Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

LendingTree Launches Free Credit Monitoring

LendingTree Launches Free Credit Monitoring
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: LendingTree

Online loan marketplace LendingTree is expanding its horizons today. The North Carolina-based company introduced a free credit monitoring service for members of My LendingTree, a financial intelligence platform launched in 2014.

Through a partnership with TransUnion, LendingTree monitors credit profiles of My LendingTree’s 7 million enrolled users on a daily basis and notifies them of any changes within 30 minutes of the report activity. Users with the LendingTree mobile app will be alerted of changes via a push notification. Upon receiving a credit notification, users can confirm or dispute the activity within the My LendingTree platform.

“LendingTree empowers consumers with the information they need to feel more confident in their financial decision making,” said Charles Battle, LendingTree’s Senior Director of Product Management. “By adding free credit monitoring to My LendingTree, we’re making it even easier for consumers to manage their credit and monitor their financial health.”

This new offering falls outside of LendingTree’s core competency as a loan match-maker. However, it helps create a relationship with consumers who may not be shopping for a loan but may be looking to borrow in the future.

Since it was founded in 1998, LendingTree has facilitated more than 65 million loan requests. The company went public on the NASDAQ in 2000 and was acquired by InterActiveCorp (IAC) in 2003. At FinovateSpring 2015 the company debuted My LendingTree, a personalization platform with a dashboard to view all credit-related accounts.

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Currencycloud Helps Businesses Extend Global Reach

Currencycloud Helps Businesses Extend Global Reach
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud

International payments platform Currencycloud is empowering businesses to tap into the global economy with its new offering, Global Collections, a multi-currency accounts receivable product.

With Global Collections, banks and payment companies can offer their clients a low-fee cross-border payment acceptance tool that is faster and has less friction than traditional offerings. The new capability allows businesses in the U.S. or E.U. to generate international bank account numbers (IBANs) and Virtual Account Numbers (VANs) so they can receive U.S. dollars or Euros without incurring fees. In other words, businesses can get paid in foreign currencies as if they were operating their business locally.

Neil Ambiker, CEO of payments company B2B Pay, said, “[Global Collections] does so much more than streamline account receivables. It has empowered us to provide customers a frictionless experience, foster trust in our brand and most importantly, grow at an international level.”

While Currencycloud has always offered the ability to send funds, the collections capability is new. Todd Latham, Currencycloud CMO and Head of Product described the move as a “natural next step.” He added, “This launch is a revolution in collections and provides the infrastructure needed to fast track B2B innovation, allowing companies to go global while acting local.”

Currencycloud will roll out Global Collections later this month.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, Currencycloud most recently presented at FinovateFall 2016 where it debuted its Payment Engine. Earlier this month, the company was named an “outstanding place to work,” and last June was listed in CB Insights’ Fintech 250.

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Your Sneak Peek into FinovateSpring Begins Next Week

Your Sneak Peek into FinovateSpring Begins Next Week
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek

Spring is officially here and it’s time for a fresh look at the dozens of companies that will take the stage at FinovateSpring at the Santa Clara Convention Center on May 8 through 11. New this year, we’ve expanded the show to four to include discussions and analyses of a range of fintech topics.

If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time to save on your ticket.

Your sneak peek into the demos

Finovate’s demo-only format will take center stage on the first two days, highlighting a range of fintech startups who will demo their newest offerings.

To get ready for what’s to come, we’re featuring a series of sneak peeks of some of the demoing companies. Stay tuned on the blog throughout the next few weeks as we reveal what each company is working on and why it’s worth paying attention to. As FinovateSpring draws near, we’ll also highlight notable speakers and keynote addresses that will take place later on in the conference.

For more of what to expect, check out the agenda, view the list of demoing companies, and plan your visit.

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Hyperwallet’s Partnership with Lyric Brings Advance Royalty Payments to Artists

Hyperwallet’s Partnership with Lyric Brings Advance Royalty Payments to Artists
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Hyperwallet

Mass payout platform Hyperwallet has teamed up with Lyric Financial, a financial services provider specializing in royalty advances and loans for musical artists.

In the press release, Hyperwallet CEO Brent Warrington explained that recording artists face a struggle of income unpredictability. “Our job as a global payout platform is to help change the way these folks get paid, ultimately ensuring financially vulnerable workers have quick, efficient, and secure access to their earnings, whenever and wherever they need them,” he added.

Hyperwallet’s payout solution is scalable and allows users to get paid in real-time. This is valuable to Lyric clients, who will benefit from faster, more efficient royalty payment advances that help smooth out irregular and delayed payouts for their work. “Powering our royalty payment disbursement platform with Hyperwallet has not just improved the speed of distribution, but has also further increased visibility into the process for our payees,” said Eli Ball, Lyric Financial CEO.

Since Hyperwallet facilitates low-cost bank transfers across almost a dozen countries, including India, Russia, Brazil, and Indonesia, the partnership will also help Lyric support its growing roster of global clients. Ball added, “It’s reassuring knowing that the Hyperwallet network can easily enable us to expand our local payouts across 100+ countries quickly and easily.”

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. Last December, Hyperwallet began supporting payouts from Amazon’s Australia marketplace. Hyperwallet was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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SumUp Facilitates Cashless Donations for the Church of England

SumUp Facilitates Cashless Donations for the Church of England
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: SumUp

Mobile payments company SumUp is making it easier for church congregations to donate thanks to a partnership with the Church of England. The Ireland-based company’s mobile point of sale (mPOS) technology will be available for congregations to make contributions at weddings, funerals, christenings, and other church events such as concerts. This follows a successful trial of contactless payments in around 40 churches last summer.

Specifically, SumUp will facilitate contactless, virtual terminal, and mobile SMS donations for the church, which regularly receives more than $800 million (£580 million) in donations per year. This is expected to not only make payments faster and easier but also to adapt to a younger congregation demographic in an increasingly cashless society.

All of the Church of England’s 16,000 churches will have access to a portable SumUp Air card reader. These terminals accept contactless payments, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, as well as chip & PIN and can process 500 transactions on a single charge.

If you’re worried the biblical parable of the widow’s offering will be less relevant, do not fear– the terminals will not be used to accept regular tithes and offerings from the church pews. There is still too much friction involved, since each transaction must be entered into the terminal by a church deacon or other representative, and because a card transaction still takes more time than simply dropping cash into the collection plate.

In a press release, National Stewardship Officer of The Church of England John Preston said, “How we pay for things is changing fast, especially for younger church-goers, who no longer carry cash, and we want all generations to be able to make the most of their place of worship. Installing this technology does mean that one-off fees can be done via card, as can making one-off donations. The vast bulk of regular giving will continue to be done by standing order as we continue our trial with various technologies.”

SumUp was founded in 2011 and was recently named Europe’s fastest-growing company in the Inc. 5000 rankings. That achievement is difficult to contest– SumUp onboards more than 2,000 new companies each day, processes more than 100,000 global transactions every day, and exceeded $98 million (£70 million) in annual revenue last year. The company’s clients include DHL, black cab drivers, Tupperware, and Bosch. SumUp demonstrated its mPOS system at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. The company has raised $44 million from investors including American Express, BBVA, Groupon, and Holtzbrinck Ventures.

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Ellie Mae to Power Delivery of Loan Data and Documents for Pacific Union

Ellie Mae to Power Delivery of Loan Data and Documents for Pacific Union
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ellie Mae

Mortgage finance platform provider Ellie Mae has teamed up with government lender Pacific Union Financial.

Under the agreement, Pacific Union will leverage Ellie Mae’s Encompass mortgage management solution. Customers of both Pacific Union and Ellie Mae will be able to deliver loan data and documents from Encompass to Pacific Union more efficiently and in real time. Specifically, joint customers will no longer need to download and upload loan data in multiple locations. “At Ellie Mae, our mission is to provide our lenders and partners with a true digital mortgage, which encompasses everything from consumer interest through loan delivery,” said Parvesh Sahi, SVP at Ellie Mae.

“Through our partnership with Ellie Mae, we will improve our efficiency by offering a secure, seamless data and document delivery workflow from their system of record,” said Warren Little, Chief Technology Officer at Pacific Union Financial. “We look forward to working with Ellie Mae to offer digital mortgage solutions that enhance customer service and business operations.”

Ellie Mae’s Encompass Mortgage Solution helps lenders originate more loans with lower origination costs and a faster time to close. Encompass leverages the company’s network of more than 230,000 users, thousands of service providers, and millions of transactions every month.

Founded in 1997, Ellie Mae demonstrated Encompass Consumer Connect at FinovateSpring 2017. The online lead generation tool turns consumer interest into a mortgage application by letting the borrower complete an application, provide and receive information, and order services from a single platform. During the demo, presenter Jonas Moe, SVP of Market Strategy, demonstrated an API integration by showing off an Alexa integration with Encompass Plus– asking questions such as, “What loans have rate lock expirations this week?” and “Search for a better rate.” Ellie Mae is headquartered in Pleasanton, CA. Jonathan Corr is president and CEO.

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Privakey Launches Free Cloud Authentication Service

Privakey Launches Free Cloud Authentication Service
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Privakey

There’s no such thing as a free lunch– unless you’re a small company looking to eliminate passwords. That’s because digital identity service provider Privakey is making its cloud authentication service available for free, starting this week.

The Pennsylvania-based company is giving away one million authentications per month using its cloud-based technology. This means companies with low site volume will never be charged for the service, but have the option to upgrade to Privakey’s embedded technology.

Businesses can leverage Privakey’s cloud-based service to create a multi-factor login service on their website. To log into the site, end customers enter their email address, provide their PIN or their fingerprint as a biometric, and they are logged in. The same process works for onboarding new clients.

Founded in 2016, Privakey also offers Privakey CX, which is comprised of Mobile and Desktop Libraries and Request Origins, an authentication service that interacts with pre-existing processes. This service comes in handy for custom authorizations, such as a “yes” or “no” response from the client.

To get started with either service, companies can download Privakey’s iOS, Android, or Windows app and follow the OpenID Connect Protocol.

Privakey showcased its password-free authentication technology at FinovateFall 2017. Last month, One World Identity recognized the company as a top influencer in the identity sector. Privakey is self-funded by its parent company, Probaris Technologies, which has invested almost $4 million in the company. Charles Durkin is co-founder, president, and CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bambu, Dwolla, Ellie Mae, Endor, Privakey, Turnkey Lender, Tyro

On Finovate.com

  • Privakey Launches Free Cloud Authentication Service.
  • Ellie Mae to Power Delivery of Loan Data and Documents for Pacific Union.
  • Australia’s Business Only Challenger Bank Tyro Launches Tap & Save.

Around the web

  • Pockitapp partners with Dwolla for banking integration.
  • Singapore Business Review names Turnkey Lender and Bambu among Singapore’s hottest startups.

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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Onfido to Power ID Verification for SnappCar

Onfido to Power ID Verification for SnappCar
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Onfido

Digital identity verification company Onfido has teamed up with Snappcar to verify the identities of the Dutch car-sharing company’s users in The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

Snappcar currently has 400,000 users across Europe, and is looking to Onfido, which accepts 600 document types across 192 territories, to validate customer identities as it expands into other geographical regions. Onfido will help quickly and efficiently onboard new users, who will be required to upload a picture of their identity document, along with a selfie to join Snappcar.

In a statement, Erica Rasch, SnappCar Product Owner said that Onfido “improves the speed of [SnappCar’s] identity verification process.” She added, “They enable us to be much more flexible in adapting the verification criteria, which means a better verification experience for our international user base.”

Snappcar joins Onfido’s other clients in the P2P car-sharing industry, including Drivy, BlaBlaCar, EasyCar, and Turo.

Founded in 2012, Onfido has received more than $30 million in funding from investors including Salesforce Ventures and Idinvest Partners. The company provides identity checks in 195 countries for 1,500 customers across the globe. At FinovateEurope last week, Onfido demoed how it conducts a facial verification check with video (the demo video will be available next week.) Husayn Kassai is CEO.

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Gusto Goes Freemium

Gusto Goes Freemium
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Gusto

Online payroll and HR services provider Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll) launched a freemium model. New this week, HR Basics offers small businesses a set of basic human resource tools for free.

The free service allows small businesses to manage employee vacation time, archive a directory of employees, and decrease the time it takes to onboard new hires. Unlike most freemium models, Gusto does not require small businesses to provide credit card or bank account information to use the service.

Gusto helps businesses move all paperwork online to create a better employee experience and company culture. TechCrunch, which covered the announcement earlier today, spoke with Gusto CEO Joshua Reeves, who commented on the term human resources. Reeves said, “Even the terminology ‘human capital management’ — humans are not capital, humans are not resources, they are people, thank you very much.”

As with all freemium offerings, the goal of Gusto’s HR Basics is to hook small businesses while they’re still small, so that when they need a more robust product, they’ll become paying customers. The company’s flagship product offerings range from $39 per month plus $6 per month per person and $149 per month plus $12 per month per person.

This move will help Gusto differentiate itself from its closest competitor, Zenefits, which also offers online HR, payroll, and benefits management. While Zenefits does not offer a free option, it does have less expensive and more a la carte pricing options.

At FinovateSpring 2014, Reeves showcased the company’s payroll solution. The company rebranded as Gusto in 2015, simultaneously pulling in $50 million in funding. Last month, Gusto was highlighted in Forbes for its diversity efforts. Of the company’s 525 employees, 51% are women. Gusto was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in California.

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Ethoca’s New Integrated Solution

Ethoca’s New Integrated Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ethoca

Ethoca, a collaboration network that aims to enhance merchant card acceptance and reduce chargebacks, launched an Integrated Solution Suite this week.

Merchants who leverage the new suite of tools not only mitigate chargebacks from genuine fraud, friendly fraud, and false claims, they also facilitate increased card acceptance rates. The suite is comprised of three main solutions, Ethoca Eliminator, Ethoca Alerts and Enhanced Representments.

Ethoca Eliminator allows card issuers to leverage merchant intelligence– such as shopping cart details, IP address, and account details– when the customer clicks on a transaction within their mobile banking app or calls into a bank’s call center to investigate the purchase. With this process, cardholders are able to better recognize their own transactions instead of assuming they are fraudulent. This helps avoid situations when good transactions are unwittingly reported as fraud. When a top five U.S. card issuer and major online merchant piloted Eliminator, they found that 38% of disputes that would have become chargebacks were deflected. More than 15 major card issuers and several digital merchants have signed on to begin using Ethoca Eliminator throughout 2018.

The company most recently demoed its flagship product, Ethoca Alerts, at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. When a cardholder goes through the Eliminator process and still insists a transaction is fraudulent, Ethoca taps into its network of card issuers who confirm or repudiate the transaction in question. When a transaction is confirmed to be fraudulent, Ethoca alerts its network of merchants who stop the delivery of the good or service in question to avoid the chargeback.

The third product in the suite is Enhanced Representments. This tool helps merchants who wish to challenge transaction disputes by leveraging Ethoca’s knowledge of chargeback processing and evidence rules. You can think of it as a court session held to keep things fair for both the merchant and the disputing consumer as they sort through the evidence. In the press release, Ethoca describes this as decreasing pain “for card issuers who are often negatively impacted by indiscriminate representment behaviors.”

“Ethoca’s belief is that a layered approach – powered by the global collaboration network we pioneered – is the only real solution to combat the pervasive friction and poor customer experience typical of today’s ecommerce environment,” said Keith Briscoe, Chief Marketing & Product Officer at Ethoca. “This new solution suite takes us one step closer to our vision: creating a new set of rails for the rapid exchange of rich transaction data and intelligence designed to finally make frictionless ecommerce a reality,” he added.

Founded in 2005, Ethoca is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company is partnered with more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and 585 card issuers in 20+ countries to help them avoid losses from card not present (CNP) transactions. This network includes eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers, and six of the top ten U.K. card issuers. Andre Edelbrock is CEO.

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Credit.com Looks to Even Financial to Power Personal Loans and Content

Credit.com Looks to Even Financial to Power Personal Loans and Content
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Credit.com

Consumer credit and personal finance site Credit.com announced today it is looking to Even Financial to power an enhanced personal loan marketplace on its site, as well as related content tools.

This will help Credit.com offer a built-in loan matching experience that helps members find a loan personalized to their needs. The integration relies heavily on Even’s technology that leverages machine learning, big data and a network of financial products. The new marketplace is superior to Credit.com’s previous loan referral setup that would direct users to individual lenders’ websites. With the new approach, users can get approved in real-time without needing to leave the Credit.com site. The new loan marketplace will launch in the second quarter of this year.

In a statement, Credit.com GM Jason Owen expressed the superiority of the new loan marketplace when he said, “We expect this agreement will result in a more enjoyable user experience for our members as we aim to provide them with more variety, options, and significant user benefits.”

This isn’t the first time Credit.com has worked with Even– the two players have been partnered since 2016. And it likely won’t be the last time the two work together. In fact, Credit.com plans to extend the marketplace concept to other financial offerings, including mortgages, savings accounts, and insurance products.

If you’re a true Finovate veteran, you remember Credit.com’s Best of Show-winning demo at Finovate 2009, where the company launched the Credit Report Card. Credit.com was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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