online tool for retirees, True Link has raised $3.4 million dollars in a round led by an atypical fintech investor: Cambia Health Solutions.

Also participating in the round were Collaborative Fund, Generator Ventures, and Kapor Capital.

The investment is the first significant infusion of capital for the True Link. Founded in February 2013 and based in San Francisco, the company debuted its True Link Prepaid cards at FinovateSpring 2014. CEO Kai Stinchcombe introduced the technology as a way to help prevent elder Americans from financial exploitation, fraud, and abuse, while still ensuring seniors can have an active financial life.

As reported in Techcrunch, Stinchcombe finds Cambia’s relative lack of Silicon Valley cred to be a feature rather than a bug. He credits Cambia’s “strong thesis around aging” as a major synergy compared to other potential investors whose focus may be more youth-culture oriented.

(Above: True Link CEO Kai Stinchcombe at FinovateSpring 2014)

The company plans to use the capital to look into protecting other consumer assets such as credit scores.

True Link’s technology consists of a prepaid debit card with a variety of safeguards. The cards can be set up to block transactions at certain stores or certain categories of items or even certain types of transactions (i.e., no online transactions). It can also be used to establish spending limits, and to send alerts whenever a transaction threatens to breach them.

The service is $10 a month. Cards can be funded from a bank account or direct deposit, and True Link says the process takes less than five minutes to set up.

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Alumni News– January 21, 2015

By David Penn Posted on January 21, 2015
Categories: Akimbo Financial, AlphaPoint, Arroweye Solutions, Avoka, Azimo, BrightScope, Coinbase, CustomerXPs, Encap, EZBOB, iBillionaire, InComm, investUP, Kreditech, Malauzai Software, Mitek, Nostrum Group, On Deck Capital, PayPal, Roostify, StreetShares, TIO Networks, Tradeshift, TrueLink Financial, Wall Street Survivor, Yodlee

Your Personal Financial Mentor profiles EZBOB.

BrightScope releases AdviceMatch, a free online service to help consumer choose financial advisors.

OnDeck Marketplace emerges from pilot program. Platform helps institutional investors buy small business loans.

Venture Burn takes a look at Azimo and the West African remittance market.

Kreditech named Germany’s leading digital innovator of the year by Focus Magazine.

Arroweye Solutions CEO Render Dahiya urges issuers on EMV adoption.

Check out FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 3.

Coinbase Raises $75 Million from BBVA, USAA, NYSE, & Others.

Millennial-focused BankMobile app is powered by Malauzai Software and uses Mitek to power mobile customer on-boarding.

Roostify describes its experience with Yodlee’s FinDat Disruptor program.

PayPal to use InComm to support PayPal’s digital gifts services in Canada.

Yale Undergraduate selects Wall Street Survivor to help students understand investing and personal finance.

Technical.ly/ Baltimore looks at how TIO Networks powers Baltimore’s online bill pay system.

Tradeshift wins Circular Economy Digital Disruptor Award held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

CustomerXPs and EY, a tax advisory firm, partner to help companies deal with fraud.

iBillionaire updates mobile app & releases new High Dividend Index.

Payment Data Systems to acquire Akimbo for $3 million.

Be sure to check out FinovateEurope Sneak Peek #2 featuring AlphaPoint, Avoka, Encap Security, investUP, Nostrum Group, and StreetShares.

True Link Raises $3 Million in Round Led by Cambia Health Solutions.

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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Renren Leads $40 Million Funding Round for Motif Investing

By David Penn Posted on January 20, 2015
Categories: Motif Investing

In one of the more interesting investments in recent months, Chinese social network, Renren has led a $40 million funding round for investment platform, Motif Investing.

The funding takes Motif’s total capital to more than $120 million.

Renren founder and CEO Joseph Chen said that Motif was the kind of “disruptive technology” that can “transform markets.” He sees the platform as serving both retail and institutional investors in the United States and around the world.

But perhaps it was Carl Stern who put it best. The former Vice Chairman of the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and former Chairman and CEO at The Boston Consulting Group, said “Motif Investing is experiencing success because it provides a differentiated model to advisors and retail investors that make smart investing simple at minimal cost.”

The investment from Renren is part of the company’s campaign to invest approximately $500 million in fintech startups. According to the Wall Street Journal blog’s reporting, Renren is looking to diversify its revenue away from an emphasis on advertising. The blog quotes Chen saying, “making money purely through mobile advertising in China is too difficult.”

(Above: Motif Investing co-founder and CEO, Hardeep Walia at FinovateSpring 2014)

Motif says that Renren’s support could help the company eventually expand into China. For now, the company is looking to move into both the U.K. and Hong Kong in 2015.

Motif’s technology lets investors and traders build their own exchange-traded funds. The platform leverages the creativity of its investment community to develop investment products that are often more unique and topical than those traditionally available.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Motif Investing is a multiple Best of Show award winning alum, earning honors for demonstrations of its technology at both FinovateFall 2013 and FinovateSpring 2014.

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Alumni News– January 20, 2015

By David Penn Posted on January 20, 2015
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Azimo, BillGuard, blooom, CardFlight, Continuity Control, Credit Karma, Geezeo, Global Debt Registry, HelloWallet, Malauzai Software, MaxMyInterest, Mint.com, Nutmeg, Top Image Systems, True Link, Trulioo, Yodlee

ACI Worldwide partners with ATM provider LD Systems.

Nutmeg hires former Google financial search ad specialist, Scott Eblen, as Chief Product Officer.

Azimo customers can now send money to another eight West African countries.

The American Bankers Association endorses PFM and BFM platforms from Geezeo.

New app from no-fee, no-branch BankMobile is powered by Malauzai Software.

Wall Street Journal’s top tools for retirement planning features BillGuard, blooom, HelloWallet, MaxMyInterest, Mint, True Link Financial, and Yodlee.

Check out our latest CEO interview: Global Debt Registry CEO Mark Parsells Brings Transparency to Debt Ownership.

Top Image Systems and SQN Banking Systems deploy signature verification project at Singapore bank.

TechVibes highlights Trulioo founder, Stephen Ufford.

Integrity now offers CardFlight mPOS to its merchant customers.

Credit Karma now has more than 35 million members, accounting for 16% of US population with an open credit profile at a major bureau.

Continuity named one of Connecticut’s 2015 Best Places to Work.

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 Blog

Author: David Penn

Red Zebra Analytics Brings its Card-Linked Offers Service to Germany

TransferWise Raises $58 Million in Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz

Alumni News– January 26, 2015

FT Partners Publishes Post-IPO Profile of Lending Club

Akimbo Financial Acquired by Payment Data Systems

Alumni News– January 23, 2015

FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 4

Alumni News– January 22, 2015

True Link Raises $3 Million in Round Led by Cambia Health Solutions

Alumni News– January 21, 2015

Renren Leads $40 Million Funding Round for Motif Investing

Alumni News– January 20, 2015