Author: David Penn

EyeVerify Wins First Place at International Startup Competition

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EyeVerify

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Veteran of FinovateSpring 2013, EyeVerify won first place at the Get in the Ring international investment competition sponsored by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship in Rotterdam.

EyeVerify, which is based in Kansas City, Kansas, beat seven other finalists to win what CEO Toby Rush called “the Olympics for startups.” More than 1,000 startups participated in the competition, representing more than 30 countries, including Canada, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria. 

For winning first place, EyeVerify will have a shot at angel investment worth up to €1 million (approximately $1.3 million USD). The company won a cash award of $10,000 after beating eight U.S. finalists to qualify for the international round. EyeVerify also picked up a $1,000 Apple gift card for being voted the “crowd favorite”.

Video also available at YouTube.
EyeVerify’s technology uses “eyeprints” to authenticate. Eyeprints are pictures of the small patterns of veins in the whites of the eyes. These patterns are unique and the eyeprints taken of them have fingerprint-level accuracy. The camera on a typical smart phone or tablet, according to EyeVerify, provides more than enough resolution for effective “eyeprints” to be taken easily.
To see EyeVerify’s technology at work, here’s a link to their FinovateSpring demo from earlier this year in San Francisco. The company has raised $3.8 million in funding.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 22, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Boku, FIS, InComm, IND Group, LendUp, MasterCard, Taulia
  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPrepaid MasterCard cardholders now able to reload at Walmart stores courtesy of Green Dot network.
  • LendUp iPhone app enables mobile borrowing.
  • YouthTech column on ramification in banking features IND Group.
  • Boku furthers its Global Reach with Acquisition of Qubecell 
  • Taulia named 2013 Red Herring Global 100 Winner.
  • Vix Technology partners with InComm to Support First of Its Kind, Transit Fare Media.
  • Banking Technology features Doug Brown, SVP, eBanking at FIS, on the topic of mobile banking.
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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LendUp iPhone App Enables Mobile Borrowing

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: LendUp

Fresh off its announcement of having raised $14 million in capital, alternative lender LendUp has launched its iPhone app.

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The app will enable borrowers on the go to get short-term loans of up to $250. Return customers can borrow as much as $1,000, with deposits available in as little as 15 minutes for borrowers at participating banks.
LendUp earned Best of Show honors earlier this year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. See its winning demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 21, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BancVue, Banno, Betterment, Holvi, IDology, Kasasa, Manilla, SimpleTuition, Tagit, Toopher, TransferWise
  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgHPC Wire takes a look at the partnership between Toopher and Texas Advanced Computing Center.
  • Regulators green light IDology plans for New Jersey expansion.
  • Jackson Free Press uses data from Manilla to source column on student loan debt.
  • Michigan-based ECCU introduces a responsive designed website powered by Banno.
  • MyBankTracker reports: SimpleTuition’s SmarterBank to Shut Down Due to Low Participation.
  • International Business times considers how Holvi and TransferWise are revolutionizing banking.
  • Tagit powering Maybank P2P m-payment Service in Singapore.
  • BancVue’s Kasasa wins Five 2013 MarCom Awards.
  • Betterment CEO Joe Stein talks about the online RIA industry with RIA Biz.
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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Financial Guard Launches Online Investment Advisory Service

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Financial Guard

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Financial Guard opened its doors to the public today.Financial Guard provides professional, unbiased, transparent advice to investors priced out of traditional financial services. The service gives actionable buy, sell and hold recommendations that are customized to meet the goals of individual investors.

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Financial Guard CEO and President Kevin Pohmer said, “With the burden of retirement placed solely on individual investors, we are delighted to offer this much needed service to those investors who don’t have the time, discipline, or investment acumen to handle this daunting task.”
“Finally individual investors will have access to professional, unbiased, transparent investment advice at the right price.”
Individual investors can subscribe to Financial Guard for a fixed fee of $15.95 a month, or $149.95 a year. 
Financial Guard is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is an SEC-registered, fee-based, online investment advisor. This September, company demoed its technology as part of the FinovateFall 2013 event in New York. See them in action here.

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Azimo Makes Good in Expansion to Germany, Ireland

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Azimo

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As Azimo said they would, the innovator in “social sending” is bringing its money transfer service to the rest of Europe.

Azimo announced today that it is launching in both Germany and Ireland. The move makes Azimo a new player in what the company calls the “world’s fourth largest remittance market” in Germany, while also growing Azimo’s presence in the U.K.

Said Azimo founder Michael Kent: “Azimo’s reach gives it a much larger network than many competing services and while this has taken a lot of time and energy to build up, we’re now in a position to expand into many more markets very quickly. The platform has already seen its customer numbers double every quarter since launch.”
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Azimo’s news comes amid an increase in activity in the money transfer industry this year. Not only did Azimo recently announce completion of a new round of funding, but also startups like TransferWise and CurrencyFair (both Finovate alumni, as well) have raised capital from a diverse group of new and existing investors. The international remittance business has been estimated to be worth than $550 billion a year by the World Bank. Germany’s share alone is approximately $15 billion, said Kent.
Azimo is a money transfer service that operates in more than 190 countries and territories. With a PC or mobile device, users can transfer funds using debit cards or bank accounts. Cash can be received at more than 150,000 locations, as well as via ATM and courier.
Azimo was launched in August 2012. The company demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. See Azimo in action here.

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TradeNet Brings Multiple Market Equity Trading Systems to Emerging Market Traders and Investors

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, TradeNet

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

Bringing our second event in Singapore to a close, here’s TradeNet presenting the TradeNet Store.

“TradeNet Store expands the equity broker product offering and customer stickiness without incurring costs. Rather, equity brokers share revenue with functionality and content providers.”

Presenting Mohammad Attiya (CEO) and Ahmad Semary (MD)

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Product Launch: June 2013
Metrics: More than 60 customers in 9 emerging markets
Product distribution strategy: Through financial institutions. Brokers make the product available to their customers through either their internet trading platform or a white-labeled version of TradeNet.
HQ: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Offices: Dubai & Cairo)
Founded: September 1999
Website: kn-it.com

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Serverside Group Presents its AllAboutMe Facebook App for Bank Card Customization

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, Serverside Group

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

Our next presenter is Serverside Group, demoing their AllAboutMe Facebook app.

“Serverside’s Facebook app is a great way for banks to form meaningful conversations with their cardholders. This dynamic app allows customers to design their own personalized card by uploading a picture from one of their Facebook galleries. When they are satisfied with their design, they submit it and, once approved, it will be posted on their wall showing off their new card design to all their friends.

Everything to do with Card Customization brings Banks to a new level. From banks posting on their own wall to card holders sharing their own design with friends, card customization on Facebook is proving to be one of the most effective ways for banks to use social media, engage customers and to help drive positive viral marketing.”

Presenting James Barclay (SVP, Asia)

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Product Launch: September 2013

Metrics: Serverside Group Limited is based in the UK and now has 100% owned subsidiaries in the US and New Zealand. In 2012, Gemalto NV became a full owner and as of 2013 the company has grown to 50+ employees globally.
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: London, England
Founded: 2003
Twitter: @ServersideGroup

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Welcomer from White Label Personal Clouds Helps You Move Personal Data from Website to Website Securely

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, White Label Personal Clouds

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

Making their way to the stage next is the team from White Label Personal Clouds.

“WLPC’s first product is Welcomer. Welcomer will initially be focused toward ecommerce sites and the technology is intended across a range of different segments. Welcomer removes the need for websites to have user codes/passwords to identify returning customers. Websites that deploy Welcomer can – with the person’s permission – allow the person to move personal data securely between websites. This includes personal details such as name and address, preferences such as clothing size or preferred seat and also a person’s cards and accounts.”

Presenting Rory Ford (Product Manager) 

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Product Launch: Finovate 2013

Metrics: $1M, 5 employees

Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions, and through other fin tech companies and platforms.
HQ: Canberra, ACT, Australia
Founded: June 2013
Website: wlpc.com.au

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With ARTHOS, ArthaYantra Puts a CFO in its Web-Based PFM Solution

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ArthaYantra, FinovateAsia 2013

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

Making their way to the stage now is ArthaYantra with their online personal finance solution, ARTHOS.

“Arthos is a user-friendly web based personal finance platform, which provides actionable advice instantly. It replaces the need of a traditional human advisor who has to spend days to create customized and quality advice for a family. Arthos uses patented algorithms, processes, and the proprietary system of PFLM to cover all aspects of personal finance. One can create a financial plan, implement recommendations, and monitor performance on a single online platform. Arthos can provide advice to individuals who can save as little as $100 a month.”
Presenting Nitan Vyakaranam (CEO & Founder) and Sunil Lingareddy (CFO & Co-Founder)

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Product Launch: November 2012
Metrics: $0.5M funding through seed capital; 15,000+ registered families from over 500 cities (India & abroad); largest online financial advisor in India in less than 8 months; 94% of registered users have never invested in capital markets before, high customer lifetime value of users.
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions, and through other fintech companies and platforms.
HQ: Hyderabad, India
Founded: January 2012
Twitter: @arthayantra

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TSYS Authorization Controls Enable User-Defined Spend Limits, Alerts

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, TSYS

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

All the way from Columbus, Georgia, here is TSYS with their Authorization Controls solution.

“TSYS Authorization Controls allows a user to set their own default account parameters and authorization rules (for example, user-determined spend limits, daily, weekly, and monthly – category permissions or exclusions). TSYS Authorization Controls also allows for user definable authorization actions, including Alert, Decline, and Pre-Authorize, that enable a user to determine what happens throughout a transaction attempt.”
Presenting Paul Bridgewater (Group Executive, Global Product Group) and Chris Colson (Innovation Director)

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Product Launch: Q1, 2014
Metrics: $1.8B in annual revenue; 8,000+ employees worldwide
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B) & through financial institutions
HQ: Columbus, Georgia, USA
Founded: August 1983
Website: tsys.com
Twitter: @TSYS_TSS

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Mobexo Presents its Mobile Payment System Providing Instantaneous and Secure Fund Transfer

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, Mobexo

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateAsia 2013.

The team from Mobexo is making their way to the stage right now.

“Mobexo seamlessly connects businesses and their customers. The Mobexo mobile payment application allows business owners to create customized and targeted promotional campaigns via the Merchant Portal to reach their customers when they want to and how they want to. 
Personal Mobexo users then have the ability to apply these offers when they pay using the application. Every time a user checks out using Mobexo, it will notify them when they have offers to apply to their payments. In this way, Mobexo is a tool that enlivens the connection between consumers and businesses.”
Presenting Sopheap Lao (CEO) and Jean-Marc Ly (Communications Manager)

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Product Launch: February 2012
Metrics: $1.8M USD raised to date, 60+ person team in 3 countries (Hong Kong, China, and Vietnam)
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C) & Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: Hong Kong
Founded: October 2010
Website: mobexo.com
Twitter: @Mobexo

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