David Penn, Author at Finovate

FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 3

By David Penn Posted on October 28, 2013
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek

Still just getting to know the companies that will be presenting at FinovateAsia 2013 in November? Here are another five fintech innovators scheduled to take the stage next month in Singapore.

And if you missed the previous two installments of our Sneak Peek preview, check out the links below.

FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 2

FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 1

Our final event of 2013 is only a few weeks away. For more information about how to join us in Singapore, visit our FinovateAsia 2013 page here.

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Arkalogic’s latest innovation, Moneta, enables customers to have a seamless and secure payment system that caters to their key daily transaction needs, in one platform.

Features:

Mobile payments and banking platform
Seamless and secure transaction experience
Comprehensive end-to-end solution for cashless transactions

Why its great:

Transactions and life should be simple and secure. Always. With Arkalogic’s latest innovation, Moneta, it’s as if carrying your ATM and wallet in your mobile device.

Aryo Karbhawomo

Visionary Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO, Arkalogic

PhD in Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

John Subroto Chard (pictured)

Strategy & Finance Advisor, Arkalogic

MBA, New York University. Expertise in corporate development, start-ups and corporate strategy. Previously with McKinsey.

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BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions‘ cloud-based application, Surveyi2i, enables business users to unearth hidden patterns and share holistic insights from survey data in just a few clicks.

Features:

Zero in to key insights in matter of hours
Single tool for analyzing both quantitative and unstructured textual inputs
Design, automate and share dashboards without a single line of script

Why it’s great:

It makes the process of analyzing survey data incredibly faster, easier and cheaper.

Prithvijit Roy

CEO and Co-founder, Bridgei2i

Known among the pioneers of the analytics industry in India, Prithvijit has experience building and leading large scale analytics centers for Hewlett-Packard and GENPACT.

Pritam Kanti Paul

Business Analytics Entrepreneur, Bridgei2i

Known as an innovative thinker, Pritam has led development and implementation of several high impact and cutting edge analytical solutions for Hewlett-Packard and General Electric.

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Luminous is the ultimate financial innovations company with visionary products that are breakthrough in sheer simplicity.

Features:

Electronic safety deposit box
Banking customers can upload, sort and store personal and business documents
Ability to back up and save the most recent version of important documents

Why it’s great:

Banking customers can upload, sort and store personal and business documents.

Warren Bond

CEO, Luminous

Andrew Teversham

Chief Technology Officer, Luminous

Andrew heads up the development and implementation teams at Luminous and has gained extensive experience with SAP implementations over a number of years.

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Matchi is a global community innovation platform for the banking industry that offers market ready innovations from across the globe.

Features:

Unprecedented collaboration opportunities for banks
Marketing platform for innovators to showcase their innovations to banks
A go-to-destination for market-ready, banking innovations online

Why it’s great:

An innovation matchmaking site for banks globally

Paul Steenkamp

Head of Innovation, First National Bank

Warren Bond

CEO, Matchi

Warren is constantly looking for new ideas and ways to drive innovation and change in the banking industry.

Gerrit Hoekstra

CTO, Matchi

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Mobino aims to enable mobile payments for 5 billion people. The company was founded by J.F. Groff, one of the creators of Web technology.

Features:

Total independence from credit cards and telcos
Local and international payments, in-shop, peer-to-peer and e-commerce
Universal access from smartphones and dumbphones

Why it’s great:

Banked or unbanked, online or offline, privately or for business, Mobino lets everybody move money simply and efficiently.

Jean-Francois Groff

CEO, Mobino

Jean-Francois was one of the architects of the Web firm CERN. Mobino, his fourth startup, is guided by a lifelong passion: making technology serve humanity, not vice versa.

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Be sure to catch the fourth installment of our Sneak Peek preview of FinovateAsia 2013 next week.

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App Store, Configurable Notifications Featured in Next Generation of Bill.com’s Banking Platform

By David Penn Posted on October 28, 2013
Categories: Bill.com

Bill.com announced today its new, “next-generation” banking platform that works to return banks to their role as “the focal point of all their customer’s transactions.”

The new platform is geared toward solving two specific problems for banks and their clients: monetizing cash management and helping small and medium-sized business integrate and automate their financial processes.

Among the key new features of the platform is the App Center. This resource makes it easier for businesses to tap into and integrate a variety of third party applications. These apps include everything from document digitization and expense reporting solutions to major accounting systems like Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks. The ability to connect multiple third party apps and integrate them via the App Center enables banks to offer a number of cash flow management solutions to their business clients.

Improving communication via configurable notifications is another goal of the new platform. Being able to set-up and control the kind of information and approvals that are issued on an account-to-account basis means better, more personalized and efficient service for businesses. And for banks? Said Bill.com founder and CEO René Lacerte, “The more banks can offer their customers to make their lives easier, the more loyal and happy their customers will be.”

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com has been a Finovate alum since 2010, and last demoed as part of the FinovateSpring 2011 show.

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Flint Raises $6 Million in Series B Funding

By David Penn Posted on October 25, 2013
Categories: Flint Mobile

A big month for Flint Mobile just got a bit bigger with news that the mobile payments company just raised $6 million in funding from new and existing investors.

The round was led by Digicel Group, and included participation from Storm Ventures, SVG Partners, and True Ventures. Flint’s total capital raised stands at $9 million, which includes $3 million from a round completed in May 2012.

Flint plans to put the new capital to use by (1) adding new talent, (2) boosting customer acquisition efforts, and (3) accelerating R&D in the mobile payments space. Co-founder and CEO Greg Goldfarb said that Flint will remain “focused on empowering the ‘non-countertop’ businesses that operate outside of store (environment) and have different requirements (from traditional retail).”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of news that Flint was releasing its Android app, and that the company had swapped out its card reader for a camera, as well. Goldfarb also noted that Flint had experienced transaction volume growth of more than 10x in less than year.

From some perspectives, Digicel Group may seem like an unlikely source of capital for Flint. Digicel is not especially active when it comes to funding startups, and has a role of its own as a global communications provider in more than 30 markets. That said, Digicel considers Flint to provide the kind of “pure digital app model” that represents an “inevitable market shift” in the way payments will be made in the future.

Founded in April 2011, Flint demoed its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2012 show in San Francisco. See the company’s presentation here.

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Payments, Mobile, Security, Social: A Look Ahead to FinovateAsia 2013

By David Penn Posted on October 24, 2013
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013

How many ways will the presenters of FinovateAsia 2013 express “innovation in fintech” this year?

Finovate returns to Singapore on November 14th for a one-day showcase of the latest in financial technology. And many of the themes that have defined the fintech conversation in 2013 will be well-represented at this year’s event:

Mobile

From banks looking to onboard college students on campus to merchants making transactions in the field, companies are focused on providing superior mobile user experiences.

Payments

Lower costs and greater efficiencies remain key goals. Minimize friction. Maximize security. Reduce cart abandonment. Increase and personalize customer engagement.

Security and Social

Acquisitions in the security space and the headline-grabbing IPOs of social media startups suggest major rewards for those companies able to make the marriage between what’s public and what’s private work for everyone.

Register here and join us November 14th for FinovateAsia 2013. And if you’re looking for more information about our upcoming event in Singapore, visit our FinovateAsia 2013 FAQ page or email us with your questions at [email protected].

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Are Utilities Ready for Mobile BillPay? Industry Leaders Weigh-in via Check Survey

By David Penn Posted on October 24, 2013
Categories: Check

Check surveyed* more than 50 utility company professionals in October, asking them about their utility’s mobile billpay strategy.

Or lack thereof. The survey revealed that only 25% of the respondent’s utility companies provided mobile bill pay options for their customers.

But what may be most interesting about the survey are the aspirations that utility company professionals have and challenges they see when it comes to broader adoption of mobile billpay technology. Consider the responses:

Among those professionals who wanted a mobile billpay option, the reasons why were:

51% – To reach customers more effectively through their preferred channel
24% – To decrease billing costs, including paper costs
18% – To increase customer engagement
7% – To collect money faster and optimize cash flow

Asked for the top challenges to broader mobile billpay implementation in the utilities industry, the same professionals responded:

47% – Vagueness and/or uncertainty about the company’s mobile strategy
29% – Lack of IT resources and/or IT prioritization
17% – Budget
7% – Security and/or compliance concerns

Overcoming these challenges involves building business cases that examine the risk/reward of partnering with existing mobile billpay companies on one hand, and building or buying their own billpay solutions on the other hand. In reaching out to bring mobile billpay to more utility consumers, Check has partnered with Desert Water Agency, Irvine Ranch Water District, and Alltel.

Formerly Pageonce, Check demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2010 in San Francisco. The company announced the addition of expedited payments in June, and successfuly completed a $24 million dollar Series C funding round in September.

* Check conducted its online survey in October 2013. The survey included responses from 57 utility company professionals whose firms serve more than 2 million customers.

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Manilla User Survey: Consumers Want Bills in One Place and Banks with Bill Management

By David Penn Posted on October 23, 2013
Categories: Manilla

If the idea of having all your bills in one central location sounds good to you, then you’re not alone.

Respondents in a recent user survey* by account management specialist Manilla ranked this feature near the top of the “convenience scale” with it comes to handling bills.

For Jim Schinella, CEO of Manilla, this is evidence that “consumers value the ‘everything in one place’ paperless experience that Manilla provides.”

Consumers can use Manilla to manage household finances such as utility bills, subscriptions, and travel rewards programs. The technology is free, and can be accessed online at Manilla.com, as well as via iOS and Android mobile apps.

Other top metrics from the survey:

84% users prefer online statements to paper mail
70% of respondents use online bill pay
More than half of all users receive more than 75% of their statements electronically

How important should this be to banks? More than 40% of the respondents believed having Manilla integrated into their bank’s website would increase their bank bill pay use. Said Schinella, “from the beginning, we felt that Manilla’s powerful digital mail capabilities fit naturally inside a bank experience.”

Manilla was last on stage in September as part of FinovateFall 2013. The company was in the news recently with the announcement of its Bill Manager integration with AOL. Read more here.

*Manilla surveyed more than 1000 users by email over the course of several days in October.

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Finovate Alumni News– October 21, 2013

By David Penn Posted on October 21, 2013
Categories: CurrencyFair, Equifax, Leaf, Lendio, MasterCard, PayPal, PaySimple, Prepaid Resources, TransferWise, TSYS

Alvaro Soltero of Leaf takes a look at the future of payments.

Forbes.com features an interview with Brett Meyers, CEO of CurrencyFair.

MasterCard launches TravelController to improve expense reconciliation.

TSYS, PayPal, & PaySimple listed in top 10 multi-currency processing solutions for October.

Lendio launches beta version of Lendio for the loan specialist.

FORMFREE and Equifax partner to streamline borrower asset checks.

Prepaid Resources announces formation of Trefoil Technology.

TransferWise tops £1 million ($400,000 USD) mark in international money transfers.

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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FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 1

By David Penn Posted on October 15, 2013
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013, FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek

On November 14, Finovate will return to Singapore for FinovateAsia 2013. 37 companies will demo live on stage. This initial installment of our Sneak Peek series is your first opportunity to get to know a little more about this year’s presenters. We’ll cover the remaining companies during the next two weeks.

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Advanced Merchant Payments enables banks and other institutional lenders to profitably offer short-term, unsecured loans to small businesses based upon electronic cash flow and other data points.

Features:

Creates new product set and revenue stream with minimal investment
Establishes MSME leadership position via low risk product
Supports core merchant strategy regarding customer loyalty

Why it’s great:

Innovative, proven solution enabling banks to lend to their existing small business customers on a profitable and efficient basis.

Thomas De Luca

Managing Director and Co-Founder

Previously co-founded multi-currency payment processor Planet Payment, Inc. Before that, Legal Affairs at American Express.

James Phillip Lloyd

Director of Product Management

Previously Operations Delivery Manager for European online payment gateway Realex Payments. Before that, Strategy & Operations at Deloitte Consulting.

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GMC Software Technology has developed an innovative tablet application, enabling a totally paperless client on-boarding process for retail banks.

Features:

Reduces costs from paper wastage
Reduce time spent on application
Increase revenues

Why it’s great:

Why it is critical to a banks reduce costs and increase revenues capturing clients’ attention at point of sales

Antoine Hemon-Laurens

Mobile Strategy Consultant, PMM

Antoine has 20 years of experience in developing B2B and B2C mobile solutions.

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Mistral Mobile provides mobile solutions for the unique needs of financial services

Features:

Mobilize all types of users from customers to agents to retailers
Roll out any changes extremely fast
Lower your operating costs

Why it’s great:

Beat your competition to market with Money Mobility Suite

Peter Ollikainen

Senior Vice President

Peter has experience in retail, marketing and business development in emerging markets and the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to Mistral Mobile, Peter worked as part of Nokia’s Mobile Financial Services unit.

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Smart Engine provides unique, customer intimacy, real-time analytics that enable banks to deliver across all channels, pinpoint targeted merchant offers driving card use and merchant sales.

Features:

Combining transaction- and online-based customer profiles
Cross-channel customer delivery – right offer, right place and time
Increasing card usage and customer loyalty

Why it’s great:

Creating value by understanding and serving your customers better, over multiple channels and platforms – that’s what Smart Engine’s cutting-edge solutions can deliver.

Christian Bacher

Managing Partner

Christian spent more than 20 years working at different top management levels in IT solutions for the banking and payment industry in Europe and Russia.

Anna Bacher

Director of Technology and Innovation

Anna has 15 years
of international experience in designing and implementating complex IT solutions for the banking and payment industry in Europe and Russia.

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TIBCO Software enables 4,000+ customers worldwide to manage information, decisions processes and applications in real time – on-premise or as part of cloud computing environments.

Features:

Enable ad-hoc anonymous micro-payments
Manage the customer lifecycle from acquisition through purchase to follow up (anonymously)
An integrated platform with App store for users

Why it’s great:

Lightweight Ad-hoc Contextual Payments

Phil Scanlon

Director of Client Solutions in Asia

Phil is responsible for the development and management of the Asia pre-sales organization, aligning TIBCO solutions with customers.

San Zaw

Director, Solution Consultant for South East Asia

Sam’s strength is in evangelizing, articulating, and selling next-gen business solutions and value propositions to CxOs.

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For more information on attending our upcoming event in Singapore, see our FinovateAsia 2013 page here.

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Finovate Alumni News– October 14, 2013

By David Penn Posted on October 14, 2013
Categories: Check, Dynamics, FIS, Fiserv, Flint Mobile, GoBank, MasterCard, Moven

Forbes column on banking and mobile payments highlights Finovate alumni Check, Fiserv, and FIS.

BBC features MasterCard’s efforts to replace food stamps and cash with cards in Lebanese refugee camps.

Jim Marous references GoBank and Moven in report on innovation in mobile banking functionality.

LowCards.com reports: Dynamics offers artistic credit cards.

Flint Mobile opts for camera over card reader.

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– October 11, 2013

By David Penn Posted on October 11, 2013
Categories: Arroweye Solutions, Arxan Technologies, CurrencyFair, Deluxe, ValidSoft

Technology Banker takes a look at Arroweye Solution’s EMV On-Demand solution.

Deluxe launches new website.

CurrencyFair shows off its new mobile phone look. Read more about CurrencyFair in yesterday’s FinovateAsia feature.

Arxan Technologies announces new tamper-proof jailbreak detection security & environmental sensing technology.

Spindle uses ValidSoft to authenticate mobile payments by voice.

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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Back to the Future with FinovateAsia 2012’s Best of Show Winners

By David Penn Posted on October 10, 2013
Categories: CurrencyFair, Finantix, FinovateAsia 2012, FinovateAsia 2013, SocietyOne, UBank

With a new round of fintech innovators less than a month away from taking the Finovate stage in Singapore, it’s a great time to review last year’s breakout performers.

Who were the winners (as determined by audience vote)? What did they present? And most importantly, what have they been up to in the weeks and months since?

To answer those questions and more, here’s a look at what’s new and notable from the Best of Show winners of FinovateAsia 2012.

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CurrencyFair

Who They Are: Specialists in peer-to-peer international money transfers, CurrencyFair presented an upgrade to the user interface for their MarketPlace screens.

Why They Won: Sending money abroad is fraught with cost and complication. CurrencyFair’s MarketPlace solution creates an online, person-to-person environment in which individuals can negotiate their own exchange rates with each other.

What They’ve Been Up To:

Won” “Most Insightful & Intriguing Internet Innovation” award
Reached $500 million in transactions
Presented their iPhone app at FinovateEurope
Listed among top “Middleweight Startups” at The Europas 2013
Won Best Irish Startup Award from The Next Web
Named Startup of the Day by The Daily Business Post
Won “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia 2012

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Finantix

Who They Are: Finantix provides solutions to help banks, wealth managers, and advisors provide more and better advice and insight for their retail and high net worth clients

Why They Won: In presenting their Sharp digital banking platform, Finantix introduced a tool to change the way banks interact with their customers by introducing gamification, social and multimedia content, and natural language communication.

What They’ve Been Up To:

Partnered with VoiceTrust to bring voice biometrics to Finantix Banking Assistant
Launched Banking Assistant mobile app at FinovateEurope 2013
Won “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia 2012

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SocietyOne

Who They Are: SocietyOne is the first fully-compliant peer-to-peer online lending platform in Australia.

Why They Won: With ClearMatch, SocietyOne effectively leveraged proven banking technologies into new applications in the peer-to-peer consumer lending business.

What They’ve Been Up To:

Reached $1 million in personal loans originated mark
Earned spot on Mozo’s VIP (Very Innovative Product) list for 2013
Won “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia 2012.

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Ubank

Who They Are: Ubank is a division of NAB, the National Bank of Australia. Ubank operates as a branchless, Internet-only bank.

Why They Won: The introduction of Ubank’s People Like U solution reflects a growing trend in banks adding PFM and financial management tools for their customers. The solution takes an econographic approach to helping consumers understand their own spending patterns in the context of their peers.

What They’ve Been Up To:

Won 2013 Webby award in Financial Services/Banking category
Won six Best of the Best 2013 awards from Money Magazine Australia
Won “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia 2012

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For more information about FinovateAsia 2013, returning to Singapore next month, visit our FinovateAsia 2013 page here.

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First Data Launches Clover Station Cloud-Based POS Solution for SMEs

By David Penn Posted on October 10, 2013
Categories: Clover Network

Consider Clover’s relationship with First Data consummated.

As reported in TechCrunch, Gigaom and elsewhere, First Data quietly acquired the ecommerce checkout specialist and FinovateSpring 2012 alum last year. And yesterday at Money 2020, First Data CEO Frank Bisignano announced the launch of their Clover-inspired solution for small businesses: Clover Station.

Clover Station is a cloud-based, point-of-sale and business management solution. What makes the solution special is that it provides the full point of sale terminal functionality of traditional POS units (the ability to track employees and inventory, for example). But at the same time, the merchants will be able to customize the technology by either downloading task-specific apps, or developing apps of their own through Clover’s API.

Additional features include:

Real-time business analytics and intelligence reports
Remote access at any time from any location
High-resolution camera for instant QR code recognition
High-definition touch screen

Enhancements and peripherals such as a modern cash drawer and a bar scanner can be added. Clover Station will be available to Bank of America Merchant Services small business customers by the end of the year.

Founded in October 2010, Clover is based in Mountain View, California. The company’s investors have included Andreessen Horowitz, Morado Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures.

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Finovate Blog

Author: David Penn

FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 3

App Store, Configurable Notifications Featured in Next Generation of Bill.com’s Banking Platform

Flint Raises $6 Million in Series B Funding

Payments, Mobile, Security, Social: A Look Ahead to FinovateAsia 2013

Are Utilities Ready for Mobile BillPay? Industry Leaders Weigh-in via Check Survey

Manilla User Survey: Consumers Want Bills in One Place and Banks with Bill Management

Finovate Alumni News– October 21, 2013

FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 1

Finovate Alumni News– October 14, 2013

Finovate Alumni News– October 11, 2013

Back to the Future with FinovateAsia 2012’s Best of Show Winners

First Data Launches Clover Station Cloud-Based POS Solution for SMEs