Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Klarna Rakes in $20 Million in Fall Funding Round

Klarna Rakes in $20 Million in Fall Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Klarna

Online payments innovator Klarna landed a strategic partnership along with a new round of funding this week. The Sweden-based company has partnered with fashion retailer H&M, which has invested $20 million in Klarna, bringing its total funding to almost $682 million.

Klarna, which is already partnering with retailers such as Ikea and ASOS, will work together with H&M to offer omni-channel payments, provide an in-app post-purchase service, and power payments for H&M’s digital loyalty program, H&M Club. As a result, millions of H&M customers across 14 countries will benefit from a simplified and more personalized payment experience. The retailer will go live with the U.K. and Sweden markets in 2019.

In the press release, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna said, “Customers will no longer be forgiving of unnecessary complexity or when their retail experience does not leverage the insight available to make their engagement smart, personal and easy. This partnership is rooted in a shared obsession about just how good that shopping experience should be. Together we have worked hard on developing a unique solution for instore and online that will delight customers, drive economic value, and build loyalty.”

According to TechCrunch, today’s round values Klarna “north of $2.5 billion.” The publication also seeded a rumor that Klarna has been considering going public to gain liquidity.

Founded in 2005, Klarna offers shoppers a range of options– pay at the point of sale, pay over time, or pay later. In addition to offering consumers more options, the payment variety helps businesses improve sales and Klarna’s online merchant portal helps them manage all of their payment and marketing tools from a single platform.

At FinovateSpring 2012, the company demonstrated its online payment-processing service. Klarna has formed a variety of merchant partnerships this year, and the company began 2018 with a partnership with ACI, in which the electronic payment solutions provider will enable online businesses to integrate Klarna’s payment products.

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Top Image Systems

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Top Image Systems
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2018, FinovateAsia 2018 Sneak Peek, Top Image Systems

FinovateAsiaA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.

Top Image Systems (TIS)’s eFLOW Intelligent Capture is designed to operate in high-volume situations, regardless the scale of most companies’ non-structured data capture challenges.

TIS’ eFLOW Intelligent Capture provides data extraction with machine learning, a branch of AI, and dynamic redaction – it helps companies thrive in the digital age.

Why it’s great
TIS’ eFLOW Intelligent Capture is able to manage the broadest collection of content formats and sources. Its configurable platform is able to address ever-changing business needs over time.

Presenters

Wei Hao Goh, Head, Technical Account Manager
Providing thought leadership to operation leaders across various industries, Goh leverages his expertise in intelligent document content capture and processing to help firms succeed on a global scale.
LinkedIn

Jimmy Chim, Technical Account Manager
With over seven years’ experience improving operational processes for firms across industries, Chim excels in planning strategic directions, while managing the implementation of complex solutions.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Rootant

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Rootant
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2018, FinovateAsia 2018 Sneak Peek, Rootant

FinovateAsiaA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.

Rootant empowers global financial institutions to transform to a cross-platform, easy-to-use, and user-friendly financial platform with applications and services that improve the end user experience.

Features

  • Various services: front-end replacement, application enhancement, gamification, workshop, and training
  • Various verticals: bank, broker, asset investment, and wealth management
  • Various presence: SH, HK, and SGP

Why it’s great
Rootant (Finance_Design+Tech+Global) provides better financial experience for clients.

Presenter

Lincoln Yin, CEO
Yin is a young entrepreneur who started Rootant at the age of 19. He is a member of the Global Shapers Community and a delegate of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ayondo, DepositBook, Ellie Mae, Entrust Datacard, eToro, Klarna, Roostify, Rootant, Top Image Systems, Tradeshift, Voca.ai

On Finovate.com

  • Klarna Rakes in $20 Million in Fall Funding Round

Around the web

  • Entrust Datacard named Employer of Excellence.
  • Ayondo expands B2B offering in Asia with a new white label deal.
  • Tradeshift appoints Silicon Valley veteran as its First CLO, CCO.
  • eToro cuts crypto costs to support mass adoption.
  • Roostify announces bidirectional integration with Ellie Mae’s Encompass digital mortgage 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.

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Voca.ai

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Voca.ai
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2018, FinovateAsia 2018 Sneak Peek, Voca.ai

FinovateAsiaA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.

Voca.ai is a human-friendly virtual agent supercharging contact centers. The Voca agent significantly reduces costs of call centers while increasing revenues.

Features

  • Personalization: adjusts tone, accent, and gender per the customer’s data
  • Customization: is customized to the business’ lingo and terminology
  • Scalability: can make 200 calls one day and 1 million the next

Why it’s great
Voca.ai is the only scalable way to reach out to your customers over the phone without losing the human touch.

Presenter

Einav Itamar, Investor, Director
Itamar is a serial tech entrepreneur with 12 years of experience in AI and big data.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: DepositBook

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: DepositBook
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: DepositBook, FinovateAsia 2018, FinovateAsia 2018 Sneak Peek

FinovateAsiaA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.

DepositBook is a wholesale deposit marketplace that connects institutional and corporate depositors with banks globally.

Features

  • Offers an open banking platform revolutionizing the wholesale deposits markets
  • Grants depositors access to special interest rates with one central account
  • Allows banks to raise liabilities at no additional costs

Why it’s great
DepositBook’s deposit marketplace creates a win-win for all stakeholders. Banks can raise funding with global depositors who discover the best rates and transact through a central account in a seamless manner.

Presenters

Siddharth Bhandari, CEO
Bhandari is the founder CEO of DepositBook. He has been a career banker for over 20 years, holding leadership positions globally. Bhandari has a Masters degree in Finance from the London School of Economics.
LinkedIn

Samir Rajpurkar, CTO and Co-founder
Rajpurkar has 25+ years of experience in banking and technology. He was formerly Regional Head of Technology at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), where he was responsible for managing technology services.
LinkedIn

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Student Loan Genius Relaunches as Vault

Student Loan Genius Relaunches as Vault
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Student Loan Genius, Vault

Fall has brought not only a change of season for student loan repayment benefits platform Student Loan Genius, it also marks a name change, as the company has rebranded as Vault this week.

“Vault was born out of the desire and ability to be more than a third-party financial technology service for organizations,” said Matt Beecher, CEO of Vault. “We solve a very real and increasingly suffocating financial problem that affects a large number of employees: student loan debt. And, we are willing to get down into the trenches to create results that give our clients an advantage in the marketplace. We’ve changed our name to reflect that we’ve honed our focus, more than ever, on empowering financial freedom.”

The rebrand also helps to differentiate Vault from a student loan refinancing platform with a name similar to its former one, Student Loan Hero.

The news comes as Vault closes a deal with American Family Insurance. The firm agreed to provide its employees with two of Vault’s offerings, Vault Pay, which facilitates employer student loan contributions; and Vault Advisor, an online tool that suggests customized payoff plans based on employees’ actual loans.

Vault was founded in 2013 and demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2016, where it showcased a 401(k) product that allows employers to allocate unused 401(k) dollars to student loan benefits. The offering launched this week under the name Vault Match. Headquartered in Texas, Vault has raised a total of $7.7 million.

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Lighter Capital Launches Capital Client Perks Program

Lighter Capital Launches Capital Client Perks Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Lighter Capital

Revenue-based financing provider Lighter Capital has brightened up its services today with the launch of a new perks program.

The Lighter Capital Client Perks, which bundles business tools and service offerings, launches today for startups funded by Lighter Capital. Customers can use the program for free and benefit from offers that add up to $75,000 in savings from 30 companies (including Finovate alum Gusto), more than 10% of which are Lighter Capital clients. Offerings include cloud hosting, HR services, marketing and sales automation, CRM, and more.

“We recognize that in today’s business environment, it takes more than money for tech startups to achieve success – so we’ve assembled a lineup of services specially catered to assist early-stage companies,” said BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. “Our goal is to help startups grow. We’d love it if companies can receive enough savings from these perks that they effectively pay us no interest on our loans. That’s a great benefit for everyone.”

Since it was founded in 2010, Seattle-based Lighter Capital  has funded more than 270 startup companies with 450+ rounds of financing totaling more than $125 million. Designed for tech companies, Lighter Capital’s revenue-based financing model exchanges from $50,000 to $2 million in up-front capital for 2% to 8% of future revenue. Unlike with VC funding, startups retain full ownership of their company.

Lighter Capital last demoed at FinovateFall 2013 where it showcased loan analysis and monitoring tools. The company was recently ranked 776 on the Inc. 5,000 list for achieving a growth rate of 6.5x over the last three years.

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Trustly Teams with Mintos Marketplace

Trustly Teams with Mintos Marketplace
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Trustly

Payment solutions company Trustly landed a new client in the peer-to-peer lending space this week. The Sweden-based company announced it has teamed up with Mintos, Europe’s largest P2P marketplace.

The collaboration will allow the almost-100,000 investors at the Latvia-based P2P platform to transfer funds from banks in 29 European countries in real time. Mintos anticipates the partnership will not only simplify but also speed up the process for investors.

In a statement, Mintos CEO and co-founder Martins Sulte commented on the importance of offering “fast and highly secure transfers” and meeting investors’ demand “for a seamless, fast, and simple user experience.” He added, “We are very pleased to be able to grow our offer with both an in-demand payment method and the unrivaled European coverage that Trustly provides.”

Johan Nord, Trustly CCO, discussed the value of synergies within fintech. He said that today’s partnership with Mintos “is an excellent example of how two financial technology businesses can partner to create value for investors by streamlining the transaction process, while also delivering the highest level of transaction security.”

Founded in 2008, Trustly supports card-not-present payments for online merchants and offers a secure way for consumers to transact using their online banking access credentials. At FinovateEurope 2017, the company debuted Direct Debit, a payment offering that removes the pain of entering payment card information by allowing users to transact using their current account by entering their bank login credentials.

Trustly works with more than 3,000 banks across Europe. The company has 215 employees across Sweden, Spain, Malta, Germany, and the U.K. Last month, the company teamed with proptech company Oscar Properties to help clients book and pay for their new apartment online.

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MX to Power Ent Credit Union’s Money Insight Tool

MX to Power Ent Credit Union’s Money Insight Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: MX

Financial data expert MX landed a new Colorado-based client this week. Ent Credit Union will integrate MX’s digital money management (DMM) technology into its Money Insight tool.

DMM gathers and augments the data, then presents financial insights to clients to help them better manage their money and meet their financial goals. Money Insight allows users not only to track their accounts at Ent Credit Union, but it also aggregates their account information from other financial institutions, allowing them to have a unified view of finances in a single place.

Ent’s more than 300,000 members, who can access the tool for free, can also use DMM to track spending, manage debt, and create budgets. Describing the mission of the tool, Ent’s VP of Electronic Banking, Tanan Miles, said, “It’s just one more way we’re delivering on our credit union’s mission to improve our members’ financial quality of life.”

“…We’re basically helping people get to know their finances better than their Amazon shopping cart,” said Nate Gardner, chief customer officer at MX. “…We know financial clarity and guidance are key to delighting members. The MX data platform gives Ent powerful tools that make that happen – increasing member loyalty while driving profitable growth,” he added.

MX was founded in 2010 and is partnered with more than 1,800 financial institutions and 43 of the top 50 digital banking providers. Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX is a six-time Finovate Best of Show winner, having most recently presented at FinovateFall 2017, where it demoed Discovered Accounts.

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Agreement Express Signs Deal with Independent Financial Partners

Agreement Express Signs Deal with Independent Financial Partners
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Agreement Express

Account onboarding specialist Agreement Express recently inked a large contract with Florida-based Independent Financial Partners (IFP).

The deal comes in advance of IFP launching its broker-dealer technology that will allow advisors to run their business on their own. IFP will leverage Agreement Express’ Automated Broker Transitions platform. The technology will enable advisors to digitally pre-populate new account forms. Once clients sign the form and it has been approved by the compliance team, the account will automatically be opened at one of IFP’s four custodians: Pershing, Charles Schwab, Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. Overall, Agreement Express will help transition clients in a matter of days instead of months, will provide a complete audit trail, and will minimize human form-filling errors.

“Generally, hybrid RIAs don’t have the latitude or financials to be able to implement expensive technologies that otherwise would positively impact advisors’ businesses,” said IFP CEO William Hamm. “On the other hand, independent broker-dealers not only have control of their own destiny, but they are also able to better control and enhance their revenue lines. As such, IFP has been able to invest in systems to support the advisor experience we’ve always wanted to provide.”

Founded in 2001, Agreement Express helps financial services companies create and manage a consistent onboarding experience across channels, as well as leverage consumer data to create a personalized user experience. In addition to its Automated Broker Transitions Platform, the company also offers Risk Scorecard for Payments Underwriting and One-Click Merchant Onboarding.

At FinovateFall 2016, Agreement Express debuted the newest version of its wealth management offering, an onboarding solution that helps advisers interact with clients in a nonintrusive, compliant manner. Earlier this spring, the company received an undisclosed amount of funding, boosting its total to more than $1 million. Among the company’s clients are National Bank of Canada, Questrade, and M&T Bank. Mike Gardner is CEO.

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: UNPay

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: UNPay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2018, FinovateAsia 2018 Sneak Peek, UNPay

FinovateAsiaA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.

UNPay’s UN Smart Cashier integrates functions of a retail cashier and dynamic advertisements on one platform. It can optimize sales processes and aggregate e-marketing services.

Features

  • Leverages facial recognition by scanning the customer and showing gender-appropriate ads
  • Uses Face ID-associated accounts for payments and loyalty points
  • Processes a myriad of payment modes

Why it’s great
Enables businesses to showcase gender-appropriate advertisements to maximize sales. It also links to associated accounts for payments and loyalty points for enhanced convenience.

Presenters

Yulong Hu, Co-Founder
Hu is a serial entrepreneur in entertainment, electronic commerce, and payment industries and is the founder of the first domestic electronic coupon platform, “LuckyMoney.”

Ernest Lo, Singapore Country Manager
Lo is a veteran in e-payments and holds a MSc in Telecommunications from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
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