Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

TESOBE’s Open Bank Project Powering Santander’s First Hackathon

TESOBE’s Open Bank Project Powering Santander’s First Hackathon
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Open Bank Project, TESOBE

Courtesy of help from TESOBE’s Open Bank Project, Santander is hosting its first hackathon this spring. The bank will leverage the Open Bank Project’s white-labeled sandbox technology and expertise to host the competition, themed Building Banking Your Way.

Stephen Dury, Head of Customer and Innovation at Santander​, said, “​By launching a hackathon, we hope to see the future of open banking come to life through participants fresh ideas, creative new use cases and industry-changing solutions.”

Using a sandbox of emulated data, the hackathon aims to find innovative solutions to business challenges and tackle issues ranging from customer interaction, security, homeownership, and money management. Prizes will be awarded to participants who create submissions that “surprise, delight, and engage with users in a way that has never been done before” and the winning team will receive $14,000 (£10,000).

Santander’s upcoming hackathon will take place from 16 through 18th March in Shoreditch.

Simon Redfern, CEO of TESOBE / Open Bank Project, ​said that this hackathon comes at a particularly exciting time given the EU’s new open banking regulations. “A hackathon is a great way of gathering and focusing fresh perspectives and we’re excited to meet and support the up-and-coming innovators who have the vision, passion, and capability to rapidly deliver compelling fintech apps and services using Open Banking APIs,” Redfern added.

The Open Bank Project has partnered with a number of global banks, including Societe Generale and The Royal Bank of Scotland, to help them organize and execute successful hackathons. With new PSD2 guidelines in place, banks may be more likely to open themselves to new opportunities and feel more pressure to create and adopt new, innovative services.

Headquartered in Germany, the Open Bank Project was founded in 2005. At FinovateSpring 2013, Redfern demonstrated a fun application of open banking– the world’s first singing bank. The point of the demo was not the singing bank itself, but rather was intended to showcase the ease of use of the Open Banking Project’s API. At FinovateEurope this March, TESOBE’s Open Bank Project will demo its newest technology from stage (register).

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Kabbage to Serve Larger Businesses by Expanding Line of Credit to $250k

Kabbage to Serve Larger Businesses by Expanding Line of Credit to $250k
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Kabbage

Alternative lending startup Kabbage is broadening its focus today. The Atlanta-based company has expanded its line of credit to $250,000 to offer more purchasing power to larger businesses for longer term loans.

This credit increase will not only serve existing Kabbage clients looking to borrow more, but will also add to the company’s customer base to include larger businesses. In a recent survey of 800 small businesses, Kabbage found that more than 73% of businesses expect to increase their revenue by more than 20% this year. Among the top investments businesses plan to make are:

  • Mobile technologies, such as apps, advertising or text automation for customer relationship management
  • Technologies to reduce manual process and paperwork
  • Social advertising
  • Cybersecurity tools and software to protect company and customer data

“Giving small businesses the peace of mind and security to focus less on their finances and more on their passions is a key tenet at Kabbage,” said Bob Sharpe, COO of Kabbage. “Increasing our lines of credit to $250,000 significantly enhances our ability to solve financial hurdles for larger and more specialized businesses that may otherwise be unachievable, which we see in the market today.”

Once they’re approved, businesses can draw on the $250,000 line of credit at any time, without having to reapply for each loan they take. Kabbage is not charging additional fees for the larger amount, has no annual withdrawal requirements, and no origination costs. Businesses can access the funds online, via the Kabbage mobile app, or on the Kabbage Card, which the company launched at FinovateSpring 2015. The Kabbage Card allows users to withdrawal from their line of credit at any point-of-sale where VISA is accepted.

Last month, the company released 2017 growth figures, stating it has extended $4+ billion to more than 130,000 small businesses since it was founded in 2009. In November of 2017, Kabbage made headlines when it brought in a $200 million credit facility. Check out our video interview with Kabbage’s President and Co-Founder Kathryn Petralia at FinovateFall 2017.

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Wealthfront Launches Homeownership Planning Tool

Wealthfront Launches Homeownership Planning Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Wealthfront

The pressure is high in today’s housing market. Inventory is low in many parts of the U.S. and that, combined with the threat of rising interest rates and booming housing demand, is making home buyers feel the need to buy. Automated investment advisory company Wealthfront announced today that it is here to help with the addition of home planning tools for Path, the company’s automated financial planning solution.

The Path home planning tool aims to help buyers understand what they can afford today and what it may take for them to be able to afford a larger home in the future. Also importantly, the tool shows users how this purchase may impact future goals, such as retiring early or paying for a child’s college tuition. Path extends beyond traditional affordability calculators to show a cost estimate that considers the user’s financial standing and other financial goals.

Leveraging third party data, Path projects future home prices and mortgage rates that are specific to the borrower’s financial situation. The tool also takes into account the varying home prices in different zip codes. Once the borrower defines the specific location and type of house they’re looking for, Path lets them know if they’re on track to afford it. When they find the home they’re looking for, Path advises the user which account the downpayment funds should come from.

This is a noteworthy addition to Path, which originated as a retirement and education planning tool. With this week’s launch of homeownership planning, the tool still has one last financial frontier left– helping users financially plan to start a family.

Wealthfront allows users to invest up to $10,000 for free and currently manages $10.5 billion in assets for investors across the U.S. The company debuted as KaChing in 2009 in the early years of Finovate. Last June, Wealthfront was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list and earlier this month received $75 million in funding, bringing its total raised to $205 million.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity, Blackhawk Network, BlueVine, Featurespace, FICO, Finastra, Finn.ai, Kabbage, Open Bank Project, SecureKey, Temenos, TESOBE, TIBCO Software, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com

  • Wealthfront Launches Homeownership Planning Tool.
  • Kabbage to Serve Larger Businesses by Expanding Line of Credit to $250k.
  • BlueVine Boosts Invoice Factoring Credit Line to $5 Million.
  • TESOBE’s Open Bank Project Powering Santander’s First Hackathon. Come see TESOBE’s Open Bank Project at FinovateEurope in March.

Around the web

  • Playtech integrates Featurespace’s real-time gameplay fraud detection into IMS.
  • ATB Financial joins SecureKey Concierge Authentication Service.
  • Blackhawk Network partners with Casey’s General Stores to enable ‘cash customers’ with Amazon Cash.
  • TIBCO and Singapore Polytechnic collaborate to address skills shortage for SMEs.
  • Finabank selects Temenos for end-to-end technology.
  • Finastra acquires FX e-trading platform, Olfa Soft SA.
  • 4finance Group to deploy AML and KYC compliance solutions from FICO.
  • Best of Show winner Finn.ai hires former Twitter executive Stephen Morse as new head of global strategic accounts.
  • Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (NMAC) joins AutoGravity 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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ThreatMetrix Acquired by RELX, Becomes Part of LexisNexis Risk Solutions

ThreatMetrix Acquired by RELX, Becomes Part of LexisNexis Risk Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, ThreatMetrix

It’s the end of an era for ThreatMetrix. The authentication and fraud prevention company has been acquired by RELX Group for $830 million (£580 million). The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year.

The California-based company will operate as part of RELX’s Risk & Business Analytics under the LexisNexis Risk Solutions brand. LexisNexis, which offers authentication solutions to fight fraud, has been one of ThreatMetrix’s long-standing partners. LexisNexis leverages ThreatMetrix’s device intelligence solutions in its Risk Defense Platform and is planning further integration of ThreatMetrix’s capabilities in device, email, and social intelligence.

ThreatMetrix President and CEO Reed Taussig said that the previous partnership exemplifies “strong synergies” between the two organizations. Taussig added, “The benefits our shared customers have realized from the integration of our respective products are unmatched in the industry…. by combining the strength of LexisNexis Risk Solutions and ThreatMetrix into a single business, our customers, partners, and employees will benefit with a unique and compelling market opportunity.”

Founded in 2005, ThreatMetrix analyzes connections among locations, devices, identity, and threat intelligence, and combines this information with behavioral analytics to identify high risk transactions in real time. The company is known for its Digital Identity Network that analyzes 100 million transactions per day across 35,000 websites from 5,000 customers. This digital identity repository encompasses 1.4 billion unique online identities from 4.5 billion devices in 185 countries.

The Digital Identity Network is likely one of the reasons RELX was enticed to make the acquisition. In fact, the $830 million RELX paid for ThreatMetrix is $593 million higher than Pitchbook’s valuation of ThreatMetrix after the company’s 2014 funding round.

ThreatMetrix launched its Digital Identity Graph, which leverages information from the Digital Identity Network, at FinovateAsia 2016. The Digital Identity Graph gathers information on billions of transactions collected from tens of thousands of websites to build a user’s digital identity by analyzing connections between the user, their locations, behaviors, and devices. At FinovateSpring 2017, the company’s CTO, Andreas Baumhof, and Sr. Director of Product Management, Dean Weinert, launched SmartAuthentication for banks with multiple authentication methods. Earlier this month, ThreatMetrix teamed up with GlobalOnePay to power its Sentinel Defend, a fraud detection and scoring engine that protects cross-border transactions.

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BehavioSec Closes $17.5 Million Series B

BehavioSec Closes $17.5 Million Series B
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Funding

Behavioral biometrics company BehavioSec landed $17.5 million in funding today. This brings the company’s total funding to almost $26 million.

The Series B round was led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity with Cisco Investments, ABN AMRO, and existing investors Octopus Ventures and Conor Venture Partners also contributing. The Sweden-based company will use the funds to expand global operations and relocate its headquarters to the U.S. This comes after BehavioSec’s expansion to the U.S. last April.

Since it was founded in 2009, BehavioSec has secured billions of transactions for 40+ million users. The company’s flagship offering technology leverages machine learning to verify a user’s identity by how they interact with their device. This layered and continuous approach takes place in the background so as not to interfere with the user experience. At FinovateFall 2015, the company’s COO, Olov Renberg debuted BehavioSec On Demand. The solution is a transaction-based behavioral biometrics service in the cloud aimed to help organizations control who accesses that service without compromising the integrity of companies and individuals.

Alberto Yépez of Trident Cybersecurity cites two main reasons for the firm’s investment in BehavioSec. “We decided to invest in BehavioSec given production deployments authenticating user sessions for some of the most sophisticated financial institutions and governments around the world. In addition, the company continues to lead the innovation in behavioral biometrics through close partnership with leading cybersecurity vendors and government agencies, including DARPA,” said Yépez.

In an era when data breaches, hacks, and compromises occur on an almost monthly basis, there will be plenty of demand for online security companies for some time. That said, there will also be increased competition. Last October, Zighra launched a continuous authentication solution that leverages behavioral cues. Additionally, companies such as BioCatch, NuData Security, and IBM Security Trusteer all have offerings similar to BehavioSec’s behavioral biometrics solution.

At FinDEVr San Francisco 2015, the company’s VP of Engineering Ingo Deutschmann and COO Olov Renberg gave a presentation titled Behavioral Biometrics as a Service. Last November, BehavioSec teamed up with Crossmatch to add keystroke capture to Crossmatch’s authentication platform.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Ellie Mae, Figo, Meniga, Payoneer, ThreatMetrix

On Finovate.com

  • ThreatMetrix Acquired by RELX, Becomes Part of LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
  • figo Announces ‘License As A Service’ PSD2 Solution, RegShield.
  • BehavioSec Closes $17.5 Million Series B.
  • Payoneer Partners with Waze to Power Local Payments.

Around the web

  • Ellie Mae partners with COCC to offer its members access to Ellie Mae’s Encompass all-in-one mortgage management solution.
  • Meniga wins best App and best Web Solution at the Icelandic Web Awards 2017.

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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LenddoEFL Launches in Vietnam

LenddoEFL Launches in Vietnam
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Entrepreneurial Finance Lab

Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) furthered its reach across Asia this week. The Bermuda-based company has formed a partnership with Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) in conjunction with Lenddo, an alternative credit scoring company with which EFL merged last year.

OCB will be the first bank to offer LenddoEFL’s psychometric scoring solution in Vietnam, a region where many citizens lack traditional financial and credit information. Using the scoring tools, OCB aims to serve more self-employed and salaried banking members. “This partnership with one of Vietnam’s leading banks marks our launch in Vietnam and part of our expansion plans as we provide fast, affordable and convenient financial products for more than 1 billion people worldwide,” said Richard Eldridge, CEO of LenddoEFL.

OCB Community Banking Director, Phu Nguyen said the bank chose the solution “due to proven performance of their solutions around the world.” Nguyen added, “We expect this partnership will allow us to grow quickly by approving more people without increasing our risk, shortening turnaround times and improving the onboarding experience for our clients.”

LenddoEFL leverages AI and advanced analytics, bringing together behavioral and digital data to help lenders in emerging markets underwrite loans and serve traditionally underserved borrowers. LenddoEFL has provided credit scoring, verification, and insights products to 50+ financial institutions, serving 6 million people and lending $2 billion.

EFL showcased its credit scoring tool at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. In 2017, the company teamed with FICO to enhance its credit scoring methodology. Soon after, EFL was nominated as a finalist in the 2017 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge.

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StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding

StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, StreetShares

StreetShares has landed $23 million in equity funding, bringing the company’s total investment to $43 million. This comes just months after the military veteran-focused lending platform closed $10.3 million for its “shark tank meets eBay” approach to small business lending last August.

Today’s Series B round was led by Rotunda Capital Partners, with additional contributions from existing investors, including veteran-focused venture firm, Stony Lonesome Group. In a press release, Mark Rockefeller, CEO of StreetShares said, “This injection of capital allows us to continue to provide red-carpet treatment to our very special members— the veteran entrepreneurs, small business owners, government contractors, and impact investors—that make up our country’s next Greatest Generation.”

The StreetShares platform enables small business owners to pitch their loan requests to a community of investor members. Founded by military veterans, StreetShares is focused on offering financing for small businesses run by military veterans and their families, but serves non-veteran run small businesses, as well. The company offers loans with terms ranging from three to 36 months and lines of credit from $2,000 to $100,000. Investors can lend from $25 to $100,000 in Veteran Business Bonds and earn 5% interest.

StreetShares COO Mickey Konson said that the funding is a “huge step” in the company’s growth. He continued, “StreetShares is proud to fuel this special class of great American small businesses, and our partnership with Rotunda demonstrates that we are just getting started.”

At FinovateEurope 2015, the company’s CEO and co-founder Mark Rockefeller and COO and co-founder Mickey Konson showcased the StreetShares platform. The company began leveraging Title IV (Regulation A+) of the JOBS act in 2017 to allow unaccredited investors to lend to small businesses. It is now one of only a handful of P2P lending platforms open to unaccredited investors.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, MX, PayNearMe, Ripple, StreetShares, Temenos, wipro

On Finovate.com

  • StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding.
  • Wipro Announces Minority Stake Investment in Harte Hanks.

Around the web

  • Invoice Cloud collaborates with PayNearMe to accept cash payments.
  • Reuters: Trading Technologies-Coinbase deal to bridge bitcoin and futures
  • MX and Coast Capital empower members with the Take Charge Money Manager.
  • Fortune: Ripple adds New Partners in Push to Make Case for XRP.
  • Temenos completes migration to core banking platform at EFG International.

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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Get Your Sneak Peek Starting Next Week

Get Your Sneak Peek Starting Next Week
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek

FinovateEurope is taking place March 6 through 9 in London (register today). And for the first time, Finovate is bringing its expanded content format to our European conference. Check out our topic preview from last week to see some of the topics that will be discussed in panels and forums this year.

Get a Sneak Peek into the demos

Anchoring the show will be our signature, demo-only showcase of the latest tools and trends in fintech. Join us as dozens of companies take the stage to show off their newest innovations – live – in front of our audience. To help you prepare beyond the discussion sessions, we’re kicking off our Sneak Peek blog series. Starting next week, we’ll reveal a company-by-company look into the new technology each demo company will show on stage during the first two days of the show. This series will continue through February and you don’t want to miss it.

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

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Roostify Integrates with LendingTree

Roostify Integrates with LendingTree
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: LendingTree, Roostify

Consumer-focused mortgage digitization platform Roostify integrated with online loan marketplace LendingTree today. The integration leverages LendingTree’s aggregation technology to help consumers find the right loan, while Roostify keeps the mortgage origination process online.

Nikul Patel, Chief Strategy Officer, LendingTree cited a “digital gap” in the mortgage industry, explaining that even though most consumers shop for loans online, the mortgage origination process still takes place offline. “Our integration with Roostify brings the industry one step closer to the all-digital vision for a seamless consumer journey,” Patel said.

Consumers browse mortgages on LendingTree and when they select a lender using Roostify they move seamlessly into the application flow. From the lender’s website, Roostify powers authentication using pre-populated fields and the user can apply for a mortgage using Roostify’s fully online process. The integration will be available in the first quarter of this year for all joint LendingTree-Roostify clients.

“Roostify is dedicated to improving the lending experience for both consumers and lenders,” added Rajesh Bhat, CEO of Roostify. “Partnering with LendingTree, whose mission is to help consumers find the best home loan, helps us achieve both those goals, increasing efficiency and lead quality for lenders while offering consumers a faster, stress-free path to apply for and close a competitively priced home loan.”

This move positions Roostify to better compete with mortgagetech company Sindeo, which takes a B2C approach by enabling consumers to shop 40+ lenders and 1,000+ loan programs on its platform.

Roostify presented at FinovateSpring 2016 where the company’s Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward, Head of Product, and Jonathan Kirst, CTO, showed off integrations with TurboTax, Equifax, as well as account aggregation capabilities for asset verification. About a year ago, the company teamed up with Chase to power the bank’s self-service mortgage application process. In October of last year, Roostify launched a Decision Builder tool to offer lenders a set of visual decision-making tools for borrowers. For more on the mortgagetech sector, check out our industry overview.

Founded in 1998, Lending Tree went public on the NASDAQ in 2000. The company 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. Last spring the company acquired DepositAccounts.com for $33 million.

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