Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Qumram Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Website Recording to North America & U.K.

Qumram Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Website Recording to North America & U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Qumram

QumramHomepage

Digital recording and archiving software provider Qumram raised $2.5 million (CHF 2.4 million) in funding this week. The funds come from Ariel Lüdi (former CEO of hybris software); Peter Stalder (former CTO of finnova AG); and investment group Zirkonia.

A group of investors from investiere.ch also contributed, furnishing almost 30% of the funds. In a press release, investiere.ch says it invested because the demand for Qumram’s services is growing, the company holds a good reputation, and it has a strong management team.

Qumram CEO Patrick Barnert notes that the company will leverage the funding “to extend the great success in central Europe to the two core financial services markets in the U.K. and U.S., and to further drive innovation within our product suite like Qumram Employee Governance Solution, which was first presented at FinovateEurope in London.”

Barnert added that the upcoming regulations, like MiFID 2 and FFSA, are driving an especially significant need for Qumram in the financial services industry.

The Switzerland-based company enables financial institutions to record their client’s online sessions to gather information for compliance, and to collect usage data to enhance the user experience. At FinovateEurope 2016, the company unveiled Qumram for Employee Governance, a solution that allows banks to carry out compliant, omnichannel communications and transactions with their customers over social media.

QumramSessionRecordAbove, Qumram for Employee Governance used for LinkedIn messaging

Founded in 2011, Qumram has 30+ customers across Switzerland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The company was included in the FINTECH 100 list published by H2 Ventures and KPMG. Additionally, Qumram received accolades from Accenture’s Swiss Fintech Award, having been placed in the final top three.

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Finovate Debuts: InvestGlass Built a Robo-advisor for Advisers

Finovate Debuts: InvestGlass Built a Robo-advisor for Advisers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, InvestGlass

InvestGlassHomepage

In his demo at FinovateEurope 2016, InvestGlass founder and CEO Alexandre Gaillard stated, “We believe that, if bankers don’t go digital, they won’t be bankers tomorrow.” He diplomatically followed with, “This is an invitation to keep you in business.” InvestGlass works like a robo-advisor for financial professionals by providing technology to help them find suitable investments for clients.

Gaillard began working on the idea for InvestGlass after the collapse of Bear Stearns when he noticed the power the media has on people’s financial decisions. By focusing on the client rather than the product, the platform generates the right financial information to engage the right clients to help optimize their portfolio.

Company facts:

  • Privately owned
  • 5 employees
  • Founded in 2014
  • Headquartered in Switzerland
InvestGlassDemoIMGCEO Alexandre Gaillard Presenting with CTO Sébastien Thevenaz at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

At FinovateEurope 2016, InvestGlass launched Leads, an artificial intelligence engine to help financial professionals save time by identifying which client to contact first, why they should call, and exactly what advice to provide based on trending financial products in their geographical area.

InvestGlass simplifies the process of balancing a client’s portfolio and provides templates to help create, tailor, and publish a PDF report to send to clients.

—-

GaillardProfileIn an interview with the company’s CEO, Alexandre Gaillard, we discussed the value that InvestGlass brings advisers. Gaillard is a French citizen and speaks English, French, and Mandarin. He is passionate about behavioral finance and has worked as a banker, adviser, and was once head of equity sales.

Finovate: What problem does InvestGlass solve?
Gaillard:

  • Account profitability
  • Client disintermediation
  • Real-time digital interactions
  • Appropriateness and suitability

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?
Gaillard: IFA, bankers, brokers, family offices, VC PE Sales

Finovate: How does InvestGlass solve the problem better?
Gaillard: Our subscription process is smooth as we are accessible from the internet SAAS and we onboard clients without paper. Once you’re onboard, we generate proactive lead and investment opportunities, and we publish tailored and white-labeled investment proposals. To subscribe from InvestGlass.com, you simply enter your credit card information to get a 14-day free trial. If you make money, then InvestGlass is a great deal.

InvestGlassPlatform

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.
Gaillard: Independent financial advisers flourishing in London and Zurich were looking for an out-of-the-box solution with CRM and market feeds. Integration took one week to connect with their custodian data. We have a simple promise: If they make more money in one week, then it’s a deal! InvestGlass offers a 14-day free trial for InvestGlass Professional starting at one license £550 per seat per month.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Gaillard: As an ex-head of equity sales, I knew that delivering the right financial information at the right time was the best way to increase return on asset. It was not about performance but relevancy. My objective is to empower financial professionals with an automated selling tool to make sure that they will increase the return on relevancy!

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from InvestGlass that we can look forward to over the next few months?
Gaillard: In the coming months, InvestGlass will focus on retail banks and on more alliances with SAAS solution and feeds providers. Since Finovate, at least three feed providers or SAAS companies are calling us per week. Our objective is simple: partner and onboard on InvestGlass—bridge!

Finovate: Where do you see InvestGlass a year or two from now?
Gaillard: Everywhere, mostly banks. FinovateEurope in London has been a fantastic steppingstone to attract prospects.

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Ledger Launches Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System

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

LedgerHomepage

A blockchain security company wouldn’t be as secure without its own operating system, which may explain why Ledger launched the Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System (BOLOS) last week.

The new operating system enables developers to build source code for native applications to protect the core against application attacks and to separate the applications from each other. This increased security mechanism means that each application can access only its own memory.

Ledger organized BOLOS into a set of different building blocks. Modules include:

  • Input/Output block to communicate with the outside world and third parties
  • Cryptographic block implementing low-level cryptographic primitives
  • Storage block for on-device storage
  • Wrapping block for external device storage, allowing you to securely bind data to the running BOLOS app
  • Endorsement block providing BOLOS application proof of execution
  • UI block for user presence and confirmation

Access is currently available for the BOLOS implementation on Ledger Trustlet (TEE) on Android. The Ledger Blue smart card hosts the first native implementation of BOLOS, although developer access isn’t available until later this month.

Ledger debuted Ledger Blue at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. Check out our in-depth coverage of the France-based company and interview with CEO Eric Larchevêque.

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Finovate Debuts: VoicePIN Offers an Easy Biometric Login Solution

Finovate Debuts: VoicePIN Offers an Easy Biometric Login Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, VoicePIN

voicePINHomepage2

While voice biometrics usage is small, it is gaining popularity as a second authentication factor and password replacement. VoicePIN’s easy-to-use voice-authentication system hopes to become the industry standard. CEO Łukasz Dyląg explains it, “Your voice is the most natural and convenient way of communication.”

Company facts:

  • Headquartered in Poland
  • Founded in 2011
  • Offers on-premise solution for enterprise customers
  • Offers a cloud-based API for smaller customers
VoicePINDemoIMGCEO Łukasz Dyląg and Jakub Gałka, R&D director, demoed VoicePIN at FinovateEurope 2016.

At FinovateEurope 2016, the company launched VoicePIN, its multichannel, voice-biometrics solution for IVR, mobile app or website login, and for use during call-center service. VoicePIN offers three main advantages:

  • A better customer experience
  • Enhanced security
  • Multichannel access

LukaszProfileWe chatted with the company’s CEO Łukasz Dyląg (photo circle right) after the demo to discuss the company and future initiatives.

Finovate: What problem does VoicePIN solve?
VoicePIN solves one of today’s issues which is having too many passwords, logins and PIN numbers to remember. Customer experience is currently one of the biggest challenges for every company caring about its customers. We have designed VoicePIN for convenient multichannel user-authentication. Once the user registers his voiceprint, he is able to log in by voice into all available customer channels like a help line, IVR, website or mobile application.

VoicePINChart

Finovate: How does VoicePIN solve the problem better?
VoicePIN enhances the multichannel customer experience by giving the user a chance to use his voice to log in or authorize payments in every interaction field. Our simple API can even be integrated with IoT devices. Moreover, the enrollment process can be passive, so the voiceprint is generated from the previously collected recordings and the user doesn’t have to engage in this step. We have designed our system as really easy to integrate and install. No matter which deployment model the client chooses, he can integrate it on his own.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?
VoicePIN is available as an on-premise or SaaS model. On-premise is designed for banks, telcoms, insurance companies and state or self-government institutions, while our SaaS solution is an opportunity for web platforms, e-commerce, mobile applications or IoT devices to use the advantages of cloud-based voice biometrics.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.
We had the pleasure to deliver voice biometrics technology in the first such deployment in mobile banking in Europe. Our system operates in Smart Bank’s mobile application, available for both individual and business customers. Since the implementation, they can simply log into their accounts just by saying the set phrase.
The other impressive implementation covered 10,000,000 voiceprints in the Polish Ministry of Finance. This deployment was really challenging. Voice authentication was deployed to improve taxpayer service.

MinistryofFinance

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
We were ready for it as we knew our system works fine and meets the high-level security requirements. It is also scalable, so implementing the 10,000,000 voiceprints was not a problem at all.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from VoicePIN that we can look forward to over the next few months?
In the coming weeks we will launch VoicePIN as-a-service web platform. It will be the first off-the-shelf voice biometrics service available for smaller B2B enterprises. By this move we want voice biometrics to be no longer associated as severe, complicated, and difficult-to-use technology. Our easy-to-install API is designed to work fine in every customer interaction channel.

Finovate: Where do you see VoicePIN a year or two from now?
We would like to see a broad usability of voice biometrics as a simple, natural and convenient way of authentication and more. We believe that soon our system will work in the different areas such as Internet of Things, intelligent vehicles, houses and other fields where hands-free voice operation is very useful.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Craft Silicon, Financial Apps, FinDEVr APIntelligence, i-exceed, Kontomatik, Mitek, MX, Nexmo, PayPal, PokitDok, Quovo, ScientiaMobile, SimplyTapp, Stratumn, Streamdata.io, Thomson Reuters, Venmo, Xignite

FinDEVrNY16-V2(wdate)We’re taking our FinDEVr developer showcase to New York on March 29 & 30, 2016. Register today.

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters:

  • In the U.K., PayPal Here SDK reveals first eight business partners.
  • Quartz asks, “Should Venmo Buy a Bank?”

Alumni updates

  • MX inks multi-year data-aggregation deal with USAA.
  • NAB Asset Servicing selects Thomson Reuters as its preferred data partner.
  • HuffPost Business features SimplyTapp and Kontomatik in its list of the five most useful APIs in the financial world.
  • Mitek elects CEO James B. DeBello as Chairman of the Board.

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

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Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO

Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dashlane

DashlaneHomepage2016

LapterPassword management platform Dashlane hired a new CFO, David Lapter (pictured). Lapter began his career at a strategy firm, then worked as an associate at Upfront Ventures. He has served the role of CFO for multiple companies, including Fab.com and Makerspace.

Last month, Dashlane partnered with Yubico to become the first password manager to support the FIDO Alliance’s Universal Second Factor for two-factor authentication.

Earlier this year, the New York-based company completely revamped its platform to offer a more organized and consistent look-and-feel across multiple channels. In addition to those updates, Dashlane added international support, making it available in seven languages.

Dashlane made its international debut at FinovateEurope 2013. Emmanuel Schalit is CEO.

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CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals

CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: cbanc Network

CbancHomepage2016

CBANC, a network for community bank and credit union professionals, added a group of new features to its platform this week. New elements include:

  • Leaderboard
    Recognizes members, based on others’ ratings, for their contributions.
  • Wire
    Works like a social media feed by allowing users to post information and photos, and to interact with other users by following their feeds.

cbancsocialfeed

  • Daily news
    Emails members relevant articles and industry news.

Newsfeed

The platform, which launched in 2009, enables users to collaborate with other industry professionals and share information on policies and procedures, vendor management and vendor product ratings. The Austin-based company’s CEO Bryan Koontz explains the platform:

We’ve taken the public, general-purpose model of LinkedIn and created a state-of-the-art, private and secure place for our members to connect with each other, share information, stay up-to-date on industry news and build their careers and professional reputations.

CBANC incents banks to share best practices and intellectual property and its member engagement has increased almost 4x year-over-year; additionally, the company has experienced a 30x year-over-year increase in document contributions since January 2015.

Later this year, the company plans to revamp its UX, add vendor solutions and member polling, enhance the Wire feature, and launch topics pages.

CBANC’s former President Myers Dupuy demonstrated the network at FinovateFall 2011 in New York.

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CashSentinel Launches in France with SFPMEI Partnership

CashSentinel Launches in France with SFPMEI Partnership
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CashSentinel

CashSentinelHomepage2016

Starting today, mobile payments escrow service CashSentinel is available in France. The new launch is made possible by a partnership with SFPMEI, a French electronic money-issuer. This is CashSentinel’s first expansion outside of Switzerland, where it has been operating since 2012 in partnership with pre-owned vehicle-ad platform AutoScout24 and Swissquote bank.

CashSentinel’s mobile escrow service offers a safe place for two parties to buy and sell new and used vehicles (check out our in-depth review of the platform). Since launching in Switzerland, CashSentinel has protected payments for hundreds of parties.

In June of last year, the Switzerland-based company closed a seed funding round of an undisclosed amount. Prior to this round, CashSentinel had raised a total of $650,000 in seed funding and grants. The company was recognized as a Regional Finalist in the 2015 UBS Future of Finance competition.

CashSentinel’s CEO Sylvain Bertolus and Board Director Michael Chaille debuted the Large Amount Payment Service at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.

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BillGuard App Changes Name to Prosper Daily

BillGuard App Changes Name to Prosper Daily
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BillGuard, Prosper

ProsperDaily

P2P lending company Prosper, which purchased Israel-based startup BillGuard for $30 million last September, has rebranded the BillGuard app as Prosper Daily. The company offers reasoning behind the change, stating, “the security focus of ‘BillGuard’ no longer captures the essence of the app.”ProsperDaily

IMG_6212BillGuard users will be automatically migrated to the new platform automatically upon updating the app. The core of the app, which helps users flag suspicious charges, check their credit score, and track spending, is the same (aside from the rebrand). Today’s update brings added 3D Touch capability that lets users view inbox count and monthly spend from their home screen. Also new is a loan overview for Prosper borrowers.*

While there’s no word yet on loan performance overview capability for Prosper lenders, the company hints at upcoming changes, stating, “In the near future, we’ll be strengthening the app’s core with smarter ways to keep track of your spending, helping you reach your money goals and improving the reliability of the updates from your accounts.”

BillGuard last presented at FinovateSpring 2012 where it debuted BillGuard FI. Prosper presented at FinovateSpring 2009 as well as the inaugural Finovate in 2007.

*Note: While the update description touts “loan overview for Prosper borrowers” as a new feature, it doesn’t yet appear available in the app. 

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CardFlight, DigiByte Holdings Limited, FairCom, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Flybits, Honkio, Hyperwallet, Mitek, Nostrum Group, OutsideIQ, PayStand, Personal Capital, Praesidio, Solace Systems, WorldPay, Xero, Xignite

FinDEVrNY16-V2(wdate)We’re taking our FinDEVr developer showcase to New York on March 29 & 30, 2016. Register today.

Developer news

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters

  • PayStand to power new online payments service from ONE UP.
  • Xignite announces its XigniteGlobalCurrencies API is now available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

Alumni updates

  • PYMNTS reports: Worldpay transactions up 14% post-IPO.
  • Mitek launches mobile deposit in the United Kingdom with other countries to follow.
  • CardFlight integrates with Stripe to encourage developers to build EMV payment functionality within their mobile apps.
  • Xero extends partnership with MidPoint to make cross-border procurement easier.
  • Personal Capital exceeds $2 billion AUM.

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

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Xero TaxTouch is Tinder for the Gig Economy’s Taxes

Xero TaxTouch is Tinder for the Gig Economy’s Taxes
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Xero

XeroHomepage

Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 4.14.33 PMToday, cloud-accounting platform Xero announced a mobile app called Xero TaxTouch that will benefit the 18.5 million U.S. freelance workers.

Xero TaxTouch aims to help self-employed workers track business expenses and manage their business-related tax deductions. In the Tinder-like user experience, freelancers separate their expenses by swiping right to file a business expense (see image on left) and swiping left to file a personal one.

The app also tracks estimated taxes and generates a report to help users prepare a Schedule C document to send to their Xero tax accounting professional (if they have one).

The New Zealand-based company has long been involved in the developer community, and recently launched Dev TV, a YouTube channel that discusses the latest from the Xero Ecosystem, API releases, and integrations.

Xero most recently presented at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, where David Pollock, the company’s head of U.S. partnerships, gave a talk on Building an API-Driven Ecosystem for Small Business. Xero also presented at our FinovateSpring conference in 2011.

Join us in New York for FinDEVr 2015, March 29 and 30. Our developer’s conference features two days of provocative presentations and critical case studies of financial technology at work. Stop by our registration page today and save your spot!

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BBVA Compass, Betterment, Credit Karma, Dwolla, EyeVerify, Fiserv, Mitek, ProfitStars, TSYS, WorldPay, Xero, Zooz

On Finovate.com

  • “Pamela Joseph Tapped as New President, COO at TSYS“
  • “Wells Fargo to Deploy Biometric Authentication Technology from EyeVerify“

Around the web

  • PYMNTS reports: Worldpay transactions up 14% post-IPO.
  • Mitek launches mobile deposit in the United Kingdom with other countries to follow.
  • Dwolla’s Jordan Lampe contributes TechCrunch article about the state of faster payments in the United States.
  • Fiserv adds new features to its Unified Wealth Platform.
  • Jack Henry’s ProfitStars division unveils its ECS RDC conversion technology.
  • Betterment to extend account aggregation to all its customers.
  • BBVA Compass introduces Sandra Lee as brand ambassador to its BrightFutures platform.
  • Zooz reports that Gett, an on-demand taxi service, now routes global transactions through its 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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