Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution

AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint

One way to make a smart contract even smarter is to enhance document access and security. Digital currency exchange platform AlphaPoint has achieved that with today’s partnership with Intel. The two have teamed up to launch TrustedVM, a solution for secure smart contracts that enhances AlphaPoint’s Asset Digitization solution.

TrustedVM leverages Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) technology to enable smart contracts and any set or subset of blockchain data to remain confidential. The data is protected against access by intermediaries and network participants to boost the security of AlphaPoint’s Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP).

“Our collaboration with AlphaPoint aims to deliver enterprise-ready blockchain solutions to the financial services community,” said Rick Echevarria, Vice President of Software and Services Group and General Manager of the Platforms Security Division at Intel. “AlphaPoint is expanding blockchain use cases to include illiquid assets; art, collectibles, and real estate, and [the] use of Intel SGX will help increase the security and privacy of those transactions.”

AlphaPoint’s President and COO Igor Telyatnikov noted that the company’s customers seek the benefits of the blockchain but don’t want the security and privacy issues that typically come with existing blockchain solutions. Since smart contracts execute inside TrustedVM, the hardware layer ensures that unpermissioned parties never have access to the data.

Founded in 2013, AlphaPoint powers digital asset networks and maintains the AlphaPoint Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP), the platform on which the asset issuance and custody solution is based. The ADLP interoperates with more than 20 ledger technologies. Earlier this year, the company launched a crowdfunding capability on the ADLP, which enables users to host ICOs. The ICOs issue newly created digital assets on the exchange, which is hosted on AlphaPoint’s infrastructure.

At FinovateFall 2017, the company showcased the ADLP Reconciliation Platform, which combines blockchain-based asymmetric access controls and machine-enforced domain compliance for order management and other activities. The Reconciliation Platform reduces time and cost associated with manual, post-trade reconciliation processes. The company was recently selected by Capital Trust Group and W Ventures to create a blockchain infrastructure for Trust City. AlphaPoint is headquartered in New York, has raised $3 million, and has 30 employees.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Aerospike, AlphaPoint, Check Point, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, FIS, iSignthis, Kony, Modo Payments, Sberbank, WePay

On Finovate.com

  • AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution.

Around the web

  • Finextra: Sberbank joins Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
  • Aerospike announces upcoming new version of its database — Aerospike 4.0 Enterprise Edition.
  • Checkpoint Systems wins Asia Business Achiever Awards.
  • Kony unveils its next generation digital banking platform and suite of applications.
  • FIS to provide cash management and payment solutions for Citi’s corporate treasury customers in new partnership.
  • iSignthis to integrate its Paydentity UBO Service with Web Shield’s InvestiGate platform.

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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BlueVine Lands $130 Million in Debt Financing

BlueVine Lands $130 Million in Debt Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BlueVine, Funding

Alternative lending company BlueVine received a boost today, landing a $130 million round of debt funding. The company’s overall financing now totals $273 million, which is now comprised of $205 million in debt and $68 million in equity.

Supporting BlueVine in this round are Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi, and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corporation. The company will use the funds to support its invoice factoring offering and grow its overall business. Ana Sirbu, BlueVine’s Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets said the company is “building a business for the long term” and notes that more than 80% of the company’s business comes from returning customers.

Additionally, the company has launched a new credit line that allows businesses to make payments on a monthly, instead of a weekly basis over the course of a 12-month term. Last year, the company increased its maximum line of credit to $100 million. “BlueVine’s goal is to offer the optimal solution for every working capital challenge faced by business owners, and our new product is another step forward in fulfilling this vision,” says BlueVine Founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz. “Business owners have diverse needs, and by augmenting our product offering, we are able to offer the solution that fits best.”

Founded in 2013, BlueVine is best known for Invoice Factoring, in which it issues cash to small businesses who sell their unpaid invoices at a discount, then receive up to $2 million in working capital in a matter of days to help manage operations. This summer, the company partnered with Solomoto to combine its offering with Solomoto’s digital marketing platform.

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BankBazaar Receives $30 Million in Funding Round Led by Experian

BankBazaar Receives $30 Million in Funding Round Led by Experian
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BankBazaar, Funding

India-based online credit processing platform BankBazaar is sure to have a happy Diwali this year. That’s because the company has landed $30 million in a Series D funding round led by Experian.

The company didn’t name other contributors to today’s round, but cited existing backers Amazon, Sequoia, Eight Roads (Fidelity Growth Partners) and Walden International, who have helped boost BankBazaar’s total funding to $110 million. “The funds from this round will be used to further strengthen our position as the leader in secure paperless access to loans, cards, and Mutual Funds,” said BankBazaar CEO Adhil Shetty. The company also noted that it will use the funds to support international expansion efforts. BankBazaar has already made inroads into Singapore and is considering further expanding into Asia, the Middle East, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, UAE, and the Philippines.

Founded in 2008, BankBazaar serves as a single platform where users can shop for and access a variety of financial products, including mortgages, personal loans, car loans, credit cards, fixed deposit accounts, and insurance offered by more than 75 financial institutions. The company began focusing on paperless finance last year, when it introduced paperless loan applications. Shetty expects Experian to help it “accelerate towards [its] vision of paperless access to all financial products.”

Ben Elliott, CEO of Experian Asia Pacific, said, “We believe that consumer adoption of fully digital experiences coupled with paperless access to financial products will push customer acquisition 10X by 2020. With e-commerce shoppers growing significantly over the next few years, companies with paperless technology platforms are well-positioned to leverage the latest trends in consumer technology and help millions of Indians gain access to formal banking and finance products, further enabling financial inclusion for millions of underserved consumers.”

BankBazaar demoed its real-time credit processing platform at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. The company recently partnered with Experian to offer users access to view their credit score for free. Last year, BankBazaar was awarded the ‘Emerging Brand of the Year’ and ‘CEO of the Year’ awards at the 7th CMO Asia Awards in Singapore for Excellence in Branding and Marketing.

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Mitek Acquires ICAR for $15 Million

Mitek Acquires ICAR for $15 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Mitek

Mobile capture and identity solutions company Mitek Systems scored a win for its identity verification arm this week. The company has acquired Barcelona-based ICAR for $15 million (€12.75 million).

In addition to strengthening Mitek’s position in the consumer identity and access management market, the move is expected to bolster the company’s stance overall in the industry. The acquisition will enable Mitek to offer extensive identity document coverage in North America, Europe, and Latin America and will increase Mitek’s capabilities with several new factors of authentication. Additionally, Mitek can now enable customer onboarding and authentication on both web and mobile interfaces.

“The technical and cultural fit between ICAR and Mitek is a tremendous opportunity to maximize value for shareholders, while expanding our mission to bring the highest quality user experience and digital identity verification solutions to our customers globally,” said James B. DeBello, Chief Executive Officer of Mitek and Chairman of the Mitek Board of Directors.

ICAR was founded in 2002 and facilitates more than 20 million identity validations per year. The company is headquartered in Barcelona with offices in Madrid, São Paulo, and Mexico City. ICAR is a spin-off of Computer Vision Center of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona which, combined with researchers from Mitek Labs, will boost Mitek’s expertise in how machine learning and computer vision enhance digital identity verification.

At FinovateEurope 2017, ICAR’s CEO Xavier Codó and CMO Mariona Campmany demonstrated the company’s IDMobile solution that analyzes factors such as the consumer’s geolocation, email address, social networks and compares them with the user’s selfie and ID photo. Check out an interview we conducted with Campmany earlier this year.

Mitek recently demoed its MobileVerify solution at FinovateFall 2017. The company is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker “MITK”. Mitek was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. Last month, the company began leveraging near field communication (NFC) technology to add another factor of authentication by reading data held on RFID chips embedded into documents.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Launch UnderBanked Service in Partnership with Dwolla, Ripple, and Others

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Launch UnderBanked Service in Partnership with Dwolla, Ripple, and Others
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dwolla, Ripple

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the launch of a service today that it created with in partnership with Dwolla, along with collaboration with Ripple, Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, and Software Group. The new tool is an open-source code for creating a payments infrastructure intended for unbanked populations.

Called Mojaloop, the system is named after the Swahili word for “one.” The program is aimed to empower local, unbanked communities by offering a single, secure, digital payment method that replaces the use of cash, which is inconvenient and often insecure. The code is secure and interoperable and can be used at scale to serve an entire country or region, and the open-source nature enables developers to build, enhance, or adapt the code to suit specific needs.

“Imagine your life without banking. How would you pay your bills? Or store your money for safe-keeping? For two billion people around the world, these challenges are very real,” the launch video for Mojaloop begins. It goes on to explain that the service helps users spend and save money easily and securely, while offering financial providers access to a group of new clients. Mojaloop has three main layers:

  1. An interoperability layer, which facilitates payments made among various services, including bank accounts, and mobile money accounts.
  2. A directory service layer, which is responsible for routing each payment to the correct provider
  3. A transaction settlement layer, which records each transaction in each provider’s master ledger

Before creating Mojaloop, Dwolla undertook market research that took “countless calls, work-sessions, and meetings” to curate. The company described Mojaloop as “a true victory for the development of global payments” and said that the project “evens the playing field, so everyone can benefit from the sophistication of a ubiquitous payments infrastructure.”

Participating in the Mojaloop project, Dwolla said it drew from its experience in creating FiSync, and leveraged ideas from its Fast Payments Proposal. In a blog post announcing the launch, the company said, “As an organization, we are excited to see where the Gates Foundation and the open-source community, continues to strive to find a payments solution for the betterment of the global economy.”

Dwolla, which most recently demoed FiSync at FinovateSpring 2015, was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Earlier this summer, the company added a multi-user feature to its Access API dashboard. In May, Dwolla teamed up with Plaid to offer a fully tokenized ACH payment integration. Ben Milne is founder and CEO.

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ACI Launches Payments Risk Management Solution to Boost Fraud Protection

ACI Launches Payments Risk Management Solution to Boost Fraud Protection
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide

Electronic payments company ACI Worldwide announced it will enhance its fraud protection efforts today. The Florida-based company launched the UP Payments Risk Management Solution, which Andreas Suma, vice president of ACI Worldwide said “combines fraud and transaction data from the payment universe and insights from ACI’s global fraud experts—stopping fraud and improving every customer experience across the payments ecosystem.”

The solution offers cloud-based, real-time fraud management services to protect payments, regardless of a number of circumstances. The payment can be card-present or card-not-present; initiated using ACI’s or a third-party’s payment engine; or conducted by a bank, intermediary, or merchant. By leveraging machine learning, Up Payments Risk Management can react and adapt to new fraud signals, then use fraud and payment data through modeling and analytic systems. “The necessity for universal fraud management services in the cloud continues to increase, and banks, intermediaries, merchants and telcos seek to outsource everything from payments, fraud, compliance and security-related tasks,” Suma said.

Founded in 1975, ACI Worldwide has been delivering fraud protection and prevention for more than 20 years and draws on more than 40 years of payments experience. The company executes more than $14 trillion in payments and securities each day for more than 5,100 organizations across the globe, including more than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions.

At FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, the company gave a presentation titled, Simple, Global, and Secure eCommerce Payments with ACI Worldwide’s Next-Generation API. The presentation showcased ACI’s COPYandPAY solution, an SAQ-A compliant JavaScript payment-form solution. Earlier this month, the company partnered with STET, a European clearing and settlement system, to serve payment service providers across Europe. In July, ACI Worldwide expanded its operations by opening a new office in Romania. The company has 4,100 employees in 31 offices across the globe and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker ACIW.

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Ripple Entices Banks with New Accelerator Program

Ripple Entices Banks with New Accelerator Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ripple

One of the first rules of basic economics is that incentives matter. Blockchain solutions company Ripple must be privy to this rule because the California-based company today unveiled a new accelerator program and marketing incentives to promote bank interest.

The company announced it will now offer a reward for banks that are the first in their markets to process and promote commercial payments on RippleNet, the company’s enterprise blockchain solution that connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and businesses. Banks will be rewarded in the form of rebates, funded through $300 million worth of XRP.

The program is intended to accelerate adoption and usage of Ripple and is two-fold– consisting of a Volume Rebate and an Adoption Marketing Incentive. The Volume Rebate program offers rebates to RippleNet members once they’ve achieved integration and volume milestones by predetermined deadlines. The rebates are issued either in XRP or USD and depend on the volume, but vary from covering 50% to 300% of the integration and first-year license fees.

The Adoption Marketing Incentive is available on a first-come, first-serve basis and matches financial institutions’ marketing spend used to promote Ripple products to their end clients. Ripple will also support efforts by providing marketing content and messaging framework and tools. For both programs, selling restrictions are in place to support a healthy XRP market.

Monica Long, VP of Marketing at Ripple, likened the incentive program to PayPal’s early adoption and referral bonuses. Long said, “Since we’re offering the incentives in XRP, we anticipate seeing an added benefit of building an easy on-ramp for institutions to use XRP in their payment flows to lower liquidity cost in the future.” Long added that the reception of the incentive programs was “very positive” in early testing.

Company co-founder Chris Larsen, who debuted Ripple (originally known as OpenCoin) at FinovateSpring 2013.Brad Garlinghouse took the reins as Ripple CEO last fall. The company made headlines this spring when it partnered with BBVA to complete an international money transfer using RippleNet. In July, Ripple expanded its suite of offerings that support XRP and last month the company selected Singapore for its new Asia office location.

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Finicity Teams with DataVerify

Finicity Teams with DataVerify
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finicity

Data aggregation and insights company Finicity announced it has integrated with risk mitigation firm DataVerify to offer mortgage lenders real-time borrower asset verification.

This capability will combine Finicity’s Verification of Assets (VoA) solution– part of the Utah-based company’s set of asset and income verification tools launched earlier this year– with DataVerify’s DRIVE platform that automates underwriting for lenders. DataVerify works by comparing borrower data across multiple databases to assess risk and fraud levels, identifying the legitimacy of borrowers to help lenders avoid loan quality issues.

“With real-time asset verification from Finicity, lenders that use our DRIVE platform will be able to get quick insight into a borrower’s financial information and thus make more efficient and smarter lending decisions” said Brad Bogel, ‎senior vice president at DataVerify. He continued, “The data can be accessed and verified in a matter of clicks, shortening the loan approval process for a greater overall consumer experience.”

Finicity was founded in 1999 and has since developed more than 16,000 bank integrations. The company most recently demoed its credit decisioning solution at FinovateFall 2017. Earlier this summer, Finicity signed a data exchange deal with JP Morgan Chase to allow bank partners to leverage third party financial apps without disclosing their login credentials.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, DAVO Technologies, EverSafe, Finicity, Ondot, Ripple, Tradeshift, Wave

On Finovate

  • Wave Brings Business Services to Royal Bank of Canada’s Online Banking Platform
  • Finicity Teams with DataVerify.
  • Ripple Entices Banks with New Accelerator Program.

Around the web

  • Tradeshift joins the Hyperledger Board.
  • DAVO to offer app to Poynt merchants via Poynt’s App Marketplace
  • Ondot, Elan provide two-way fraud alerts for My Mobile Money app.
  • EverSafe wins a spot in Fidelity’s list of “8 financial tips for new widows.”

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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P2Binvestor Launches Bank Partnership Program

P2Binvestor Launches Bank Partnership Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: P2BInvestor

Peer-to-business crowdlending platform P2Binvestor (P2Bi) has launched a bank partnership program today. The new initiative will offer small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) working capital while providing banks access to a diversified asset class.

Under the partnership, banks will front 50% of the capital with a senior secured position. P2Bi’s base of private investors will provide the remaining half of the capital and businesses will receive the funds with a blended interest rate of 8% to 12%. By partnering with P2Bi, banks can quickly extend multi-million dollar lines of credit to growing SMBs and establish a lending relationship with them at an early stage in their business development.

The Colorado-based company’s CEO Krista Morgan explained that regulatory and technology hurdles have made it difficult for business borrowers and banks to connect. “Until now, there hasn’t been a solution like this, which unfortunately has forced growing companies to take on expensive and time consuming funding,” Morgan said. “We’re enabling banks to lend to businesses they otherwise wouldn’t be able to due to strict lending standards,” she added.

Piloting the bank partnership program is New Resource Bank, a San Francisco-based bank with $331 million in assets under management and a focus on social, environmental, and economic change. “P2Binvestor is excited to be powering New Resource Bank’s line of credit with both our marketplace and proprietary receivables lending platform,” said Morgan.

Vincent Siciliano, president and CEO of New Resource Bank describes the program as a “win-win” for the bank and for businesses. Siciliano said, “By using P2Bi’s platform, growing businesses will be able to secure capital that they typically wouldn’t be able to access through bank lending alone. This allows us to offer a greater suite of lending products to the community of sustainable businesses we serve.”

Founded in 2012, P2Bi debuted at FinovateSpring 2013 and, at FinovateFall 2014, the company showcased its borrower application and loan management platform. In November of 2016, P2Bi closed a $7 million Series A round, bringing its total equity funding to $9.6 million. Last month, Forbes featured the company in an article titled, “When Venture Capitalists Said, ‘No,’ This Woman Didn’t Give Up.”

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doxo Surpasses 30,000 Payable Billers on its Platform

doxo Surpasses 30,000 Payable Billers on its Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Doxo

Consumer bill pay service doxo announced it reached a milestone today. The Seattle-based company now has more than 30,000 billers on its platform, allowing users the ability to pay even more companies from a single website.

This achievement also gives doxo a new status– the Seattle-based company now has more billers on its platform than any other bill paying service in the U.S. The company attributes the growth to the network effect between users and billing service providers. That is, doxo’s user base of 2 million consumers add billers who they want to pay to the platform while billers join the platform to offer their clients a fast, easy way to pay.

The company’s CEO and co-founder Steve Shivers said that the accomplishment is an “important milestone” for the company, especially when coupled with the fact that doxo surpassed 2 million users earlier this year. “The most compelling service we provide to our users is the ability to pay all of their bills from a single, secure, mobile-friendly account,” Shivers said.

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.

doxo debuted its Control Panel at FinovateSpring 2011. The company received the 2015 Washington Excellence Award for Consumer Payments and Customer Service and most recently was named to the Red Herring Top 100 North America Winners in 2017. Founded in 2008, doxo has raised $18.8 million.

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