Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

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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International Women’s Day: Celebrating Females in Fintech

International Women’s Day: Celebrating Females in Fintech
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AdviceRobo, BankersLab, Ethoca, EyeVerify, FinovateEurope 2016, ITSector, Livian Technologies, myInvenio, SBDA Group, Spiff

WomenOfFintech

One question I’m always asked during a Finovate networking session is, “Why don’t you put more women on stage?” My answer: we don’t dictate the gender of the company’s presenter. We leave that decision up to the company.

This post is to celebrate the fintech industry’s growth of female inclusion. At the first Finovate conference in 2007, there were zero women on stage. Last month, at FinovateEurope 2016, 20% of the companies featured a woman on stage (party on!). Here’s a look at the ladies of FinovateEurope 2016:

AdviceRobo’s CCO Rosali Steenkamer

AdviceRobo

 

BankersLab’s Co-founder and CEO Michelle Katics

BankersLab

CREALOGIX’s Geraldine Critchley, head of digital marketing

ebankIT’s Diana Winstanley, business development

eBankIT

Envestnet’s SVP Molly Pandya, product management

Ethoca’s Helene Ladjadj, senior manager, issuer relations, EMEA

Ethoca

EyeVerify’s Director of Marketing Tinna Hung

EyeVerify

IT Sector’s Inês Domingues, market manager

ITSector

Livian Technologies’s Raquel Oliveira, head of product

LivianTech

myInvenio’s Modesta Jonauskyte, sales and marketing assistant

MyInvenio

Outshared’s Director Irene van den Brink

SBDA Group’s Anna Laskovaya, project manager

SBDAGroup

Spiff’s CMO Kristin Moller

Spiff

While not all of these women are CEOs of their company, each plays a role in removing women from the “endangered species list” of fintech.

While we still have a long way to go, we can all be encouraged by the movement that has already taken place and the global initiatives that have sparked growth. The FemTech Leaders MeetUp, organized by Ghela Boskovich and Michelle Moffatt, has held three successful events this year (I attended the London meetup last month, and the attendance was impressive).

If you’re interested in attending a FemTech leaders event (men are also invited to attend), check out the upcoming meetup in Sydney or RSVP for the meetup in New York after the first day of FinDEVr New York on March 29. It’s less than a 10-minute walk from the venue.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a shoutout to the ladies of Finovate and FinDEVr; the women who help make our events happen (editor’s note: And of course, Julie Schicktanz, the author of this post):

  • Leah Baldwin
  • Dom Marczak
  • Emily Olyarchuk
  • Erika Sanchez
  • Kate Schultz
  • Kate Stolte
  • Heather Stowell
  • Paula Wrzecionowska

Be sure to check out our celebration of International Women’s Day on the FinDEVr blog.

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Swipely Rebrands as Upserve to Focus Exclusively on Restaurants

Swipely Rebrands as Upserve to Focus Exclusively on Restaurants
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Swipely, Upserve

UpserveHomepage

Marketing-insights startup Swipely has rebranded to Upserve and launched some major additions to its product line. The Rhode Island-based company was founded in 2009 to “provide marketing tools to main street merchants” and has since narrowed its focus to offer analytics tools exclusively to restaurants. Today’s rebranding reflects that focus.

In a blog post announcing the change, Swipely CEO and Co-founder Angus Davis highlights Upserve’s growth serving the restaurant industry, which employs 1 out of every 10 people in the U.S. workforce:

  • Serves thousands of restaurants across all 50 states
  • Manages 11 million meals per month, up more than 1.7X from last year
  • Manages relationships with 16 million active diners through its CRM program, Guest Book

Along with the rebrand, Upserve added to its product line, which originally consisted of sales analytics, server performance, and menu popularity. The company’s newly launched mobile app helps restaurant owners remotely manage all of their restaurants by comparing sales with labor performance and generating reports across locations.

In an interview with Street Fight, Davis touted how the app will help balance restaurant ownership with work obligations, stating, “It lets them get out of the restaurant for a while and still feel like they’re there.”
DualMobile

Upserve is also launching ShiftPrep, which combines data from table management, point-of-sale systems, and CRM. That data is matched with machine learning, predictive analytics, and external data such as weather to forecast customer dinner traffic.

shift-prep1-forcast

Upserve presented at FinovateSpring 2012 where it demoed Payment Marketing. The company has raised a total of just over $40 million in equity. Last year, it was featured in AlwaysOn’s OnFinance Top 100 list.

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SocietyOne Appoints Former WestPac Exec as CEO

SocietyOne Appoints Former WestPac Exec as CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: SocietyOne

SocietyOneHomepage2016

SocietyOneCEOAustralia-based P2P lender SocietyOne announced it has appointed Jason Yetton, former senior executive at Westpac, as its new CEO.

Prior to his position at Westpac, he played a variety of roles at BT Financial Group. Yetton, a graduate of Harvard Business School’s General Manager program, was recently selected as a member of the federal government’s fintech advisory group.

Yetton will begin in his new role on Monday. SocietyOne’s current CEO & co-founder Matt Symons will assume a new role as chief strategy and innovation officer.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Yetton will face a number of challenges in his new role:

  • Building awareness of P2P lending (a concept that has been slow to take root in Australia) and ramping up marketing to promote the SocietyOne brand as a leader in the space.
  • Adding retail investors to the SocietyOne platform
  • Preparing the company for a potential IPO

Since launching in 2012, SocietyOne has matched more than $78 million in loans. This week alone, the startup originated a record $8.7 million in loans. According to The Australian Business Review, The company has secured 2% to 3% of the nation’s $100 billion unsecured lending market.

SocietyOne launched ClearMatch at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. ClearMatch connects borrowers with lenders by allowing investors to bid at different interest rates on a single loan. This minimizes data entry for the borrower while broadening the reach of investor portfolios.

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