Credit Karma Announces Equity Investment of $75 Million; $1 Billion Valuation

Credit Karma Announces Equity Investment of $75 Million; $1 Billion Valuation

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Few things say “growth round” like a capital infusion of $75 million.

The latest investment in Credit Karma (FinovateStartup 2009) comes courtesy of a trio of current investors: Google Capital, Susquehanna Growth Equity, and Tiger Global Management. 2014 has been a good year for raising capital for Credit Karma, having raised $85 million in the spring.

The company’s total capital raised now stands at more than $193 million.
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Founder and CEO Ken Linn pointed two two factors that investors continue to find appealing about the company. One is the conviction that Credit Karma is category leader in consumer credit and finance. Two is continued strong demand for Credit Karma’s solutions.
To this last point, Credit Karma says it has experienced a 50% increase in users since February, with more than 30 million consumers now taking advantage of the technology.
“Today’s complex marketplace requires a pro-consumer resource that makes financial comprehension easy, transparent, and empowering,” Lin said. “Credit Karma delivers that.”
The company plans to use the new capital to fuel growth initiatives and continue product innovation.
In other good news for Credit Karma, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is now worth more than $1 billion. The Journal quoted Lin referring to Credit Karma as the “Expedia for financial services products.”
Credit Karma was founded in 2008, and is based in San Francisco. The company made headlines this summer when it announced that it would provide free, weekly credit reports.

Spreedly Announces New Investment; Raises $750,000 in Equity Financing

Spreedly Announces New Investment; Raises $750,000 in Equity Financing
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According to a report from the Triangle Business Journal, credit card vault in the cloud, Spreedly has raised another $750,000 in equity funding.

The Journal’s report is based on a review of a recent SEC filing by Spreedly. The report adds that a single investor is listed in the filing.

Spreedly’s most recent funding was from a $500,000 venture round in January. With previous equity investment of $1.3 million according to Crunchbase, this latest infusion brings Spreedly’s total capital to just north of $2 million.
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Spreedly serves 71 gateways and 82 countries as of October 1. The company processes more than 160,000 successful credit card transactions a month, producing between $15 and $20 million in top line revenue. Its solutions make PCI compliance easier, help companies develop their own recurring billing programs, and eliminates revenue lost by out-of-date cards by automatically updating all cards on file.
Based in Durham, North Carolina, Spreedly was founded in 2008. Justin Benson is CEO. See the company launch its Payment Method Distribution & Card-on-File Updater solution at FinovateSpring 2014 here.

Yodlee Goes from Award-Winning APIs to Market-Pleasing IPO

Yodlee Goes from Award-Winning APIs to Market-Pleasing IPO

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You’ll have to forgive us for thinking last Tuesday that winning one of the first FinDEVr awards would be the highlight of Yodlee’s week.

Yodlee’s much-anticiptaed initial public offering launched on Friday. With 6.25 million shares priced at $12, YDLE opened at $16.20 on the Nasdaq and rallied to a mid-day high of $17.97, before finishing the session at $13.44.

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Yodlee raised $75 million through the IPO. As part of the offering, underwriters have 30 days to purchase as much as 937,500 additional shares. The company has a market capitalization near $400 million.
Courtesy of TheStreet.com, here’s a video interview with Yodlee CEO Anil Arora discussing the company’s market debut.
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Yodlee leverages thousands of data points and its unique cloud platform to power a digital financial ecosystem of API, PFM, money movement, data and wealth management solutions that includes some of fintech’s most innovative companies, from BillGuard and LearnVest to Personal Capital and Xero. More than 750 organizations use Yodlee’s technology, reaching millions of consumers.
Yodlee was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. A multiple Finovate Best of Show winner (FinovateFall 2013, FinovateAsia 2014), Yodlee also won honors at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014. The company joins Q2 and Cachet Financial Solutions in going public this year, with Lending Club having filed for its IPO back in August.

Alumni News– October 6, 2014

  • Klarna partners with Digital River; brings Klarna Invoice’s online payment solutions to 7 European countries.
  • ACI Worldwide enters strategic partnership with Shaw Systems.
  • PayStand launches API to empower one-click payment acceptance of Bitcoin, eCheck and credit cards.
  • MasterCard teams up with Newgen to digitize Procure-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash services.
  • Infomilo lists 12 Finovate alums among its top 25 hottest fintech startups.
  • SmartyPig’s Social Money collaborates with TMG to provide prepaid payment options for millennials and underbanked.
  • Union Square FCU hires Insuritas to launch insurance agency.
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.

FinDEVr San Francisco 2014: Telling the Tale on Twitter

FinDEVr San Francisco 2014: Telling the Tale on Twitter
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Wherever there are technology people talking, you can be sure that Twitter is one of the ways they are doing it.

And the first FinDEVr held this week at the Mission Bay Conference Center at the University of California San Francisco was no exception. 

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See for yourself. From sponsors and presenters tweeting word of their innovations to attendees weighing in on what impressed them most, the first FinDEVr Live Twitter feed was as much a success as the show itself.
We’ve sampled a tweet or two from our presenters to give you a sense of what this historic opportunity for fintech developers was all about. Enjoy!
Yodleepraisetweet
TDAIpraisetweet
PayPalpraisetweet
MasterCardpraisetweet
Visapraisetweet
fortepraisetweet
FinancialAppstweet
avokapraisetweet
Evosnappraisetweet
Incommpraisetweet
xeropraisetweet2


xignitepraisetweet

eshtapraisetweet
Intuitpraisetweet
CardFlighttweet
BehavioSecpraisetweet
mifospraisetweet
Cloudlendingtweet
modopraisetweet
Stocktwitspraisetweet
Bluefintweet
Finicitypraisetweet
ondeckpraisetweet
paradigm4praisetweet
paynearmepraisetweet
tradierpraisetweet
personalcapitalpraisetweet
copsonicpraisetweet2
concurpraisetweet2
Thanks again to all the presenting companies and developers who came out to support the very first FinDEVr. We saw a lot of old friends and met some great new connections – and hope you did, as well. We’ll see you in 2015 for the second annual FinDEVr!

Alumni News– October 3, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgFinDEVr award winner Yodlee launches IPO; raises $75 million in Thursday debut.
  • It’s a wrap – FIS announces completed acquisition of Clear2Pay.
  • Boku partners with O2, EE, and Vodafone in bid to boost non-digital e-commerce.
  • Congratulations to the first FinDEVr award winners: Avoka, BehavioSec, PayPal, and Yodlee.
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.

FinDEVr 2014: Thinknum Provides Developers with a Platform for Empowering Financial Analysts

FinDEVr 2014: Thinknum Provides Developers with a Platform for Empowering Financial Analysts
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

Thinknum presented its platform for financial analysts.

Thinknum: A Powerful Web Platform for Financial Analysis
Learn about Thinknum, the web platform that is changing the way that financial analysts work. Find our more about our unique data and technology that enhances the financial research process.
Presenter: Justin Zhen, Co-Founder
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About:
Thinknum is a powerful web platform to value companies. Thinknum leverages the web’s resources in data and technology for financial analysts to host their financial models on the cloud.
Website: thinknum.com
Twitter: @thinknum

FinDEVr 2014: Kiind Shows How Easy it is to Create Custom Gift Cards with its API

FinDEVr 2014: Kiind Shows How Easy it is to Create Custom Gift Cards with its API
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

Kiind showed how developers can use its platform to create personalized gift cards and custom rewards.

Making Gifting Easy
We’ll touch on Kiind’s API and where it is headed as well as our marketplace.
Presenter: Leif Baradoy, CEO & Founder
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About:
Kiind helps businesses reward their employees and customers with gift cards. With Kiind, you can easily send personalized offers to multiple contacts, and Kiind’s technology allows you to defer when you pay for rewards and gifts, thereby saving you money.
Website: kiind.me
Twitter: @kiind

FinDEVr 2014: Security Specialist Sekur Me Turns Smartphones into Digital Identifiers

FinDEVr 2014: Security Specialist Sekur Me Turns Smartphones into Digital Identifiers
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

Sekur Me presented its approach to security that leverages smartphones as authentication devices.

Want to be secure: Eliminate passwords!
If you don’t have a password, it cannot be stolen. See a live demo of a patented disruptive technology taking security to the next level, while making login safer and simpler. And see how it can be used to secure payments and reduce shopping cart abandonment for eCommerce and mCommerce.
Presenter: Jack Bicer, CEO
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About:
Sekur.me eliminates user IDs and passwords securely by turning your phone into your digital identity. It also brings the convenience of Single-Click eCommerce purchases to smartphones, where tiny keyboards make it hard to type. Checkout and pay in 9 seconds.
Website: sekur.me
Twitter: @sekurme

FinDEVr 2014: GreenAddressIT Shows the Way Toward a More Secure Bitcoin Wallet

FinDEVr 2014: GreenAddressIT Shows the Way Toward a More Secure Bitcoin Wallet
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

GreenAddressIT showed how developers can make their bitcoin wallets more secure.

GreenAddress: Instant and Secure Bitcoin
The presentation is introducing bitcoin’s multisignature features. These features allow users to radically improve the security of bitcoin wallets, as well as create new services like instant confirmation allowing for faster arbitration between exchanges.
Presenter: Lawrence Nahum, CEO & Founder
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About:
GreenAddress is a leader in securing bit coins and providing instant clearing confirmations. It supports desktop, mobile, and web apps and offers a very featureful and secure wallet as well as APIs to enable third party developers.
Blog: blog.greenaddress.it
Twitter: @greenaddress

FinDEVr 2014: PayStand Shows How its Multi-Payment Network Technology Helps Developers Build Commerce Apps

FinDEVr 2014: PayStand Shows How its Multi-Payment Network Technology Helps Developers Build Commerce Apps
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

PayStand introduces its multi-payment network to help build e-commerce applications.

Comparing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Payment Types
Card Networks (Visa/MasterCard/Amex), eCheck (ACH/Bank Network/Check21), and Digital Currency (Bitcoin/Ripple/Altcoins) all have unique advantages and disadvantages. Explore the different use cases of why each are valuable and learn how to use PayStand’s unique multi-payment network technology to build the next generation of commerce applications.
Presenter: Jeremy Almond, CEO
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About:
PayStand is a next-generation payment solution enabling no fee transactions online. By offering payments as a service, PayStand is revolutionizing commerce. One low monthly subscription allows organizations to accept eCash (Bitcoin), eCheck, & credit cards through PayStand’s all-in-one solution.
Website: paystand.com
Blog: paystand.com/blog
Twitter: @paystand

FinDEVr 2014: CrowdCurity Provides White-Hat Hackers to Stress Test Your Website’s Security

FinDEVr 2014: CrowdCurity Provides White-Hat Hackers to Stress Test Your Website’s Security
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This post is part of our live coverage of FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

CrowdCurity demonstrated its white hat hacker service to promote better, more secure apps.

How to Invite Hacker to Your Website
Too many websites are being exploited, and we need to rethink web security. The best way to stay secure and ahead of the bad guys is to invite good white-hat hackers to test your security. We have made it easy to connect businesses to a crowd of security researchers.
Presenter: Jacob Hansen, CEO
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About:
CrowdCurity is a web security marketplace. We connect businesses with security testers. We do bug bounty programs as-a-service. Bitcoin First.
Blog: blog.crowdcurity.com
Twitter: @crowdcurity