Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ayondo, Boku, Coinbase, Envestnet, IdentityMind Global, Larky, Mortgage Cadence, Passport, Pendo Systems, SaleMove, Token, TransferWise

On Finovate.com

  • Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal

Around the web

  • CU Broadcast interviews Larky CEO Gregg Hammerman on what credit union CEOs are prioritizing for their members’ engagement today.
  • IdentityMind protects FIs with virtual currency risk assessment.
  • 32 fintechs graduate from Envestnet | Yodlee’s incubator.
  • Token brings Open Banking to Mena region.
  • Coinbase continues to explore support for new digital assets.
  • The city of Rye, NY partners with Passport to manage parking.
  • Mortgage Cadence integrates Radian’s mortgage insurance service into its Enterprise Lending Center solution.
  • The CX Show interviews SaleMove co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli about creating contact center leaders.
  • TechCrunch interviews Transferwise cofounder and CEO Kristo Käärman on growing money transfers despite global turbulence.
  • Pendo Systems partners with Azimuth GRC and Global Comply.

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

TIBCO Acquires Orchestra Networks

TIBCO Acquires Orchestra Networks
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TIBCO Software

It’s the second acquisition this year for TIBCO. The integration and analytics software company announced this week that it purchased Orchestra Networks for an undisclosed amount.

“This is a very important acquisition for us, supporting our mission to create the world’s leading platform for digital business. Orchestra Networks will allow TIBCO to address our customers’ simple and complex master data and data asset management needs quickly and easily,” said Matt Quinn, chief operating officer, TIBCO.

Founded in 2000, Orchestra Networks specializes in master data management and data access management solutions, including EBX a solution that helps clients manage, govern, and share all master data, reference data, and metadata assets. The addition of the Paris-based company to TIBCO’s portfolio will help it expand its Connected Intelligence platform with data assets for operational and analytics processes.

“EBX, an industry-leading master data management solution, will be further amplified as part of the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud. EBX customers will gain instant access to our leading integration and analytics capabilities for their data assets. Orchestra Networks brings an exceptional team that, with TIBCO, will continue to support their customers and partners,” said Quinn.

In the press release, Christophe Barriolade, co-founder and CEO of Orchestra Networks mentioned how the acquisition will boost EBX, saying that the company will support it on a “larger, more global scale while offering complementary API-led integration and AI-driven analytics capabilities” to Orchestra Network’s customers.

This is TIBCO’s 23rd acquisition since it was founded in 1997. TIBCO itself was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2014.

The company demoed at FinovateAsia 2013, showcasing how banks can leverage their clients’ transactional data to gain insight into customer behavior. At the beginning of this year, TIBCO made two C-level appointments, transitioning Matt Quinn to a new role as TIBCO’s COO and hiring Nelson Petracek as its new CTO.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding

Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Pindrop Security

Phone-based fraud prevention company Pindrop closed a Series D funding round today valued at $90 million, bringing the Atlanta-based company’s total funding to almost $213 million. Pindrop is not disclosing its valuation, but did say that it is “much higher” than the $600 million it was valued at after its $75 million funding round in 2016.

Vitruvian Partners led the round. Strategic investors Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs also participated, along with existing investors, including CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV and Citi Ventures.

According to Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Pindrop, the company will use the investment to advance in consumer IoT and voice technology while strengthening its existing solutions. Specifically, the company outlined plans to boost its presence in Europe and Asia, citing investments from U.K.-based Vitruvian Partners, Singapore-based EDBI, and Japan-based Dimension Data.

“One of our key goals is to help leading high-growth companies like Pindrop grow in Europe and internationally,” said David Nahama, senior partner at Vitruvian Partners. “We are confident that Pindrop is poised for massive expansion given the company’s depth of engineering expertise, pioneering efforts in machine learning technology and patent portfolio.”

Pindrop will also use the funds to support research and development efforts into providing security solutions for voice-controlled smart devices, including Google Home, smart locks, and connected cars. “Voice is fast emerging as the next generation human user interface with wide consumer and commercial applications, yet security remains a major concern,” said Chu Swee Yeok, chief executive and president of EDBI. “Pindrop’s world class AI voice security technology will be a significant enabler for wider voice UI adoption, beyond call centers.”

Founded in 2011, Pindrop debuted its Phoneprinting technology at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. The technology detects 80% of fraudulent calls into call centers and protects “hundreds of millions” of calls annually. Pindrop is working with eight of 10 of the largest banks as well as the five of the seven largest insurance companies in the U.S. Overall, the company protects more than 200 million consumer accounts and has stopped more than $350 million in voice-based fraud attacks this year.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: iSignthis, Juvo, Lighter Capital, Ondot, Personal Capital, Pindrop Security, Ripple, Signifyd, TIBCO Software, Upserve

On Finovate.com

  • Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding.

Around the web

  • iSignThis begins accepting customer deposits to its own issued International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs).
  • Personal Capital moves headquarters to Redwood Shores.
  • Signifyd opens EMEA headquarters in London to support its ecommerce fraud protection business in Europe.
  • Juvo expands across Asia with regional headquarters in Singapore.
  • Ondot announces new digital card services platform to support U.K. banks.
  • Lighter Capital provides NinjaCat $1.1 million.
  • R3’s new Corda App supports Ripple’s XRP.
  • Upserve (formerly Swipely) releases newest point-of-sale device, Upserve POS, now available for Android.

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

Zopa’s New Bank Launches in Beta

Zopa’s New Bank Launches in Beta
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Zopa

Just over two years ago, P2P lending company Zopa announced its plans to launch a challenger bank. Today, the U.K.-based company announced it received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

Zopa is currently operating in a period called AWR (authorization with restrictions), meaning it has met all of the FCA’s conditions and is allowed to begin testing the new banking products. The company will use its own staff to serve as the beta testers for the new banking products.

There is no word yet on when the restricted period will be lifted to allow Zopa to fully launch, but when it does, it will offer savings accounts and credit cards that can be managed within a new mobile app. The app will offer money management tools that help place customers in control of their finances by showing all of their accounts in a single place.

To position itself as more user friendly than traditional banks, the company is branding itself as the Feelgood Money company. Backing this ideal, Zopa is avoiding hidden fees and promising to have “helpful humans” on the other end of customer service calls.

“This is a huge milestone for Zopa as we are now the world’s first combined peer-to-peer lender and digital bank,” said Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana. “It also brings us one step closer to being the best place for money in the U.K. by offering a broader selection of personal finance products.” Janardana discusses what’s next for Zopa in the video below:

Zopa was founded in 2005, pioneering peer-to-peer lending in the U.K., and has since amassed 400,000 customers and  facilitated $5 billion (£4 billion) on its platform. The company plans to continue to grow its peer-to-peer platform, which will run alongside Zopa’s bank offerings.

Zopa’s former CEO Doug Dolton debuted the P2P lending platform at FinovateSpring 2008 at Finovate’s very first show in the Bay Area. Last month, the company added $20.7 million to its Series G funding round, bringing its total funding to more than $77 million. Earlier this fall, Zopa earned recognition on the Inc. 5,000, ranking 1,314.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding

Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, SWITCH

Credit card information management platform SWITCH announced its largest round of funding to-date. The Seattle-based company just closed a $2 million investment, bringing its total funds to more than $2.3 million.

Founded in 2013, SWITCH enables cardholders to automatically update their card-on-file information across multiple accounts. This comes in handy for consumers replacing the 700 million U.S. credit and debit cards that are lost, stolen, or reissued each year.

SWITCH’s technology is embedded into its CardSavr API which it launched in February of this year. The CardSavr API allows card issuers to place new cards into circulation immediately after they are issued instead of waiting for a new one to arrive by mail. SWITCH enhanced the technology earlier this year by integrating voice technology, enabling customers to update card information and add a new card to their account simply by using voice commands.

SWITCH also offers TopWallet (pictured right), a card issuer-branded app that allows cardholders to manage all of their payments and passwords in one place. TopWallet is currently being offered in beta.

“Switch is a win-win-win for card issuers, cardholders and merchants/billers,” said Switch CEO Chris Hopen, who demoed SWITCH’s platform at FinovateSpring 2016. “Merchants and billers want… cards on file in order to operate and provide friction-free purchasing for customers. Top financial institutions gain valuable insight and higher transaction volume by helping their customers with the burden of managing payments online.”

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank

Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase

BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank, the Polish bank, is going omnichannel with Backbase, as is it aims to enhance its digital services and ability to link up with fintechs, reports Henry Vilar of Finovate’s sister publication, Fintech Futures.

The Backbase Omni-Channel Banking Platform introduced a new digital platform that aims to encourage the use of agile project management in the bank. BGŻ BNP Paribas’ Fast Forward strategy has focused on digitization as it looks to be more agile and more able to quickly respond to market changes. Having grown from a series of mergers, the bank had previously inherited various legacy systems – thus requiring to up its game in terms of flexibility and agility.

“Cooperation with Backbase is a natural consequence of the requirements of our transformation program. Our new strategy is based on five core pillars: simplicity, digitization, quality, growth, and enthusiasm,” said Piotr Marciniak, head of digital and mobile of Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas.

Initially, internet banking will be moved over to the new platform, but plans are to move to a single architecture, and implement Backbase mobile as part of this. BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank is also changing the way it develops and runs projects, with a heavy emphasis on fintechs, digital, and continuous integration continuous development (CICD).

“BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank emphasizes cooperation with sought-after fintechs. We constantly seek out the best, most innovative projects to support our operations, and are glad to implement some of their ideas in our bank,” added Marciniak.

At FinovateEurope earlier this year, Backbase unveiled the Customer OS in a demo that won the Amsterdam-based company Best of Show honors for the fourth time. In July, the company teamed up with Jumio to deliver online ID verification services.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Darwinex, SWITCH, Thought Machine, TransferWise, Zopa

On Finovate.com 

  • Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank.
  • Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding.

Around the web

  • IBM partners with Thought Machine for legacy systems.
  • TransferWise introduces its borderless account – with a debit card – to Ireland.

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

Q2 Acquires Gro Solutions

Q2 Acquires Gro Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Gro Solutions, Mergers & Acquisitions, Q2, Q2 Holdings, Q2ebanking

Digital banking solutions company Q2 Holdings boosted its capabilities this week with the acquisition of account opening technology provider Gro Solutions. This follows Q2’s purchase of Cloud Lending Solutions in August, making it the Austin-based company’s fifth acquisition since it was founded in 2004.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“With Q2’s recent acquisitions of Cloud Lending and now Gro—combined with our leading, secure digital banking platform—we are delivering powerful solutions for the financial services vertical to provide exceptional experiences needed to keep pace with the high expectations of today’s account holder,” said Matt Flake, CEO of Q2. “Our acquisition of Gro adds yet another element that helps our customers reduce user friction, increase engagement in the digital channel and expand their offerings.”

Once the acquisition closes, Q2 will benefit from Gro’s omni-channel account opening technology, Gro Checkout, which CEO David Eads launched at FinovateFall 2015. Q2 will also boost its portfolio with Gro’s other solutions, including Gro Funnel, a set of marketing automation and CRM tools; Gro Business, tools for business clients; and Carrier Data Integration, technology that leverages information from a customer’s wireless billing record to auto populate data fields.

“As a combined force, we look forward to providing leading account opening, ecommerce and end-to-end digital financial solutions to banks, credit unions and other financial technology companies,” said Eads. “We are delighted to be joining the Q2 team and look forward to delivering best-in-class in financial digital sales and marketing solutions.”

Gro Solutions most recently demoed an extension of its digital sales platform at FinovateFall 2017. The company had raised $4.3 million since it was founded in 2015. Gro has been named a Fintech Company to Watch by American Banker and was recently awarded the TAG Fintech Advance Award.

Q2 debuted Q2 Biller Direct at FinovateSpring earlier this year. The company had 2017 revenues of $194 million, has 10.4 million end users, and 382 bank and credit union customers. Matt Flake is CEO.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Digital Onboarding, Entersekt, Finicity, Google Cloud Platform, Gro Solutions, Hydrogen, Kony, Ohpen, Q2, Q2 Holdings, Q2ebanking, Sezzle

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Finicity CEO Steve Smith honored as a 2018 HousingWire Vanguard.
  • Ohpen launches the Ohpen API Portal (OAP) in beta.
  • PYMNTS talks with Entersekt SVP of Product Niel Bester about consumer trust.
  • Kony teams with PSECU to deliver digital banking technology.
  • Hudson River Financial FCU selects Digital Onboarding to enhance new member experience with updated onboarding

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

Yandex.Money Moves Mobile Wallet Forward with Moven Enterprise

Yandex.Money Moves Mobile Wallet Forward with Moven Enterprise
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Moven, Yandex

Moven Enterprise announced this week that it has partnered with mobile wallet company Yandex.Money to power smart banking technology for the Russia-based company.

Yandex.Money will leverage Moven Enterprise’s open APIs to embed new features and functionality into its mobile app, pushing new product offers that extend beyond the company’s flagship mobile wallet. The partnership will give Yandex.Money’s mobile wallet offering a boost by giving its 46 million mobile wallet customers access to real-time personalized financial management tools.

“Yandex.Money is no longer just an electronic wallet, as we offer options familiar to banking clients such as money transfers, card issuance, cashback, payment for various goods and services,” Ivan Glazachev, Yandex.Money CEO explained. “We also offer users the opportunity to choose the app design theme, make investments, and now effectively control their funds.” The new features will also encourage users to adopt existing mobile wallet offerings.

Moven CEO, Marek Forysiak, said, “Moven is excited to bring our AI-driven, smart banking solutions into Yandex’s existing app by leveraging our open APIs to create a customized user experience. Their robust initiative adds a new level of sophistication and capabilities including personalized advice and financial wellness capabilities to help their customers spend, save and live smarter.”

Launched at FinovateFall 2016, Moven Enterprise takes a software-as-a-service approach by allowing banks and financial services companies to white-label its financial management technology. Moven Enterprise offers tools to help banks engage with their existing customers, acquire new customers, and drive revenue through their mobile channel.

At FinovateAsia 2017, Moven Enterprise demonstrated a new credit offering, chatbot functionality, and an expansion of its wish list feature that leverages behavioral gamification. Last month, the company announced it will bring its digital banking platform to banks in Latin America, APAC, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

A joint venture between Yandex and Sberbank, Yandex.Money is the largest online payment service in Russia. At FinovateSpring 2013 Yandex.Money launched Twym, an application that allows users to instantly transfer money in Rubles via Twitter.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

UNPay Expands QR Code Payments

UNPay Expands QR Code Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: UNPay

Electronic payment technology provider UNPay made a move that banks on QR code technology in Asia. The Singapore-based fintech announced it is supporting the Singapore government’s effort to promote more cashless payments with a slew of efforts to promote the use of QR code payments among retailers.

UNPay is initiating the effort by providing its merchant clients with Chinese QR code payment capabilities and will include Chinese QR code payment providers by the second half of 2019. To support the influx of Chinese tourists in Singapore, a group which spent $3.08 billion on tourism expenditures last year, UNPay has acquired more merchant clients in the hospitality and food and beverage sectors and will supply them with popular QR code payment methods such as Alipay and WeChat Pay. As a second step in its QR Code expansion, UNPay will acquire foreign e-wallets to provide even more payment options for tourists around the world.

Zhang Zhenghua, UNPay CEO and founder said, “Through our active acquisition of merchants, we hope to drive the use of QR code payment in Singapore, keeping in line with the rollout of SGQR code in September. We are confident that with our expertise and technology, we will be able to bring greater benefits to our merchants via our integrated payment platform, while providing a more seamless and convenient way for consumers to pay.”

UNPay Country Manager Ernest Lo and HR Director Jenny Zhao demo UN Smart Cashier at FinovateAsia 2018

UNPay, which demoed its UN Smart Cashier at FinovateAsia earlier this year, connects to more than 500 online payment methods covering more than 200 countries and regions. The company’s solutions span industries including travel, education, e-commerce, and digital entertainment.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook