PreCash’s PayConnect Helps Make Payments Faster and Cheaper

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One of the biggest gripes about mobile and online bill payment is that it takes “forever” to post (read 2-3 days), and if you want to (or have to) speed up the process, it’s just too expensive.

To solve this problem, PayConnect from PreCash leverages the company’s existing, cloud-based processing system to provide same day payment delivery for more than 80% of the transactions it processes. 

PayConnect allows customers to make payments at more than 10,000 utility, cable, and insurance companies, as well as other service providers. Customers can use both cash and cards for payment. 
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The company offers a pair of integration options: deploying into existing services by way of an API, or adding PayConnect as a white-label application with an online interface that can be branded.
PreCash CEO Steve Taylor cited a report from Aite Group that says more than half of consumers have made bill payments outside their bank, suggesting that “there is immense opportunity for innovative companies to unseat banks and incumbent providers by offering faster payments and a better user experience.”
PreCash serves more than 3 million consumers, processes more than $3 billion in payments, and has its products in more than 100,000 locations throughout the U.S. Headquartered in Houston, the company demoed Flip, their mobile check deposit solution for the underbanked, as part of the FinovateFall 2012 show in New York. See the company’s technology in action here.

Finovate Alumni News– August 7, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgMasterCard CEO Ajay Banga announces MasterPass digital wallet now accepted by more than 20,000 merchants.
  • EyeVerify reaches finals in four categories of the 2013 Silicon Prairie Awards.
  • Ralph Marcuccilli, president and founder of Allied Payment Network, talks about the benefits of photo bill pay.
  • ProfitStars introduces hosted version PROFITstar Budget Manager, supported by Windows Azure for cloud computing. First Interstate Bank replaces Excel-based budgeting process.
  • U.S. PayPal users given option to withdraw money using MoneyGram.
  • London Loves Business blog highlights Nutmeg, Zopa, and Wonga as well-known London-based fintech startups.
  • Cardlytics names Jim Morgan as first CFO. Come see Cardlytics demo at FinovateFall in New York September 10 and 11.
  • PreCash launches PayConnect mobile and online bill pay 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.

Finovate Alumni News– August 5, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgZopa featured in a Scottish Express column on P2P lending in the United Kingdom.
  • MasterCard and Visa to bring standardized chip-and-pin technology to the U.S.
  • Azimo, Zopa, and Lending Club are among the Finovate alumns highlighted in an Economist column on “changing finance for the better.”
  • VentureBeat lists BillGuard as 1 of 20 fastest growing mobile startups.
  • Slate lists reasons why everyone should download and use Braintree’s Venmo app.
  • Digital Trends chats with Basil Anan, CoverHound CEO on insurance rates trends. Check out CoverHound’s new tech at FinovateFall in NYC next month.
  • Braintree listed by Pando Daily as one of Chicago’s “new class of anti-Groupons”.
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.

Meet the Innovators of FinovateFall 2013

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FinovateFall 2013 is right around the corner. That means it’s time to start getting to know the entrepreneurs and innovators that will be presenting their technologies on stage in New York City in September.

Remember, the early bird deadline is this Friday, August 2nd. So to reserve your spot and register now.

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Akimbo Financial offers a social bank account alternative that makes sharing money easier than ever.
authenticIDs identity tools pictureID and catfishID, are the most accurate, time-saving solutions for the forms of ID we already carry.
Backbase‘s Launchpad, the Commercial Banking Edition, making CFO’s work easier.
BehavioSec uses behavioral analytics to transparently tackle web and mobile security.
BillFloat revolutionizes credit delivery to consumers and businesses.
Biometric Signature ID has a patented software-only biometric for secure ID online verification.
BizEquity is the first and leading cloud-based business valuation engine, an innovative solution to small business lead generation.
Capital Access Network is the largest and most experienced small business finance specialist.
Cardlytics uses consumer purchase data to drive a patented advertising platform. Ads are so relevant–they’re expected. 
CoverHound is a comparison insurance adviser, helping people discover, buy, and manage insurance online.
CR2 is the innovative provider of self-service banking solutions including ATM, Internet, and mobile banking.
DoubleBeam‘s SDK powers mPayments inside other mobile apps, helping signup customers quickly and save a ton on the cost of payments.
FinanceIt offers businesses the ability to provide consumer financing to their customers at the POS.
Financial Guard helps you protect your investments, providing online investment advice at the right price, finally.
Finect is the leading online network for the financial services industry.
Fiserv is a leading global technology provider serving the financial services industry, driving innovation in payments.
FlexScore “gamifies” financial planning, gives a “score” of your financial fitness, and provides education, advice, peer comparisons.
Float Money offers interest-free credit to members of its shopping club and financial health partners.
FutureAdvisor manages your investments for better returns, making quality financial advice available to everyone.
GMC Software Technology is a leading software developer of solutions that transform the customer experience.
Guide Financial is like a healthcheck for your finances – automatically scanning your accounts for ways you can earn or save more, and providing simple, easy fixes.
Ignite Sales is the leader in retail banking, customer acquisition, and retention technology.
Innovation Agency, where you can execute on your innovation mandate and unlock the wealth of ideas in your ecosystems.
Instabank – Beautiful money.
Interactions provides natural language Virtual Assistant application services for the automation customer care processes.
Jumio is a next generation credentials management company offering payments and ID scanning and validation products for mobile and web transactions.
Kofax is a leading provider of smart process applications that simplify the business critical First Mile of information-intensive customer interactions.
LearnVest empowers people everywhere to take control of their money and live their richest lives.
Level Money is a financial GPS, designed to replace budgeting.
Lighter Capital provides growth capital to technology companies in a highly-automated basis – Capital-as-a-Service.
Lumesis provides software for the fixed income municipal market. Compliance and credit-focused. 
Luminous is a boutique innovation company that has become synonymous with innovative banking around the world.
Manilla is the leading free and secure service to simplify and organize daily financial life.
MasterCard is a technology company in the global payments industry, operating the world’s fastest payments processing network.
mBank is the biggest, pure-play online bank and the third largest retail bank in Poland.
miiCard is the first digital identity verification service to prove ‘you are who you say you are’ entirely online.
Mitek is positioned as the leading innovator in mobile imaging software. 
MoneyDesktop empowers financial institutions to provide online/mobile banking experiences to promote personal financial intelligence.
Motif Investing is a thematic, customizable, low-cost and crowdsourceable ETF-like product that is disrupting investing economics.

Narrative Science
 
enables companies to uncover the insight hidden in their data and create new content at a scale and frequency never before possible.
Numbrs – One App – Every Bank.
P2P Cash is the mobile wallet with switch technology that allows us to aggregate all other mWallets and mobile financial services.
PayWith is powered by MasterCard. Funded by Merchants. Loved by Consumers.
PhonyInvoices provides invoice fraud detection and prevention. We check a company’s vendor lists and transactions for suspicious activity.
Place2Give provides valuable and trustworthy information to make the most impactful social capital investment decisions.
QuarterSpot lending platform delivers the lowest cost and most favorable term small business loans.
RevolutionCredit is a revolutionary solution that transforms the credit decisioning process for both creditors and consumers.
SaaS Markets is the enterprise app store company for financial organizations looking to leverage cloud-based applications for their employees or customers.
SavedPlus is an automatic savings program that helps customers save money with every purchase.
Simple Verity provides business credit reports on any SMB in America.
Socure offers a social identity verification solution to combat the growing risk of online identity fraud for financial institutions.
SpearFysh leverages mobile, speech analytics, big data, and SaaS technology to improve sales processes and drive growth.
Spreedly provides vault cards in the cloud and work with more than 50 payment gateways.
StockSmart apps and platform offer insight and information on the world’s best companies and people.
StrategyCorps delivers local/mobile/social consumer checking solutions so appealing and relevant, your customers will gladly pay for them.
Tinkoff Credit Systems is Russia’s leading provider of online financial services.
TipRanks is a cloud-based service that measures the performance of anyone giving investment advice.
Toopher eliminates online fraud using your phone’s location. Simple, secure, your phone stays in your pocket.
Unleash is the cloud CFO that helps small businesses make better decisions faster.
VerifyValid and Deluxe are giving checks their first major upgrade in more than 200 years.
Versafe protects all users from all malware, threat types. On all devices, all transparently. 
WordSentry software analyzes messages during composition, identifying non-compliant components, for correction before sending.
Yodlee is the platform for financial innovation, powering the world’s largest collection of transactional data.
Yseop creates a new age where financial services delivered to customers are driven by AI and human collaboration.
Zenmonics is a global technology services and mobile product provider to the financial services market.
Zighra empowers banks and financial institutions to leverage implicit mobile user authentication and accelerate payments.
Zooz provides complete payment essentials at your fingertips: a robust set of tools that will improve the payment process.
Plus more stealth companies to be announced in the weeks to come.
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To find out more about the upcoming FinovateFall 2013 event in New York, September 10 and 11, visit our FinovateFall information page here.

Bill.com’s Two-Factor Authentication Brings Security to SMBs

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Bill.com announced today that it has brought two-factor authentication to customers using its Bill.com Banking Platform. The company is an innovator in the field of integrating bill pay, custom invoicing, and cash flow management for small and medium-sized businesses.

Available for banks and built into the platform for small businesses, the technology is compatible with existing authentication methods, and can be readily integrated. Said CEO Rene Lacerte, “banks can offer small businesses one more reason to trust all of their business needs to one bank.”

Bill.com stresses the unobtrusive nature of their authentication solution. The technology uses a risk-based model to monitor all activity and determine when a request for further authentication from the user should be made. This, according to Bill.com, helps prevent workflow interruptions that can take place when authentication processes are triggered whenever any change is made.

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Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com won Gold at the 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards in the “Best Innovation via ACH” category. The company recently announced that it had converted more than 40% of its customers from checks to electronic ACH transactions.
Bill.com presented its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2011 show in San Francisco. See the company’s demo here.

FIS Brings Mobile, eBanking, Remote Capture and More to Sterling Bank

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Sterling Bank announced this week a new, multi-year agreement with FIS to deploy the banking technology company’s Business eBanking and Mobile Banking technologies.

The FIS Business eBanking solution is geared toward small and medium sized businesses. Features include check imaging, account transfer, ACH payments including direct deposit, as well as real-time access to both personal and business accounts. Mobile Banking through FIS brings services like mobile wallets, prepaid and debit card services, and remote deposit capture.

The announcement comes in the wake of previous moves by Sterling Bank to take greater advantage of online and mobile banking. The bank has already converted its business clients to the FIS business internet platform, outsourcing its core banking to FIS two years ago.
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Sterling Bank is the principal operating subsidiary of Sterling Financial Corporation. With nearly $10 billion in assets, Sterling is based out of Spokane, Washington and has branches in California, Idaho and Oregon, as well as Washington state.
Also doing business as Sonoma Bank, the corporation serves more than 54,000 small and medium-sized businesses, and more than 280,000 retail accounts.
FIS provides mobile banking services to more than 20 million mobile users and more than three million mobile deposit customers. The company demoed its FIS Payment Manager at FinovateFall 2010 in New York. See the FIS demo here.

Finovate Alumni News– July 30, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgOpenCoin is among the virtual currency innovators looking to form a self-regulatory body for the industry.
  • MasterPass from MasterCard launches in the United Kingdom.
  • Bank Innovation takes a look at FIS Global’s recent remarks on the company’s technology deal with Sainsbury.
  • Yahoo Finance looks at rewards earned using Dynamics ePlate credit card.
  • StreetFight features reasons to opt in for card-linked loyalty programs from Cartera Commerce, Cardlytics, edo Interactive and Swipely.
  • Netbanker features BillGuard, Manilla, and Credit Karma as value-added apps driving mobile adoption.
  • eToro adds price alerts to eToro Trader app.
  • Bright Ideas features Noreen Hafez, senior product marketing manager at Akamai.
  • Kasasa holds sweepstakes, films big-bank breakup video, featuring CEO Gabe Krajicek.
  • Betterment joins fellow Finovate alumni FutureAdvisor and LearnVest in this NYT column on bringing “financial planning to the masses.”
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.

Finovate Alumni News– July 29, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgJilliene Helman, CEO and co-founder of Realty Mogultalks crowdfunding and real estate in NAWRB’s N Magazine.
  • Bazaarvoice CEO Stephen Collins writes about why Big Data needs big problems.
  • Finect’s Jennifer Openshaw talks about social media and the coming deluge of hedge fund advertising.
  • Total Payments features Moven founder, Brett King, as he discusses the future of banking and payments.
  • Bank Innovation looks at Moven, Simple, GoBank, and the decline of personal checks.
  • TechPost considers the success Lending Club, SocietyOne, and Zopa have had implementing P2P lending platforms.
  • American Banker reports ID Analytics announces updated ID fraud software, ID Score.
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.

Tagit Introduces Juice, Turning Mobile Phones into Smart Wallets in Mauritius

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Remember Tagit

Last year at FinovateAsia, the mobile technology innovator demoed its Mobeix Open Platform, which helps enterprises build and launch apps on their own (for info on the upcoming FinovateAsia event this November, by the way, check out our information page here.)

Well Tagit is back with more news today, announcing that it is bringing its mobile banking technology to the more than one million people living on the island nation of Mauritius.

The new app, called Juice, was the product of a partnership between Singapore-based Tagit and the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB). Juice will enable banking customers to make cardless cash withdrawals, check balances, and perform other common financial tasks without having to visit a bank branch.
Some of the features of the new Juice app include:
  • Juice Cash: Withdraw cash from Juice-enabled merchants by transferring money to them via smartphone
  • Juice ATM: Send money to others who can then pick up the cash at Juice-enabled ATMs
  • Juice Payment: Use smartphone as a credit card to make person-to-merchant payments
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Founded in 2004, Tagit provides mobile banking and commerce application platforms to financial institutions and enterprises looking to extend their online businesses through mobile channels. Tagit has customers in 10 nations in Asia, the Middle East, and North America, and won the Emerging Enterprise Award in 2012.
Mauritius has been ranked first in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report for African economies for five years in a row. With no exploitable natural resources, the country’s population is mostly employed in the service sector, including tourism and financial services. Tagit CEO Sandeep Bagaria praised the country’s “100% mobile penetration” as a primary reason for expansion into the Mauritius market.

Kalixa Group Brings its NFC-Enabling Technology to the U.K.

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The power to turn any smartphone into an NFC enabled phone is the promise of Kalixa Group’s prepaid mobile wallet, moneto, now available for users in the U.K.

Moneto will allow users in the U.K. to “tap and pay” (or “tap and go”) when paying for purchases using their smartphones. MicroSD technology, courtesy of DeviceFidelity, provides the phone with its NFC functionality, allowing shopping by mobile wallet at retail stores throughout the United Kingdom wherever the MasterCard PayPass logo is displayed.

Other features of the mobile wallet include:
  • Remote account access including real-time balance check
  • Merchant and ATM finder
  • Wallet-to-wallet transaction ability
Users of the mobile app also get an EMV prepaid MasterCard that will allow them to make cash withdrawals from ATMs, shop online, and pay for items where NFC is not an available option at the point of sale. ATM cash withdrawals will cost Kalixa prepaid card users £1.75 each, plus 1.95% of the value of the transfer (minimum of £10).
In addition to providing for NFC-based transactions, the microSD chip potentially adds a layer of security for the mobile wallet user. As noted in Banking Technology’s coverage of the launch, a stolen phone with a separate NFC chip means that the customer is less likely to have their account details stolen, as well.
The mobile wallet is currently available on iOS for iPhone 4 and 4S. Kalixa Group plans to add Android and iPhone 5 compatible versions later this year.
Kalixa Group demoed its mobile point-of-sale (mpos) technology at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. To see their presentation, click here. DeviceFidelity showed its In2Pay microSD chip enabling contactless transactions with the moneto wallet as part of the FinovateSpring 2012 show in San Francisco. See DeviceFidelity in action here.

Check to Provide Mobile Bill Pay to Desert Water Agency Customers

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Just in time for those soaring water bills of summer, Check has made it easier for the 70,000 customers of Desert Water Agency (DWA) in Palm Springs, California to get those water bills paid.

In a partnership announced today, Check (formerly Pageonce) will be available as a mobile bill pay service for the customers who rely on DWA for their water service.

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Customers using Check will be able to pay their water bills in a variety of ways, including free payment via ACH. Credit card payments are also available through Check with a 4% processing fee. The company is providing an incentive to get customers onboard, offering $5 off a customer’s first water bill when they use Check.
Interested customers can download the Check mobile app – available on Android and iOS – at Google Play or the Apple App Store, as well as at the Desert Water Agency. The Check app is free.
Check, as Pageonce, appeared on the Finovate stage in 2010 as part of FinovateSpring. See the company in action here.

FTRANS Raises More than $2 Million

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According to a report from the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Finovate alum FTRANS has raised more than $2 million of its expected $2.56 million funding round. 

Participating in the round were the company’s long-time investors: Greenhill SAVP, New Atlantic Ventures, and Total Technology Ventures Capital.

At the conclusion of the current round, the company’s funding total will top $13 million.
FTRANS is an innovator in the field of accounts receivable and credit management for small and medium enterprises. The company leverages its partnerships with banks and other financial institutions, as well as its own direct funding capability, to provide lenders with the visibility they need to manage risk.
A few key metrics for FTRANS:
  • Founded in 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia
  • Serves more than 150 clients with more than 10,000 customers
  • Processed more than $600 million in accounts receivable to date
  • Launched partnership with Synovus Financial Corporation in 2007.
FTRANS demonstrated its Trade Credit Express technology at the FinovateSpring 2010 show in San Francisco. See the company’s presentation here.