Author: David Penn

Allied Payment and Malauzai Software Launch Stand-Alone PicturePay

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Allied Payment Network, Mitek

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Are you a financial institution? Do you love PicturePay, but fear parting with your current mobile banking provider?

No problem. Thanks to a new initiative by Allied Payment Network and Malauzai Software, the photo-based payment solution now will be available to banks and credit unions as a stand-alone mobile billpay alternative.

PicturePay enables mobile payments by allowing users to photograph their bill, confirm the amount to be paid, and then submit the payment directly. The software, powered by fellow Finovate alum Mitek, uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology as well as analytics to read and verify the data.

       
Founded in 2010, Allied Payment Network is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and launched its PicturePay solution in January 2013. The company demoed its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2013 show in San Francisco, winning special praise from both Bank Innovation and Credit Union Times.
See Allied Payment Network’s PicturePay in action here.

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Braintree Teams Up with Simple to Bring Venmo Touch to Consumers

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Braintree

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Courtesy of collaboration with Braintree, banking with Simple just got simpler.

The partnership between the global payments company and the online mobile banking innovator will give Simple’s customers access to Venmo Touch. Adding this feature to their mobile app allows Simple to provide one-touch purchasing throughout Venmo’s app network ranging from Uber, Hotel Tonight, and Wrapp.

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The partnership represents the first time Braintree has offered direct banking integration for Venmo Touch. Braintree processes more than $10 billion annually (more than $2 billion alone on mobile) in transactions from more than 40 countries around the world. 
The company acquired Venmo a little under a year ago for more than $26 million. A few months later, Braintree announced that it had raised $35 million in funding.
For its part Simple has onboarded more than 35,000 users as of June, with six times that number reportedly on waiting lists to use the still-in-beta service. The company provides a mobile payment solution, linked with their own FDIC-insured bank (The Bancorp Bank), that organizes all of a consumer’s various accounts into a single, Simple bank card. 
Simple also announced today a new partnership with Dropbox. The arrangement will allow Simple users to add PDFs and images from their Dropbox accounts to their transactions.
Braintree demonstrated its Venmo Touch solution as part of the FinovateSpring 2013 show in San Francisco back in May. See the company’s demo here.

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Manilla User Base Surpasses Half Million Mark

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Manilla

Thumbnail image for ManillaLogo.jpgManilla announced today that it has topped the 500,000 mark in terms of activated users. This figure represents a doubling of the bill management company’s user base in the last six months.

“Activated users” includes only those users who have actually signed up to Manilla and linked at least one account.

A few additional metrics:
  • Manilla is on track to reach more than one million activated users by the end of the year.
  • Manilla users have linked more than three million accounts, bringing more than 3,500 businesses into the network.
  • The average user links six provider accounts each on Manilla.
Manilla is a free account organization service that helps consumers manage their bills both online and via mobile app. In addition to hinting at new mobile and Web features to come, Manilla CEO Jim Schinella said that Manilla’s milestone “proves that there is a real growing consumer demand for a new breed of account management tools.”

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The company was in the headlines this spring after announcing its customers had added more than 54,000 local small business accounts to the network courtesy of a new Custom Accounts feature. The feature was launched in December 2012, and is available on Android and iOS.
Developed within and supported by Hearst Corporation, Manilla presented its technology as part of the FinovateFall 2012 show in New York. See the company’s demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– July 10, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Authentify, CashStar, GoBank, Google, Manilla, Mitek, Moven, Outright.com, SAGE SA, SecondMarket
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgAuthentify launches security app for mobile devices, replacing passwords with digital images and spoken pass phrases.
  • Google Wallet’s “Buy with Google” promotion provides discounts via Android apps ranging from Airbnb to Uber.
  • IBS Intelligence ranks SAGE SA’s Prospero 2nd in 2013 Sales League Table.
  • Manilla’s activated user base surpasses half million mark.
  • CashStar announces new clients for its digital gifting program.
  • Moven’s beta program expands to add additional testers as company anticipates mobile signup by year’s end.
  • Bank Innovation reviews GoBank’s progress toward customer engagement and mobile centricity.
  • American Banker reports: Mitek Receives Patent for Mobile Card Balance Transfers.
  • SecondMarket launches General Solicitation solution in response to the SEC lifting of the ban on general solicitation by the JOBS Act.
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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BBVA Ventures Investment to Help SumUp’s South American Expansion

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA, SumUp

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SumUp is coming to America – one hemisphere at a time.

The European mobile payments company is expected to reach South American shores by the end of the year, according to a report in TechCrunch published today.

News of the expansion comes as SumUp announced receiving funding from BBVA Ventures, the venture capital wing of Spanish bank, BBVA. The amount of BBVA’s investment was undisclosed, but it is believed to be part of the larger investment of more than $20 million announced by SumUp in May. That round included participation by investors ranging from American Express to Groupon to Tengelmann Ventures.

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Funding from BBVA will contribute toward SumUp’s growth into South America, as well as help extend the brand in European countries like Spain and Portugal, where BBVA is strong. SumUp also recently announced expansion into Russia.
Both BBVA and SumUp are alumni of FinovateEurope 2013, held earlier this year in London. BBVA demoed Stockbuzz.es, technology that analyzes Twitter data for clues to market sentiment. SumUp presented its mobile payments solution, which makes it easier for small businesses to accept card payments.
See BBVA’s presentation here. SumUp’s demo is available here.

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Finovate Alumni News — July 9, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, authenticID, GoBank, Mitek, Monitise, SumUp
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgACI Worldwide announces latest version of ACI Acquirer, the company’s multi-currency merchants management system.
  • Mitek wins patent for its technology that lets customers transfer credit card balance using their mobile device.
  • BBVA Ventures investment helps SumUp plan for South American expansion.
  • GoBank’s mobile-first bank accounts now available through Rite Aid.
  • Monitise VP of mPOS Tim Corke talks mobile point-of-sale in video interview with Finextra.
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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Equifax Scoops Up TrustedID for $30 Million

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TrustedID

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Equifax announced today that it has agreed to acquire ID protection innovator and Finovate alum, TrustedID.

The specific amount of the deal was not disclosed by Equifax. However reports indicate that the all-cash arrangement totaled more than $30 million.

TrustedID will become a part of Equifax’s Personal Solutions, which focuses on credit monitoring and identity protection. The company has raised $20 million in investment capital since it was founded in 2004. TrustedID is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, from which the company’s employees will continue to work, post-acquisition.

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TrustedID was recently in the news for its new service designed to help protect seniors from identity theft. Announced last month, the program is run through AARP and is geared toward the over-50 population that is most vulnerable to ID theft. TrustedID’s product suite includes solutions ranging from ID and credit protection to data breach defense systems.
TrustedID demoed its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2011 show in San Francisco. See the company’s presentation here.

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Finovate Alumni News — July 8, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Intuit, Realty Mogul, Swipely, TSYS
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgTSYS announces multi-year agreement to bring debit card services to KBC Bank in Ireland.
  • Inman News’s Real Estate Connect column includes Realty Mogul in its list of companies likely to benefit from passage of the JOBS Act.
  • Swipely’s Amanda MacArthur talks strategies for serving millennials.
  • Bank Innovation’s Hornblass takes a close look at Intuit’s decision to sell its IFS unit to Thoma Bravo.
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 Integrated Framework Enables Mobile Banking in Africa

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Temenos

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Temenos unveiled its latest IT solution for banks: Temenos Integrated Framework, designed to help banks better integrate new technologies into their existing systems.

The company announced the platform’s general availability this week, and have been highlighting its recent deployment by the Commercial Bank of Africa (CAB). CAB has been using it to build out its M-Shwari mobile phone-based virtual banking platform over the past few months. Since the platform’s launch in November 2012 in Kenya, M-Shwari has:

  • Attracted more than 30,000 new customers a day on average in the first 100 days
  • Gained more than 1 billion Kenyan shillings in deposits in one month.
  • Attracted 1 million customers after 41 days
  • Onboarded more than three million customers by April 2013
M-Shwari was developed in partnership with Safaricom, an integrated African communications company, and Vodafone. Read more about the program, which aims to bring savings and loans programs to Kenyan adults, here.
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos is a leading provider of integrated core banking systems, with more than 1,500 customer deployments around the world. The company presented its edgeConnect UXP with Live Designer technology earlier this year at FinovateEurope. See Temenos’s demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– July 5, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CommunityLend, Monitise, QuantConnect, Quantopian, SeedInvest, Temenos, Zopa
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgInvestment News’ “In Tech” column features Jared Broad, co-founder and CEO of QuantConnect.
  • Crowdfundinsider reports on SeedInvest’s new feature: SeedInvest Groups.
  • Bamboo Innovator takes a look at “do-it-yourself” hedge fund site, Quantopian.
  • Monitise wins Cross-Border Deal of the Year award for acquisition of Clairmail.
  • CommunityLend launches FinanceIt iPad app for consumer financing in store or on the road.
  • Zopa CEO Giles Andrews urges banks to keep customers in mind in address at Wired Money.
  • Temenos unveils solution to make it easier for banks to integrate new technology.
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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Second Quarter 2013 Funding for Finovate Alumni — More than $200 Million Raised

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Affinity Solutions, Cardlytics, Credit Karma, Dwolla, Kony Solutions, On Deck Capital, OpenCoin, peerTransfer, Personal Capital, Receivables Exchange, SeedInvest, SumUp, Swipely, TransferWise, Zooz

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For the second quarter of 2013, fifteen Finovate alumni raised more than $200 million. The quarterly total exceeded both that of the previous quarter as well as the same quarter last year.*

  • Q2 2013: 15 companies raised more than $200 million
  • Q1 2013: 15 companies raised more than $155 million — blog post
  • Q2 2012: 14 companies raised more than $120 million — blog post
Here’s the Q2 summary for 2013:

April — $32 million raised by two companies
May — $91.5 million raised by seven companies
June — $81.7 million raised by six companies

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*While the funding over last year has increased, so has the number of Finovate alums. We’re tracking more than 100 additional companies this year compared to last year.

Note: Funding that companies received before they demonstrated at Finovate was not counted. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

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OpenCoin Launches Bitcoin Bridge, an E-Commerce Enabler for Ripple

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: OpenCoin

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Thanks to a new technology from OpenCoin, Ripple users just got access to more than 8,500 Bitcoin-accepting merchants, as well as the rest of the Bitcoin world.

OpenCoin, developers of the virtual currency protocol Ripple, announced today that Ripple users now will be able to pay directly to all Bitcoin addresses. Using a new feature called Bitcoin Bridge, users will be able to send payments in any currency and have the recipient get that payment in Bitcoins with no additional cost.

The move is significant because it demonstrates the distributed nature of OpenCoin’s virtual currency network. Said CEO Chris Larsen in a press release, “Now, anyone can send Bitcoins without having to use a central exchange.”

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Larsen similarly sees Bitcoin Bridge as a boon for merchants who accept Bitcoin.
The company also announced on Tuesday that their first U.S. gateway was now live. Using the SnapSwap gateway, Ripple users now can fund their Ripple wallets directly from their U.S.-based bank accounts.
OpenCoin’s Ripple protocol is a virtual currency and distributed currency exchange. The technology has a number of payment system applications, ranging from merchant payments to remittances. 
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, OpenCoin demoed its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2013 show in May, Watch the company’s presentation here.

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