Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News– May 22, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capital Access Network, CashStar, Comarch, Locaid, Service2Media, SimpleTuition, Swipely, Temenos, Wipit
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgBangor Daily News blogger interviews CashStar CEO Steven Boal.
  • Service2Media announces implementation of mobile app development platform.
  • Locaid CEO Rip Gerber wins CTIA “Ingenious Innovator” award for product and service innovation.
  • Temenos unveils DataSource, their new enterprise data management system.
  • Take a peek at the new look of Comarch Smart Finance.
  • Swipely earns $12 million in Series B funding.
  • Big banks boost Capital Access Network’s lending capacity by more than 50%.
  • SimpleTuition announces $4 million Series D round.
  • Pandai brings on John Porter as Chairman.
  • PandoDaily reports: Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants into Braintree’s arms.
  • Arxan’s mobile app integrity protection platform now supports the Tizen OS, protecting Tizen apps from cyber threats.
  • eToro reaches 50 million trades landmark.
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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Wipit Powered Wallet Now Available to Boost Mobile Customers

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Wipit

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Boost Mobile customers soon will find themselves part of the mobile payments movement, as the non-contract wireless provider adds a mobile wallet feature to its smartphones.

That mobile wallet will be powered by Wipit, a mobile payments company with a focus on providing service to the underbanked. Founders of the company include veterans of the prepaid wireless industry: John Tantum, former President of Virgin Mobile USA, Michael Lanzon, former VP of Sales and Marketing for Boost Mobile, and Job Tucker, former Director of National Sales and Distribution for Boost Mobile.

Wipit’s CEO is Richard Kang, who is also a co-founder.
The company’s technology allows users to create a free mobile wallet either online or on their smartphone. The wallet can be loaded with prepaid funds at any one of more than 10,000 retail locations in the United States.
Boost Mobile reaches more than 270 million people via its Nationwide Sprint Network. The company’s handsets are sold at almost 20,000 retailers nationwide, and its Re-Boost cards can be found at 100,000 locations in the U.S.
Based out of California and founded in 2010, Wipit demoed its technology as part of FinovateSpring 2012. Watch the presentation here.

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SimpleTuition Announces $4 Million Series D Round

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: SimpleTuition

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SimpleTuition’s job of providing resources to help students responsibly borrow, maintain, and retire student debt just got $4 million easier.

The $4 million in venture funding comes from a trio of previous investors in the company: Atlas Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, and North Hill Ventures. The additional capital brings SimpleTuition’s funding total to more than $21 million, excluding $5 million in debt financing from August of last year.

With tools like Student Loan Comparison, SmarterBank, and SmarterBucks, SimpleTuition provides students and their families with resources to help them make informed decisions about financing higher education. The company’s recent acquisition of ValoreBooks allows them to help students minimize the cost of textbooks, as well.
SimpleTuition plans to invest its new capital in marketing and development initiatives in each of its three main lines of business: student loans, textbooks, and rewards. They presented their technology as part of FinovateStartup back in 2008. Learn more about them here.

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Big Banks Boost Capital Access Network’s Line of Credit By More than 50%

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capital Access Network

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Capital Access Network announced that it has secured an additional $165 million credit line. The additional funding will extend the company’s lending capacity to nearly $500 million from its current level of $295 million.

Participating in the syndicate are:

  • Capital One
  • Amalgamated Bank
  • Regions Bank
  • Capital Source
  • AloStar
  • Wells Fargo Capital Finance LLC
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Brown Brothers Harriman
  • Key Equipment Finance
  • Fifth Third Bancorp
Stimulating rapid growth is the primary goal for the company given the increased credit capacity. In addition to the funding announcement, Capital Access Network is making news with a pair of major management moves: naming co-founder of Capital One Nigel Morris Vice Chairman, and promoting Daniel DeMeo to CEO. DeMeo had been serving as CAN’s chief financial officer since 2010.
A specialist in small business lending, Capital Access Network has provided small businesses with more than $3 billion in working capital since inception in 1998. Targeting financing needs of $150,000 or less, CAN’s technology enables the company to look beyond credit scores to provide funding based on their own assessment of likely business performance.
Headquartered in New York City, Capital Access Network was among the presenters at FinovateEurope 2011 in London. To see the presentation, click here.
Update: Original copy edited to specify Nigel Morris as co-founder of Capital One, and the company’s headquarters in New York City.

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Swipely Earns $12 Million in Series B Funding

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Swipely

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Shasta Ventures led the financing round. Joining them were current investors First Round Capital, Greylock Partners, and Index Ventures.

Swipely plans to use the $12 million in new capital to help finance growth nationwide, as well as building the network of merchants who use their payment marketing technology. This latest round of funding brings the company’s total to more than $20 million.

Some additional metrics:
  • Manages more than $700 million in annual sales.
  • Maintains service to merchants in 130 cities and towns in the U.S.
  • Provides consumer behavior analytics on more than 2 million customers
Swipely targets merchants with more than $30,000 in monthly credit card sales.
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Swipely launched its Payment Marketing solution in 2012. The company earned a spot on Forbes’ list of “America’s Most Promising Companies” and was named one of the “Best Places to Work in Rhode Island” by Providence Business News.
Swipely was among the companies to debut its technology at FinovateSpring 2012. See its demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– May 21, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BillGuard, Birdback, Braintree, eToro, Figlo, Holvi, Jack Henry, Keynote DeviceAnywhere, SigFig, Tradeshift, Tyfone, Virtual Piggy, VoiceTrust, Wipit
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgBirdback teams up with Braintree for 3-day payments hackathon.
  • Indiana Members CU chooses Jack Henry & Associates’ Symitar for in-house core processing.
  • Keynote DeviceAnywhere adds mobile scripting, UI enhancements.
  • VoiceTrust moves operational headquarters to Canada, opening offices in Toronto and Montreal.
  • Figlo expands partnership with Yellowtail Consulting to enable stronger focus on South Africa.
  • Wipit partners with Sprint/ Boost Mobile to bring mobile payment capability to cash-preferred consumers.
  • Virtual Piggy signs first UK partners, Toy Galaxy and Toadstool.
  • eToro granted UK financial regulation approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
  • Tyfone releases Connected Smart Card solution to allow FIs to enhance user ID info used to access sensitive data.
  • Tradeshift partners with Invoiceware International to deliver compliant e-invoice validation in Latin America.
  • BillGuard to integrate with Google Wallet for transaction monitoring.
  • SigFig Portfolio adds support for Windows Phone.
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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EyeVerify Earns $2.3 Million in Series A Funding

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EyeVerify

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The latest investment in the biometric-identity innovator brings the company’s total funding to $3.7 million. Participating in this latest round were Think Big Partners, Mid-American Angels, Nebraska Angels, and other individual, angel investors.

EyeVerify plans to use the additional funding to add sales and marketing talent, as well as invest in research and development. Founded in January 2012, the company is based in Kansas City, Kansas, and has eleven employees.

The technology uses the unique vein patterns in the whites of the eyes to create an “eye print” with fingerprint-level accuracy, according to the company. Eyeprints can be taken with a smartphone camera rather than requiring specialized hardware.
EyeVerify demoed their Eyeprint technology as part of the show at FinovateSpring in San Francisco this month. You can read our live coverage of their presentation here.

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OpenCoin Wins Investment from Google Ventures, IDG Capital Partners

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: OpenCoin

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For the second time in as many months, open source payment network innovator, OpenCoin is closing another round of funding. This time the company has earned investment from Google Ventures and China-based IDG Capital Partners.

The total amount of the angel funding round has not been disclosed, though Google Ventures is rumored to have contributed less than $200,000.

The announcement comes one month after the company reported funding from a quintet of investors: Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel IV, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vast Ventures, and Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. OpenCoin’s technology, Ripple, is a decentralized, virtual currency convertible into dollars, euros, yen, or Bitcoin.
OpenCoin’s CEO is Chris Larsen. The company presented its Ripple technology as part of FinovateSpring this month in San Francisco. Read our live coverage of their demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– May 20, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Allied Payment Network, BBC Easy, CommunityLend, Lendio, OneID, Palo Alto Software, Quantopian
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgQuantopian featured in the print edition of Barron’s Electronic Investor column.
  • Software company Malauzai, technology partner with Allied Payment Networks, talks mobile photo bill pay adoption rates.
  • CardNotPresent takes a look at OneID’s two-factor authentication technology.
  • Palo Alto Software collaborates with MasterCard to provide lean planning and management software solutions to small businesses.
  • Lendio interviews BBC Easy founders in a podcast on its blog.
  • CommunityLend’s FinanceIt launches paperless document function.
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 Alumni News– May 17, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CashStar, FamZoo, FlexScore, LendUp, Realty Mogul, Serverside Group, Zooz

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  • Serverside Group grants license for its US card customization patents to financial services provider, DimpleDough.
  • CashStar announces year-over-year growth in Mother’s Day eGifting cards sold.
  • MobilePaymentsToday takes a look at Zooz In-Ad Payments service.
  • FlexScore provides waiting list for access codes to beta version of their web-based financial advisor platform.
  • American Banker features crowdfunders LendUp and Realty Mogul.
  • TransCard congratulates technology partner FamZoo on winning FinovateSpring 2013 honors.

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 Alumni News– May 16, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blaze Mobile, FamZoo, LendUp, MoneyDesktop, OpenCoin, PayNearMe, QuantConnect, TipRanks

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  • FamZoo, LendUp, Money Desktop, PayNearMe, and TipRanks win Best of Show honors at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.
  • Blaze Mobile earns three NFC mobile payment patents.
  • OpenCoin announces completion of an angel funding round from Google Ventures and IDG Capital Partners.
  • ForexThink interviews QuantConnect founder and CEO Jared Broad.
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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Zooz Consumer Driven Payment Platform Brings One Tap Checkout for Consumers and Higher Conversion Rates for Merchants

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2013, Zooz

Thumbnail image for ZOOZLogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2013.

Next up is Zooz, presenting their consumer-driven payment platform, which generates smart consumer insights to help merchants boost conversion rates while providing customers with a seamless buying experience.
“Zooz will show an exciting new feature that demonstrates an important use case of the Zooz consumer driven platform capabilities.”
Product Launched: March 2012
HQ Location: Raanana, Israel
Company Founded: June 2010
Metrics: Raised $3.5 million; 15 employees; more than 5,000 registered apps and sites
Website: zooz.com
Twitter: @ZooZpayments
Presenting Noam Inbar (VP Business Development) and Ronen Morecki (CTO & Founder)

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