Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, eSignLive, IBM, Insuritas, LendingRobot, Misys, Thomson Reuters, wipro

On Finovate.com

  • New Robo Fund from LendingRobot Leverages Automation and the Blockchain.
  • Insuritas’ Growth Scales with the Popularity of Insurtech.
  • Wipro Agrees to Acquire InfoSERVER for $8.7 Million

Around the web

  • G2Crowd lists eSignLive as the top eSignature product for mid-market. Come see eSignLive’s demo at FinovateEurope Feb 7 & 8.
  • Blackhawk Network’s customer experience insights featured in Loyalty360.
  • Misys to offer peer lending technology to help banks compete with P2P startups.
  • Thomson Reuters introduces new end-to-end, compliance dashboard, Regulatory Change Management.
  • IBM Security announces plan to acquire business data risk management specialist, Agile 3 Solutions.

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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WorkFusion Closes $35 Million in Funding

WorkFusion Closes $35 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, WorkFusion

Screen Shot 2017-01-26 at 8.53.41 AM

Today’s investment in WorkFusion is a reminder that AI is one of the hottest trends in fintech. With AI already proving to be one of the hottest trends in fintech this year, the news of today’s investment is not surprising. The AI automation company announced today it raised $35 million in a round led by Georgian Partners. Existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, iNovia, Nokia Growth Partners, Greycroft, and RTP Ventures also participated in the Series D round, bringing the company’s total funding to $71 million.

New York-based WorkFusion plans to use the funds to “accelerate customer adoption of AI-powered automation.” Justin LaFayette, Managing Partner at Georgian Partners said he invested in WorkFusion because it “has made machine learning practical and powerful for enterprise operations.”

Founded in 2010, WorkFusion leverages self-learning and automation to eliminate manual, back-office work. The company also offers AI-powered chatbots to assist with front-office operations. At FinovateFall 2014, WorkFusion debuted Active Learning Automation, a system that actively tracks human work to establish patterns and automatically trains algorithms to follow those patterns.

The company highlighted a number of its 2016 successes in today’s press release:

For further coverage, check out our Finovate Debuts feature on WorkFusion.

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SocietyOne Appoints Former Westpac Exec as Chief Investment Officer

SocietyOne Appoints Former Westpac Exec as Chief Investment Officer
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: On Deck Capital, SocietyOne

Screen Shot 2017-01-25 at 10.54.12 AM

Screen Shot 2017-01-25 at 11.04.59 AMAustralia-based P2P lender SocietyOne landed an all-star player for its newly-created chief investment officer position. The company has appointed John Cummins, industry veteran and former Westpac, RBS, and Macquarie employee to serve in the newly-created position.

Cummins previously served as head of institutional markets at FIIG Securities. In his new role at SocietyOne, Cummins will manage the company’s funding requirements and be in charge of investor relations.

SocietyOne’s online platform uses risk-based pricing to connect borrowers and investors to loans using its ClearMatch technology, which it launched at FinovateAsia 2012. ClearMatch allows investors to bid together at different interest rates and amounts against a single loan.

Jason Yetton, who was appointed SocietyOne’s CEO in April 2016, said Cummins has “specialist knowledge of the fixed income and credit markets, which will be of critical importance to our future growth given the opportunities that we offer our growing base of investor funders to earn solid returns from a new asset class.” Yetton also mentioned Cummins will be key in growing the company’s borrower base to 100,000 within five years and increasing its share in the $100 billion consumer lending market.

Founded in 2011, SocietyOne has facilitated a total of $200 million in loans. Of that amount, $129 million was done in 2016 alone, which indicates a 320% increase in loan bookings in the course of a single year. The company recently took in a $1.5 million equity investment from Beyond Bank Australia, bringing its total funding to $55 million.

Somewhat ironically, the same day SocietyOne announced Cummins as its new CIO, U.S.-based alternative lender OnDeck announced it appointed SocietyOne’s former chief financial officer, Jerry Yohananov, to its management team. OnDeck most recently presented at FinDEVr New York 2016. At FinovateSpring 2012, the company debuted OnDeck Connect.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Arxan Technologies, Avoka, Currency Cloud, Evo Snap*, Kontomatik, PayNearMe, SimplyTapp, Stocktwits, Stratumn, Temenos, Xignite

FDNY17_EventLogo_v1(wdate)Tickets for upcoming FinDEVr London and FinDEVr New York are at their lowest prices now. Register for FinDEVr New York now and save!

On FinDEVr.com

  • SimplyTapp Launches New Payments and E-Commerce App, Gane.

Alumni updates

  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Marcin Truszel, Founder & CEO of Kontomatik.
  • StockTwits Partners with TradeIt to Expand Beyond Robinhood’s Brokerage.
  • Xignite adds senior sales, business development talent; unveils new offices in New York financial district.
  • Arxan Technologies partners with Cisco as to protect connected medical devices.
  • CurrencyCloud Taps Former Misys Executive Ed Addario as New CTO.
  • Quicken to Leverage PayNearMe’s Prism API.
  • The Banker interviews Avoka European GM, Richard Austen.
  • Persia International Bank chooses core banking technology from Temenos.
  • WISeKey and Stratumn partner to provide enterprise-grade process security software based on blockchain technologies.
  • EVO Payments acquires Sterling Payment Technologies.
  • Rabobank to deploy UP Immediate Payments from ACI Worldwide.

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: GainX

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: GainX
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, GainX

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 10.44.06 AM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

The GainX Innovation Strategy Management AI platform enables FSIs to adapt, innovate, and commercialize repeatedly. Its end-to-end ISM solution eliminates the complexity of enterprise innovation.

Features of the GainX Flow-AI

  • Predicts and manages innovation risk in real-time
  • Accelerates the flow of innovation
  • Enables enterprise-wide cultural transformation, saving FSIs millions in losses

Why it’s great
GainX aligns and accelerates all strategic innovation and cultural transformation efforts for a very real, measurable market advantage.

PresentersScreen Shot 2017-01-24 at 10.47.02 AM

Angelique Mohring, CEO and Founder
Mohring founded GainX after working with Global 1000s for 20+ years as a tech executive and global change agent. She is an expert in innovation strategy, tech, and economic growth through innovation.
LinkedIn

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 10.47.20 AMMalcolm van Raalte, CTO and Co-Founder
van Raalte has 20+ years of experience in building technology platforms in fast-growing, high-tech businesses. He has been instrumental in building the GainX platform into a world-class solution.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: VASCO & eSignLive

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: VASCO & eSignLive
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: eSignLive, FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, VASCO

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 9.48.14 AM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

VASCO is a global leader in delivering trust & business productivity solutions to the digital market. Together with eSignLive, VASCO will introduce its smile & sign mobile onboarding innovation.

Features

  • Protect mobile apps and prevent attacks
  • Integrate e-signatures to capture intent and consent
  • Add biometrics (e.g., “selfie” authentication) to securely authenticate clients before signing

Why it’s great
Our smile & sign innovation allows FIs to onboard clients natively via their mobile app in a secure and frictionless way with next-gen face authentication and compliant e-signature technology.Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 10.00.08 AM

Presenters

Tommy Petrogiannis, President, eSignLive by VASCO
LinkedIn

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 10.00.18 AMGuillaume Teixeron, Product Manager, VASCO
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: aixigo

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: aixigo
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: aixigo, FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 11.57.38 AM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

aixigo offers digital wealth management and personal investment services. It delivers a high performance portfolio management set of APIs, capable of handling millions of customers in milliseconds.

Features

  • Covers every aspect of a digital wealth management offer
  • Highly efficiently serves millions of portfolios
  • Handles millions of customers in milliseconds

Why it’s great
It calculates portfolio insights flexibly, more accurately, and much faster than any system has ever done before.

PresentersScreen Shot 2017-01-24 at 1.16.19 PM

Mario Alves, Head of Marketing & Sales
LinkedIn

 

Marcus Gruendler, Manager Product Base PMSScreen Shot 2017-01-24 at 1.16.31 PM
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: SaleMove

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: SaleMove
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, SaleMove

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 5.16.13 PM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

SaleMove enables companies to identify and engage their highest-value website visitors through video, audio, chat, and dual-cursor cobrowsing – all without downloads or installations.

Features

  • Gain valuable insight and context about your website visitors
  • Increase online conversions through high-touch interactions
  • Improve customer support and satisfaction

Why it’s great
SaleMove breathes life into the online customer experience and enables companies to deliver an in-person experience online.

Presenter46268120_dan_headshot

Dan Michaeli, Co-Founder & CEO
Originally from Guatemala, Michaeli is the CEO and co-Founder of SaleMove. Since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Michaeli has focused on venture capital, tech/strategy consulting, and startups.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Dorsum

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Dorsum
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dorsum, FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.32.50 PM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Dorsum, a financial software vendor for over 20 years, introduces Botboarding, the new platform for financial institutions to build and manage chatbots to acquire new customers.

Features

  • Acquire new customers on Facebook Messenger with a chatbot
  • Score leads with fluid, human-like conversations
  • Build, manage, and optimize your chatbots to best suit your business

Why it’s great
Botboarding provides an advanced platform for chatbots about your banking products in Facebook Messenger. Get your own chatbot and join the conversation.Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.44.13 PM

Presenters

Imre Rokob, Business Development Director
Rokob is leading the innovation and business development at Dorsum with 15 years of experience in investment software development.Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.44.30 PM
LinkedIn

Renata Stein, Business Development Consultant
Stein has over 10 years of multinational sales experience in the IT and financial services industry. She drives Dorsum’s international market expansion.
LinkedIn

Peter Sallai, Head of Mobile DevelopmentScreen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.44.57 PM
Sallai is the frontend service professional, working on mobile and web projects for the financial and airline industry in the last 15 years.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: iProov

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: iProov
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, iProov

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.53.14 PM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

iProov’s secure online authentication is multi-device and effortless. Patented Flashmark technology protects its network-based face verification against replica and replay attacks and compromised devices.

Features

  • Device-independent: use any device, even insecure or compromised
  • Effortless: its unique experience is reassuring yet undemanding
  • Highly secure: sustainable Flashmark protection from advanced attacks

Why it’s great
For access authentication and remote onboarding, only iProov delivers the convenience of a device-independent biometric and the sustainable security financial institutions and governments need.

PresentersScreen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.58.59 PM

Andrew Bud, Founder & CEO
Founder, CEO & chairman of global SMS/payments business mBlox, Bud founded iProov to innovatively meet the unanswered business need for simple, secure online user authentication.
LinkedIn

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.59.09 PMMatthew Pearch, Commercial Director
An experienced sales and marketing leader, with previous senior positions at mBlox, IOVOX, and Nice Systems, Pearch now leads iProov’s commercial and partnership activities worldwide.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: W.UP

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: W.UP
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, W.UP

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 9.23.34 AM

Screen Shot 2017-01-23 at 4.27.53 PMA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

W.UP’s Sales.UP is an insight-driven sales and engagement tool for financial institutions that uses pre-built customer insights to create relevant, personal, and timely interactions with clients.

Features

  • Uses pre-packaged customer insights based on behavioral patterns of customers
  • Integrates with existing campaign managers
  • Improves the banking experience of the customer

Why it’s great
Sales.UP: the power of big data analytics with pre-packaged insights, with the speed and knowledge of ecommerce.

PresentersScreen Shot 2017-01-24 at 9.30.42 AM

Tamás Braun, Head of International Sales and Business Development
Braun worked in the retail banking technology industry in the past 15 years and more recently at technology vendors such as IND and Misys.
LinkedIn

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 9.30.56 AMBalázs Zotter, Head of Product Line
The last 10 years in the financial technology industry led Zotter to pave the way towards banking products that deliver a happy digital banking experience.
LinkedIn

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StockTwits Partners with TradeIt to Expand Beyond Robinhood’s Brokerage

StockTwits Partners with TradeIt to Expand Beyond Robinhood’s Brokerage
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Stocktwits

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 2.32.08 PM

StockTwits announced today it has partnered with TradeIt to expand the number of brokerages through which its users can trade. With the new integration, traders and investors can now place trades via large brokerages directly within the StockTwits mobile app.

This is the San Diego-based company’s second brokerage partnership. StockTwits first introduced brokerage functionality into its iOS app through a partnership with Robinhood in November 2015. Since launch, 40,000 Robinhood accounts have been connected, making a total of 1,000 trades per day on the StockTwits iOS app.

In a press release, StockTwits CEO Ian Rosen said, “We’ve had so much success with our Robinhood integration that we are excited to get more brokerages used by our community connected.” While the press release did not mention the number of “major brokerages” the TradeIt partnership gives the StockTwits community access to, it made clear that the new addition, “expands StockTwits’ broker offering considerably.”

Screen Shot 2017-01-24 at 2.40.19 PMAbove: TradeIt’s multi-broker integration

The newest version of the StockTwits app is available in the app store now.

Founded in 2008, StockTwits serves as one of the top trading communities and social investing platforms. The company facilitates 200 messages each minute across 7,500 individual stocks and tickers. StockTwits launched its blog network and StockTwits Connect at FinovateEurope 2011. At FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014, the company’s then-CEO Howard Lindzon gave a presentation titled Investing in a Social, Local, and Mobile World. StockTwits appointed a new CEO, Ian Rosen, in July of 2016.

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