FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Marketsmojo

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Marketsmojo

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FA2016-V1A look at the companies demoing live At FinovateAsia on 8 November 2016 in Hong Kong. Register today.

Marketsmojo is a multi-algorithm-based financial investment analysis platform which offers full coverage and is unbiased. The company aims to go global with the same approach over the next few months. More than 500 formulas run on every listed stock, which are based on fundamental research, technicals, expert broker recommendations, price movement, news and sentiment. This adds up to quality, valuation, and trend forecasting.

Why it’s great
The company started making operational level profits one month after its launch.

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Dr. Mohit Batra, CEO & Founder
Batra is a PhD with more than 20 years of financial services and technology experience. He was a founding member of Moneycontrol, CNBC India. Additionally he served as country head of wealth at ABN Bank; director of MOSL; and CEO of ACM.
LinkedIn

Aire Raises $2 Million, Receives Regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Aire Raises $2 Million, Receives Regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

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Alternative credit-scoring company Aire is a London-based startup that shows no sign of “Brexiting” any time soon. The company just closed an additional $2 million in funding, adding to the funding round it closed in April.

Today’s round was led by White Star Capital alongside Sunstone Capital and Accion Venture Lab and brings Aire’s total funding to $7 million. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its platform into new markets.

Aire announced it is now authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the financial regulator in the U.K. If you’re not familiar with the FCA, this is a pretty big deal for a startup. Receiving FCA authorization brings Aire onto a level playing field with the big-three credit bureaus.

In a statement, Aire co-founder and CEO Aneesh Varma said:

It’s a huge step for us and also for credit scoring. We strongly believe that lenders and their customers need a fairer and more accurate way to assess creditworthiness […]. As things stand, genuine hard-working people are being penalized by the way credit scores are created, and that’s not good for growth, innovation or well-being. We believe we have a solution to address this issue, balancing the numerous forces at play across data, ethics, regulation and technology.

Aire seeks to democratize access to credit by gathering meaningful data about potentially credit-worthy clients via an online interview and other reliable sources. By using artificial intelligence, the company processes the data to qualify users for credit. The company also helps lenders by expanding the pool of qualified applicants. Although Aire is currently focused on working with personal loan and credit card lenders, it plans to broaden its range of financial products.

Founded in 2014, Aire launched its API at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. In April the company was recognized in the European Fintech Top 100 list at the 2016 European Fintech Awards. Most recently, the company was featured in Tech City News magazine for its use of artificial intelligence.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Fintech Favorites: A Roundup of Top Stories in Fintech
  • Aire Raises $2 Million, Receives Regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Around the web

  • India-based HDFC Bank selects Backbase to implement its digital banking platform.
  • Inc. Magazine features entrepreneur and veteran Blake Hall, CEO and co-founder of ID.me.
  • Neustar appoints Nick Hulse as chief revenue officer.
  • Kristina Campbell joins PayNearMe as chief financial officer.
  • Fiserv collaborates with CoreLogic to provide enhanced loan-modification technology.
  • Xero teams up with Barclays to improve access to transaction data for U.K. businesses.

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.

FinDEVr Preview: Totum Wealth

FinDEVr Preview: Totum Wealth

FinDEVr PreviewsFinDEVrSV16-LogoV2(wdate) highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms, and integrations at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, October 18 & 19. Tickets are on sale now. So visit our registration page and save your spot today.

Totum Wealth will unveil Totum 2.0, its latest technology that empowers a new experience for both investors: an educational questionnaire, and for advisers: bespoke portfolio construction and a proposal dashboard. Totum helps the adviser understand the client’s multidimensional risk-context to have a deeper conversation and shorten the sales cycle.

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Why it’s a must-see

Given the seismic changes in wealth management from regulations, demographics and pricing compression, Totum’s robust approach to risk—and its unique solution—is deeply rooted in user experience and customer insights. Developers can get a sense of our journey and how it developed an innovative fintech application while meeting market needs.


Check out more of today’s FinDEVr Previews:

FinDEVr Preview: ACI Worldwide

FinDEVr Preview: ACI Worldwide

FinDEVr PreviewsFinDEVrSV16-withdate highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms, and integrations at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, October 18 & 19. Pick up your ticket to save your spot today.

ACI Worldwide’s live demo and real-time payment integration will show how developers can use ACI’s COPYandPAY, the first SAQ-A compliant JavaScript payment-form solution, to easily add dozens of alternative payment methods and card brands to the checkout page. Plus, the company will preview the UP eCommerce Payments solution omnichannel payment capabilities.

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Why it’s a must-see

The UP eCommerce Payments solution, underpinned by an industry-leading RESTful open API, combines open payment infrastructure with the largest global payments network. As well as overcoming the technical complexities of payments integration, the flexible open platform can be leveraged by developers to build their own apps and features.


Check out more of today’s FinDEVr Previews:

FinDEVr Preview: UCX

FinDEVr Preview: UCX

FinDEVr PreviewsFinDEVrSV16-LogoV2(wdate) highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms, and integrations at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, October 18 & 19. Tickets are on sale now. So visit our registration page and save your spot today.

UCX is an up-and-coming spot market where enterprises and cloud service providers trade the cloud as a commodity.

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Why it’s a must-see

Enterprises are wasting billions on computing resources because they lack an understanding of their true cost of consumption and can’t accurately compare CSPs. UCX provides a centralized and transparent exchange where participants utilize a standard unit of measure to make apples-to-apples comparisons, and the market competes for your business.


Check out more of today’s FinDEVr Previews:

Sberbank Inks Partnership with Hyperledger to Tap Into the Blockchain

Sberbank Inks Partnership with Hyperledger to Tap Into the Blockchain

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Originally founded in 1841, financial services organization Sberbank has seen a lot of change over the 175 years it’s been in business. And this week the bank is embracing more change by taking a leap into the blockchain.

The Russian bank, along with Hyperledger’s founding organization, the Linux Foundation, have signed a deal for the bank to participate in the Hyperledger Project. A group of Sberbank’s 9,000 developers have formed a dedicated team to work with the nonprofit blockchain initiative. The project was created to advance blockchain technology by identifying aspects for a cross-industry standard that will change the way transactions are conducted.

Lev Khasis, first deputy chairman of Sberbank’s executive board, anticipates the open source blockchain platform will help Sberbank to “access international expertise and cutting-edge blockchain developments.” Khasis also explained that the bank’s use of the blockchain will span multiple use cases, including real estate, and that it already has plans to go live with one use case in the next 12 months.

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This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Sberbank’s innovative side. In the middle of the Pokemon Go epidemic this summer, the bank, which is the biggest life insurance provider in Russia, announced it will offer free accident insurance for distracted Pokemon Go players. Sberbank also set up a mobile virtual network operator subsidiary to provide telco services to customers.

At FinovateSpring 2016 Sberbank launched Sberbank Messenger to expand beyond what customers typically expect their bank to offer. The messenger platform, which is built on top of the Sberbank digital ecosystem, enables consumers to chat and seamlessly send money to one another. It also allows businesses to interact with consumers using both human respondents and chatbots, and enables consumers to purchase goods and services without leaving the chat dialogue.

The bank has 270,000 employees and serves more than 110 million clients, equivalent to 70% of Russia’s population, through 17,000 branches. At the Global Finance Awards for Central and Eastern Europe, Sberbank won four categories, Best in Mobile Banking, Best Bill Payment & Presentment, and Best SMS/Text Banking.

Mastercard Now Allows Developers to Access Suite of APIs through Single Gateway

Mastercard Now Allows Developers to Access Suite of APIs through Single Gateway

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Payment-services giant Mastercard is launching its developer portal. Sound familiar? It should. The company’s original launch of its developer platform took place around 2010, so today’s launch is more of an expansion of the platform.

The new developer gateway, which aims to facilitate partner integration, offers a single location where third-party developers can access more than 25 updated APIs. The new APIs span payments, data, security, financial inclusion, and “experimental” categories.

Mastercard’s portal expansion comes about seven months after the company’s competitor Visa opened its Developer Center which hosts just over 25 APIs, as well as documentation on Visa Tokens and microtransactions. Both companies showed off their APIs at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. Mastercard’s presentations focused on its Developer Zone and explained how developers can select the best API. Visa showed Visa Checkout, as well as Apple Pay integration with Authorize.Net and CyberSource.

For more developer-focused technology, check out our developer event on October 18 & 19, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. We’ll be hosting 46 companies as they present their latest APIs and SDKs to a crowd of leading developers from across the globe. Tickets are still available but limited, so register today.

Trunomi Closes $3 Million Seed Round

Trunomi Closes $3 Million Seed Round

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Consumer data provisioning company Trunomi pulled in its third round of funding today. The $3 million seed-round brings the company’s total funding to $8.3 million.

The round was co-led by existing investor Saturn Partners and newcomer Fintonia, whose chairman and CEO Adrian Chng has joined Trunomi’s board. Several other existing investors also contributed.

The California-based company aims to give consumers control of how their own Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is used by banks, while offering banks a way to safely create, manage, and share consumer information in a cost-efficient manner. At FinovateEurope 2015 in London, the company’s CEO and founder Stuart Lacey launched TruMobile, a customer-focused “consent engine” that creates privacy policies to allow the sharing of consumer PII data across platforms. In today’s press release Lacey said:

Consumers globally are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their own data. They are also living through a period of intense digitization in financial services. Together with our investors, we recognize that the pressure is truly on financial services providers, not only to meet these market pressures but to operate in full compliance with a raft of new, global data-privacy regulations.

Founded in 2013, Trunomi has offices in Bermuda, Dublin, and Silicon Valley. In April, Trunomi partnered with InAuth to help financial services companies manage consumer data during mobile onboarding. In June, the company took home two awards at the Benzinga Fintech Awards.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVrSV16-withdateOur FinDEVr New York developer showcase was a success! FinDEVr Silicon Valley will be held October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara. Register today to save your spot!

Check out our latest FinDEVr Previews featuring:

The latest from FinDEVr New York and upcoming Silicon Valley presenters

  • Visions FCU signs with MX for money-management app.
  • OnDeck launches marketing campaign featuring Shark Tank judge Barbara Corcoran.
  • Inside Expensify’s New Concierge Bot.
  • Lleida.net Calls New Patent a Turning Point.

Alumni updates

  • Entersekt listed among 100 most promising African fintech companies of 2016.
  • Aurionpro joins Temenos MarketPlace.
  • Avalara Raises $96 Million in New Funding.

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

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Trunomi Closes $3 Million Seed Round
  • Symbiont Completes Proof of Concept with R3, Credit Suisse, Ipreo
  • Qumram Unveils Compliant WhatsApp Social Media Recording Solution
  • Mastercard Now Allows Developers to Access Suite of APIs through Single Gateway
  • Check out today’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.

Around the web

  • D+H Expands Mortgagebot Platform with MortgagebotMobile.
  • Gusto (fomerly ZenPayroll) now serves 40,000 small businesses.
  • Entersekt and Meniga listed among 100 most promising African fintech companies of 2016.
  • Motif Investing transitions to subscription service; hints at plans to launch roboadviser.

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.

Financeit Recruits CFO from Capital One Canada

Financeit Recruits CFO from Capital One Canada

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Point-of-sale customer financing solution Financeit expanded its team this week. The Toronto-based company brought on Ian Hanning from Capital One Canada as its new chief financial officer.

Hanning comes to Financeit after having served for five years as Capital One Canada’s CFO; he has 20 years of experience in managing finance teams across the United Kingdom and Canada. Prior to taking the CFO position at Capital One Canada, Hanning held various senior leadership positions within the bank. In a press release Michael Garrity, founder and CEO of Financeit, said that Hanning “will be a great asset to our company as we expand our loan portfolio and grow our business.”

This news comes weeks after Financeit’s acquisition of TD Bank’s indirect home-improvement financing assets, in conjunction with wholesale finance and trust solution provider, Concentra. Through the partnership, 800 merchant dealers will transition to Financeit.

At FinovateFall 2014 Financeit launched in the U.S. in partnership with FIS. Since its founding in 2011, Financeit has received more than $1.5 billion in loan applications from 5,400+ merchant partners. In August 2016, Financeit introduced Financeit Direct, a direct-to-consumer financing platform that allows customers to complete loan applications on their mobile devices. In fall 2015, the company closed on an undisclosed amount of funding from Goldman Sachs, bringing its funding to more than $22 million. Financeit planned to use the funding to add to its merchant partner base, which at the time was at 4,000.