Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

On Earth Day (and Every Day) Paperless is the Way to Be

On Earth Day (and Every Day) Paperless is the Way to Be
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CardFlight, Dream Payments, Five Degrees, Mitek, Namaste Credit, Paper.id, Quadient, Roostify, ShopKeep POS, Tavant, Tradeshift

Today is Earth Day, and what better way to celebrate than to take a look at fintechs helping out the environment by promoting eco-friendly habits. Here we feature companies with technology that saves trees by reducing the amount of paper used in the industry.

We’ve rounded up a handful of environmentally friendly fintechs in three categories: digital invoicing, paper-free mortgages, digital receipt printing, and paperless onboarding.

Digital invoicing

By taking the invoicing process digital, small businesses not only save paper, they can also save time and potentially receive payment faster, freeing up working capital they can put back into their operations.

  • Paper.id provides SMEs with invoicing tools and payment integration. The company offers tools to help businesses issue their invoices digitally and receive payment via electronic payment methods. Paper.id demoed at FinovateFall 2018
  • Charlie-India’s Invoicing Hub is a white label e-invoicing platform for banks and service providers. The tools allow SME bank clients to send, view, process, and pay their invoices within the bank’s online interface. Charlie-India demoed at FinovateEurope 2018.
  • Tradeshift offers an e-invoicing service that connects companies with suppliers, customers and partners. Among the applications available on the platform are e-invoicing, electronic purchase orders, and automated document validation. Tradeshift demoed at FinovateEurope 2012.

Paper-free mortgages

Mortgage technology is one of the last frontiers in fintech. Regulation and oversight have made the home-buying process somewhat resistant to disruption. In the past few years, however, we’ve seen a handful of startups working to digitize the mortgage process, removing the need for hundreds of sheets of paper required to close a home loan.

  • Namaste Credit is an India-based startup that serves as an online marketplace for mortgage loans. The service connects borrowers with relevant lenders to help them find the loan that best suits their circumstance. Namaste Credit demoed at FinovateFall 2018.
  • Tavant Technologies offers VELOX, a suite of digital products ranging from searching for a home to closing on the loan. VELOX completely automates the process, making compliance more efficient and reducing the need for paper. Tavant Technologies demoed at FinovateSpring 2017.
  • Roostify seeks to give consumers a better way to find and purchase a home. The company’s digital platform offers everything from digital customer onboarding to transparent, digital fulfillment to help lenders offer their clients a more efficient mortgage borrowing experience. Roostify demoed at FinovateSpring 2018.h

Digital receipt printing

Many retailers ask customers if they want to keep their receipt, but even if the answer is “no” the cashier still prints the receipt and throws it in the trash behind the counter. Digital receipt printing eliminates both the paper– and the awkward line of questioning– all together by sending the customer an email receipt.

  • Dream Payments’ cloud-based platform offers a mobile POS device that not only accepts debit and credit cards, but also provides analytics, reports, and gives customers digital receipts. Dream Payments demoed at FinovateSpring 2015.
  • CardFlight offers an API that allows merchants to accept online and offline payments within their own app. The company’s encrypted mobile magstripe reader, combined with its API, offer flexibility while keeping payments– and receipts– digital. CardFlight demoed at FinovateSpring 2013.
  • ShopKeep’s POS technology takes a merchant’s cash register to an iPad. The register accepts a range of payments, from magstripe, to EMV, to Apple Pay; plus provides inventory management tools and purchase reporting analytics. The company’s mobile checkout flow also offers a paper-free, email receipt option. ShopKeep demoed at FinovateFall 2012.

Paperless onboarding

Considered a must for millennials, paperless onboarding not only speeds up the application process, it also reduces errors, eases compliance, and eliminates the need for in-person bank visits.

  • Five Degrees specializes in core banking technology. The company’s Matrix offering helps banks provide SMEs a fully automated, paperless loan onboarding experience. The paperless process lowers cost for both parties while expediting funds. Five Degrees demoed at FinovateAsia 2017.
  • Quadient, formerly GMC Software, helps organizations create a better customer experience. The company’s Mobile Advantage solution is an omni-channel tool that offers digital statements and billing, paperless onboarding, and client e-signature. In addition to improving the customer experience, this combination speeds up workflows and reduces error. Quadient demoed at FinovateFall 2017.
  • Mitek combines digital onboarding with identity verification tools. The company helps banks authenticate an applicant’s ID document and combines this with additional identifying paperwork. The supplemental documents not only verify the customer’s identity, but also provide additional information that can be used in loan underwriting to create a more complete picture of the applicant’s financial state. Mitek demoed at FinovateFall 2017.


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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BLUERUSH, Citi, CurrencyFair, Micronotes, Outsystems, PayPal, Xignite

On Finovate.com

  • On Earth Day (and Every Day) Paperless is the Way to Be.
  • OutSystems Brings Benefits of Low Code Dev to U.K.s Biggest Manufacturers.

Around the Web

  • PayPal’s Venmo considering credit cards for monetization.
  • Micronotes awarded U.S. patent for AI-driven interactive marketing system.
  • CurrencyFair adds Indian Rupee to currency list.
  • Citi introduces biometric authentication for institutional customers in the APAC region.
  • With its IndiVideo solution, BlueRush and Chilean partner, Kunder, win Best Financial Services Online Video at the 2019 Internet Advertising Competition awards.

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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Visa to Help Wave Solve Small Business Cash Flow

Visa to Help Wave Solve Small Business Cash Flow
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: VISA, Wave

Small business financial services tools provider Wave announced this week it partnered with Visa to help small business owners iron out their cash flow.

The two have teamed up to launch Instant Payouts, a tool that allows businesses to access the money they’ve earned as soon as they’ve earned it. Without having to wait for typical payment processing times, small businesses can use their funds immediately to grow their businesses or pay invoices.

“Small businesses depend on cash flow to survive,” said Les Whiting, Chief Financial Services Officer at Wave. “Often they have to wait two banking days or more for their payments to process through traditional banking methods.”

Instant Payouts integrates Wave’s invoicing and accounting tools with Visa Direct to give small business clients access to funds when they need them– even in the evening, on weekends, and on holidays. With Instant Payouts, customers with Visa and Mastercard debit cards will have access to their funds within 30 minutes.

Wave’s Instant Payouts interface

Businesses that choose to take advantage of Instant Payouts can redeem any amount of pending funds over $25. Wave charges a 1% fee for the service in addition to its standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30.

Instant Payouts was launched in beta to a select group of small business owners at the start of 2019. Wave will roll it out to more clients in the U.S. and Canada later this year.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Canada, Wave demonstrated its financial management software for small businesses in conjunction with Royal Bank of Canada at FinovateFall 2017.

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NPM Capital Now Owns 35% of Ohpen

NPM Capital Now Owns 35% of Ohpen
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ohpen

Core banking platform provider Ohpen announced this week that NPM Capital has acquired a 35% stake in the company.

This news comes after Ohpen’s first investor, Amerborgh, sold its stake in the company to NPM Capital in order to free up capital to finance future projects.

Rutger Ruigrok, Managing Director at NPM Capital, described Ohpen as “one of the most promising technology companies that we have seen in the past few years.” He continued, “We are impressed with their achievements over the past ten years: a cloud native core banking engine, an impressive customer base, and a wonderful foundation for further growth. We are very enthusiastic about now being part of their future.”

Having a new shareholder on board, Ohpen CEO Matthijs Aler explained, broadens the company’s options to finance future growth. “With Amerborgh and now also with NPM, we have a well-balanced long-term shareholder structure that enables Ohpen to realize all of its future growth ambitions. I am really looking forward to working with the NPM team,” he said.

Founded in 2009, Ohpen offers a cloud-based core banking API that gives banks a different option from legacy systems. At FinovateFall 2012, the company explained its multilingual cloud banking platform. In December of last year, Ohpen launched its new API portal. 

With 120 employees across the Netherlands and Spain, Ohpen has raised $45 million. Matthijs Aler joined the company earlier this year as CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CrediVia, defi Solutions, Gusto, Ohpen, Onfido, Wave

On Finovate.com

  • NPM Capital Now Owns 35% of Ohpen.
  • Visa to Help Wave Solve Small Business Cash Flow.

Around the web

  • Gusto unveils Talk Shop for small business clients.
  • defi SOLUTIONS delivers loan origination system to First Investors Financial Services.
  • Trusha Patel joins CrediVia as Chief Business Development Officer.
  • Onfido welcomes Kevin Goldsmith as Chief Technology Officer and Thomas Ammirati as Chief Revenue Officer .

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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Figure Eight Acquired by Appen

Figure Eight Acquired by Appen
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Figure Eight, Mergers & Acquisitions

AI data enrichment platform Figure Eight announced today that it has been acquired by Appen, a developer of high-quality, human-annotated datasets for ML and AI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Becky Scott, Figure Eight chief operating officer, said that the conjunction of the two companies offer a “single-source global data annotation solution for any company, in any vertical, seeking to advance its use of artificial intelligence.”

“With a critical component of our integration complete, we’re excited for the opportunity to deliver immediate value to Figure Eight customers who can now accelerate their AI and machine learning initiatives with the massive scale of Appen’s crowd,” said Mark Brayan, Appen’s Chief Executive Officer. “We’re also pleased to offer even more flexible work from home opportunities to our crowd as a result of integrating with the Figure Eight platform.”

Figure Eight uses human intelligence to create quality data to train machine learning models. The data that Figure Eight helps enhance can train models relating to natural language processing; images, video, and computer vision; search relevance; data enrichment; and speech-to-text. Under the acquisition, the company’s users now have access to Appen’s over 1 million on-demand global crowd workers covering 130 countries across 180 languages and dialects.

Founded in 2009 as CrowdFlower, the company rebranded to Figure Eight last April to refocus on AI and machine learning opportunities. At FinovateFall 2014, the company won Best of Show for its demonstration on how its crowdsourced workforce quickly collects, cleans, and labels financial transaction data to help banks curate a better customer experience.

Headquartered in California and founded by Chris Van Pelt and Lukas Biewald, Figure Eight has raised $58 million from firms including K9 Ventures, Industry Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

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Watch Fintech Hot or Not with Leading Analysts

Watch Fintech Hot or Not with Leading Analysts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019

Slated to take place May 8 through 10 in San Francisco, FinovateSpring offers us an opportunity to take a broader look at the technology behind the innovations shown in the demos on stage (join us!).

One of the best ways to do this is through our Analyst All Stars session, where we’ll hear from four leading fintech analysts on what they think is the top opportunity for banks and financial services companies.

Each analyst will have seven minutes on stage (yes, slides allowed!) to describe their thoughts on what’s hot in fintech right now. Here’s who you can expect to see on stage:

Michelle Evans

As Head of Digital Consumer at Euromonitor International, Evans oversees the firm’s research on the digital consumer, providing actionable insights and in-depth analysis into how technological advances are reshaping the way consumers browse and buy goods and services globally. She regularly writes and speaks about Euromonitor’s research with her specialty spanning mobile payments, digital commerce, e-commerce, m-commerce, digital marketing and social media.

Recognized as a thought leader in digital commerce, she was named a Power Women in Fintech by conference organizer Innotribe in 2015, a Woman on Top in Tech by business magazine Asian Entrepreneur in 2016, a Woman to Watch by social think tank Remodista in 2018 and a Top 200 Fintech Influencer in Asia by fintech publications Fintech Asia and Lattice80 in 2018. Leveraging her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, she has a recurring column in Forbes and is regularly quoted in publications globally.

Jacob Jegher

Jegher is an experienced fintech executive and digital banking thought leader. He advises clients on emerging technologies and business strategies related to retail, small business, and corporate digital banking. Jegher provides strategic consulting to financial institutions and solution providers on issues ranging from digital strategy to vendor selection. In addition to his client-facing responsibilities, Jegher leads Javelin’s overall strategy, marketing, and product development efforts.

Most recently, Jegher was Vice President of Global Solution Marketing and Head of Analyst Relations at FIS, where he was responsible for marketing strategy efforts across all business units and solutions. Jegher also brings extensive expertise in the banking research and consulting field, having spent over 10 years as a Research Director at Celent.

Daniel Latimore

Latimore, CFA, is the Senior Vice President of Celent’s Banking group and is based in the firm’s Boston office. Latimore’s areas of focus include the banking ecosystem, digital and omnichannel banking, and innovation. Underlying each is a keen interest in consumer behavior and technology-enabled strategy. Latimore is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and client gatherings, having addressed audiences ranging from intimate meetings of CEOs and central banks to conference keynotes in more than a dozen countries. He led research groups at Deloitte and IBM, worked in industry Liberty Mutual and Merrill Lynch (where he lived in New York, Tokyo and London), and was a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

He received a Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA institute.

Paul Berg

In his role as Senior Managing Consultant, speaker and writer in Gallup’s Finance Practice, Berg helps leaders and organizations do courageous things. He drives organic growth through data-based strategies that create exceptional outcomes for employees, customers and shareholders. Berg focuses on excellence and partners with those who share that same goal.

Berg leads Gallup’s partnerships with some of the largest and most respected Financial Services companies in the U.S. He specializes in helping organizations align and optimize their human capital and customer experience strategies. He is the author of numerous articles, including Rebuilding Trust in Banks and Is Your Bank Creating Regulatory Risk? and guides Gallup’s ongoing Financial Services research.

Join us on May 8 through 10 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in San Francisco to hear these experts talk about the latest in fintech.

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StockTwits Launches Free Online Trading

StockTwits Launches Free Online Trading
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Stocktwits

Stocktwits, a social network for investors and traders, announced the launch of a new app that offers commission-free trades on U.S. equities. The app is called Trade App and is offered by Stocktwits subsidiary and registered broker-dealer, ST Invest.

Like the Stocktwits platform, the app will engage investors with a social interface that promotes idea exchange. Unlike the Stocktwits platform, however, Trade App will not charge commissions and will facilitate fractional share investing.

The commission-free trades, mobile interface, and fractional share capability all appeal to millennials and those with a lower net worth. These aspects pit the new app against Stocktwits competitor and partner Robinhood. The two formed a partnership in 2015 with an integration that offered Robinhood users access to Stocktwits’ stock-tracking tools and enabled StockTwits’ users to leverage Robinhood’s free brokerage service.

“With 150,000 messages sent every day on the platform, Stocktwits prides itself on understanding the retail investor and trader. For ten years we’ve had a front row seat to the roller coaster of emotions the active investor goes through, from the highs to the lows,” said Ian Rosen, CEO of Stocktwits. We built Trade App to create a better experience for investors and traders of all levels. Self-directed doesn’t have to mean self-destructive, and we believe the key to success lies in not relying solely on yourself.”

Rosen, who was appointed Stocktwits CEO in 2016, said that the Trade App “matches the excitement and pulse of the community we’ve built.” The app will be available to Stocktwits’ existing user base of two million this summer on iOS. While there is no exact date when Trade App will be available to the general public, the company said that the release will occur “over time.”

Founded in 2008 by Howard Lindzon, StockTwits serves as one of the top trading communities and social investing platforms. The company facilitates 4 million messages each month about 7,500 individual stocks and tickers. StockTwits launched its blog network and StockTwits Connect at FinovateEurope 2011.

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Capital Bank of Jordan Selects Backbase for Digital Transformation

Capital Bank of Jordan Selects Backbase for Digital Transformation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase

Capital Bank of Jordan has signed for Backbase’s digital channels platform, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The Dutch supplier’s solution will cover both customer and employee digital channels across institutional and retail banking.

A key stated aim is faster time-to-market for new products. Capital Bank has signed for the full product stack based around Backbase CXS 6, which is the latest version, launched at the end of 2017, and comes with identity and access management capabilities. The deal includes the Backbase Entitlements component and DBS digital banking back-end services.

Implementation will be carried out by Backbase and one of its partners, Lisbon-based Bring Global. The system will be deployed on the cloud and will integrate with the bank’s core system and other applications. The bank is a long-standing user of Temenos’ T24, which has its own digital channel offering.

Capital Bank’s CEO, Ala Qumsieh, describes Backbase as “an ideal long-term strategic partner” for the bank’s digital transformation.

Backbase has a reasonable number of Middle East users. An addition last year, Lebanon-based Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), included plans for a roll-out in Jordan.

At FinovateEurope 2018, Backbase unveiled the Customer OS in a demo that won the Amsterdam-based company Best of Show honors for the fourth time. Last July, the company teamed up with Jumio to deliver online ID verification services and in December the company partnered with Polish bank BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank.

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: BreachRx

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: BreachRx
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BreachRX, FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

BreachRx’s platform provides automation across the enterprise, enabling organizations to respond to cyber incidents efficiently and in compliance with relevant regulations, policies, and contracts.

Features

  • Incident response that is automatically tailored and up-to-date
  • One platform for all business silos that are responsible for incident response
  • One system of record for audit and regulators

Why it’s great
BreachRx will change data breach response from a crisis to a routine business process.

Presenter

Andy Lunsford, CEO, Co-Founder
Lunsford is a privacy law expert with a decade of experience in large-scale commercial litigation. He first began working on data security issues when his firm represented ChoicePoint in 2004.
LinkedIn

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Stake

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Stake
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek, Stake

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

YourStake.org is a petition platform that leverages your shareholder rights to bring your concerns into corporate boardrooms. Create progress on social issues that are otherwise too big to tackle.

Features

  • Learn the impact of your investments
  • Take action to make companies better
  • Find ways to invest your values

Why it’s great
Individuals are taking back their shareholder voice and using it to drive social good.

Presenters

Patrick Reed, CEO
Climate activist, Yale Economics, full-stack Python for web and machine learning.
LinkedIn

Gabe Rissman, President
Impact investment researcher, evangelist. First student to file a shareholder resolution.
LinkedIn

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Arkose Labs

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Arkose Labs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Arkose Labs, FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Arkose Labs solve multimillion-dollar fraud problems for the world’s most targeted businesses without impacting user conversion.

Features

  • Definitive results: instantly proves whether a request is authentic or inauthentic
  • Shrinking friction: validated telemetry minimizes false positives
  • SLA: guarantees inauthentic requests won’t scale

Why it’s great
Single requests attacks can be stopped with an intermediate attack surface that isn’t within the control of attackers, but cannot be detected by artificial intelligence or stopped with bot mitigation.

Presenters

Kevin Gosschalk, CEO & Founder
Gosschalk is a machine vision specialist who transformed his expertise into cyber security innovation as CEO and founder of fraud prevention technology, Arkose Labs.
LinkedIn

Samuel Tyler, Director of Product Marketing
Tyler is a B2B product marketer working at the intersection of cyber security and identity for Arkose Labs.
LinkedIn


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