Chain Rebrands to Interstellar Following Acquisition

Chain Rebrands to Interstellar Following Acquisition

Earlier this year, we reported that cryptographic ledger company Chain was in talks to be acquired by blockchain technology platform Stellar. Today, Chain announced that the deal has been finalized, and that it is retiring the Chain brand and rebranding to Interstellar.

Interstellar brings Chain together with Lightyear, which Stellar launched in 2017 to design and develop the Stellar protocol and create an open source reference for the Stellar network. Interstellar leverages Lightyear’s functionality and blends it with Chain’s enterprise products and customer base. Combined the two companies offer a platform that makes it easier for large enterprises to build on Stellar.

Adam Ludwin, who has served as CEO of Chain since the company’s launch in 2014, will transition to the role of Interstellar CEO. “Chain has admired Stellar for years, and from day one we’ve shared their goal of enabling financial assets to move seamlessly over the internet,” said Ludwin. “Chain has worked from inside the enterprise while Stellar has focused on the network between organizations. As a single team we will have a complete view and set of capabilities to make value-over-IP a reality.”

Chain’s product offerings will become part of Interstellar’s product portfolio. The portfolio will also include StellarX, a marketplace where users can trade assets on Stellar.

Interstellar will be headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York and San Francisco. The new organization will employ 60 people. Jed McCaleb, founder of Stellar, will serve as Interstellar CTO.

Ludwin showcased at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015, where he gave a presentation titled, The Blockchain Is Eating Financial Services. Earlier this year, Forbes listed Chain on its Fintech 50 roster that highlights the top private fintechs that have operations, customers, or impact in the U.S. Before its acquisition, Chain had raised more than $43 million from notable investors including Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Nasdaq, Visa, Citi Ventures, and Thrive Capital.

CAN Capital Receives $287 Million Financing Facility

CAN Capital Receives $287 Million Financing Facility

Small business lending solution company CAN Capital has accepted a $287 million financing facility from alternative asset manager Varadero Capital. This marks the second time Varadero Capital has facilitated funds for the New York-based company.

CAN Capital plans to use the funds to support growth, invest in talent and technology, and enhance the customer experience. “We look forward to utilizing this funding to expand our ability to provide access to capital for small businesses, enhance our technology stack, and continue to build a dedicated, customer-driven team,” said Parris Sanz, CEO of CAN Capital.

Additionally, the company reached a milestone this week, having provided small businesses access to more than $7 billion in funding through 190,000+ transactions. “Reaching $7 billion in working capital is a significant milestone for us. We are excited to use our deep experience and data to enable even more small business owners to grow with streamlined access to capital,” Sanz added.

Founded in 1998, CAN Capital has helped 81,000 small businesses ranging from restaurants to auto repair shops by offering capital for them to open new locations, purchase equipment, hire employees, and more. The company last demoed at FinovateFall 2013, where it showed off its mobile funding solution. Earlier this year, CAN Capital appointed Tom Davidson as Chief Financial Officer.

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: SaleMove

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: SaleMove

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

SaleMove helps companies identify the highest-value visitors in real-time; communicate with them using chat, audio, or video; and guide them through inquiries with cobrowsing and screensharing technology.

Features

  • Identify your highest-value customers
  • Communicate with clients using anything from chat to phone to video
  • Engage with customers by collaborating with cobrowsing and screen sharing technology

Why its great
SaleMove creates the most elegant online interactions between a business and their customers.

Presenter

Dan Michaeli, Co-Founder and CEO
Michaeli is the CEO and co-founder of SaleMove and is the driving force behind its mission to meet or exceed the in-person customer experience online. He is originally from Guatemala and is a proud UPenn grad.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Simpler Trading

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Simpler Trading

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

Simpler Trading’s Simpler Charts is an easy-to-navigate charting platform that equips traders with the tools they need while lowering the barrier to entry for trading education.

Features

  • One-click access to moderator’s charts in trading room
  • Push notifications for entry/exit triggers predetermined by the user
  • Customizable integrated trading journal

Why it’s great
Combining the tool’s easily-navigated interface and explanatory pop-ups with Simpler Trading’s educational content lets traders consistently and confidently put what they’ve learned into practice.

Presenters

John Carter, CEO, President
Carter, a life-long trader and the author of Mastering the Trade, has combined his passion for trading and helping others to create Simpler Trading.
LinkedIn

Fred Bryant, COO
Bryant has a diverse business background with experience advising top executives of small and newly-established businesses on how to create, grow and maintain their enterprises.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Digital Onboarding

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Digital Onboarding

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

Digital Onboarding helps banks and credit unions turn account holders into engaged and profitable relationships by making it easy for customers and members to adopt account-related services.

Features
The platform’s E.W.E. machine learning capability helps marketers automatically test and discover the most effective message cadence, content, and incentive offers to drive optimum performance.

Why it’s great
While most marketers say that they are not using most marketing automation system features effectively, the Digital Onboarding platform is designed to to be simple and cost efficient.

Presenters

Ted Brown, CEO
Brown cofounded Digital Onboarding after leading sales at Andera, a company that first made it possible to open deposit accounts online. (Andera was acquired by Bottomline in 2014).
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Jonathan Crossman, CTO
Before cofounding Digital Onboarding, Crossman gained more than a decade of experience working in web and mobile development for companies like Digication and DePuy Synthes.
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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: MuniRisk

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: MuniRisk

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

MuniRisk is an application available via the Bloomberg terminal designed to address the longstanding issue of information fragmentation in the municipal marketplace.

Features

  • Strategically aligned with Bloomberg L.P.
  • World’s largest municipal finance database
  • Designed by industry-recognized market practitioners

Why it’s great
MuniRisk is the only platform that provides investors with complete municipal market coverage, leveraging proprietary organization and delivery of data to cut research time from hours to minutes.

Presenters

James Frischling, Chief Executive Officer
Frischling is currently serving as the chief executive officer of MuniRisk. In addition to his role at MuniRisk, Frischling serves as president of NewOak Capital which he co-founded in 2008.
LinkedIn

Joshua Noble, Head of Product
Noble is currently serving as head of product for MuniRisk. Prior to joining MuniRisk full time he spent 2.5 years as an analyst in NewOak Capital’s Fundamental Credit Advisory Practice.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: ieDigital

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: ieDigital

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

ieDigital provides financial institutions with the ability to transform their digital customer experience through Interact, a powerful digital banking platform.

Features

  • Manage spending habits
  • Save money and contribute to your community
  • Build deeper customer relationships

Why it’s great
Money Fitness will help you save money and contribute directly to good causes in your own neighborhood.

Presenters

Simon Cadbury, Director of Strategy, Marketing and Product
Last time Cadbury came to New York, he was mistaken for Hugh Grant. We think he secretly hopes it will happen again.
LinkedIn

Tom Stinton, Head of Product and Design
Stinton says: “If Simon looks like Hugh Grant, then I’m surely a dead ringer for action hero Jason Statham.” Only your hairline is expendable, Stinton.
LinkedIn

What Happens When a Lending Platform Goes Under?

What Happens When a Lending Platform Goes Under?

You’ve heard by now that short-term lending platform Wonga has shut down after launching in 2007. All drama aside, the scenario offers a real-life look at what would happen if a large payday lender closed its doors.

Wonga has received an increase in complaints over the past few years that it did not sufficiently verify that borrowers were able to repay their loans. These complaints, which were generally regarding loans made before new rules were introduced in 2014, lead to a large rise in compensation payouts. According to Wonga’s website, more than 24,800 complaints have been opened, 22,000 have been closed, 31% of which have been upheld.

This unexpected expense lead to financial trouble that prompted an injection of $13 million in capital earlier this year. Despite the funds and efforts from investors, Wonga’s financial situation remains untenable. Notably, two other U.K. startups, Cash Genie and Cheque Centre, both closed due to similar pressure.

At this point, three appointees from Grant Thornton U.K., Chris Laverty, Daniel Smith, and Andrew Charters, have been appointed as joint administrators of Wonga. Here’s what will follow:

  • The platform is closed to new lending activity.
  • Borrowers must still repay loans.
  • Unless Wonga has already agreed to pay a claim, complaint claims are not likely to be paid out, since the recipient is seen as an unsecured creditor.
  • The administrators will wind down the business, sell the assets, and begin identifying all creditors in accordance with their obligations.

This may end up having a small negative effect on peer-to-peer lenders, such as U.K.-based Zopa and U.S. based Lending Club, as they rely on balancing investor funds with borrower demand. If too many investors fear a shutdown, they may be more hesitant to lend, making it more difficult for the platforms to meet borrower demand.

Founded by Errol Damelin, Jonty Hurwitz, Wonga demonstrated at FinovateFall 2010. The company had raised a total of $159 million. Sky News reported earlier this year that the company “once had ambitions of a New York listing that could have valued it at well over $1 billion (£769m).”

Standard Chartered Pilots Blockchain-Based Trade Guarantees

Standard Chartered Pilots Blockchain-Based Trade Guarantees

You’ve heard of smart contracts–but what about smart guarantees? That’s what London-based banking giant Standard Chartered is setting out to do: leverage the blockchain to alter the traditionally paper-intensive process of trade finance guarantees.

The bank has partnered with the financing arm of Siemens and digital trade provider TradeIX to fully digitize trade finance, from the initiation of the guarantee to the handling of the claim. For its part, Siemens will digitize its entire guarantee process.

Michael Bueker, chief financial officer at Siemens called this move toward digitalization “an important step.” He added, “Especially at Siemens, as a digitalisation pioneer, this move is part of our strategic mission of going digital in all arenas. This will streamline our processes and make our trade finance operations smoother, faster, and more efficient.”

The project, which leverages the Corda Distributed Ledger and runs on the TradeIX application layer, launched in March. The group anticipates it will be fully completed by the end of this year. According to GTR, the bulk of the project will take place in the UAE, primarily with government entities.

Standard Chartered demonstrated at FinovateFall 2010. Earlier this year, the bank announced plans to apply for a virtual banking license in Hong Kong. Standard Chartered employs more than 86,000 people across 125 countries and has been in business for more than 150 years.

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Launchfire

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Launchfire

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

Launchfire helps financial institutions drive digital adoption. It will be presenting its new game-based platform, Lemonade, which helps turn frontline staff into digital advocates.

Features

  • Quickly bring frontline staff up-to-speed on new digital products
  • Increase staff confidence using and recommending products to customers
  • Support both staff and customers with product simulations

Why it’s great
Lemonade gives frontline staff the knowledge, tools, and confidence they need to promote and support your digital products.

Presenter

Romeo Maione, Program Designer & Strategist
Maione spent six years as an international debater, becoming North American Champ in 2012. Now he helps FIs increase adoption of their digital products, as program designer and strategist at Launchfire.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: CrediVia

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: CrediVia

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

CrediVia is launching an online marketplace for smarter, simpler, faster commercial real estate loans, initially focused on the hospitality segment.

Features

  • Efficiently captures complete, accurate commercial real estate loan application data
  • Connects single loan requests to multiple viable lenders
  • Provides reports and analytics for faster loan decisioning and approval

Why it’s great
CrediVia is establishing new standards for the way to credit CRE loans. Its platform identifies the story behind lender and borrower needs, producing lasting relationships.

Presenters

Anuj N. Mittal, CEO and Co-Founder
Mittal’s personal frustrations as both a borrower and banker inspired CrediVia. His vision is to eliminate the broken, impersonal financing that strains lender-borrower relationships and delays funding.
LinkedIn

Ajay Jain, Ph.D., Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder
Jain champions CrediVia’s product innovation and development. His 20+ years of experience includes building multiple commercial software applications for a startup that was successfully acquired.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Tolerisk

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Tolerisk

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 24 through 26, 2018 in New York. Register today and save your spot.

Tolerisk pioneered two-dimensional risk assessment and is now introducing Tolerisk 401(k), a tool allowing advisors to provide custom financial planning advice in minutes, not hours.

Features

  • Offers deep analytics and a simple user interface
  • Creates a custom glide path for participant’s asset allocation
  • Eliminates the need for generic target date funds

Why it’s great
Through better technology, advisors can provide 401(k) participants with custom financial planning and investment advice without raising fees or wasting time.

Presenter
Mark Friedenthal, Founder and CEO
Friedenthal combined his experience as a regulator, institutional risk manager and RIA executive to create Tolerisk, the paradigm in fiduciary risk tolerance and planning.