Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Experian, Finicity, Finn.ai, Handle Financial, Lending Club, LendStreet, LendUp, Moven, Newchip, P2BInvestor, PayPal, Simility, Simple, Touché, Veridium, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • PayPal Acquires Simility for $120 Million.
  • Finovate Favorites: A Baker’s Dozen of Best of Show Winners.
  • Touché, OCBC Bank Bring Fingerprint Authentication to In-Person Commerce.
  • P2Binvestor Earns $17+ Million in Funding.
  • Veridium Earns $150,000 Grant.
  • Newchip Lands $2 Million in Seed Funding.

Around the web

  • Experian secures FCA accreditation to supply Open Banking and PSD2 services.
  • Finn AI is the latest fintech to join Temenos Marketplace.
  • CFSI names financial health leaders: Envestnet | Yodlee, Finicity, Handle Financial, Lendstreet, Lend Up, Lending Club, Moven, and Simple.

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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NTT Data Appoints Bob Pryor as CEO

NTT Data Appoints Bob Pryor as CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: NTT Data

Tokyo-based consulting and software development firm NTT Data appointed a new CEO this week. The company selected Bob Pryor to take the place of John McCain.

McCain served as CEO since 2010 and was named the company’s new Executive Chairman in April. He will serve on the Board of Directors for NTT Data Corporation.

Pryor, who has been with the company since 2016, steps into the role of CEO after serving most recently as COO. Regarding Pryor’s performance, McCain said, “As COO, Bob played an essential role in setting this strong foundation, including the successful integration of the former Dell Services, and he will do a great job as CEO leading this company and our clients into the future.”

In his new position, Pryor will oversee business operations and is tasked with driving growth. He will also serve on the NTT DATA Services Board of Directors. “We will continue to operate with a client-first approach to advance our clients’ digital agendas, while focusing on operating efficiently and delivering the solutions that drive sustained growth,” Pryor said in the press release.

Founded in 1988, NTT Data has 110,000+ employees across Japan, the Americas, EMEA, APAC, and China. Earlier this month, the company acquired DevOps firms MagenTys to complement its existing digital transformation capabilities. At FinovateSpring earlier this year, NTT Data demoed Tready, a social community investment platform.

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Luxoft Acquires Smashing Ideas

Luxoft Acquires Smashing Ideas
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Luxoft, Mergers & Acquisitions

Software development company Luxoft announced this week it acquired a Seattle-based innovation agency called Smashing Ideas. The Switzerland-based company acquired Smashing Ideas from book publisher Penguin Random House, which purchased the company in 2011, for an undisclosed amount. Today’s deal marks Luxoft’s 10th acquisition.

Luxoft made the purchase to bolster its digital research, strategy, and design capabilities and is expected to support Luxoft’s Digital Transformation arm, Luxoft Digital. It will also expand Smashing Ideas’ range of services and offer it the infrastructure needed to serve a more global client base. “This allows us to bring products to market faster,” added Smashing Ideas CEO Brian Burke. “Luxoft’s deep technical expertise in blockchain, IoT, and machine learning amplifies the enterprise scale we can provide. Together, we look forward to being a true innovation partner to our clients’ organizations.”

“Our commitment to helping revolutionize the technology offerings of our clients is more evident than ever with our acquisition of Smashing Ideas,” said Dmitry Loschinin, CEO and President of Luxoft. “Luxoft prides itself on being a value-added provider that is focused on technical strategy and implementation. This move further extends our capabilities into design and business strategy, allowing us to provide even more value to our strategic client partners.”

Luxoft is a publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:LXFT) with a current market cap of $1.2 billion. At FinovateFall 2014, the company debuted Horizon, a data visualization framework for banking executives. Founded in 2000, Luxoft has more than 12,900 employees in 21 countries. Earlier this spring, the company partnered with Softbank Robotics America to build the software to enable individuals and companies to engage with Softbank’s robot, Pepper. Last fall, Luxoft acquired wealth management consultancy UNAFORTIS.

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Hyperwallet Sells to PayPal for $400 Million

Hyperwallet Sells to PayPal for $400 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Hyperwallet, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayPal

Eighteen years after its launch, merchant payout platform Hyperwallet is receiving a payout of its own, to the tune of $400 million. The California-based company sold to payments pioneer PayPal this week, marking PayPal’s fifth acquisition in the past two years and its 16th total.

Hyperwallet helps businesses with mass payouts for earnings, commissions, and royalties payments and is best known for supporting payments in the gig economy. Some of the company’s more notable clients include HomeAway, Tilr, and Scentsy. In a blog post, Hyperwallet CEO Brent Warrington said, “Combining forces with PayPal will not just enhance our payout solutions but enable us to provide an integrated suite of payment capabilities to ecommerce platforms and marketplaces almost anywhere in the world.”

PayPal already has a solid foothold in the mass payout market, serving players such as Uber, Airbnb, and eBay. However, the company notes the acquisition will help it provide PayPal and Braintree merchants with “a comprehensive payments solution, including Hyperwallet’s localized, multi-currency payment distribution capabilities in more than 200 markets with numerous disbursement options, including prepaid card, bank account, debit card, cash pickup, check, and PayPal.”

The deal is expected to close in Q4 of this year. After the acquisition is finalized, the Hyperwallet team will report to Braintree General Manager Juan Benitez.

Hyperwallet most recently presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, where Bill Crowley, Chief Product Officer, and Blair Olynyk, Software Architect, gave a presentation titled, Pay the Planet: Implementing Frictionless Global Payout Distribution. Earlier this spring, Hyperwallet teamed up with Lyric Financial to bring advance royalty payments to artists. Last December, the company opened its first Asia Pacific office in Australia and soon after began offering disbursements from Amazon’s Australia marketplace.

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Risk Ident to Help Universum Protect Retailers from Fraud

Risk Ident to Help Universum Protect Retailers from Fraud
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Risk Ident

Anti-fraud solutions provider Risk Ident has teamed up with Universum this week to strengthen risk evaluation capabilities for Universum’s clients.

As part of the agreement Universum will leverage Risk Ident’s FRIDA, a self-learning anti-fraud technology. FRIDA automatically analyzes individual transactions to establish relationships between transactions and quickly identify fraudulent connections. Retailers’ fraud managers receive an overview of flagged transactions, marking potential fraudulent activities, within seconds.

Universum will also deploy Risk Ident’s DEVICE IDENT, device fingerprinting technology that analyzes consumers’ devices and identifies fraudulent correlations with their use in real time. Retailers integrate DEVICE IDENT into the checkout page on their website and can quickly take action when the system notifies them of potential fraudulent activity.

“We are really looking forward to future cooperation. Above all, our retailers will benefit from this partnership: Risk Ident is the market leader in the fraud prevention sector, and will help improve the Universum Group’s risk evaluation,” said Ralf Linden, managing director of sales & marketing of the Universum Group.

Risk Ident was founded in 2012 by Roberto Valerio, who demoed EVE, the company’s evaluation engine, at FinovateEurope 2016. EVE is a standalone software application that offers machine learning-powered risk management technology that detects connections between transactions and previously unidentified fraud scenarios. Risk Ident is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany and Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier this year, the company was recognized as the Best Financial Transaction Security Company at the 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Awards.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Conversation.one, Dorsum, Flywire, NuData Security, Ondot, Ondot Systems, Prosper, Risk Ident, Standard Chartered Bank, ThetaRay, Tuition.io, unblu, Wealthify, YellowDog, Yoyo

On Finovate.com

  • Risk Ident to Help Universum Protect Retailers from Fraud.
  • Dorsum Unveils My Wealth Mobile App.
  • Ondot Introduces Digital Card Services Platform.

Around the web

  • NuData Security named a “Top 100 in Tech” by Business in Vancouver.
  • ThetaRay wins ATMIA’s Next Generation ATM Security Award.
  • Tuition.io to power student loan repayment benefits for Hulu employees.
  • Standard Chartered Bank announces intentions to apply for the virtual banking license.
  • Conversation.one is Amazon Alexa-Certified for Financial Institutions.
  • Flywire and UnionPay Partner to Take the Cost Out of Cross-Border Payments from China.
  • Yoyo introduces quarterly tracker to monitor customer activity in closed catering environments.
  • U.K.-based Business Leader magazine features Wealthify and YellowDog among its 32 South West Tech Businesses That Are Shaping the Future spotlight.
  • Unblu opens offices in London.

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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rplan Acquired for $20 Million

rplan Acquired for $20 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, rplan

Client engagement technology provider rplan revealed a plan of its own this week. The U.K.-based company has been acquired by InvestCloud for $20 million.

rplan offers API-based technology to help investment firms, especially heavily regulated companies in international markets, support their clients. The company counts four of the top eight institutional asset managers in the U.K. as clients and will now be available to InvestCloud’s client base of more than 700 firms, including some of the largest financial institutions in North America.

John Wise, chairman and CEO of InvestCloud, said that institutional asset management is an “important and growing segment for InvestCloud.” Wise also noted he will leverage rplan to grow InvestCloud’s direct-to-consumer and digital product channels. “They truly complement the InvestCloud Digital Platform and will bolster our successes in this space,” Wise added. rplan Director Andy Creak said that combining InvestCloud’s financial resources with the rplan solution and industry knowledge will help the company “dominate” the direct-to-consumer market across the globe.

rplan was founded in 2011. At FinovateEurope 2013, Creak, along with CPO Nick Curry, demoed the rplan portfolio builder, which helps users create an investment portfolio based on key criteria such as goals and risk. Since then, the company has launched an online course providing education on the fundamentals of investing and introduced a simple, transparent pricing structure.

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AI Foundry Overhauls Agile Mortgages Solution

AI Foundry Overhauls Agile Mortgages Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AI Foundry

Data insights company AI Foundry has been doing a bit of spring cleaning lately. The latest revamp comes in the form of the new version of its Agile Mortgages solution unveiled this week.

The updated version includes a new user interface; a mortgage document library with automatic document classification and data extraction capabilities; LOS First, a loan origination system connection with Ellie Mae’s Encompass; a document checklist; and Audit First, a loan quality checker that ensures loans move quickly through underwriting.

“Our new solution capabilities, especially the LOS First connector, puts AI Foundry in a leading market position with the most comprehensive digital mortgage solution for mortgage origination,” said Alan Swahn, vice president of marketing at AI Foundry. “We are taking mortgage automation to the next level by providing an out-of-the-box solution that cuts the time from UAT to high-volume production with consistent results. Our new Audit First module finds data or document quality issues upfront in the process, before they become expensive problems to fix later.”

Sid Probstein, CTO & VP Professional Services, and Alla Eizenberg, Solution Architect, presenting AI Foundry’s Agile Mortgages at FinovateSpring 2018

Headquartered in Massachusetts, AI Foundry offers solutions to help streamline and automate lending, mortgage, and banking processes. The company showcased Agile Mortgages at FinovateSpring 2018. In January, CIO Review named AI Foundry among the 20 most promising enterprise information management solution providers in 2017.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AI Foundry, Coinbase, Daon, Dorsum, Entersekt, eToro, First Data, Insuritas, Jack Henry, Klarna, Mambu, MasterCard, MX, PaySend, Prosper, Revolut, rplan

On Finovate.com

  • Daon Partners with Tradelink to Bring Biometrics to Dah Sing Bank.
  • AI Foundry Overhauls Agile Mortgages Solution.

Around the web

  •  Klarna partners with EMaC, a U.K. automotive service plan provider, for a drive now, pay later service.
  •  Paysend triples its customer base over the last 6 months.
  • eToro announces that clients can now invest directly in shares on the platform.
  • MX appoints Ben Holzman, a former managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, as new COO.
  • TechCrunch: Coinbase opens its crypto index fund to accredited U.S. investors.
  • Langley FCU to deploy Symitar Episys core processing platform from Jack Henry & Associates.
  • Mambu announces new board member, former SAP CEO, Henning Kagermann.
  • Revolut partners with Cyprus-based telecommunications company, PrimeTel.
  • First Data and Mastercard collaborate on a digital disbursement platform for business customers.
  • Entersekt opens new office in Atlanta, Georgia to support the company’s growth in North America.
  • The Open Bank Project collaborates with Citizens Bank on innovation event.
  • First National Bank Texas ($1.8B Assets) selects Insuritas to power turnkey insurance agency.
  • Prosper resumes operations for Montana residents

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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Kinetica Taps Dell for Hardware

Kinetica Taps Dell for Hardware
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Kinetica

Data insights company Kinetica expanded on its partnership with Dell EMC this week. The two have collaborated to offer a bundled solution to help clients quickly gather actionable insights from raw data.

Dell EMC, part of Dell Technologies, collaborated with Kinetica to create a data platform that handles– as Kinetica calls it– “extreme data.” These large and complex data sets require more computing performance, which will be powered by Dell PowerEdge servers. Ron Pugh, vice president and general manager for the Americas at Dell EMC OEM Solutions said, “We are excited to collaborate with Kinetica to deliver a solution that offers massive amounts of additional computing performance for real-time streaming data, machine learning and geospatial visualization of enterprise workloads.”

Kinetica’s GPU-accelerated insight engine will focus on the software side to analyze massive sets of data in real-time. Paul Appleby, Kinetica CEO said, “Previously, in the manufacturing economy data was used for business validation; as we evolved to the service economy, data was used to make informed decisions; and, now, in the extreme data economy our business is powered by data. Dell, NVIDIA and Kinetica are combining forces to provide enterprises with the freedom to analyze data whenever it is most valuable and gain instant insights that revolutionize the way they do business.”

Since it was founded in 2009, Kinetica has raised $63 million in funding from Canvas Ventures, Citi Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, and Meritech Capital Partners. At FinovateEurope 2018, the company showcased its GPU-Accelerated In-Memory Database. At the start of this year, Kinetica partnered with UClick to launch solutions in South Korea and in April it earned a spot on the insideBIGDATA IMPACT 50 list.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: InComm, Kinetica, PayPal, PayStand, Revolut, Trulioo, WorkFusion

On Finovate.com

  • Kinetica Taps Dell for Hardware.

Around the web

  • Workfusion announces Smart Process Automation 9.0 — the newest evolution of its flagship AI-powered RPA software.
  • Trulioo and Acuant join forces on AML/KYC Compliance.
  • SnapCar and Revolut team up to offer instant payouts to SnapCar drivers (in French).
  • InComm achieves HITRUST CSF Certification to mitigate security and compliance risk.
  • Glassdoor lists PayPal as one of 20 companies that champion LGBTQ equality hiring.

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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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Bpm'online, Ephesoft, Experian, Finastra, Horizn, NDGIT, PayNearMe, Tango Card

On Finovate.com

  • Avoka Unveils Springboard Deposit Account Opening Solution.
  • German Banking Software Provider NDGIT Raises $4.7 Million in Series A Round.

Around the web

  • Experian unveils MarketingConnect platform.
  • Tango Card partners with Alvin Healthcare.
  • PayNearMe allows LimeBike riders to pay in cash.
  • Finastra integrates Optimal Blue into its Fusion MortgagebotPOS solution.
  • bpm’online wins Company of the Year award from American Business Awards for third year in a row.
  • Horizn takes top honors at Digital Banking 2018 American Banker conference.
  • Latest version of Quest Diagnostics’ content management solution features Smart Capture technology from Ephesoft.

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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