Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

TransCard Brings on New CFO Ahead of FinovateSpring Demo

TransCard Brings on New CFO Ahead of FinovateSpring Demo
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: TransCard

TransCardHomepage52016

HaddockPayment solutions company TransCard has brought on John Haddock as its new chief financial officer today. Haddock is a graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and previously served as EVP and CFO for First Security Group and FSG Bank.

TransCard also expanded its leadership team by recruiting Ed Kelley as VP of financial institutions and Ann Evans as VP of corporate solutions.

Greg Bloh, president of TransCard, says of the appointments: “The wealth of knowledge John, Ed and Ann bring to the team puts TransCard in a great position to grow and expand our footprint within the financial and corporate disbursement industries.”

TransCard’s Paynuver simplifies payment disbursement by offering multiple payout options through a digital account. Its self-service portal and multiple payout options place the work into the hands of the recipient. The Tennessee-based company will debut Paynuver at FinovateSpring next week. Register today to be among the first to watch the live demo.

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Money Transfer Company Azimo Pulls in $15 Million in Strategic Funds from Rakuten

Money Transfer Company Azimo Pulls in $15 Million in Strategic Funds from Rakuten
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Funding

AzimoHomepage

Digital money-transfer network Azimo added $15 million to its $25 million in VC funds today, bringing the London-based company’s total to around $40 million.

The strategic investment was led by Japanese fintech services company Rakuten, the organization that owns messaging service Viber. Existing investors—eVentures, Frog Capital, Greycroft, Accion and MCI Capital—also participated in the round.

The funds will be used to integrate Azimo’s money-transfer services into messaging apps and fuel the company’s expansion into Asia, which is home to seven of the top 10 remittance-receiving countries. Azimo already offers its services in a small portion of Asia. While 30% of its total transfers are sent to the region, the expansion efforts will enable more outbound remittances from Asia.

Michael Kent, CEO and founder of Azimo, explains:

While we weren’t actively looking for additional capital, the approach from Rakuten really appealed because of their presence in markets core to our long-term ambitions. They have a huge presence in Asia, they really understand consumer financial services, and, as owners of Viber, are a significant player in the social messaging market. The partnership will accelerate our Asian expansion and assist in our aim of developing ever deeper social network integrations.

Azimo is not disclosing its valuation but TechCrunch estimates it to be $100 million with the prospect of raising a bigger round of funding next year. Founded in 2012, the company operates in 190+ countries and 80+ currencies. Its network connects half a million people and has the potential to reach up to 5 billion people across the globe.

Founder and CEO Michael Kent and CTO Marek Wawro, co-founder, debuted Azimo’s social remittance network at FinovateEurope 2013.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Azimo, BioCatch, CAN Capital, CSI globalVCard, Green Key Technologies, Jemstep, Kabbage, Klarna, Misys, myInvenio, On Deck Capital, OurCrowd, SigFig, Thomson Reuters

On Finovate.com

  • “Money Transfer Company Azimo Pulls in $15 Million in Strategic Funds from Rakuten”
  • “From Billpay to Blockchain: The Themes of FinovateSpring”
  • “Finovate Debuts: myInvenio Turns Data Analysis into Process Intelligence”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “GreenKey Technologies Names Richard Garnier as Chief Revenue Officer”

Around the web

  • Klarna moves beyond ecommerce to service brick-and-mortar retail shops.
  • CSI GlobalVCard partners with Cambridge Global Payments for x-border payment solution.
  • Pershing selects Invesco-owned Jemstep, SigFig as roboadviser partners.
  • OurCrowd interviews BioCatch CEO Eyal Goldwerger. Check out OurCrowd at FinovateSpring next week.
  • OnDeck, Kabbage, and CAN Capital team up to form the “Innovative Lending Platform Association.”
  • Misys wins Best Portfolio Management Software Provider in HFM European Services Awards for 2016.
  • Thomson Reuters unveils new version of its ONESOURCE tax solution for companies doing business in Brazil.

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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A Topological Look at Next Week’s FinovateSpring Presenters

A Topological Look at Next Week’s FinovateSpring Presenters
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2016

FS15AudienceIMG

Next week at this time we’ll be in San Jose watching the first demo session of FinovateSpring 2016 unfold (register here). That means it’s time to take a look at the 72 presenting companies that will step up to the stage of San Jose’s City National Civic on May 10 & 11.

There are a few things you can do to learn more about the presenting companies and what they plan to demo:

  1. Check out our FinovateSpring Sneak Peek series on the blog
  2. Visit presenting company websites on the FinovateSpring homepage
  3. Take a look at the presenter map below that details each company’s headquarters location:

Finovate_SP162.0

FinovateSpring will showcase 17 companies from the Bay Area; 36 companies from elsewhere in the United States; and 19 from other countries. Presenters from VIX Verify have the longest commute; they’ll be flying in from Australia.

For last-minute questions about the event, check out the FAQ section of the FinovateSpring homepage or email spring@finovate.com. We’ll see you next week!

FinovateSpring 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, Accenture, Association for Financial Technology, Cyberport/InvestHK, FT Partners, Greater Zurich Area/Swiss Business Hub,  Hudson Cook, KPMG, and Leverage PR.

FinovateSpring 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market Intelligence, Aite Group, American Bankers Association, Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, Bankless Times, BayPay Forum, Bitcoin Magazine, bobsguide, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, Cointelegraph, Digital Currency Council, EbankingNews, FemTechLeaders, Filene Research Institute, The Fintech Times, IDC Financial Insights, Javelin, Juniper Research, Korea FinTech Forum, Mercator Advisory Group, Payments & Cards Network, The Paypers,PitchBook, Plug and Play, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems, Chain.com, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Hyperwallet, Infosys, Kabbage, PayPal, Plaid, Xero, Xignite

FinDEVrSV16-LogoV2(wdate)Our FinDEVr New York developer showcase last week was a success! FinDEVr Silicon Valley will be held October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara. Register today and save.

On FinDEVr.com

  • “What’s in a Name? Plaid Earns “Cool Vendor” Status from Gartner”
  • “Chain Launches Open Source Blockchain Protocol”

The latest from FinDEVr New York 2016 presenters

  • PayPal’s Venmo processed $3.2 billion in total payments volume in Q1 2016, an increase of 154% year-over-year.
  • Infosys Finacle teams up with Samsung SDS to give mobile banking customers better authentication technology.
  • A look at APIs in the robo-adviser industry by Bank Innovation underscores the role played by Xignite.
  • PYMNTS interviews Hyperwallet CEO Brent Warrington.

Alumni updates

  • Bluefin Payment Systems integrates Visa Data Secure Platform into its portfolio.
  • Xero for Payroll goes live in Pennsylvania, making the technology available in a total of 22 states.

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

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mCASH Pivots to AUKA, Launches Mobile Payments Services Across Europe

mCASH Pivots to AUKA, Launches Mobile Payments Services Across Europe
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Auka, mCASH

AukaHomepage

Mobile payments platform Auka launched its services in Europe after pivoting* from mCASH earlier this year.

Auka has built a payment infrastructure entirely on the Google Cloud Platform and is the first fully licensed and regulated financial company to do so. The company’s platform-as-a-service model takes only three months for a bank to integrate. The payments infrastructure connects banks to consumers and merchants with white-labeled P2P payments, POS solutions, and merchant services.

This news comes just after the European Parliament approved the Payment Service Directive and Access to Accounts initiative, which will require banks to make their APIs available to third parties, thus opening the once-restricted payment system to the open markets. This means it’s in a bank’s best interest to offer an easy-to-use API to avoid losing out on transaction revenue. Auka CEO Daniel Döderlein explains:

Banks need to be prepared to use the Access to Accounts (XS2A) provision within the new regulations to its full extent. It’s not just about complying with requests to provide their API, but building the kind of sticky, high-frequency use services that they can then plug their rivals’ APIs into, ensuring that they are the brand that customers have facetime with.

Auka launched as mCASH in 2014 and has 17 bank customers with thousands of merchant clients. The Norway-based company debuted at FinovateFall 2014.

Google Cloud Platform presented its Big Data secret at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

*Auka is the parent company of mCASH, which was acquired by the second largest bank in Norway. mCASH kept the rights to all IP outside of Norway and rebranded that company to Auka.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BBVA Compass, Bluefin Payment Systems, Green Key Technologies, IBM, mCASH, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • “mCASH Pivots to AUKA, Launches Mobile Payments Services Across Europe”

Around the web

  • IBM launches quantum computing as a cloud service. See IBM demo next week at FinovateSpring.
  • CGI Group adds Ripple Connect to its Intelligent Gateway at Payments.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems integrates Visa Data Secure Platform into its portfolio.
  • BBVA Compass cardholders gain access to Android Pay and Samsung Pay.
  • “GreenKey Appoints Richard Garnier Chief Revenue Officer”

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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Fiserv and INETCO Team Up to Enhance ATM Management

Fiserv and INETCO Team Up to Enhance ATM Management
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Fiserv, INETCO Systems

FiservHomepage

Financial services giant Fiserv and transaction monitoring and analytics provider INETCO announced a partnership today that will benefit both parties.

Wisconsin-based Fiserv will act as a reseller for INETCO’s Insight and Analytics solutions, offering the products to ATM and self-service operators. INETCO, in turn, will integrate its real-time transaction data and analytics content into Fiserv’s Device Manager monitoring solution.

inetcoHomepage

Incorporating INETCO’s data analytics into Fiserv’s Device Manager solution will help ATM network managers increase the availability of devices and number of successful transactions by improving fault management, service management and troubleshooting. Additionally, the alerts offer managers visibility into transaction activity and the availability of currency across their network.

INETCO’s Marc Borbas, VP product marketing, and CFO Dallas Pretty debuted INETCO Analytics at FinovateSpring 2015. Last month BECU won the 2016 Celent Model Bank award in part for its INETCO-powered transaction-data streaming and transaction-analytics capabilities.

Fiserv showed off Mobiliti Enterprise at FinovateFall 2015 in New York and will debut its latest set of tools next week at FinovateSpring in San Jose. There’s still time to register—but hurry, there’s not much time left.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Auvenir, Backbase, CAN Capital, CRMNEXT, Fiserv, INETCO Systems, Mitek, NIIT Technologies, NuData Security, Plaid, Qumram, Tactile Finance, ThreatMetrix, wipro, Zooz

On Finovate.com

  • “Zooz Raises $24 Million in its Largest Funding”
  • “Fiserv and INETCO Team Up to Enhance ATM Management”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “What’s in a Name? Plaid Earns “Cool Vendor” Status from Gartner”

Around the web

  • U.K.’s oldest bank, C. Hoare & Co, goes digital with Backbase.
  • “Crowdfund Insider: CAN Capital Forms Agreement with Entrepreneur to Provide SME Loans”
  • Huffington Post names Tactile Finance on its list of 15 women-led startups to watch in 2016.
  • Qumram opens offices in London and San Francisco. See Qumram at FinovateSpring in San Jose next week.
  • Core banking solutions from Wipro to power Paytm’s new payments bank.

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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Cardlytics Launches Syndicated Audiences

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics

CardlyticsHomepage

Consumer-purchase intelligence company Cardlytics launched Syndicated Audiences to help marketers identify and reach their target audience. This is the second product rollout in the Atlanta-based company’s Product Solutions suite, which we covered earlier this year.

The new tool draws purchasing data from $1.5 trillion in consumer credit, debit, ACH, and billpay spend to go beyond identifying consumers by demographic to identify how they spend.

Cardlytics CMO Dani Cushion describes the impetus behind the new offering:

Marketers want better tools to help them more precisely reach the right consumers. We believe past purchases are the best indicator of future purchases, and Cardlytics’ Syndicated Audiences uses our proprietary purchase intelligence to help marketers improve the targeting accuracy of their campaigns.

Syndicated Audiences will originally focus on category buyers such as casual dining customers, frequent travelers and specialty grocery shoppers. Combined with Cardlytics’ Custom Audiences product, marketers can use Syndicated Audiences to segment audiences based on complex criteria, for example, consumers who spend with a brand’s top three competitors.

According to Media Post, Syndicated Audiences has launched with its first demand-side platform partner, The Trade Desk, and more partnerships are in the works.

Cardlytics demoed its geolocation application at FinovateFall 2013.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Boku, Cardlytics, Chain.com, Corezoid, Infosys, Kasasa, Lending Club, PayPal, Pendo Systems, PrivatBank, Tyfone, Venmo, Xignite

On Finovate.com

  • “Cardlytics Launches Syndicated Audiences”

On FinDEVr.com

  • Chain Launches Open Source Blockchain Protocol.

Around the web

  • ReadWrite features Tyfone’s launch of a new challenge at MIT focused on Internet of Things (IoT) security.
  • “Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche Receives Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award”
  • Cointelegraph interviews Alexander Vityaz, founder of Corezoid and head of e-commerce at PrivatBank.
  • PayPal’s Venmo processed $3.2 billion in total payments volume in Q1 2016, an increase of 154% year-over-year.
  • Infosys Finacle teams up with Samsung SDS to give mobile banking customers better authentication technology.
  • A look at APIs in the robo-adviser industry by Bank Innovation underscores the role played by Xignite.
  • “Kasasa Wins Multiple Hermes Creative Awards”
  • Pendo Systems unveils version 3.1 of its data exploration, discovery, and analysis 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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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Fiserv

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Fiserv
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2016 Sneak Peek, Fiserv

FiservHomepage

FS2016-wdateA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on May 10 & 11. Register today.

Fiserv delivers deep expertise and innovative solutions to help financial institutions, businesses, and consumers move and manage money faster and with greater ease than ever before.

Features:

  • End-to-end new customer account opening
  • Leverage the mobile device to simplify and streamline the account-opening process
  • Digital marketing offers to incentivize account opening

Why it’s great
By utilizing proven mobile banking and payments technologies from Fiserv, financial institutions can deliver a rich and compelling banking experience across digital and physical channels.

Presenters

Andrew Barnett, Senior Technical Consultant

David Carr, Innovation Manager

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