Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Anorak, DataSine, Envestnet, EVRY, FI.SPAN, Golden, Hydrogen, Intuit, iProov, Jack Henry, James Finance, Ocrolus, PaySend, Sberbank, Voleo, WePay, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • EVRY Wins $75 Million Contract.
  • Best of Show Winner Voleo to Help Drive Social Trading in Europe.
  • FI.SPAN Raises $4 Million for U.K. and Australia Expansion.

Around the web

  • Sberbank offers clients new strategies for investment life insurance.
  • PaySend launches transfers to bank accounts and Napas cards in Vietnam.
  • Anorak earns a spot in FinSMEs’ Top 10 U.K. Insurtech Startups to Watch in 2019 roster.
  • Intuit relaunches its redesigned ProAdvisor program in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
  • DataSine and FinovateFall Best of Show winner Golden join the Envestnet | Yodlee Incubator’s latest cohort.
  • API platform provider for banking and insurance NDGIT announces strategic partnership with Synpulse.
  • James Finance, Ocrolus, Hydrogen, and iProov shortlisted for India FinTech Awards 2018.
  • PYMNTS highlights WePay Co-founder Rich Aberman in its latest podcast.
  • Jack Henry & Associates introduces a voice-driven consumer billpay solution.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Equifax Launches Ignite Solution in the U.K.

Equifax Launches Ignite Solution in the U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Equifax

Credit reporting agency and financial health company Equifax announced this week that its data analytics and insights platform, Ignite, has launched in the U.K. market.

Originally unveiled in March of last year, Ignite aggregates advanced analytics such as payment data and risk scores to offer businesses insights about consumer behavior that facilitate decision making. “Equifax Ignite will redefine businesses’ access to data and reduce the time it takes to build, test and deploy models,” said John Power, chief data & analytics officer for Europe at Equifax. “The cloud-based environment provides our customers with a flexible and scalable platform where they can easily access and intuitively manage and test multiple data sources, enabling them to easily explore new ideas and opportunities with market leading tools,” he added

Ignite is comprised of three delivery methods:

  • Ignite Direct, for businesses looking to extend and enhance the data and analytical tools available to their in-house analytics teams.
  • Ignite Models and Scores, which leverage expertise from Equifax analysts, data scientists, and consultants to deliver a tailored approach to solving problems quickly.
  • Ignite Apps, which offer simple visualizations created from a range of data sources for faster decision making.

At FinovateFall 2011, Equifax showcased the benefits of the Equifax Complete features of its mobile app. This summer, the company teamed up with Thinking Capital to launch BillMarket, a solution that helps small businesses in Canada extend payment terms and increase their purchasing power. Later that month, the company acquired DataX to promote financial inclusion.

Founded in 1899, Equifax is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker EFX. The company’s market capitalization sits at $11.7 billion.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Accenture, Enveil, Equifax, Fenergo, GreatHorn, HackerOne, Kony, Passport, Swych, Temenos, Zafin

On Finovate.com

  • Accenture Acquires Select Assets from Banking Software Provider Zafin.
  • Equifax Launches Ignite Solution in the U.K.

Around the web

  • Enveil brings data in use security to the Azure Marketplace.
  • City of Charlotte and Charlotte Douglas International Airport upgrade to Passport’s real-time, connected platform.
  • Australia’s largest credit union, CUA, launches new chat app powered by Kony’s DBX.
  • Equifax unveils its integrated portfolio of data, analytics, and visualization tools, Equifax Ignite, in the U.K.
  • Temenos announces partnership with Tunisia’s Banque de l’Habitat.
  • GreatHorn meets SOC 2 standards for security, availability, and confidentiality after completion of attestation report.
  • Gitlab’s Kathy Wang and James Ritchey talk with HackerOne about why they decided to launch a bug bounty program.
  • Digital gifting solution provider Swych brings blockchain technology to its platform.
  • Fenergo wins Fintech Exporter of the Year award from Asia Matters.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Temenos Acquires Avoka in $245 Million Deal

Temenos Acquires Avoka in $245 Million Deal
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Mergers & Acquisitions, Temenos

In a $245 million deal, banking software company Temenos will acquire fellow Finovate alum Avoka. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

A public company, Temenos will finance the purchase with cash and debt. The deal marks the company’s 14th acquisition since it was founded in 1993 and its second purchase this year, following the buy of its British competitor, Fidessa Group for $1.96 billion in February.

Temenos will integrate Avoka’s customer acquisition and onboarding technology into its Digital Front Office product, which serves 300 banking clients. “This is a highly strategic acquisition for Temenos as it not only reinforces our leadership position within the Digital Front Office space but it also strengthens our capabilities in the U.S. market where we are seeing significant traction as banks accelerate their digital transformation plans,” said Max Chuard, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Temenos. “The combination of Avoka’s capabilities along with the extensive Temenos Digital Front Office product offers banks the most complete set of services which through APIs can be easily integrated either with the market-leading Temenos T24 Core Banking product or as a standalone on a third party banking system.”

Since it was founded in 2002, Avoka has grown to offer customer acquisition and onboarding technology to the financial services sector as well as government entities. In fact, the company’s first major client was the Australia Capital Territory government. Avoka also provides form filling technology to Australia’s Federal Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science’s business.gov.au portal. And according to ITNews, the company has provided services to Australia’s Defense, Centrelink, Attorney General’s Department, Customs and Border Protection, AUSTRAC, Education, Home Affairs, Human Services, as well as state and local clients. Temenos has not disclosed its plans for the government side of Avoka’s business.

Avoka CEO Philip Copeland said, “By combining our strengths with Temenos’ expertise and reach, we will expand our scope and scale to deliver winning omni-channel, digital experience solutions to banks globally. The combination of Temenos and Avoka is an excellent fit for our customers and employees and will catapult our growth to the next stage. Together, with the leadership on both sides, we are committed to the group’s future success.”

Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. Last month marked the company’s 25th birthday. With clients in 145+ countries, Temenos employs more than 4,600 people in 63 offices. The company has a market capitalization of $9.14 billion.

Avoka most recently demoed Transaction Insights at FinovateEurope 2017. Transaction Insights is a digital account opening tool that helps financial services companies measure where customers are spending time, making errors, requesting help, or abandoning their session. Headquartered in Colorado, Avoka has offices in London, England and Sydney, Australia. The company has digitized more than 100 million transactions for 150+ global clients. Prior to today’s acquisition, Avoka had raised $28 million.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

ShopKeep Closes $65 Million to Boost Small Business Financing Tool

ShopKeep Closes $65 Million to Boost Small Business Financing Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, ShopKeep POS

In its largest round of funding yet, point of sale (POS) technology company ShopKeep POS closed on $65 million in combined debt and equity funding, bringing its total funding to just over $72 million.

The investment was led by Tribeca Venture Partners and included all of the New York-based company’s major existing investors. New contributors include First Data Corporation and Salesforce Ventures. The debt portion of the round comes from ORIX Growth Capital and Square 1 Bank.

“We are extremely fortunate to be backed by some of the top investors in both fintech and SaaS. With the latest investments from Salesforce Ventures and First Data, ShopKeep has firmly established its position as a leader in SaaS based point-of-sale and payment platforms,” said ShopKeep CEO Michael DeSimone.

Founded in 2008, ShopKeep offers iPad-based POS software for retail, restaurants, and franchises. Not only does the technology process transactions and payments, it also offers inventory tracking, staff management, marketing capabilities, and provides reporting and analytics tools. The company will use the funds to boost its Android-based platform, which it launched in May of this year; expand ShopKeep Capital, an initiative that provides working capital to ShopKeep customers; and explore international markets.

“With our recurring revenue almost tripling in the past 3 years, the small business community continues to show incredibly promising – and accelerating – growth potential. ShopKeep will continue working tirelessly to deliver small business owners with technology and digital tools to fuel their businesses and compete in today’s marketplace at all levels,” DeSimone added.

ShopKeep is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Oregon, Illinois, and Belfast. The company’s founder Jason Richelson demoed the point-of-sale platform at FinovateSpring 2012. ShopKeep processes more than 289 million transactions for 25,000 merchant clients across the U.S.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Experian, First Data, InComm, Open Bank Project, PayPal, ShopKeep POS, Tavant, Temenos

On Finovate.com

  • Temenos Acquires Avoka in $245 Million Deal.
  • More Than $400 Million Raised by 19 Alums in Q3 2018.
  • ShopKeep Closes $65 Million to Boost Small Business Financing Tool.

Around the web

  • The Open Bank Project wins Best Technology Provider for Open API Standards at Global Open Banking Awards.
  • InComm partners with Revolut to offer their prepaid cards at U.K. retail chain wilko.
  • U.K.’s Experian to buy Africa’s Compuscan.
  • First Data and China CITIC Bank International to join forces with launch of new merchant acquiring solutions.
  • PayPal launches Xoom International money transfer in Canada.
  • Docutech and Tavant integrate for digitally-focused loan origination process.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Plaid Raises $250 Million Series C Round Led by Mary Meeker

Plaid Raises $250 Million Series C Round Led by Mary Meeker
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Plaid

Provider of APIs for financial infrastructure, Plaid, closed a $250 million Series C round. The company’s founders, Zach Perret and William Hockey, discussed the funds in a blog post today, along with Plaid’s plans to “reinvest in the fintech ecosystem,” an industry they say is “just getting started.”

The investment, which boosts Plaid’s total funding to $310 million, comes with celebrity endorsement from Mary Meeker. Meeker led the round and will join the company’s board of directors. Additional investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Goldman Sachs, NEA, and Spark Capital.

“Plaid has built an important underpinning for financial services on the web and mobile. Plaid allows businesses to rapidly launch innovative products, drive growth and enhance consumer satisfaction. We are excited about the evolution and potential ahead,” Meeker said.

The San Francisco-based company will use the funds to onboard new employees and expand its operations. “We’re focused on shipping and scaling products that will both serve the growth and scale of these customers, and become the foundation for fintech for decades to come,” the founders said in the blog post. “Every company is becoming a fintech company…. Plaid’s role is to empower these innovators with a platform—and a data network—that delivers access to the financial system.”

TechCrunch, which pinned Plaid as a company to watch in 2019, reported that Plaid is now valued at $2.65 billion. This is up significantly from the company’s last valuation in 2016, which sat at $200 million after Plaid’s $44 million Series B round.

At FinDEVr San Fransisco 2014, Perret gave a presentation about leveraging the Plaid API for financial infrastructure. Since then, the company has grown to 175 employees and offers six products, including Auth, an account authentication tool; Balance, which pulls account balance information in real-time; Identity, which leverages bank data to verify consumer identity; Transactions, which pulls bank statement data across banks; Assets, a verification of assets tool; and Income, a tool that validates a consumer’s income and verifies direct deposit data.

This May, Plaid launched in Canada– its first international market. The startup also partnered with JPMorgan Chase to help the bank make a move toward open banking by enabling account holders to safely share their financial data with third party fintech applications.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bill.com Achieves NACHA Certification

Bill.com Achieves NACHA Certification
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bill.com

Business payments company Bill.com received NACHA certification as an ACH third-party sender today. While the certification is voluntary, it indicates that Bill.com is meeting standards, such as corporate governance and risk and compliance obligations, for ACH payment processing.

NACHA Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Jane Larimer praised Bill.com’s achievement saying, “NACHA certification is a clear indication of Bill.com’s adherence to sound ACH practices and policies.” René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com added, “it’s important that our clients and partners know that we are committed to the highest quality ACH processing as demonstrated by achieving NACHA Certification.”

Bill.com was founded in 2006 to help businesses manage accounts payables and receivables with online billpay, custom invoicing, document storage, collaboration tools, and more. At FinovateSpring 2012, Lacerte debuted the company’s CashView tools. Since then, Bill.com has grown to process more than $60 billion each year for its network of three million members.

Bill.com is partnered with four of the top 10 largest U.S. banks, 60+ of the top 100 accounting firms, as well as accounting software providers such as Netsuite, Intacct, QuickBooks and Xero. The company has taken in more than $200 million in funding from investors including JP Morgan Chase and Temasek.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, Bill.com, Finantix, Jack Henry, Narrative Science, Plaid, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • Plaid Raises $250 Million Series C Round Led by Mary Meeker.
  • Bill.com Achieves NACHA Certification.

Around the web

  • Narrative Science introduces its new language-based augmented analytics product, Lexio, in beta.
  • Currencies Direct taps Ripple’s xCurrent for real-time remittances to India.
  • AlphaPoint to support Stellar Lumens.
  • Motive Partners acquires majority stake in Finantix.
  • Camden National Bank further leverages Jack Henry relationship to support demand for growth, innovation.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Interactions Partners with Next Caller for Phone-Based Threat Assessment

Interactions Partners with Next Caller for Phone-Based Threat Assessment
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Interactions

Intelligent Virtual Assistance (IVA) company Interactions recently announced a new partnership with Next Caller, a phone fraud detection and authentication firm, with a goal of boosting Interactions’ fraud protection.

“At Interactions, security is a top priority,” said Mary McKenna, director of product management at Interactions. “Customer service interactions generate massive amounts of data that are often sensitive, so being able to provide our clients with state of the art security is a must. With this enhanced security offering, we strengthen our commitment to protect our clients and their customers from security threats.”

Under the agreement, Interactions will expand security services for its IVA enterprise clients by leveraging Next Caller’s VeriCall tool, which will add a layer of security to prevent fraudulent phone calls. VeriCall will help IVA assess the threat level of an incoming call using the caller’s automatic number identification (ANI) and network information. The resulting risk score will route high risk calls to either further screening questions or to a live agent, and will direct low-risk calls via a more frictionless user experience.

“Our partnership with Interactions will provide sophisticated real-time call verification and authentication technology to their customers,” said Ian Roncoroni, co-founder and CEO of Next Caller. “Fraud is a growing problem for businesses today, and can be especially damaging to companies that have to deal with large amounts of customer data. One small mishap can provide a fraudster with enough personal information to steal a customer’s identity.”

Interactions will use Next Caller’s technology alongside its current security offerings, including Voice Biometrics, which creates a personalized voice print for customers; ANI Blacklists, which cross-checks a caller’s ANI against existing databases of blacklisted numbers; and Voiceprint Blacklists, which uses the caller’s voiceprint to search an existing database of fraudster voiceprints.

Massachusetts-based Interactions leverages AI and voice-recognition technology to help big brands offer a more friendly, automated customer experience. The company most recently presented its IVA at FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2004, Interactions facilitates 1 billion customer interactions per year across six different channels for large brands including Hyatt, Humana, LifeLock, and Mountain America Credit Union.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal

Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Boku, Mergers & Acquisitions

Carrier billing company Boku is set to expand its expertise with a new acquisition this week. The San Francisco-based company agreed to acquire mobile identification and authentication company Danal for up to $68 million. The acquisition is expected to close December 31, 2018.

The deal is being structured as a reverse triangular merger to ensure Boku acquires 100% of Danal, a subsidiary of DFS Services. To finance the acquisition, Boku is issuing 26.7 million common shares for $0.0001 each, $3 million in Boku warrants, and $1 million in cash. In addition, Boku will pay deferred consideration of up to $64 million, the exact amount dependent on Danal’s future performance.

Leveraging its connections to MNOs, Danal offers data matching, account baselining, phone identification, and proactive monitoring to verify users’ identities for verticals including banks, healthcare, hospitality, and ecommerce. The San Jose-based company also offers solutions to satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulations. Some of Danal’s customers include Western Union, BNP Paribas, PayPal, Square, Moneygram, Login.gov, and USAA. The privately-held company has raised $14.5 million.

Boku will leverage Danal’s technology to offer mobile identity services to its existing customers and to provide global coverage to Danal’s U.S. customers. “Combining Danal’s customer base and technology with Boku’s international scale and global MNO connection capability, will allow us to build the world leader in this emerging space,” said Boku CEO Jon Prideaux. “This acquisition allows us to offer services that go further and to improve user quality for our customers while at the same time improving the mobile experience for users… Danal has shown that MNO data can also combat fraud, reduce friction in signup and ensure regulatory compliance on mobile.”

Boku was founded in 2008 and provides payments technology that allows consumers to charge purchases to their mobile phone bill. The company offers its operator network for acquiring, activating, and monetizing customers through their mobile phones. The Boku platform is used in large digital marketplaces such as the Google Play store, Apple’s App store, Spotify, and Facebook’s App Center.

At FinovateEurope 2011 Boku showcased its mobile payment service. Earlier this fall, Boku was awarded Best Newcomer at the AIM Awards. Boku is publicly traded on the London stock exchange with a current market capitalization of $124 million.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

ayondo Goes Pro

ayondo Goes Pro
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ayondo

Social trading company ayondo announced a new professional trading platform this week. A complement to the Singapore-based company’s B2C product, ayondoPRO caters to the needs of professional traders.

Specifically, ayondoPRO clients will be able to trade more than 2,000 instruments with leverage of up to 200 times. Participants can also join a Spread Rebate Program that gives clients part of the spread they have paid back to their trading account. And professional traders don’t need to sacrifice ayondo’s standard benefits such as negative balance protection and free additional insurance that covers each Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) eligible customer up to $1.3 million in excess of the FSCS standard.

To qualify as a professional for an ayondoPRO account, users must:

  • Have executed significantly sized leverage trades at an average frequency of 10 per quarter over the last four quarters
  • Have a financial instrument portfolio, including cash deposits, exceeding $569,000
  • Currently work or have worked in the financial sector for at least one year in a professional position

“With ayondoPRO, professional and experienced traders will benefit from a combination of excellent service, great trading conditions, and customer protection. We have seen a lot of demand for a platform that provides high-leverage with trading conditions offering tight spreads,” said Raza Perez, Chief Product Officer of ayondo. “The launch of ayondoPRO is part of our commitment to keep improving and investing in our B2C product offering while introducing a PRO White Label facility for B2B clients, at the same time.”

Founded in 2008, ayondo offers a brokerage platform that lets users copy the moves of top traders to optimize returns. At FinovateEurope 2013, the company unveiled a new version of its service, its London brokerage, and a trader career training curriculum. The company became the first fintech to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange this March, following a failed reverse takeover deal from Starland Holdings. Earlier this fall, ayondo formed a white-label agreement with Phnom Penh Derivative Exchange to provide its TradeHub to its derivative broker clients in Cambodia.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook