David Penn, Author at Finovate

FinovateFall 2014 Sets New Attendance Record of 1,500 (Plus One Drone)

By David Penn Posted on October 7, 2014
Categories: FinovateFall 2014

With all the excitement of FinDEVr’s successful inaugural event last week, it’s all the more gratifying to remember that FinDEVr followed what was the biggest Finovate conference to date.

FinovateFall 2014 attendance was nearly 1,500, up 30% over last year. It also featured a number of other interesting milestones and famous firsts such as:

Most Devices Used in a Single Demo – 12 (MX/Money Desktop)
First Deployment of Drone Technology (Toopher)
Most “Time’s Up” Bells Rung (since 2011)

There are many ways to enjoy Finovate conferences. And for those who weren’t able to be in New York for the show in person (and for many who were), the Finovate Twitter feed at #Finovate is often the next best thing to being there.

See for yourself! And don’t forget to check out the full slate of demo videos from FinovateFall 2014 now up in our “Watch Demos” video section.

Thanks again to all those who presented, sponsored, and/or attended FinovateFall 2014. We’ll see you next year!

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Blockchain Raises $30 Million in Growth Capital

By David Penn Posted on October 7, 2014
Categories: Blockchain

In a massive Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital, bitcoin wallet innovator Blockchain announced today that it has raised $30 million in growth capital.

The successful round comes as the company celebrates reaching 2.3 million consumers with its private, secure, and portable bitcoin wallets. Writing at the Blockchain blog, the company credits Lightspeed Venture Partners for being one of the first Silicon Valley firms to begin paying serious attention to the bitcoin phenomenon. Wicklow Capital also comes in for commendation, with Blockchain hoping to leverage Wicklow’s experience and leadership in developing “technology enabled trading and financial services”.

Blockchain also announced new additions to its board of directors, onboarding Richard Branson, Mosaic Ventures, and Prudence Holdings, among others.

Founded in 2011 by Ben Reeves as a way to study and analyze the bitcoin market, Blockchain is the maker of the first, Java-based, client side bitcoin wallet that makes it easy for individuals to store and use their bitcoins. Calling itself the “de facto search engine for the bitcoin economy,” Blockchain manages more than two million bitcoin wallets, representing more than $21 billion in total payment volume.

Reeves currently serves as Blockchain CTO, Nicholas Cary is CEO, and Peter Smith is President.

Blockchain participated in the first FinDEVr conference last week in San Francisco, where they demonstrated their core API for bitcoin development. Read more about the company’s FinDEVr presentation here.

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Expensify Announces $3.5 Million Round Led by Barracuda Networks

By David Penn Posted on October 7, 2014
Categories: Expensify

If you thought SAP’s purchase of Concur was the only thing going on in the business travel / expense management innovation space lately – guess again.

Expensify has raised $3.5 million in new capital. The funding was led by Barracuda Networks, and boosts the company’s total equity funding to more than $10 million.

Developers of “expense reports that don’t suck,” Expensify made a splash in the days before the funding news became public with an offer to honor the Concur contracts for customers who switched from the recently-acquired rival. Expensify’s SmartScan technology lets users upload receipts and import expenses to their smartphones. Users can then submit their expense reports online or from their smartphones and get reimbursed directly to their checking accounts.

Expensify has more than 300,000 companies taking advantage of their solution, and more than 1.4 million users. The company processes more than $2 million in expense reports daily.

Expensify announced its integration with the Uber API to launch SmartRides back in August, grew from 24 employees to 45 from January to July, and was profiled recently by Forbes.com in a column on the “new sharing economy.”

Based in San Francisco, California, Expensify was founded in 2008 by CEO David Barrett. See a video of the company’s FinovateSpring 2013 appearance.

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

By David Penn Posted on October 7, 2014
Categories: Credit Karma

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.

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.

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

By David Penn Posted on October 6, 2014
Categories: Spreedly

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.

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.

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

By David Penn Posted on October 6, 2014
Categories: Yodlee

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.

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.

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.

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FinDEVr San Francisco 2014: Telling the Tale on Twitter

By David Penn Posted on October 3, 2014
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014

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.

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!

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!

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Alumni News– October 3, 2014

By David Penn Posted on October 3, 2014
Categories: Avoka, BehavioSec, Boku, FIS, PayPal, Yodlee

FinDEVr 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.

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

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2014
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, Thinknum

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

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

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

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2014
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, Kiind

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

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

Blog: blog.kiind.me

Twitter: @kiind

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

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2014
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, Sekur.me

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

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

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Finovate Blog

Author: David Penn

FinovateFall 2014 Sets New Attendance Record of 1,500 (Plus One Drone)

Blockchain Raises $30 Million in Growth Capital

Expensify Announces $3.5 Million Round Led by Barracuda Networks

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

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

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

FinDEVr San Francisco 2014: Telling the Tale on Twitter

Alumni News– October 3, 2014

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

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

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