Kensho Raises $10 Million in Seed Funding Ahead of Finovate Debut

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If you were a promising young start-up making a list of things to pack ahead of your first trip to FinovateEurope, how high up on the list would $10 million in seed funding be?

That’s the kind of high quality problem intelligent systems specialist Kensho gets to grapple with over the next few weeks. The company’s innovations in real-time, split-second investment analysis have attracted the likes of Accel Partners, Devonshire Investors, General Catalyst, Google Ventures, and NEA – all of whom participated in the seed round. But the kicker may be the delivery system Kensho has developed for all this split-second analysis: an intelligent virtual research assistant able to understand natural language commands and respond to complex queries.

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“Kensho is dedicated to the idea that communicating in natural language with intelligent computer systems which serve as virtual personal assistants will form the leading edge of global innovation over the next half-decade,” Kensho CEO Daniel Nadler said. He added that the funding would help Kensho bring on “the best and most experienced” engineering talent.

Kensho was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To learn more about how to see Kensho at FinovateEurope in February, click here.

FinovateEurope 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 6

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Is there a better way to start your week than by getting to know another six companies that are helping redefine financial technology for a new generation of increasingly mobile consumers?

Today we’ve got another handful of companies who will be presenting their innovations at Old Billingsgate Market Hall in London for FinovateEurope 2014. From mobile imaging and investment advisory to cloud-based banking and PFM, the presenters at this year’s event are guaranteed to show us more than a few clues as to what we will see from fintech’s best and brightest in 2014.

And if you’ve missed previous installments of our Sneak Peek series, be sure to check out Peeks #1-5 below.


atsora_hi_res_logo.jpgAtsora provides one-stop shopping for SME finance analytics and business management, bringing together companies, banks, and financial service providers on one platform to interact better.

Features:
  • SaaS financial hub for engaging SMEs and banks
  • SMEs can build business models (canvas) and track them based on real flows
  • Momentum bases on out of the box and 3rd party widgets. Developers are welcome.
Why it’s great:
The SME banking sector is highly underserved. We help to move it into the world of banking 3.0, and allow banks to deliver tailor-made support just in time.

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Krzysztof Pulkiewicz, CEO
Is an architect with banking and insurance business experience. He translates business ideas into technology in order to make things happen.

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Anna Ciesielska, COO
Spent years as a banking sector consultant. She is also an experienced entrepreneur and drives innovative ideas in order to solve practical business problems.

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Avoka is an innovative SaaS company offering a multi-channel digital business platform that helps organizations successfully transform business transactions into powerful cross-channel experiences.
Features:
  • Omni-channel customer interactions, with ease (no programming)
  • Move between mobile, tablet, branch, call centre without starting over
  • Agile development delivers fast time-to-market
Why it’s great:
Using Avoka Transact you can build true omni-channel customer experiences faster and more cost-effectively than using traditional Web development.

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Derek Corcoran, Head of Business Solutions
Works closely with Avoka’s global customer base to help them transact with their customers through online and mobile channels.

ExcessReturnLogo.jpgExcess Return develops new generation investment tools for the financial community.

Features:
  • Find the very best trading ideas
  • Enhance your performance
  • Minimize your risk
Why it’s great:
The stock market becomes child’s play.

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Frédéric Liefferinckx, Managing Partner & Co-Founder

TopImageSystems_hi_res_logo.jpgTop Image Systems provides a mobile imaging platform driving innovation imaging and document processing solutions for FIs such as check deposit, bill payment, and more.

Features:
  • IQA on the handset
  • Automatic image capture
  • Optimal user experience
Why it’s great:
As per BBC TV, FIs are looking seriously at mobile imaging.

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Isaac Rome, VP Mobile Solutions
Leads the business development, marketing, sales, product development and all related activities for the Company’s mobile and banking solutions.

Truphone_hi_res_logo.jpgTruphone Mobile Recording helps you stay globally compliant and productive while enabling mobilization and fuller utilization of existing IT infrastructure.

Features:
  • Effortless global compliance to FCA regulations for mobile recording
  • Global productivity: record calls in 110 countries, without compromising call quality
  • Enable mobilization
Why it’s great:
Truphone mobile recording is the only solution that allows for global compliance and enterprise mobility, without compromising call quality.
(not pictured) Paul Liesching is the SVP of Truphone Mobile Recording, and pioneered the first commercial mobile recording solution of 2005.

yourwealth_hi_res_logo.jpgMomentum (fka YourWealth) uses accessible innovation technology to place the consumer at the heart of the financial world, whether they have £5 or £50 million.

Features:
  • Money Hub users can budget, aggregate accounts, and plan multiple scenarios
  • Link Money Hub to your financial advisor
  • Accessible via mobile, tablet and desktop devices
Why it’s great:
Money Hub will revolutionize the way you manage your money, interact with your financial advisor, and plan your financial future.

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Toby Hughes, CEO and Founder
Is an entrepreneur with over 10 years of digital marketing and technological innovation experience in financial services.

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Dave Tonge, CTO and Full Stack Developer
Specializes in interactive user interfaces and efficient software architecture.

Credit Card Vault in the Cloud Spreedly Raises $500K

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Lost in the wave of funding news over the holidays was word that fintech’s “credit card vault in the cloud” is now half a million dollars richer.

The $500,000 in new funding goes to Spreedly, the Durham, North Carolina-based payments specialist that made its Finovate debut last fall. The investment comes courtesy of E-Merge.be, a group of angel investors from Belgium that has previously put capital to work on behalf of companies like the recently-acquired payments gateway, Ogone, and Cabify.

The investment represents a stamp of approval for the direction Spreedly has taken since it was founded in 2007. Once just another startup in the crowded field of online payments, Spreedly has evolved to play a different, more unique role when it comes to helping businesses make better, more secure, fully PCI-compliant, payment routing decisions.
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At its most basic, Spreedly’s credit card vault allows businesses to securely store credit card information in the cloud, where it can be readily accessed for repeat customers. Perhaps even more importantly, Spreedly provides businesses with data on the relative performance of more than 50 different payment gateways. This helps businesses not just save money, but also cut down on efficiency-killers like time outs and false declines.
Spreedly includes among its customers Fusebill, BoxTV, and fellow Finovate alum, Wallaby. The company’s CEO is Justin Benson.

Five Finovate Alums Make Forbes America’s Most Promising Companies List for 2014

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Last year, Forbes selected four Finovate alums for its “America’s Most Promising Companies” roster.

This year, Forbes picked five.

Lending Club is back, the veteran of last year’s list climbing from a #12 ranking in 2013 to a #5 in 2014. Also returning is On Deck Capital, which soared from a #94 ranking last year to an #11 ranking this year.
When you look at the other alums to make the 2014 roster, it is clear that success in the lending  and capital-raising businesses are what bring in the votes over at Forbes. In addition to Lending Club and On Deck Capital, there is Kabbage coming in at #37. 

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Rank: #5
Revenue: $98 million
Employees: 379

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Rank: #11
Revenue: $65 million
Employees: 240

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Rank: #37
Revenue: $17 million
Employees: 80

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Rank: #81
Revenue: $16 million
Employees: 88

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Rank: #98
Revenue: $0
Employees: 12

InComm Launches Reloadable Card at 7-Elevens Across the U.S.

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In an arrangement with Ready Wireless, InComm will be launching its Airfair Lifeline Reload card at more than 7,000 participating 7-Eleven stores.

Lifeline is a public program for low income Americans that helps them gain telephone access, secure employment, and make and stay in contact with health services. The program provides a set number of cell phone minutes but, until now, buying additional minutes has been a complicated process. Lifeline-eligible telecommunications companies (ETCs) typically have no brick and mortar presence, making it difficult for cash-oriented program participants.

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This new arrangement makes it easier for those using the program to reload their cards with additional minutes, texts, or data by paying in cash at the point-of-sale at participating 7-Eleven stores. 7-Eleven is the first national retailer to participate in the program. Others are expected to offer the product later in the year.
Fred Haumessert, co-founder and executive vice president of sales for Ready Wireless said, “Lifeline customers want to use their wireless Lifeline phone as their primary phone … Through our partnership with InComm, we’re now able to offer a universal card for all Lifeline ETCs …”
InComm leverages its state-of-the-art, point-of-sale transaction technology to provide stored-value gift and prepaid products. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, InComm’s CEO and President is Brooks Smith.
InComm supports more than 400,000 points of distribution and has more than 123 global and domestic patents. The company was a part of the FinovateFall 2011 show in New York.

Wealthfront Promotes COO Adam Nash to CEO

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Just over a year after joining Wealthfront as Chief Operating Officer, Adam Nash has been tapped to succeed founder Andy Rachleff as President and CEO. Rachleff will take on the position of Chairman.

Adam Nash has a diverse background in engineering, product management and strategy, and venture capital. Educated at Stanford and Harvard Business, he has held executive positions at LinkedIn, eBay and Atlas Venture, the latter an early stage venture capital firm. Adam blogs about technology and finance at his personal website, Psychohistory, at blog.adamnash.com.

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What’s interesting about the pick is that Rachleff says he saw a CEO in Nash from the very beginning. Rachleff wrote about the announcement on his blog, “In fact, I actually wanted Adam to join as CEO, but he felt the infrastructure we needed to build would require his full attention in the short term.”
We now know what was meant by “short term.” Nash takes the helm of the company at a time when Wealthfront is experiencing significant growth. The alternative investment advisory industry in general, particularly online advisory, also has attracted the attention of mainstream media like the Wall Street Journal and CNN, which named Wealthfront among its 15 best financial websites and apps.
Wealthfront was founded as “kaChing” in 2008, and has since grown into one of the major onine investment advisory services, with more than $500 million in assets. One of Finovate’s earliest alumni, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Finovate Alumni News — January 22, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPayoneer announces partnership with Quantum Solutions.
  • MasterCard card payments coming to Singapore transit courtesy of collaboration with Transit Link Pte Ltd.
  • Backbase releases Backbase CXP 5.5 with added mobile and WCM features.
  • FIS names new CIO: Ido Gileadi.
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.

Make Mine Mobile: On-the-Go Solutions Define FinovateEurope 2014

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As we return to the United Kingdom for our fourth Finovate event in London, is there any surprise that “mobile” is the most dominant theme going into this year’s show?

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Startups and established veterans alike are putting more emphasis into building features, functionality, and user interfaces with a “mobile first” perspective. This is enabling a generation of consumers to make payments, manage their finances and investments, and even get a loan wherever they are, without needing to rely on transportation or the tether of a power cord.

Meanwhile banks and financial institutions are exploring the mobile channel as a way to improve customer on-boarding, both in and outside of the branch.

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From authentication and asset management to white-label BPM solutions, and from ambitious direct-to-consumer innovators to B2B, software-as-a-service specialists, this year’s demos at FinovateEurope will provide an insight into the state of financial technology at the beginning of 2014, as well as offer a glimpse of what we can expect in the months to come.
Join us at Old Billingsgate Market Hall for two days of innovative fintech demonstrations and high caliber, C-level networking. Click here to get your ticket today.

Finovate Alumni News– January 21, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgFenergo taps Stan De Schepper for SVP, Americas.
  • National Bank of Andrews, AimBank to adopt Temenos T24 core processing platform. See Tememos at FinovateEurope in London.
  • Business Review Europe takes a look at Azimo’s expansion into Austria.
  • GMC Software Technology recognized as industry leader in latest Forrester Research Wave report.
  • Technics and Time feature PayPal and TransferWise in list of ways to pay without your wallet.
  • Swipely unveils its “Winter ’14” release to extend its service to help restaurant and hospitality customers make smarter decisions.
  • SafetyPay signs agreement with Brazilian firm Privalia.
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.

FinovateEurope 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 4

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FinovateEurope 2014 is officially less than one month away. We will be returning to Old Billingsgate Market Hall in London for our fourth event in Europe and are excited to see and share the variety of fintech innovation our presenters will have on display. Get your ticket here today and see all 66 demos live.

Our Sneak Peek series is designed to help you get to know a little bit about each of our presenters ahead of time. If you’ve missed any of our earlier installments, take a look at FinovateEurope 2014 Sneak Peeks 1-3 below.

And now, meet another six companies who will be demoing next month at FinovateEurope 2014.


IT_Sector_lo_res_logo.jpgIT Sector presents a new approach to sales. Enable your commercial team to plan and close deals while on the road, with less effort, more results, and satisfaction from customers.

Features:

  • Commercial lead generator
  • Portable Sales Office
  • Real-time access to commercial management
Why it’s great:
Close more deals with less effort with our innovative commercial GPS solution that covers the main activities of the sales process. Our software shines with strong usability and compelling value.

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Joao Lima Pinto, IT Sector Board of Directors
Background in financial institutions and multichannel solutions. Masters and PhD from UMIST (UK).


nous_lo_res_logo.jpgNous operates a free, day-trading simulator app which collects real-time predictions blended to generate a financial sentiment feed to help you predict the markets.

Features:

  • A mobile app gathering predictions from thousands of traders worldwide competing for prizes
  • Real-time feeds help you predict markets
  • Feeds use the intuitive and analytical abilities of real people
Why it’s great:
Our Spark Feed crowdsources alpha to help you understand and predict the markets.

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Justin Short, CEO and Founder
Justin has worked in finance for 16 years, building quantitative algorithmic trading systems, strategies and teams.

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Mick Horgan, Co-Founder
Mick has ten years experience building real time decision applications with Pega Systems. Prior to moving into software development. Mick worked as a turbine field engineer mostly in Africa and Taiwan.


Pixeliris_lo_res_logo.jpgPixeliris’ CopSonic enables contactless sonic and ultrasonic communication between smart devices and mobile payment and passwordless authentication available on phones and smartphones.

Features:
  • It turns any phone into a mobile payment device
  • It is truly contactless and entirely secure thanks to One Time Password and strong authentication
  • It replaces standard online passwords
Why it’s great:
With CopSonic, pay anywhere with any phone.

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Brian Roeten, Director of Projects
Brian joined the team in 1999. Today, his experience and skills enable him to manage the company’s innovating international high-tech projects.

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Emmanuel Ruiz, Founder
Since he has founded the company in 1995, Emmanuel Ruiz has initiated all innovations, from our first audio broadcasting systems to the recent sonic and ultrasonic contactless communication technology.



Temenos_lo_res_logo.jpgTemenos Treasury Management Dashboard App enables the transformation of treasury operations with a dynamic dashboard user interface accessible on a tablet device.

Features: 
  • Multiple source of real-time data accessible from single point
  • Rich, intuitive user experience reducing the complexity of multifaceted data
  • Holistic view of banks entire position
Why it’s great:
Visually excited dashboard enabling treasury managers to better understand the data and be far more responsive and effective in making critical business decisions anytime, anywhere.

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Dharmesh Mistry, UXP and Mobile Product Director
Adam Gable, Product Manager, Treasury
(not pictured)


Topicus_Finan_lo_res_logo.jpgTopicus Financial focuses on business lending value chain integration with innovative web-based technology.

Features:
  • The entrepreneur gets the lead of business lending
  • What-If scenarios to asses the financial impact of future plans in real-time
  • Freeing the entrepreneur from all banking complexities
Why it’s great:
Topicus Finan believes that self-service is an important factor in keeping operational and risk costs at an affordable level, while increasing transparency and fit with credit demand.

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Michiel Schipper, CEO

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Jamie Burink, Senior Consultant Innovative Banking


Yseop_lo_res_logo.jpgYseop is natural language generation software based on artificial intelligence that boosts sales productivity and turns each financial advisor into an expert without additional training.

Features:
Yseop automates the sales process from lead generation to the writing of prep-to-meeting reports, customer follow up and personalized marketing communications – automatically.
Why it’s great:
Yseop turns data into text, leads into clients, and salespeople into experts. Double your sales force productivity overnight with the power of artificial intelligence.

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Elizabeth Farabee, VP of Marketing
Has a background in inbound and direct marketing. She is passionate about Yseop’s personalized marketing potential in both the B2C and B2B markets.

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Arden Manning, Director of Communications and UK Business Development
Brings nearly 10 years of experience in public relations, strategy, and product management.

Finovate Alumni News– January 17, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgAcculynk announces patent for PIN based, online authentication.
  • St. Louis Business Journal takes a look at miiCard’s chances at winning the FStech Award for “most disruptive financial services technology.”
  • Kapitall launches bonus program; $200 and 2,000 koins for new accounts.
  • The Financial Brand features Strategy CorpsBaZing.
  • Management Today interviews with Christian Laang, Tradeshift CEO.
  • CNBC highlights FutureAdvisor and how it can help you save on fees.
  • Kofax today announces availability of the Kofax Mobile Capture Platform.
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.

Investing Millennials Help Drive Fivefold Asset Growth at Wealthfront

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And you thought the stock market had a great 2013.

Online investment manageme service Wealthfront announced this week that it now manages more than $538 million in assets. Given that the company began 2013 with assets under management of approximately $100 million, it is no exaggeration to say that Wealthfront is doing a strong job of attracting investors looking for alternatives to traditional financial advisory.

Wealthfront credits its rapid growth on two factors: the rise of passive investing and the entry of the millennial generation into their investing years.

Some interesting metrics about Wealthfront and its clients:
  • More than 55% of the company’s users are under 35 years old
  • More than 80% of the company’s users are under 50 years old
  • The average investment with Wealthfront is between $80,000 and $100,000
  • More than 16% of Wealthfront’s users have a liquid net worth of more than $1 million
At the same time, it is worth pointing out that Wealthfront is not just for rich guys and gals. A fifth of the company’s investors have less than $50,000 in liquid net worth.
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Growth in the online investment advisory business is a good thing for Wealthfront – not the least because the company is far from alone in the space. Among Wealthfront’s rivals are companies like Betterment, Personal Capital, and SigFig, as well as similar services with slightly different models such as FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, and LearnVest (and, yes, Finovate alums all).
Formerly known as KaChing, Wealthfront picked up $20 million in funding in March of last year. This took the company’s total investment to $30.5 million. Wealthfront was founded by Andy Rachleff, former co-founder and general partner of Benchmark Capital, now serving as Wealthfront’s president and CEO. 
The company was among the earliest of Finovate alumni, showcasing its technology as part of FinovateStartup in 2009.