Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store

CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, CashStar

If you’ve been waiting to send a digital gift card for southern clothing styles, you’re in luck today. Digital gifting and incentives platform CashStar has teamed up with Belk, a North Carolina-based department store.

The agreement is two-fold. First, CashStar will offer Belk shoppers a personalized digital gift card experience with its CashStar Consumer platform. This platform enables Belk to offer a branded gift card experience for the purchaser and the recipient. Additionally, end clients can tailor their gift by selecting a design and adding a personalized message.

CashStar will also leverage its CashStar Product eGifting to help shoppers digitally send physical gifts. Product eGifting enables Belk shoppers to gift a product from Belk’s ecommerce site without knowing specific details such as the recipient’s preferred size, color and shipping address. Once the recipient receives an email with the gift information, they can personalize the gift or opt to receive an eGift card instead.

Founded in 2007, CashStar serves major brands such as SEPHORA, Starbucks, The Home Depot, Uber, and Walmart. At FinovateFall 2011, the company’s co-founder David Stone debuted a geolocation-based iPhone app that enables consumers to walk into a store and redeem credit card loyalty points in real-time in the form of a mobile gift card. Before it was acquired by Blackhawk Network for $175 million in October, CashStar had raised a total of $44 million.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria

Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo

International remittance service Azimo has sped up money transfers in Nigeria. Just shy of a year after launching its service in the African country, the U.K.-based company announced last week it has enhanced that service.

The revamped money transfers empower users to receive cash at all major Nigerian banks 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, depending on the availability of the payout partners. Additionally, the service ensures that money sent from 22 European countries to the Nigerian market will reach recipients within 30 minutes, including on weekends.

Faster money service to Nigeria has the potential to make a real difference in the country. According to the press release, “64% of transfers to the country [are] sent for family support – including to pay for hospital and food bills – a speedy service every day of the week is essential.” Azimo also leverages its own network to offer money transfers at a lower rate than traditional, brick-and-mortar services.

Azimo was launched in 2012 to serve as a better way to send funds around the world. Its digital network enables customers to send money to more than 190 countries from any internet-connected device. The company debuted its global money transfer platform at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. Earlier this year, Azimo updated its service to add instant transfers to the Philippines.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Bluefin Payment Systems, CashStar, eToro, Fiserv, Flybits, LearnVest, MapD, Streamdata.io, TransUnion

On Finovate.com

  • Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners
  • Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System
  • Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria
  • eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash
  • CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store

Around the web

  • Mark Saltzman Interviews Flybits Founder & CEO on TD for Me (video).
  • API Evangelist features Streamdata.io.
  • LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel featured on NPR podcast How I Built This.
  • MapD unveils latest release featuring new geo heatmap , custom aliases, faster SQL sorts and more

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System

Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Fiserv, TransUnion

Financial services company Fiserv and credit reporting agency and risk information provider TransUnion have joined forces today. Under the agreement, Fiserv will integrate TransUnion’s CreditVision Link to increase precision of scoring and risk modeling in its Automotive Loan Origination System.

Specifically, Fiserv will leverage data from TransUnion to identify high-risk and high-potential borrowers, including thin-file applicants, based on an evaluation of their credit application. This addition helps serve the underbanked population, raising Fiserv’s reach to potential underserved borrowers to 60 million. The additional data has also boosted the “super prime” customer base by 23 million.

Shaimaa Elk, Chief Information Officer, Lending Solutions for Fiserv said, “The partnership between Fiserv and TransUnion enables lenders to provide borrower-focused customer service and better optimize profitability, cost reductions, and efficiencies.”

CreditVision Link uses alternative data sources that include 30 months of data on factors such as address stability, checking account history, microloans/ alternative lending, and property ownership. TransUnion made a move to bolster the service last month when it acquired FactorTrust, a company specializing in alternative credit data, analytics, and risk-scoring. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Steve Chaouki, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s financial services business unit, said that understanding clients is critical not only for decision making, but also for building customer relationships and loyalty. Chaouki added, “Our integration of CreditVision Link trended and alternative data sources into Automotive Loan Origination System enables lenders to score approximately 95 percent of the U.S. adult population.”

Founded in 1984, Fiserv most recently presented at FinDEVr New York 2017, where the company’s Sr. Product Manager, Jon Zimmermann, and VP of Electronic Payments, Paul Diegelman, addressed the audience in a presentation titled Payments Processing: Bank-Grade Standards, Now Available to Anyone. Earlier this year, Fiserv agreed to acquire Monitise for $89 million. The deal was finalized in September.

At FinovateFall 2016, TransUnion debuted Prama Insights, a suite of solutions that leverage data to offer lenders market intelligence. Prior to TransUnion’s acquisition of FactorTrust last month, the company acquired eBureau to enhance its versatile data and analytics capabilities. TransUnion is a publicly-traded company (NYSE: TRU).

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

TSYS to Acquire Cayan for $1.05 Billion

TSYS to Acquire Cayan for $1.05 Billion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TSYS

Payments service provider TSYS has boosted its portfolio this week. The Georgia-based company has agreed to acquire Cayan, a payment technology company, for $1.05 billion. TSYS expects the deal to modestly benefit its net revenue growth and adjusted earnings per share.

Cayan’s flagship platform, Genius, provides a scalable, unified commerce experience across channels. The company offers merchant acquiring services to 70,000+ companies and 100+ U.S.-based partners.

M. Troy Woods, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of TSYS, said that this acquisition “strategically complements” the goals TSYS has “to become a leading payment solutions provider to small and medium size businesses.” Woods continued, “The addition of Cayan’s unified commerce solutions puts us in a strong competitive position to jointly offer a broader set of value-add products and services to our partners and merchants.”

The acquisition has been approved by the TSYS Board of Directors and is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

TSYS was founded in 1983 and has 11,500 employees across offices in 13 countries. Last year, the company processed 25.5 billion transactions, generating $4.2 billion in revenue. TSYS demoed its Spend Controls feature at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. Last week, the company extended its agreement with Capital One to continue providing processing services for the bank’s North American clients. This October, TSYS company expanded its ProPay merchant services to Australia and, earlier in the summer, teamed up with behavioral analytics company Featurespace to bolster its fraud prevention capabilities. TSYS is a publicly traded company (NYSE: TSS).

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, CK Mack, GoodData, NCR Corporation, Passport, Patch of Land, Pindrop Security, Realty Mogul, ThreatMetrix, TransferTo, TSYS

On Finovate.com

  • TSYS to Acquire Cayan for $1.05 Billion
  • TransferTo Adds Digital Wallet to Payments Network via Cellum Partnership

Around the Web

  • GoodData appoints James Smith as chief marketing officer.
  • Passport and TransLink partner to develop and launch Park&Go, an app for Vancouver Park and Ride payments.
  • Tucson FCU implements NCR’s Interactive Teller software to allow members to bank face-to-face with a live teller from their cars.
  • Azimo introduces near-instant, 24/7 money transfers to Nigeria.
  • ThreatMetrix exceeds 45% Annual Growth.
  • The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review ranks CK Mack, Realty Mogul, & Patch of Land in its list of top 100 real estate crowdfunding sites.
  • Fortune features Pindrop’s AI voice recognition.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

NICE Teams with Brightstar India

NICE Teams with Brightstar India
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: NICE Systems

Data analytics and insights company NICE announced a strategic partnership this week. The Israel-based company has teamed up with Brightstar India, a subdivision of Brightstar Global that manages mobile devices across the wireless ecosystem.

The partnership will support the launch of NICE Uptivity, a workforce optimization solution for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). Nice Uptivity offers tools such as quality assurance, speech and data analytics, coaching, and customer surveys. The tool’s modular structure allows for custom configurations that are tailored to scale to individual businesses. The companies will launch NICE Uptivity to mid-market organizations in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Darren John Rushworth, President of NICE APAC said the partnership is about “bringing the market leading WFO suite for SMEs to the Indian and South Asian markets.” Rushworth continued, “Our collaboration to introduce the Uptivity WFO Suite will greatly benefit companies which are poised for growth or have multi-location operations…. NICE solutions, provided and supported by Brightstar India, are helping to bridge the gap between the needs of today and the goals of tomorrow.”

NICE’s 6,500 employees work in 35 offices across the globe. Founded in 1986, the company serves 2,500 customers, 85% of which are Fortune 100 companies. Among NICE’s clients are Alliance Data, Walgreens, and Capital One. At FinovateEurope 2015, the company showcased Real-Time Authentication, a passive, phone-based authentication offering that leverages voice biometrics. Earlier this month, NICE earned its status in the Risk Management category of Amazon’s AWS Financial Services Competency Program. In July, the company teamed up with Tableau Software to launch a visual analytics solution.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Modo Brings on Former CEO of Klarna North America, Brian Billingsley

Modo Brings on Former CEO of Klarna North America, Brian Billingsley
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Modo Payments

Cloud-based payment services company Modo Payments has given itself an early Christmas present this year, appointing former CEO of Klarna North America Brian Billingsley as Chief Revenue Officer.

Billingsley’s payments background will play an integral role in expanding Modo’s capabilities. “All I wanted for Christmas was for Brian to join the team, and Santa really came through for this lucky #paymentsgeek this year. He’s honestly the best Christmas present I could’ve asked for,” said Modo CEO Bruce Parker.

Parker and Billingsley have worked together before. In October the two companies teamed up to integrate Modo’s Checkout Event payment service to help Klarna accelerate implementation of its checkout solution for merchants.

Billingsley said he was “blown away” by Modo’s tech when Klarna implemented it. “Modo has incredible talent and technology, and I believe Modo will revolutionize payments over the next few years making complex payments function as we experience email today – it just works,” he added. Billingsley will officially join the Modo team next month.

Founded in 2010, Modo exchanges payment data across platforms on behalf of banks, payment networks, and providers, enabling them to store, share, and track payment event data. The company presented at FinovateFall 2016, where it showcased its Modo Digital Payments Hub. In addition to a partnership with Klarna last month, Modo also teamed up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Alliance Data, FIS, and Verifone to boost user engagement by creating Payout, Checkout, and Loyalty Events for online retailers.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Modo Payments, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • Modo Brings on Former CEO of Klarna North America, Brian Billingsley

Around the web

  • Azimo launches cash pick-up in the Philippines.
  • Ripple’s XRP overtakes bitcoin cash as 3rd largest cryptocurrency.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Net Neutrality: Pay Up for Fast Fintech or Let the Invisible Hand be Your Guide?

Net Neutrality: Pay Up for Fast Fintech or Let the Invisible Hand be Your Guide?
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

With the FCC voting 3 to 2 to repeal net neutrality today, let’s take a look at the impact a post-net neutrality internet may have on fintech and banking.

Politics and opinions aside, the repeal of net neutrality may have two main effects in our industry:

Pay up for fast fintech

Though Comcast has said it will not offer paid prioritization for websites, many are concerned that lack of regulation for internet service providers (ISPs) will create tiered offerings for fast lanes and slow lanes. In other words, if you want your site to load faster, you’d better have some extra cash. Since consumers have little patience for website loading times, this could be an extra stumbling block for fintechs with a grand idea but limited funding. The players with the bigger pocketbook, not the better innovation, may win out.

While this same principle applies to banks, it is not as large of an issue, since banks are cash flow positive and have income to foot the larger internet bill. Additionally, consumers have a lower elasticity of demand for banking services than fintech services. In other words, because online banking is seen as more of a true need, they are not only willing to pay more but they will also be willing to wait for a longer web page loading time.

The counter-argument is that, if net neutrality remains in place, everyone will end up with a larger internet bill since ISPs will need to find a way to build and maintain faster online networks. “If the rules stay in place… ISPs will have to find other ways to fund these robust networks,” Nicol Turner-Lee, a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution told U.S. News.

An eye on competition

Another area of concern of an unregulated internet is competition. Currently, net neutrality prevents ISPs from discriminating toward competing applications. This argument isn’t generally heard in the banking/ fintech space, since ISPs do not own any competing banking or fintech applications. However, if an ISP was to create or acquire a P2P payment app, it could speed up that service, while potentially throttling performance for Zelle and Square Cash.

The counter-argument here is that we should allow the markets to operate freely and that the Invisible Hand will allow for faster innovation. In this line of thinking, perhaps if our favorite P2P payment apps are too slow we’ll be more likely to begin using the blockchain?

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Symbiont Smart Contracts to Simplify Index Data Sharing for Vanguard

Symbiont Smart Contracts to Simplify Index Data Sharing for Vanguard
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Symbiont

Smart contracts platform Symbiont announced this week it has teamed up with the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) to help Vanguard improve the distribution of index data.

This partnership will allow index data to move between index providers and market participants in real time over a single, decentralized database. The project, which has been in a testing phase for the last several months, delivers the data over a blockchain and automates the workflows using smart contracts. The result is three-fold: it expedites data delivery, eliminates the need for manual updates, and reduces risks. The groups expect that CRSP index data delivery and intra-day updates over the blockchain will be available in early 2018.

Generally, transmitting index data relies on multiple parties and channels. Explaining the benefits of the improved distribution method, Warren Pennington, a principal in Vanguard’s Investment Management Group said, “Using this platform, investment managers will be able to instantly distribute, receive, and process index data, resulting in better benchmark tracking and significant cost savings that potentially results in better returns for our clients.”

Mark Smith, CEO and co-founder of Symbiont, said he is “pleased” that CRSP and Vanguard were willing to collaborate on the new method. “Through this collaboration we were able to show how Symbiont’s blockchain technology and smart contracts can enhance market data distribution among disparate parties,” Smith said.

Symbiont was founded in 2015 and offers three products, each of which leverages the blockchain. Symbiont Assembly offers a single, global accounting ledger, Symbiont Secure Channels is a mechanism for sharing confidential data, and Symbiont Smart Securities is a platform that models the complex states and interactions for financial instruments. At FinDEVr New York 2016, the company’s CTO and cofounder Adam Krellenstein gave a presentation titled Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts.

Last month, Symbiont won the Buy-Side Technology Award for Best Distributed Ledger Technology Project by Waters Technology for the second consecutive year. Earlier this summer, the company closed an undisclosed strategic investment from China’s Hundsun Technologies. Headquartered in New York, Symbiont has a total of $7 million in funding.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinanceIt, Finicity, Green Key Technologies, Lendio, Mambu, Pindrop Security, Roostify, Socure, Symbiont, Symphony Software Foundation

On Finovate.com

  • Net Neutrality: Pay Up for Fast Fintech or Let the Invisible Hand be Your Guide?
  • Financeit Recapitalization Gives Goldman Sachs Majority Stake
  • Symbiont Smart Contracts to Simplify Index Data Sharing for Vanguard

Around the web

  • Pindrop and Lloyds Banking Group win Gold Award for ‘best risk and fraud management programme’ at the European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards.
  • Socure named one of the Top AI Companies in the world by CB Insights.
  • GreenKey joins Symphony Software Foundation.
  • Argentine digital consumer lender Wenance chooses Mambu’s SaaS engine.
  • Finicity integrates its asset verification tool into Black Knight’s LoanSphere Exchange Digital platform.
  • HousingWire features Roostify and its focus on the consumer experience.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook