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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Panalpina World Transport choosesTradeshift to support digitization of its procure-to-pay process.
Ripplejoins sharing economy startup Omni’s $25 million fundraising with an investment of XRP.
OverbondwinsMost Innovative Third-Party Technology Vendor (Front Office) category at American Financial Technology Awards.
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.
Make a New Year’s Resolution for 2018? While fintech can’t help you lose weight (yet!), there are plenty of players to help you achieve your financial resolutions. So here are a few specific financial goals you might have set for 2018 – along with the fintech innovators who can help you achieve them.
Save more
After feeling the burn of holiday spending, many people are planning to buckle down and increase their savings in the new year.
Dyme
Dyme offers an automated savings platform. The text-based app not only reminds users to save, it also automatically moves money from their checking account to their savings.
Meniga
Meniga’s personal financial management (PFM) platform makes it easy for users to track their goals and inspires them to mitigate their spending habits to reach their goals on time.
Qapital
Another PFM app, Qapital offers a visual way for users to see the progress of their savings goals.
Buy a house
Interest rates are on the rise, so if you’re looking to buy a home there’s no better time than the present.
Blend
Blend helps put an end to the “document volleyball” that often occurs in the home buying process. Blend’s online portal offers secure and compliant document transmission and communication channels that help buyers, lenders, and agents stay on track.
Sindeo
Sindeo’s platform offers users access to more than 1,000 loan programs and guidance from mortgage advisors. The company’s QuickStart program helps users complete a loan application and receive a pre-qualification letter in under 10 minutes.
Unison
Unison Home Ownership Investors contributes up to half of the buyer’s down payment, lowering their monthly payments and helping them to avoid paying mortgage insurance. When the term of the loan is up or the buyer decides to sell their home, Unison claims a portion of the home’s appreciation.
Organize your retirement
It seems as if there is always something to be done when it comes to retirement funds– rollovers, maximize returns, minimize fees, optimize diversification…. Fortunately, wealth tech is one area of fintech where there are seemingly endless firms to help.
Wealthfront Wealthfront is one of the largest players in the wealth tech space. The company offers retirement and college savings plans, and allows users to borrow against their portfolios.
Blooom With transparent advice and low fees, Blooom has an algorithmic approach to investing that aims to maximize 401(k) returns.
Nutmeg U.K.-based Nutmeg algorithmically manages users’ ISA’s pensions, and general investments for less of a fee than a traditional investment advisor.
Scalable Capital U.K.-based Scalable Capital uses a technology-based approach to make wealth management available to everyone.
For many millennials, the burden of student loans is getting in the way of starting a family, buying a house, and even saving for retirement. Paying down loans faster has the potential to open up more opportunities.
Tuition.io
While it’s not a B2C play, Tuition.io enables employers to offer a workplace benefit that assists employees by making contributions to their student loan payments.
Student Loan Genius
Student Loan Genius follows a similar model to Tuition.io (though they might say it’s the other way around).
Personetics Personetics Act leverages AI to notify banks which of their clients have student loans and can pay the off faster. The technology finds unused funds that can be applied toward the balance and automatically pays down student loans on the client’s behalf.
Maximize your tax benefits
Whether you’re doing your personal taxes or trying to balance sales tax for your small business, these tools can help you get a head start on this annual task.
Xero
Founded in 2006, Xero is a long-standing cloud accounting players for small businesses. XeroTax helps businesses to prepare, review and lodge returns for individual, partnership, company, trust, SMSF, FBT and activity statements.
Credit Karma
Starting last year, Credit Karma began offering tax preparation and filing service for the 2017 tax year. Unlike many self-service tax preparation services, Credit Karma’s is free. And –bonus– the company partnered with American Express this year to offer an advance on your refund.
Avalara
Similar to Xero, Avalara is focused on small businesses. The Seattle-based startup helps companies with VAT automation, as well as plan, manage, and prepare sales and use tax.
Give more
Looking for some extra karma this year? Here are some fintechs that can help boost charitable giving.
Betterment
Yes, Betterment is a wealth management company and not a pure-play tax startup. However, last year the company announced a charitable giving feature that allows customers to donate shares from taxable accounts to charitable organizations.
Place2Give
Canada-based Place2Give is a one-stop shop where users can search for and donate to North American charities.
Sustainably
Sustainably is like Acorns for charitable giving. The U.K.-based company automates donations to users’ selected charities by rounding up their purchases to the nearest £1, making micro-donations.
Data-driven marketing company Cardlytics is reinforcing its troops for the new year. The Atlanta-based company has appointed Sathish Gaddipati as Chief Technology Officer.
Gaddipati has been promoted to the new role, having previously served as Cardlytics’ Senior Vice President and Head of Technology. As CTO, Gaddipati is charged with leading platform engineering, technical product management, software development, data engineering, quality assurance, and IT operations.
Gaddipati, who has been with Cardlytics for a year, said that he realized the company “was the perfect fit for me.” He added, “It’s incredibly gratifying that our combined efforts have allowed us to continue providing sophisticated technology to leading financial institutions, and I look forward to working on exciting future developments.”
Prior to joining Cardlytics, Gaddipati, who has an MS in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, held roles at The Weather Channel, The Walt Disney Company, NCR Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Sun Microsystems, and Omnitracs.
Founded in 2008, Cardlytics has raised $203 million in funding. The company demoed its geolocation application at FinovateFall 2013. In 2016, Cardlytics analyzed approximately $1.3 trillion in U.S. purchase spend. Scott Grimes is CEO and cofounder.
Identity management platform ID.me has landed a new client this week. Veterans for Foreign Wars of the U.S. (VFW) can now offer its members a more streamlined and secure online experience with ID.me’s single-sign on capabilities.
After VFW members sign up for an account at ID.me, the Virginia-based company issues them a single username and password. Members use these credentials to log in to the VFW Online Membership System, access VA benefits on Vets.gov, and gain access to military discounts from 200+ retailers.
This is a sizable win for ID.me, whose founder and CEO Blake Hall is a third generation soldier, former Army Ranger, and graduate of West Point. With this new client, the company has access to VFW’s 1.7 million members, all of whom stand to benefit from a simplified sign in process and secure way to prove their veteran status. The announcement of this client comes just a month after the company teamed with General Motors to support its military discount program.
“Trying to remember the login information for several different online accounts is difficult, and further, verifying your identity online can be a cumbersome process,” said VFW National Commander Keith Harman. “So we’re glad to be able to provide our members with a simple solution.”
At FinovateSpring 2017, Hall showcased how ID.me streamlines account opening, regulatory compliance, and customer support for banks and fintechs using identity that is accredited by the federal government. Last month ID.me surpassed 5 million users and in October, the company partnered with Finovate alum ThreatMetrix to deliver ID verification for government and commercial digital services. The company has raised a total of $45.8 million.
Russia’s largest commercial bank is making bitcoin waves today. Alfa-Bankannounced that it has initiated a collaboration with HashCash, a private, permissionless, digital cash system.
Through the partnership, HashCash will create a payment router and clearing house where all transactions are sent to Alfa-Bank on the blockchain. Alfa-Bank will clear transactions, forward them to the receiving bank in real-time, and log supporting documents. The transfers will operate on the Open Source Blockchain, HC NET, which uses fiat currencies for settlement.
Raj Chowdhury, Managing Director of HashCash Consultants said that the implementation “creates a clearing house solution that combines the liquidity efficiency of a netting system and the intra-day finality of a real time gross settlement system.” He added, “The result is a safe, secure, reliable, fast and final payment system for all transacting parties.”
This isn’t Alfa-Bank’s first foray into the blockchain. Last year, the bank partnered with S7 Airlines for blockchain-based ticket payments. It also collaborated with Sberbank on Russia’s first Blockchain Payment.
At FinovateFall 2015, Alfa-Bank debutedSense, a predictive marketing solutions product for financial institutions.
Blockchain solutions innovator Ripple announced plans to team up with remittance services company MoneyGram.
This announcement comes at a time when both Ripple and MoneyGram have been in the news headlines. Many outlets have reported on Ripple for the volatility of XRP, its digital currency (and for the rumored rise of its founder, Chris Larsen, as one of the richest persons in the world). And last week, an attempted purchase of MoneyGram by Chinese firm Ant Financial was blocked by the U.S. government.
Ripple’s xRapid transfer flow
As a part of the partnership, MoneyGram will use XRP through Ripple’s xRapid, a service that aims to provide liquidity to financial institutions. Touting the practicality of leveraging XRP for remittances, Ripple noted that transactions can be made for fractions of a penny and in two-to-three seconds. This is favorable compared to Bitcoin’s fees of $30 per transactions and wait times of up to an hour.
Through agreement, the companies will also explore MoneyGram’s integration into Ripple’s xVia, an API for businesses, payment providers and banks to send payments across various networks using a standard interface.
MoneyGram’s current model requires the sender’s account to be pre-funded before they are able to send currency. Leveraging blockchain technology, MoneyGram can simplify cross-border transfers, making them more efficient. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said, “Money transfer companies are incredibly important because they help people get money to their friends and loved ones…. By using a digital asset like XRP that settles in three seconds or less, they can now move money as quickly as information.”
MoneyGram is the second largest money transfer company in the world, competing not only with traditional companies such as Western Union, but also with the likes of fintechs such as Azimo, TransferWise, and CurrencyCloud. Leveraging the blockchain for cross-border remittances and transactions is not new to fintech. At FinovateFall last year, we saw nanopaydemo its cross-border payments platform that enables the banks to provide instant fund transfers, without intermediaries, at a 60% cost reduction. Similarly, in 2015 CoinJarshowcased its platform that lets users buy, sell, send, receive, and spend digital and traditional forms of currency using the blockchain.
Ripple has offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney, and counts more than 100 customers across the globe. At FinovateSpring 2013, company co-founder Chris Larsen debuted Ripple (originally known as OpenCoin). Last fall, Ripple teamed with AmEx and Santander to support blockchain-powered international B2B payments. And in December of last year, the company’s XRP currency reached a milestone, boasting availability on 50 exchanges worldwide.
Scalable Capital is saying, “Gruetzi mittenand” to Switzerland today. The U.K.-based robo advisor has launched its services in Switzerland, the fourth country to which Scalable Capital has expanded, following launches in U.K., Germany, and Austria.
Describing Switzerland as “an interesting market for every wealth manager,” Scalable Capital Co-founder Simon Miller said that the company made the move knowing it could offer real value to Swiss retail investors. Miller added, “We are the only independent robo-advisor in Europe using three key building blocks to build a truly customer-centric product: professional risk management for every individual portfolio, low cost, and a comprehensive digital service with unparalleled transparency.”
With a Swiss customer phone hotline, as well as a website aimed specifically to serve Swiss customers, the startup has an E.U.-wide approval and can offer its services across the E.U. without having to go through additional application processes. Scalable Capital’s German custodian bank partner, Baader Bank AG, will provide tax reporting and will serve as the custodian bank for all Swiss customers, managing their portfolios in euros.
Scalable Capital was founded in 2014 and now serves more than 20,000 clients with $810 million (£600 million) assets under management. The company holds partnerships with BlackRock, Siemens Private Finance, and Germany’s third-largest retail bank, ING-DiBa.
Scalable Capital most recently presented at FinovateEurope 2016. The company has 70 employees and has raised $49 million. Last spring, Scalable Capital was the only European startup to be recognized on CNBC’s Upstart 25 list.
Cloud-based payment platform Dream Payments has teamed up with Quickbooks, and First Data’s Clover to bring QuickBooks capabilities to U.S. merchants this week.
This comes three months after Dream Payments first initiated a partnership with First Data last year, launching the Dream Payments POS for merchants using First Data’s Clover. It also follows Dream Payments’ successful pilot of a QuickBooks integration in Canada.
The partnership will allow Dream Payments’ business clients using any POS device in Clover’s line to sync with QuickBooks. After a purchase, QuickBooks will automatically and in real time record the sale, update inventory, collect and close invoices, and import sales tax.
CEO of Dream Payments Brent Ho-Young said that the integration will help businesses succeed. He added that, by combining QuickBooks and Clover in the Dream Payments POS, “we’re unlocking the cloud and simplifying the most complex aspects of running a successful business — customer experience, payments and accounting. Now businesses of any size can access a powerful commerce platform that traditionally only the largest retailers could afford.”
Founded in 2014 and with operations in Stamford, Connecticut, Dream Payments helps small businesses accept all payments, including chip cards, contactless cards, and mobile wallets. In addition to ties with Quickbooks and First Data, the company also counts TD Merchant Solutions and Chase Paymentech in its partnership ecosystem.
At FinovateSpring 2015, Dream Payments debuted its mobile POS device. Last fall, the company partnered with IBM to leverage its cloud and security capabilities. Dream Payments has raised $14.9 million. Brent Ho-Young is CEO.
Mobile financial solutions company Intelligent Environments has appointed a new CEO this week. Effective immediately, Jeremy Young will take the seat of David Webber, the company’s previous CEO.
Young comes to Intelligent Environments with 20 years of experience in financial services and software. He most recently served as VP of EMEA at Fiserv. Prior to that, Young was head of retail banking and insurance at Oracle.
Young said that joining Intelligent Environments is a “tremendously exciting prospect.” He added, “With the company at the forefront of digital innovation in the financial services sector, leading its future growth and development is an immense opportunity.”
Founded in 1985, Intelligent Environments aims to help financial services organizations improve the customer experience. Among the company’s clients are Lloyds, HSBC, Sainsbury’s Bank, Argos, House of Fraser, and Toyota Financial Services.
Intelligent Environments demoedAppSensorFS at FinovateEurope 2015. AppSensorFS deploys sensors to detect potential security threats and makes decisions in real time to deploy the appropriate defense responses. The U.K.-based company was recently recognized as one of the world’s “most significant providers” in Forrester Wave’s Q3 2017 report on Digital Banking Engagement Platforms.
Privakey is the latest fintech to join the FIDO Alliance.
Bluefin Payment Systemspartners with Choice Ticketing to support PCI-validated ticketing payments.
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.
Digital banking company CREALOGIX has acquired Barcelona-based Innofis, a privately held, internationally-focused digital banking firm, this week. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Under the agreement, Innofis’ workforce of 120 engineers and specialists will join CREALOGIX; the existing management structure will remain the same. The acquisition is not only expected to give CREALOGIX access to Innofis’ established customer base, the Switzerland-based company will also gain a presence in additional territories, most notably the Middle Eastern region.
CREALOGIX will benefit from Innofis’ digital banking product suite, which it expects will complement its current solution portfolio due to “optimal synergies” between the product portfolios. Because of the use of open architecture, many of the companies’ modules can be integrated interchangeably. New features Innofis brings to CREALOGIX include:
Predictive analytics based on big data and customer behavior segmentation
Advanced online campaign management
SaaS based-digital loyalty program
A suite of Islamic banking modules
Extensive functionality for business banking
Founded in 2012, Innofis has experienced double-digit growth and currently generates over $10.2 million (CHF 10 million) in revenue. Innofis CEO David Moreno, who will transition to a member of CREALOGIX’s Executive Group Management, said that “As a result of the new, joint offering from Innofis and CREALOGIX, we will remain a reliable partner for our clients and will support them in their digitization initiatives, with a broader set of innovative, ready-to-use solutions.”
Innofis presented at FinovateEurope 2016, where Moreno and the company’s CMO David Falk showcased the Innofis Omnichannel Predictive Banking solution. The solution leverages machine learning of bank data and contextual behavioral analysis to deliver more accurate and effective marketing messages.
CREALOGIX’s Marc Stähli, Head of Sales and CMO; and Eszter Vass, Sr. Product Strategy & Presales Consultant, demo Predictive Banking in Virtual Reality at FinovateEurope 2017 in London.
CREALOGIX most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2017, where the company won Best of Show for Predictive Banking in Virtual Reality. In November of last year, the company expanded into Asia Pacific with new offices in Singapore. And in September, CREALOGIX acquired AI and machine learning technology from Koemei. The company said it plans to leverage Koemei’s technology that uses automated speech recognition (ASR) to convert audio, podcast, and video content into text data, which facilitates cross-media search capabilities.
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.
