Author: David Penn

ZooZ Debuts the Transforming Checkout of its Global Payment Platform

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2013, Zooz

Zoozlogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2013.

Zooz is making its way to the stage right now. The company specializes in helping online merchants enhance and speed up the checkout process as well as improve conversions.
“Zooz is a global payment platform that enables ecommerce merchants to optimize their checkout across all channels. We provide merchants and developers with a plug and play solution that lets them present their users with a fast, one-tap checkout experience and increase their conversion rates.
Zooz’s approach is focused on users’ behaviors and needs and not just on technical aspects of payments. Zooz has partnered with leading payment gateways, processors, and e-wallets in the world to ensure that both users and retailers enjoy full flexibility.”
Product Launch: September 2013
Metrics: $4.5M in funding, 20 employees, & over 7,000 registered apps and websites
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions, & through other fintech companies and platforms
HQ: Raanana, Israel
Founded: June 2010
Website: zooz.com
Twitter: @ZooZpayments
Presenting Noam Inbar (VP Business Development, Zooz) and Peter Donarski (Senior Executive, FirstData – a Zooz Strategic Partner)
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The full demo video will be available at Finovate.com in mid-September.

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Saved Plus Presents Their Smart Saving Solution for Mobile and the Web

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2013, Saved Plus

savedpluslogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2013.

Next up to the stage is the team from Saved Plus with their solution to help individuals better and more efficiently save for the future.
“Saved Plus is a mobile and web-based financial tool that allows clients to automatically transfer a predetermined percentage of their daily expenditures to the destination account of their choice. 
Our bank independent software allows people to make small, but frequent, automatic monetary contributions to savings, investments, retirement, and charity accounts, or payments to credit cards or loans in any U.S. bank, credit union or other financial institutions.”
Product Launch: April 10, 2013
Metrics: $500,000 invested; $250,000 raised, 12 employees, over 500 registered users since launch
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B), Direct to Consumer (B2C), through financial institutions, & licensed to retailers and other fintech companies.
HQ: Mountain View, California
Founded: February 2012
Website: savedplus.com
Twitter: @savedplus
Presenting Benjamin Taran (VP Strategic Partnerships)
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The full demo video will be available at Finovate.com in mid-September.

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Motif Debuts a New Kind of Online Broker That Lets You Invest in Ideas in One Click

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2013, Motif Investing

motiflogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2013.

Welcome to FinovateFall 2013! Our first presenter here on Day One is Motif Investing.
“Motif will demo the first-of-its-kind crowdsourcing of a financial product that uses Motif’s innovative social technology. It enables investors to take concepts and ideas and in minutes create a motif, a collection of up to 30 securities that trades real time for only $9.95.
The investor can then publish it to the Motif website so it is discoverable and searchable for the broader community. The investor’s motif will also be featured in the Community Catalog, which is akin to an online app store. The catalog will provide intuitive categorization and search functionality that allows other customers to buy these mofits and when that happens, the motif’s creator will be paid a royalty.”
Product Launched: Target date is September 2013
Metrics: $51M raised to date & 41 FTE
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions, & through other fintech companies and platforms.
HQ: San Mateo, California
Founded: June 2010
Twitter: @MotifInvesting
Presenting Hardeep Walia (Co-Founder & CEO) 
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The full demo video will be available at Finovate.com in mid-September

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FinovateFall 2013: “And Oh What Heights We’ll Hit”

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2013

FF13Button.jpg“On with the show, this is it!”

We’re busier than a hive of honeybees here on rehearsal day as we put the final touches on FinovateFall 2013. The show begins Tuesday morning, September 10th at 9:00 am, and continues through Wednesday. This year’s event is sold out, but fortunately there’s more than one way to enjoy the show.

Live blogging and tweeting
The Finovate team will be live-blogging each and every presentation as it happens here at the Manhattan Center in New York City. 
You can also follow us on Twitter as we’ll be tweeting from @Finovate all day long Tuesday and Wednesday. You’ll also get to read observations and reactions from our audience of more than 1,100 people who will be joining the conversation via the #finovate hashtag.
Schedule
If you’re going to be with us tomorrow, know that registration begins at 8:00 am on both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The first company to demo will take the stage at 9:00 am sharp on both days.
Location
This year FinovateFall is in a new location for us. We’re at the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street, just down the road from Madison Square Garden. More information on the venue is available here.
Presenters
FinovateFall 2013 will feature 70 companies demoing some of the most exciting new products and services in the industry. So whether you’re joining us online or will be part of our live audience this week, there’s no better place to see tomorrow’s financial technology today.
Here’s a look at this year’s lineup of presenters:
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To learn more about FinovateFall 2013, visit our FAQ page or email us at [email protected]. Thanks for your support. See you in New York City.

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Finovate Alumni Driving Growth in Online Investment Advisory Industry

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, LearnVest, Personal Capital, SigFig, Wealthfront

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If an investment portfolio gets optimized through an online investment advisor, do brick and mortar brokers make a sound?

As noted in today’s Wall Street Journal, many of the kinds of services that once were accessible only by high net worth investors patronizing financial advisors and planners in person are now available to the rest of us. This includes everything from using computer algorithms to make investment decisions to automatic portfolio rebalancing and asset allocation.

And of the seven companies highlighted in the column for helping make this possible, every single one is a Finovate alum.
In fact, two of the seven – FutureAdvisor and LearnVest – will be demoing their latest technology on the Finovate stage in New York next week for FinovateFall 2013.
The reasons for the growth in online investment advisory are as varied as the companies themselves. Some cite a new generation of investors far more comfortable with both handling their own finances and trusting the Internet to help. Others suggest that with Wall Street falling into disfavor in the wake of the financial crisis, more investors are willing to seek out non-traditional – and less expensive – sources of information and advice.
Bill Doyle, an analyst for Forrester Research who has studied the industry for more than a decade and is quoted in the column, puts it this way: “I’m paying a lot more attention this time around because the software required to transform this industry finally works.”
Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt that venture capitalists believe this time is different. Consider the funding success of the above seven companies in the past two years ago:
Note also that Wealthfront, which helps get investors into low-cost diversified portfolios, has assets under management (AUM) of $300 million. Betterment has a similar model and has AUM of $250 million.

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FinovateFall 2013: Big Lights, Big City, Big Show

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2013

Next week fintech startups and established enterprises from across the country and the world will begin arriving at the financial capital of the world New York City, New York to take part in FinovateFall 2013.

Take a look for yourself (click to enlarge):

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FinovateFall 2013 is a great opportunity to meet the entrepreneurs and executives from some of the most forward-looking startups and established companies in the industry. We still see typically strong representation from the fintech of the coasts. But we also see a number of companies from the Midwest, the South, and from overseas, all stepping forward to meet the challenges of helping people and businesses make, manage, and move their money, 24/7, 365 days a year.

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Selling our 1,100th ticket this morning, FinovateFall 2013 is officially sold out. But there are plenty of ways for you to catch all the action next week as our fintech innovators take the stage. Follow our Live Blog right here at Finovate.com starting on Tuesday morning at 9 am Eastern and continuing all day for both days of the show. You can also keep up with FinovateFall 2013 by following us on Twitter.
And if you’re still looking for a way to be a part of our audience, don’t despair! We have set up a waiting list in the event that there are last-minute cancellations. To get your name on the list, please email us at [email protected].

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Check Secures $24 Million Financing Round

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Check

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Check announced this morning that it had completed a Series C investment round that will boost the company’s capital by $24 million.

This funding round was led by new investor Menlo Ventures, and included participation from current investors Morgenthaler Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital.

Check will put the capital to good use helping expand the business and grow the company’s role in making it easier for consumers to track, manage, and pay their bills. Said Check CEO, Guy Goldstein, “Americans make $4 trillion worth of bill payments per year, and Check is transforming the bill payment industry with a simple, fast, and easy-to-use mobile app.”

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In addition to the funding, Check will also gain a pair of new board members. Doug Carlisle of Menlo Ventures will be joining the company’s board of directors, as will founder and former CEO of CompuCom, Avery More. This latest round puts Check’s total venture capital financing to date at $49 million.
Formerly Pageonce, Check is a leading innovator in the field of mobile payments. With nearly 10 million consumers using its mobile solution to pay bills and track finances, Check’s Bills & Money app is available as a free download from both the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
Our recent reporting on Check includes news of their partnership with Desert Water Agency in Palm Springs, California, as well as the company’s decision to add expedited payments to the service in June.
Check demoed their technology as part of FinovateSpring in 2010. See the company in action here.

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Lendio Raises More Than $4 Million in Series B Round

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Lendio

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While most of us have spent the past week dreaming of Labor Day destinations, small business lending platform Lendio was busy raising capital. And lots of it.

The company announced late this week that it had secured $4.2 million as part of a Series B funding round. The round was led by Runa Capital, and also included the participation of current investors Tribeca Venture Partners and Highway 12 Ventures.

As reported in a TechCrunch profile of the company published this week, Lendio plans to use the new funding to help the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners that have come through the platform to get access to the capital they need to grow their enterprises.

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Lendio was founded in 2005, and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company’s platform connects small businesses in search of capital with lenders looking for creditworthy borrowers and good returns. The company cites a successful match rate of 85% for the companies that complete a Lendio profile.
Lendio earned $6 million in Series A funding in February 2011, and $2 million in debt funding later that year. We last reported on Lendio a month ago, as the company partnered with ProfitStars (another Finovate alum) to provide small businesses with ProfitStars’ BusinessManger and access to LendingNetwork. See our story on the new deal here.
The company presented its lending platform at FinovateFall 2011 in San Francisco. Watch Lendio’s demo here.

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Finovate Alumni News– August 30, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jack Henry, Versafe
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgJack Henry Banking takes a look at the trend toward outsourcing by mid-tier banks.
  • Versafe warns about new cross-device, mobile malware challenges to multi-factor authentication strategies. Meet Versafe at FinovateFall 2013 in New York City in September.
  • Intuit launches QuickBooks Cloud ProAdvisor Program, providing free access to Intuit’s online products.
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– August 28, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Kalixa, PreCash, Yodlee
  • FinovateLOGO.jpgAmerican Banker takes a look at NEXT, Yodlee’s incubation, acceleration, and cultivation program for fintech startups.
  • PreCash launches Evolve Money for paying bills online or on the go.
  • Invapay to deploy Kalixa’s Accept acquiring and payment gateway services.
  • Swipely launches new feature that allows users to review sales for any time period.
  • MoneyDesktop welcomes new VP to management team.
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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FinovateFall 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 5

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capital Access Network, FinovateFall 2013, Fiserv, FutureAdvisor, Instabank, MiiCard

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We hope you’re enjoying our Sneak Peek at the presenters of FinovateFall 2013.

You can learn more about our upcoming event here. And if you’ve missed an installment of our series, here’s a handy index to this year’s innovators.

FinovateFall 2013 Sneak Peek #1

Today we’ll introduce you to our fifth set of companies that will be demoing on the Finovate stage in September: Capital Access Network, FutureAdvisor, Instabank, miiCard, Narrative Science, P2P Cash, and StrategyCorps.

So why not join us in New York for the show? Get your tickets to FinovateFall 2013 in New York here.

Capital Access Network’s Mobile Funder is a tablet-based tool enabling finance reps to seurely pre-qualify small businesses for capital and submit a full application in a single visit.

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Features:
  • Capital delivered in days, not weeks
  • Empowers reps with direct access to qualification tools
  • Pre-qualifies prospects for two products with one application
Why it’s great: This all-in-one tool gives small business finance reps the power to expedite decisions, close more deals, and deliver capital faster.

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Dan DeMeo, CEO, Capital Access Network
Mr. DeMeo joined in 2010 with an extensive financial services background (Citibank, GE Capital, JP Morgan) and a history of growing businesses profitably.
Meet the Capital Access Network team here.
FutureAdvisor’s FutureAdvisor Premium automatically manages your current investments.

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Features:
  • Manage investment holdings from multiple institutionsFeatures:
  • Rebalance your portfolio automatically
  • Recognize and invest new cash immediately
Why it’s great: Guide your investment portfolio – automatically
Meet the FutureAdvisor team here.
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Instabank set out to create the most beautiful, efficient, and social mobile bank.
Features:
  • Transfer/request money to/from Facebook friends
  • Add photos, comments, Foursquare venues to purchases
  • Rich activity stream and PFM
Why it’s great: Instabank aims to unlock viral customer acquisition via Facebook and become the Dropbox of retail banking.

miiCard (my Internet Identity) is the first global Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform providing trusted and traceable customer identities purely online in the digital economy.

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Features: 
  • Eliminate up to 80% fraud
  • Reduce new customer dropout by 50%
  • Dramatically reduce operational costs
Why it’s great: Enabling purely online sales of regulated and high value products in banking, virtual currencies, payments, wealth management, lending and more.

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James Varga, Founder, CEO, miiCard
Mr. Varga has more than a 20-year career in technology and innovation.

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Magnus Bray, Sales Manager, miiCard
Mr. Bray has experience in bringing new innovations to global financial institutions.
Meet Team miiCard here.

Narrative Science provides financial institutions with a fast, cost-effective way to analyze data and automatically generate natural language communications that answer important questions and provide timely insight.

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Features:
  • Infinitely scalable content generation
  • On-demand communications tailored to any audience
  • Consistent narratives structured to meet guidelines
Why it’s great: Quill Financial automatically transforms portfolio and market data into human-quality communications and reports for financial institutions.
Meet the Narrative Science leadership team here.

P2P Cash developed an industry-standard, scalable mobile financial services solution that provides secure, compliant and transparent mobile banking to the world’s 3 billion unbanked mobile phone users.

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Features:
  • Send cash home free
  • Mobile international remittance
  • Only SMS required for recipient
Why it’s great: Send cash home free #InternationalRemittance

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Thomas Meredith, Chairman and CEO, P2P Cash
Mr Meredith has Internet, financial services, and telecommunications experience. Stanford engineer. Harvard MBA.

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Donald Chapman, VP, Business Development, P2P Cash
Mr. Chapman has Consulting, IT, Sales & Marketing experience. Providence College. Babson MBA.
Meet the P2P Cash team here.

StrategyCorps’ BaZing solution makes mobile and online banking so appealing and relevant to customers’ lifestyles they’ll gladly pay a fee for them.

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Features:
  • 300,000+ deals at your fingertips
  • Local merchant offers around every branch
  • Connect like no banking product can
Why it’s great: Customers don’t like fees for basic banking products. BaZing changes that by making banking products worth paying for.

Stay tuned for more from our FinovateFall 2013 presenters in edition #6 of our Sneak Peek series, coming Thursday.
FinovateFall 2013 is only a few weeks away. To learn more about FinovateFall – and to register and get your tickets today – visit our FinovateFall 2013 page here.

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PreCash Launches Evolve Money for Paying Bills Online or On the Go

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: PreCash

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No bank account? No card?

No problem.

PreCash unveiled its online and mobile bill pay app, Evolve Money, today. The technology allows consumers to pay bills for free and even make low-cost ($1.50 per transaction) expedited payments without needing a bank account or a credit card.
In a way, Evolve Money acts as its own prepaid card. Says CEO Steve Taylor, “consumers can get a load pack or PIN at thousands of locations and then use their smartphone, tablet, or computer to make payments.” Retail locations include supermarkets such as Safeway and Albertsons, where load packs are available from $3.00 to $3.95 each. 
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The mobile app is ready to go for Android users, who can download Evolve Money for free from Google Play. Users of other operating systems can access the online service at the company website.
Evolve Money is a feature of PreCash’s PayConnect mobile and online bill pay platform (read our report on PayConnect here). PayConnect enables customers to pay bills at more than 10,000 utility, insurance, and cable service providers, and is available as both an API and a white-label application.
PreCash demoed Flip, a mobile check deposit solution, at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. Video of their presentation is available here.

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