Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Gusto’s New Deal to Deliver Automated Accounting to Small Businesses

Gusto’s New Deal to Deliver Automated Accounting to Small Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Gusto

Payroll, benefits, and HR platform Gusto has some benefits of its own up its sleeve. The San Francisco-based company announced this week it has teamed up with ScaleFactor to deliver a fully integrated accounting experience to Gusto clients.

With ScaleFactor, Gusto business users can sync their payroll and benefits directly with their accounting and financial data. The combination of the two tools offers instant visibility of cash flow and access to Gusto’s payroll and benefits platform. Gusto’s Head of Partnerships, Mike Triantos, said the company formed the partnership because, “We know how important tools and technology will be in helping our users monitor the financial health of their business.”

“By joining forces with Gusto, we are empowering SMB owners and operators with the ability to seamlessly link accounting automation with HR and payroll,” said Kurt Rathmann, CEO and founder of ScaleFactor. “Having a comprehensive real-time view of a business’ health saves not only time and money, but enables business leaders to make informed decisions that drive growth.”

ScaleFactor was founded in 2013 to do what its name implies– help small businesses scale faster. By automating financial tasks such as accounting, payroll, bill pay, invoicing, cash flow forecasting, and tax compliance, ScaleFactor helps businesses focus on their business and make better business decisions.

With offices in San Francisco and Denver, Gusto processes tens of billions of dollars in payroll for more than 60,000 businesses in the U.S. The company also offers a painless way for small businesses to offer their employees benefits such as health insurance, 401(k) retirement plans, and 529 college savings plans.

This isn’t the first accounting platform Gusto has aligned with. Earlier this summer, the company teamed up with New Zealand-based cloud accounting firm Xero. The technical integration of the two platforms is still underway and is expected to be complete by early 2019.

Gusto, which launched in 2012 under the name ZenPayroll, showcased its flagship payroll solution at FinovateSpring 2014. Earlier this summer, the company landed $140 million in funding, boosting its valuation to $2 billion.

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AlphaPoint to Power Asset Management Tools for Laureate Digital Securities

AlphaPoint to Power Asset Management Tools for Laureate Digital Securities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint

Digital asset exchange platform AlphaPoint announced this week it has partnered with Laureate Digital Securities, a company that leverages the blockchain for asset management tools.

Laureate’s asset digitization, investor portal, and secondary trading will rely on AlphaPoint’s technology that helps companies launch, scale, and operate their own digital asset exchanges. Specifically, AlphaPoint will power Laureate’s security token offerings, which facilitate investor access to asset management funds.

“Adding AlphaPoint’s proven blockchain technology to our platform will help us provide the requisite services for the creation and administration of digital security offerings and the trading of them in the secondary market,” said Nicole Biernat, president of Laureate Digital Securities.

AlphaPoint powers digital asset networks for companies like Laureate across the globe. The company also maintains the AlphaPoint Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP), which interoperates with more than 20 ledger technologies to digitize financial instruments, create trading venues, and reduce operational overhead.

At FinovateFall 2017, AlphaPoint showcased the ADLP Reconciliation Platform, which combines blockchain-based asymmetric access controls and machine-enforced domain compliance for order management and other activities. The Reconciliation Platform reduces time and cost associated with manual, post-trade reconciliation processes.

Founded in 2013, AlphaPoint recently announced it is powering DCEX, an XRP-based cryptocurrency exchange. The company, which has raised a total of $17.6 million, is headquartered in New York with offices in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and North Carolina.

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Quadient’s New Launch Accelerates the Insurance Claims Process

Quadient’s New Launch Accelerates the Insurance Claims Process
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Quadient

Customer communications management specialist Quadient released a tool today that helps mid-sized insurers deliver personalized claims correspondence to customers across channels. Quadient Correspondence is a subscription-based, SaaS solution that helps insurers make the move to digital without requiring in-house IT expertise.

The new tool works with a company’s existing claims system and because it offers a pre-loaded library of insurance-specific content as well as pre-built workflows, it processes claims faster than traditional methods. Agents can make communication templates in less than one hour, create customized correspondence in less than one minute, make approvals in less than one hour, onboard new employees in less than a day, and communicate via print and digital channels instantly.

To maximize time saved, Quadient Correspondence’s pre-loaded content offers the most commonly used claims templates that are pre-approved for regulatory compliance. The templates are also able to be edited, if needed, to suit specific circumstances.

“The claims process is the most expensive and important customer touchpoint insurers have, and often the moment of truth in an insurer-consumer relationship,” said Tamir Sigal, chief marketing officer at Quadient. “[Quadient Correspondence] is a robust solution that finally enables smaller insurance organizations to operate like a Tier One enterprise, enabling immediate claims process improvement consumers will appreciate.”

Quadient rebranded from GMC Software last fall, and in a demo at FinovateEurope earlier this year, showed how banks can leverage AI. In a report earlier this fall, Ovum listed the Switzerland-based company as a Top Customer Journey Mapping Vendor.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, eMoney Advisor, Gusto, Klarna, Ledger, Pendo Systems, Quadient, Revolut, SoFi

On Finovate.com

  • Gusto’s New Deal to Deliver Automated Accounting to Small Businesses.
  • Quadient’s New Launch Accelerates the Insurance Claims Process.
  • AlphaPoint to Power Asset Management Tools for Laureate Digital Securities.

Around the web

  • Pendo Systems appoints Bill Woodley as President and COO.
  • eMoney Advisor launches voice assistant for financial advisors.
  • Ledger to integrate IOTA tokens with its secure hardware cryptocurrency wallets.
  • KPMG names Klarna, Revolut, and SoFi among 25 most innovative Fintech startups in the world.

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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Braintree Merchants Can Now Accept Samsung Pay

Braintree Merchants Can Now Accept Samsung Pay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Braintree

Payment platform Braintree made a move to not only make merchants’ lives easier, but also to make it smoother for consumers to pay, which makes merchants happier. So no one was complaining today when the PayPal-owned company announced it will integrate with Samsung Pay.

Braintree merchants in the U.S. can now accept Samsung Pay for in-app payments. According to a study conducted by PYMNTS, the percentage of adult smartphone users that have used Samsung Pay to make a purchase rose from 4.3% in March of 2017 to 5.1% in December of 2017.

Braintree has simplified the process for merchants, requiring just a few lines of code to integrate Samsung Pay into their existing checkout process, making for a streamlined purchasing experience for end users. Online wholesale retailer Boxed is among the first to pilot the integration.

Today’s announcement is a continuation of Braintree’s relationship with Samsung. Earlier this year, the San Francisco-based company announced that U.S. PayPal users can transact using PayPal within Samsung Pay.

PayPal acquired Braintree in 2013 for $800 million. Braintree most recently showcased Venmo Touch at FinovateSpring 2013. Last month, Adobe announced it is launching Magento Payments with PayPal’s Braintree for payment processing. And in April, Braintree teamed up with Yahoo! to make its payment platform available to online sellers using Yahoo Merchant Solutions and Yahoo Stores.

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Envestnet | Yodlee Doubles Down on the Developer Experience

Envestnet | Yodlee Doubles Down on the Developer Experience
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Yodlee

Data aggregation and analytics company Envestnet | Yodlee made a strategic hire to its Developer Experience team this week, recruiting Sebastien Taveau (pictured), former chief developer evangelist for Mastercard, as its vice president of Developer Experience.

Taveau is charged with overseeing the new developer experience, positioning it as a developer-first platform, and strengthening ties with the fintech developer community. And Taveau is well-suited for the job; he brings more than 20 years of experience working in POS, mobile payment, mobile security, mobile identity, and consumer solutions.

Among his prior roles are chief technologist at Zelle/Early Warning Services, chief developer evangelist for Mastercard, CTO for Validity, and principal/astronomer at PayPal.

“Sebastien’s blend of skills, experience and passion for the job are invaluable in our continued commitment to delivering upon our developer first vision and driving industry innovation. His role is also vital in nurturing our important relationship with the fintech community, enabling them to better serve their customers,” said Brandon Rembe, SVP of products at Envestnet | Yodlee.

Hiring Taveau is part of a broader effort Envestnet | Yodlee has put forth into crafting the developer experience. Last month, the company unveiled a new developer experience that delivers enhanced data that spans 18,000 global sources, as well as updated tools that aim to speed up the developer experience. The new tools will be available to developers by the end of 2018.

Envestnet | Yodlee showcased its predictive financial wellness and intelligence solution at FinovateFall 2018. Envestnet was founded in 1999 and acquired Yodlee in 2015 for $660 million. Envestnet | Yodlee is a public company listed on NYSE under the ticker ENV. It has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Braintree, Envestnet, eToro, Fenergo, iSignthis, Moneyhub, Narrative Science, Tradeshift

On Finovate.com

  • Envestnet | Yodlee Doubles Down on the Developer Experience.
  • Braintree Merchants Can Now Accept Samsung Pay.

Around the web

  • eToro sets up a free bitcoin ATM to celebrate Bitcoin’s 10th anniversary.
  • Tradeshift announces new app from kompany to reduce supply chain risk.
  • Crain’s Chicago Business names Narrative Science on its list of most innovative companies.
  • Fenergo listed on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Ireland list.
  • iSignThis’ ISXPay receives Bank Institution Code, will be able to accept deposits directly as a monetary financial institution as of December 4.

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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SigFig Launches CoPilot, a Digital Wealth Platform for Financial Advisors

SigFig Launches CoPilot, a Digital Wealth Platform for Financial Advisors
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: SigFig

Wealthtech company SigFig announced this week it is building on its business-to-business offering with the launch of CoPilot, a digital wealth management platform for financial advisors.

Among the first to leverage SigFig’s new enterprise platform is the company’s current client, Citizens Bank Wealth Management, which will offer the CoPilot digital wealth management tool to its financial advisors. SigFig’s relationship with Citizens Bank dates back to 2016, when the bank agreed to leverage SigFig’s digital investing capabilities for its 2017 launch of SpeciFi from Citizens Investment Services.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Citizens Bank Wealth Management to kick-off our CoPilot offering,” said Mike Sha, CEO of SigFig. “The CoPilot platform represents the importance of advisors in the financial planning lifecycle and the value they provide to clients. CoPilot brings powerful end-to-end software to advisors to further assist their clients in their financial needs.”

CoPilot automates administrative tasks for advisors to help them focus on their client relationships. The tool facilitates onboarding while providing a more personalized client experience. And to help improve the advisor’s productivity, CoPilot automates compliance processes as well as changes to the client’s risk profile and suitability.

“This is an incredibly powerful tool for our financial advisors, seamlessly digitizing many of our processes so that they can focus on what matters most – our customers, not the paperwork,” said John Bahnken, president of Citizens Bank Wealth Management.

Launched in 2007 under the name Wikinvest, SigFig is a wealthtech pioneer with more than $114 million AUM. Co-founder Parker Conrad debuted the company’s Actionable Advice offering at FinovateFall 2011. Earlier this year, SigFig acquired SmartWealth roboadvisory technology from UBS.

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Fiserv Finalizes Acquisition of Elan Financial Services’ Debit Processing Solutions

Fiserv Finalizes Acquisition of Elan Financial Services’ Debit Processing Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Fiserv, Mergers & Acquisitions

Fiserv wrapped up some important business today. The Wisconsin-based financial services company finalized its acquisition of debit processing technology from U.S. Bank’s Elan Financial Services; a deal Fiserv first announced in September. Terms of the acquisition, which does not include the Elan credit card issuing and corporate payments businesses, were undisclosed.

Fiserv will benefit from Elan’s debit card processing, ATM Managed Services, and MoneyPass network. MoneyPass is the second largest fee-free network in the U.S., offering users access to more than 33,000 ATMs across the nation.

On the other side of the table, Fiserv will offer Elan clients services including risk management solutions, access to the Accel debit payments network, and enhanced debit platform capabilities. As Tim Welsh, vice chairman of Consumer Banking Sales and Support at U.S. Bank explained, “Our customers will now benefit from the long-term commitment Fiserv has for this business and its clients and U.S. Bank will benefit as we continue to reinvest in our core businesses.”

President and CEO of Fiserv, Jeffery Yabuki, said, “This acquisition expands our capabilities and provides additional expertise, which together should enhance the value we provide our clients.”

Fiserv recently appeared on the FinovateSpring 2018 stage alongside Samsung SDS, where the two showcased how Samsung SDS integrates its biometric authentication and collaboration solutions into Fiserv’s Commercial Center: Security (CC:S) to create a more secure and convenient digital banking experience. Earlier this fall, Fiserv launched a new digital origination solution, Originate.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CashStar, Crypterium, Eltropy, Fenergo, Fiserv, ITSector, Lighter Capital, NestReady, SigFig

On Finovate.com

  • SigFig Launches CoPilot, a Digital Wealth Platform for Financial Advisors.
  • Fiserv Finalizes Acquisition of Elan Financial Services’ Debit Processing Solutions.

Around the web

  • Eltropy partners with NWCUA to Bring Text Messaging to More than 180 Northwest Credit Unions.
  • CashStar named one of the best places to work in Maine for 8th consecutive year.
  • Lighter Capital appoints Anthea Louie as Chief Marketing Officer.
  • CCN names Crypterium among top 5 coins to watch in 2018.
  • Fenergo Launches Client Lifecycle Management Solution for Natixis.

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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Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Becomes Unicorn 8x Over

Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Becomes Unicorn 8x Over
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Funding

In its largest round of funding to-date, digital currency wallet Coinbase closed a $300 million investment today. The Series E equity round, which brings the company’s total funding to just over $525 million, was led by Tiger Global Management. Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, and others also participated.

In a blog post announcement, the company said it plans to use the funds ” to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.” Specifically, Coinbase will expand globally, offer more crypto assets, focus on utility applications for cryptocurrencies, and bring institutional funds into the cryptocurrency space.

Asiff Hirji, Coinbase president and COO, commented on the optimism for the future of crypto. “We see Coinbase’s growth as validation that the ecosystem will only continue to grow in size, influence and impact — ultimately ushering in a more open financial system for the world,” Hirji said. The funding brings with it a spike in Coinbase’s valuation.

The company became a unicorn valued at $1.6 billion after its previous funding round in August of last year and announced today that it is now worth over $8 billion. And that valuation is not unfounded– Coinbase has done a lot over the course of the past year to earn its 8x boost in valuation. Among its news-making accomplishments, the company launched Coinbase Custody to help institutional investors store digital assets, acquired Memo.AI and Earn.com, launched Coinbase Commerce, was granted an e-money license from the FCA, launched its own venture fund, and launched institutional grade solutions for cryptocurrency trading.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. The company was founded in 2012. Brian Armstrong is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, eToro, Insuritas, Lendio, Temenos

On Finovate.com

  • Coinbase Raises $300 Million, Becomes Unicorn 8x Over.

Around the web

  • The Financial Brand features Michigan First CU’s tech powered by Insuritas.
  • eToro lists Binance Coin (BNB) on its platform.
  • Leading Libyan private bank selects Temenos to power Islamic growth.
  • Lendio announces the opening of a Lendio franchise in Utah.

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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