Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Swych

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Swych
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek, Swych

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.

Swych breaks cross-border barriers with a blockchain-based global gifting architecture that changes how people shop, gift, and pay for purchases in a global, mobile marketplace.

Features

  • First blockchain-based global gifting network with 1,000s of retailers and millions of product SKUs
  • Instant, secure, scalable
  • Unparalled transaction speeds costing only pennies per 1,000 transactions

Why it’s great
Swych powers not only individual gifting, but digital wallets and corporate incentives programs so recipients can “swych” to favorite brands available in their regions/currencies.

Presenters

Deepak Jain, Founder & CEO
With a passion for launching/transforming early-stage startups and bringing innovative technologies to market, Jain holds 55+ granted patents with 50 more payment/security technologies patents pending.
LinkedIn

Harpreet Chawla, VP Digital Products & Innovation
A strategic leader, Chawla delivers innovative digital commerce/payment solutions that engage, captivate, and delight consumers and maximize demand and conversion rates for enterprises.
LinkedIn

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Flybits

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Flybits
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek, Flybits, Uncategorized

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.

Flybits offers an end-to-end intelligent recommendation platform that enhances enterprises’ digital personalization strategy.

Features

  • Fast time-to-market – go from ideation to production within 90 days
  • Data unification – seamlessly normalize public and proprietary data
  • Privacy first – data tokenization to protect consumer privacy

Why it’s great
Flybits offers an end-to-end solution that hides the complexity of data intelligence, enabling enterprises to harness endless sources of public and proprietary data.

Presenters

Dr. Hossein Rahnama, Founder and CEO
Rahnama is a recognized figure in ubiquitous computing. His research explores AI, mobile human-computer interaction, and contextual services. He is currently a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab.
LinkedIn

Justin Lam, Software Engineer, Product
Lam has been a software engineer at Flybits since its inception in 2013. He has a passion for DevUX and has led the development of both web and mobile projects, including Flybits’ JavaScript SDK.
LinkedIn

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Ephesoft Unveils Mortgage Document Capture Solution

Ephesoft Unveils Mortgage Document Capture Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ephesoft

Now that spring has arrived, families across the country have started the home buying process. However, the average time it takes to close on a house is 50 days, making it a long road to home. Aiming to speed things up, document capture and data analytics company Ephesoft launched Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage this week. This is the California-based company’s first vertical-specific product offering.

The cloud-based platform recognizes and classifies more than 600 mortgage document types. When lenders bundle Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage classification solution with the Ephesoft Transact flagship offering, they can increase mortgage processing speeds. In a statement, Ephesoft said that large organizations will see deployment times reduced by 80%, from several months to just weeks.

Ike Kavas, founder and CEO of Ephesoft, said that the company’s mortgage lendeing and financial services customers will “greatly benefit from the improved speeds provided by the Transact for Mortgage platform.” Kavas added, “We are continuously developing innovative, cost-effective solutions that solve real problems for our customers and with hundreds of different document types to classify, the mortgage processing industry is ideally suited for document capture innovation and automation.”

To get started, mortgage loan processors upload loan documents into a batch, then Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage automatically classifies and separates documents and exports them into the lender’s loan origination system. The system takes appraisal documents, lease agreements, tax returns, bank statements, and other documents necessary in mortgage applications, and deciphers which pages are necessary and which are simply blank pages, cover sheets, invoices, and disclosures. Once documents are classified, the high-value pages are prepared for data extraction and business insights, with the option to apply Ephesoft’s machine learning technology for further analysis.

In the press release, Ephesoft client, Jane Christie, COO of eDocument Solutions, said, “Customers have reported accuracy reports of 90% or higher, loan processing time reduction of 92% and savings of over $100 per loan. The combination of accuracy, consistency and speed for mortgage documents impacts their bottom line and improves customer satisfaction and retention rates.”

At FinovateAsia 2017, Ephesoft demoed how banks can use its cloud services to classify documents, extract their information, and automate business transactions. Last summer, the company earned a $15 million investment from Mercato Partners, its first round of funding since it was founded in 2010. In the fall of 2017, Ephesoft’s developers released version 4.0 of its Transact Mobile SDK.

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Stash Teams with Green Dot to Become a Challenger Bank

Stash Teams with Green Dot to Become a Challenger Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Stash

 

Mobile financial services company Stash first revealed its plans to launch banking services in October of last year, positioning itself as a challenger bank with mobile-centric investment and retirement capabilities. And, as with all U.S.-based challenger banks, Stash will house the funds at a traditional bank. Today, the New York-based company announced it has selected Green Dot and its subsidiary bank, Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, to keep user’s funds safe.

Through the partnership with Green Dot, Stash will deliver debit cards with no overdraft fees and provide access to a network of free ATMs across the U.S. The app will also share insight into clients’ financial health, with actionable advice on spending, saving, investing, and retirement via Stash Coach. But don’t get too excited– Stash has yet to go live with the banking services and hasn’t hinted at its timeline or anticipated pricing.

In a statement, Brandon Krieg, CEO and cofounder of Stash, said: “Layering Green Dot’s robust Banking as a Service platform with Stash’s full suite of offerings will provide innovative, affordable tools to teach healthy financial habits, relieve financial stress, and help our clients save and invest more money.”

Founded in 1999, Green Dot debuted its own mobile-first banking service, GoBank, at FinovateSpring 2013. The account offers mobile banking, check deposit, and P2P money transfer services.

“Stash is committed to being a true partner and source of support for our clients, and for those who have systematically been left behind,” said Krieg. This sentiment is reflected in Stash’s updated mission which states, “We started Stash to simplify investing, but our true mission runs deeper. Today, your financial products too often fail you. We believe everyone should have access to financial education, technology, and services that help them achieve their life goals.”

Founded in 2015, Stash serves two million customers on its mobile investment platform, which allows users to choose from a selection of over 40 curated ETFs. The company doesn’t collect add-on commissions or trading fees, and charges $1 per month for accounts under $5,000. Users with portfolios over that threshold pay 0.25% per year. Stash’s growth bodes well for future banking developments– the company currently has 40,000 new clients joining each week.

Krieg debuted Stash Retire at FinovateFall 2017. In November of 2017, KPMG and H2 Ventures named the company on its 2017 Fintech 100 list. In February of this year, Stash raised $37.5 million and unveiled custodial investment accounts to allow Stash clients to open new accounts for minors. This is a smart move from a customer acquisition standpoint. Young users exposed to the Stash app early will be more likely to matriculate as customers of Stash’s investment and (eventually) banking services.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bluefin, Braintree, Entersekt, Green Dot, Gro Solutions, Lending Club, PayPal, Stash

On Finovate.com

  • PeoplesBank Partners with Gro Solutions to Enhance Mobile and Online Experience.
  • Stash Teams with Green Dot to Become a Challenger Bank.

Around the web

  • Lending Club announces Bahman Koohestani as Chief Technology Officer.
  • Yahoo partners with PayPal to make Braintree available to online sellers using Yahoo Merchant Solutions and Yahoo Stores platforms.
  • Main Street Softworks adds support for Bluefin’s Decryptx PCI-validated P2PE Decryption-as-a-Service.
  • PYMNTS.com features a conversation with Entersekt Chief Commercial Officer Dewald Nolte.

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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Mortgagetech Company Lender Price Receives Funding from Regions Bank

Mortgagetech Company Lender Price Receives Funding from Regions Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Lender Price

With housing markets across the country at an all-time high, banks are paying more attention to the mortgagetech space (and maybe you should, too). And, as evidenced in its new partnership with Lender Price, Regions Bank is no exception.

Along with the partnership agreement Lender Price inked with the $124 billion-asset bank, the California-based fintech will also receive an undisclosed amount of equity funding as part of the deal. This announcement comes just days after Lender Price unveiled an integration with Ellie Mae.

For its part, Regions aims to leverage the partnership to enhance its digital lending efforts by:

  • Simplifying interactions between bankers, borrowers, and the bank
  • Sending fewer information requests to consumers
  • Integrating additional data sources for approvals and confirmations
  • Offering faster responses

The Alabama-based bank serves customers across the Southern and Midwestern U.S., and has approximately 1,500 branches and 1,900 ATMs. Logan Pichel, Head of Regions Enterprise Operations said, “This investment in Lender Price and our working agreement provides important growth capital for Lender Price, aligns our mutual interests in digital transformation and continues to move us toward the goal of making banking easier for our customers.”

The funding portion of this agreement reflects the uptick in fintech investments as a whole in the first quarter of this year, when 26 alums raised $1.32 billion. That’s quite an upward trend when compared to the $230 million raised in the first quarter of 2017.

Founded in 2015, Lender Price demoed its mortgage origination automation at FinovateSpring 2017. The company’s technology contributes to banks’ efforts to compete with digital-only mortgage originators such as Quicken Loans’ Rocket Mortgage and SoFi. In fact, Bank of America announced today the rollout of its own digital mortgage service.

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Agreement Express Lands Funding from Frontier Capital

Agreement Express Lands Funding from Frontier Capital
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Agreement Express, Funding

Account onboarding specialist Agreement Express received its second round of funding today. The growth equity investment comes from Frontier Capital, which pulled the funds from its $700 million Frontier Fund V closed in 2017. The amount of today’s round was undisclosed, but boosts the Canada-based company’s funding over its previous $1 million raised.

The funds are aimed to help Agreement Express accelerate growth by expanding sales and marketing efforts, hiring more employees, and bolstering technological innovation efforts. As part of the deal, Richard Maclean, co-founder and managing partner at Frontier, along with Frontier’s Managing Partner and Vice President, Dave Pandullo, will join the Agreement Express board.

In a statement, Agreement Express CEO Mike Gardner highlighted on the company’s growth since it was founded in 2001, attributing it to the company’s replacement of complexity with simplicity. “We feel the optimal time has come to take Agreement Express to the next level, and are excited to work with the talented and well-respected team at Frontier as our partner in the next phase of our journey as a growth company. We believe their experience helping transition SaaS businesses such as ours into market leaders will help us propel our innovation and enhance value to our customers in their race to digital sustainability, differentiation, and enhanced profitability, ” Gardner said.

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. At FinovateFall 2016, the company debuted the newest version of its wealth management offering, an onboarding solution that helps advisers interact with clients in a nonintrusive, compliant manner. Among the company’s clients are National Bank of Canada, Questrade, and M&T Bank.

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doxo Teams with Coinstar to Facilitate Cash Payments for Underbanked

doxo Teams with Coinstar to Facilitate Cash Payments for Underbanked
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Doxo

Consumer billpay platform doxo has found a way to reach the unbanked population. The Seattle-based company announced a partnership with Coinstar, a self-service coin-counting kiosk enterprise.

Through the partnership, doxo users can use cash to pay any of the 45,000 local and national billers in doxo’s network at Coinstar locations across the U.S. Jim Gaherity, CEO of Coinstar, said: “doxo’s extensive biller directory, combined with our national network of Coinstar kiosks, brings a new level of ease and accessibility for bill pay, and we’re excited to offer this capability to our customers.”

And for many consumers, cash is still king. There are 34 million unbanked or underbanked households across the U.S. and more than $235 billion in bill payments are made with cash each year. Steve Shivers, CEO and co-founder of doxo said, “For billers, providing an easy way for their customers to pay with cash is not only a valuable service, but helps keep accounts current. Our partnership with Coinstar provides this opportunity with very little effort on the part of billers.”

Customers who want to pay bills in cash select Pay Bills with Cash at Coinstar as the payment option at a participating biller’s website. Then, the consumer visits a Coinstar kiosk, selects their biller, and inserts cash into the machine. A payment receipt is printed with a code that the customer can use to track their payment delivery on doxo’s portal. Coinstar has a network of 20,000 kiosk locations, and doxo’s bill payment option will be available at 7,000 of those units by the end of the year.

While the number of services for the underbanked population is on the rise, there are not many that enable consumers to pay for online or remote services for cash. In fact, doxo’s only competitor in this space may just be PayNearMe, a company founded in 2009 that allows unbanked consumers to pay for e-commerce, transportation, and a limited number of billers in cash at 7-Eleven and Ace Cash Express stores.

doxo is compatible with existing billing systems and allows billers to electronically connect for free. The platform offers a simplified experience for end users and provides a complete online payment system for billers who have yet to go digital. Among the company’s list of billing partners are AT&T, National Grid, Puget Sound Energy, Kansas City Light, and more providers across finance, utilities, healthcare, telecom, banking, and insurance sectors.

Founded in 2008, doxo debuted its Control Panel at FinovateSpring 2011. Last fall, the company surpassed 30,000 payable billers on its platform. doxo has raised $18.8 million and counts Mohr Davidow Ventures, Sigma Partners, and Bezos Expeditions as investors.

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Fidor’s New Partnership Takes Aim at Financial Inclusion

Fidor’s New Partnership Takes Aim at Financial Inclusion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Fidor Bank

Digital banking services company Fidor has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand digital banking services in Africa and Latin America.

The IFC and Germany-based Fidor have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to identify financial institutions and partners to launch and enhance digital bank partnerships in developing regions. The IFC works with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide and is a part of the World Banking Group. Last year, the organization delivered a record $19.3 billion in long-term financing for developing countries to help end poverty. Under today’s agreement, the effort will leverage the Fidor Operating System (fOS), an API that delivers digital banking services at a low cost, and will take advantage of Fidor’s expertise in launching a bank.

In the press release, Matthias Kröner, Founder and CEO of Fidor, said: “Fidor’s business model is deeply rooted in providing fair banking in the most efficient fashion possible which aligns with financial inclusion agendas. Having access to financial services can improve people’s everyday lives in emerging markets.” Kröner added that the financial inclusion agenda not only helps individuals, but the benefits also extend to economic and social development. This is why, he stated, “The MOU with IFC aims to roll out digital banks throughout emerging countries and give access to financial services in order to boost financial inclusion.”

This partnership fits well within Fidor’s core competency. The financial services firm co-innovates with other organizations, offering its APIs and expertise to help them launch their own digital banks. Fidor’s technologies cover a wide range of digital banking elements, including compliance, risk management, go-to-market strategy, and customer service. These capabilities are key for the World Banking Group to meet its goal of enabling 1 billion more people to have access to a transaction account by 2020.

Fidor has demoed at FinovateEurope 2011 and presented at FinDEVr New York 2016. In 2016, the company was acquired by France’s Groupe BPCE. Last summer, the company’s U.K. challenger bank announced that Nutmeg was one of two inaugural partners for Finance Bay, the bank’s new marketplace that aims to offer clients access to alternative investment opportunities.

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280 CapMarkets Unveils 280 Advisor Services

280 CapMarkets Unveils 280 Advisor Services
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: 280 Cap Markets

There are increasingly more fintech services to help small players compete with large enterprises. Bond sales and management platform 280 CapMarkets is releasing its latest offering for advisors this week to do just that.

The new suite of offerings, 280 Advisor Services, is a set of tools and resources to help independent advisors expand their capabilities and compete against larger, more established firms. Eve Cohen, 280 CapMarkets managing director and head of advisor liaison desk said, “Gaining access to a broad universe of wholesale bonds offerings, having the resources to thoroughly evaluate bonds in the context of real-time market dynamics, and balancing time between managing their clients’ needs and running a practice can be tough. We designed 280 Advisor Services specifically to solve these challenges for independent advisors.”

The complimentary suite is available through the Advisor Liaison Desk of 280 Securities and features:

  • Customized and branded bond portfolios, tailored to the individual needs of the advisor’s clients
  • Bond portfolio reviews to help advisors align clients’ fixed income portfolios with their goals and evolving markets
  • On-demand insights to help advisors make informed choices based on structural and credit characteristics of fixed income securities
  • Access to wholesale bond offerings, research, and trade ideas, based on real-time fixed income market dynamics, bond availability, and pricing

Founded in 2016, 280 CapMarkets’ mission is “to level the playing field for independent financial advisors in the fixed income markets.” The company’s flagship service, BondNav, helps investment advisors search and transact bonds transparently on a single, simple platform. The number 280 in the company’s name refers to the highway that connects the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast. As the company explains, “Our national highway system, built to connect the free movement of trade and commerce, inspires the technological network 280 CapMarkets has built to improve bond market price transparency and confidence in fixed income investing.”

280 CapMarkets will demonstrate the BondNav platform at FinovateSpring 2018 in Santa Clara on May 8 through 11. Register today to be among the first to see the live demo.

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Project Finance

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Project Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek, Project Finance

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.

Project Finance is a personal finance management and decision-making application that shows you the future of your finances based on the spending and saving choices you’re making today.

Features

  • See the future of your bank account based on your spending and saving behavior
  • Explore the scenarios and tradeoffs you can make with your money
  • Get insight designed to maximize your wealth

Why it’s great
Good spending and saving behavior starts with being confident in your ability to meet future obligations. Project Finance is designed to help you understand your future and the actions you can take today.

Presenter

Colby Ross, Co-Founder & CEO
Ross is a finance geek and product designer, and he’s building a company he’s always wished existed.
LinkedIn

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Covered Security

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Covered Security
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Covered Security, FinovateSpring 2018, FinovateSpring 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.

In a world of constant breaches, what if protecting your online life was easy and rewarding? Covered Security motivates and empowers consumers to improve security – and creates a digital opportunity for banks.

Features

  • Gamified identity theft risk assessment and education
  • Personal assistant for online security and alerts
  • Simple, automated guidance to reduce your risk of identity theft

Why it’s great
In the face of skyrocketing cybercrime, you are not powerless. Covered helps you take control of your digital identity to avoid the time and hassle of identity theft.

Presenters

Christopher Zannetos, CEO
Zannetos has founded and led security companies to be profitable, visionary leaders – generating more than $300 million in revenue. He’s also a passionate supporter of STEM education to battle poverty.
LinkedIn

Brian Milas, CTO
Milas has architected market-leading products that serve tens of millions of users worldwide, making security simple and fast. Though far from his roots, he retains his Midwestern good nature.
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