Author: David Penn

Youth Payments Platform Virtual Piggy Rebrands as Oink

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Virtual Piggy

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If you liked them as Virtual Piggy, then you’ll love them as Oink.

At least that’s the bet if you’re a teenager or the parent of one (or two). The Finovate alum (FinovateEurope 2013) and Best of Show winner is taking a data-driven gamble that their new name will put the company more in sync with the young teens who disproportionately use the COPPA-compliant, parental controls-equipped, youth-centered payments platform.

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As Virtual Piggy – and now as Oink – the platform works by providing young people (under 18) with an opportunity to spend and save their money in a safe and parent-controlled way. The platform is compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as well as other privacy laws, and gives e-commerce merchants the opportunity to reach the estimated $50 billion in spending every year by consumers under the age of 18.
So why the name change? Company founder and CEO Jo Webber and her team discovered that more than 65% of their active users were, in fact, over the age of 13. Having built the company based on appealing to a younger, pre-teen demographic, Webber realized that a name change – out with “piggy” in with “oink” – might help better present the company to young teens and their parents.
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Video also available here.
There’s more to what’s new with the company than the name change. There is a new iOS app, for one. And Oink, as Virtual Piggy, has announced a number a partnerships in recent weeks and months with video and social game companies like Live Gamer, Habbo Hotel, and Marvelous USA. In June, the company announced that it had topped a quarter of a million users. As of December, that number has tripled.
The new Oink has a new Oink.com website, which includes an online store with links to Oink-friendly retailers ranging from Adidas and Aeropostale to Walmart and Zappos.

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Finovate Alumni News– December 4, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, BancVue, BBVA, Digital Insight, Doxo, Emida, EyeVerify, IntelliResponse, Intuit, Kabbage, MiiCard, Mint.com, Payoneer, PayPal, Prosper, RevolutionCredit, Taulia, TipRanks
  • BBVA Compass announces launch of BBVA Research iPad app.
  • Bank Innovation column on fintech in Israel features TipRanks and Payoneer.
  • Emida launches Handset and SIM Programs.
  • BancVue and other Credit Unions Help U-Haul Refinance Corporate Debt.
  • Prosper’s daily average loan originations grew almost 10% in November over October.
  • The Next Web reports: PayPal launches a digital gift store, featuring Apple as its sole launch partner.
  • City of Gig Harbor Launches on doxo; More than 5% of Residents Go Paperless in the First 90 Days.
  • Forbes: Kabbage Now Uses Square Data to Provide SMB Funding.
  • Mint is now available on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.
  • btcQuick Bitcoin Exchange working with miiCard to mitigate fraud.
  • EyeVerify interviewed on The Kansas City Power Lunch radio program.
  • IntelliResponse wins bronze in Best in Biz Awards’ Most Innovative Product of the Year category for 2013.
  • Intuit to purchase document startup company, Docstoc.
  • American Banker features Zaydoon Munir, founder of RevolutionCredit.
  • ACI Worldwide adds new executives, open new South American HQ in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
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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Temenos Announces New Implementations of T24 in Three Ghanian FIs

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Temenos

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Courtesy of African reseller, Global Solutions, three financial institutions in Ghana will be deploying Temenos T24 core banking software.

The announcement further distinguishes Temenos as one of the leaders in bringing banking innovation to sub-Saharan Africa. Currently more than 90 banks based in Africa are running software from Temenos.

Scalability and the capacity to work with new and existing functionality, including mobile functionality, are among the reasons cited by the various FIs in choosing Temenos to replace their legacy banking systems. Current systems in Ghana suffer from a lack of integration and redundancy, making administering the systems costly, complicated and vulnerable to downtime.

The institutions adding T24 are:
Provides personal and small business lending. Founded in 1995 as a licensed non-bank financial institution.
Among the oldest non-bank financial service companies in Ghana. Founded in 1991 and provides lending and asset management services.
Incorporated in 2011, the Royal Bank Limited operates under a universal banking license and provides accounts, savings, and investment services.
The growing middle class in Ghana is driving the demand for better financial services. Based on a report from the African Development Bank, Ghana’s middle class stands at 46% of the population, more than the continent-wide average of less than 34%. Additionally, half the potential bank customers in urban areas of the country remain unbanked, according to a national study.
Temenos demoed its edgeConnect IXP with Live Designer technology at FinovateEurope 2013. To learn more about our upcoming event in Europe, visit our FinovateEurope 2014 page here.

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Check Data Helps Researchers See Impact of Government Shutdown on Consumers

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Check

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Academic researchers borrowed user data from mobile billpay and account management innovator, Check, to learn the exact impact of the government shutdown on consumer spending.

Based at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, users were sampled anonymously for eleven months from December 2012 through October 2013. Researchers were able to confirm, via the Check data, that the shutdown impacted consumer spending nationally (5% drop in the last 10 days of September), but that government workers cut spending the most (15% over the same period).

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“For the first time, we are able to accurately report the impact at national and local levels – and for government workers as a group – thanks to real-time data provided by Check,” said Steven Tadelis, associate professor of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
More than 50.000 Check users nationwide were included in the data set. More than 3,000 of these users lived in Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. 
Check demoed its mobile billpay and account management technology (as Pageonce) for the FinovateFall 2010 show in New York.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 27, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, Fiserv, Heckyl Technologies, HelloWallet, Jemstep, Mitek, Moven, PayPal, Toopher
  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgHeckyl Technologies featured in Startup Innovation.
  • Toopher unveils WordPress plugin.
  • U.S. Bank’s Mitek-powered Mobile Photo Bill Pay wins Best Technology Initiative in Banking award.
  • Independent Research Group names Cardlytics a Best in Class Provider in 4 categories of card loyalty technology report.
  • Ally Bank adds Fiserv’s Popmoney to power recurring funds transfers on its mobile app.
  • PayPal now accepts prepaid gift cards.
  • Mashable looks at HelloWallet as an easier way to save money.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports online advisers like Jemstep enhance free services.
  • Forbes features how Moven can be especially useful over the holidays.
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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Toopher Brings Invisible Multifactor Authentication to WordPress

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Toopher

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Three of the best words in this business – Free. Live. Downloadable – now apply to Toopher’s WordPress plugin, available at toopher.com/wordpress.

Josh Alexander, CEO of Toopher, said, “WordPress is the foundation for so many sites of all levels of sophistication …Now any WordPress site owner can feel confident they can continue using the simple, wildly popular, open source website platform, but that now can include industrial-grade security with consumer-style user experience.”

Toopher’s agreement with WordPress comes months after announcing its partnership to provide authentication services for fellow Finovate alum miiCard (Fall 2013).

The company’s authentication process leverages the user’s smartphone in order to provide security against online fraud, password hacks, and identity theft. Toopher’s “phone stays in your pocket” approach automates the process, using the phone’s location-awareness to make authentication “invisible”. The result is what the company calls “a security solution that people actually want to use.”
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The new plugin means that more than 72 million WordPress websites around the world will have access to Toopher’s authentication technology. On websites hosted by WordPress, nearly 400 million people view more than 14 billion pages a month.
Taking advantage of Toopher requires downloading the plugin and acquiring access credentials to Toopher’s API. This will enable all users of a site to deploy Toopher.
Toopher demoed their technology in a memorable presentation at FinovateFall in September. Take a look at the speed-talking, laptop-tossing duo from Toopher here.

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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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