Taulia Appoints Cedric Bru as CEO

Taulia Appoints Cedric Bru as CEO

TauliaHomepage42015

Earlier this week, supply-chain-management solutions-provider and e-invoicing company, Taulia, announced a change in company leadership. After six years leading the company, Bertram Meyer, Taulia co-founder and former CEO, has stepped down and appointed Cedric Bru to replace him as CEO.

Bru has spent his career at Visa, Hewlett-Packard, and Syncada. He most recently served as chief sales officer at Taulia, and has been with the company since 2013. During his time as CSO, Bru has helped Taulia more than double its number of customers and build international partnerships.

MeyerandBru

Pictured are Bertram Meyer (left) and Cedric Bru (right)

Meyer will stay on Taulia’s board of directors to focus on European expansion and the company’s go-to-market strategy.

This is Taulia’s second C-level change this year: In January the company hired a new CFO; in February, it raised $15 million in funding.

Taulia debuted Enhanced Discounting to the European market at FinovateEurope 2015.

Last Chance for FinovateSpring Early-Bird Tickets… Save $100

Last Chance for FinovateSpring Early-Bird Tickets… Save $100

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Interested in taking part of the action at FinovateSpring this year? Now’s the time to pick up your ticket! Friday, April 3, is your last chance to get a discounted ticket to this year’s event, which takes place May 12 & 13 at San Jose’s City National Civic. FinovateSpring launched in 2008 and last year hosted more than 1,200 attendees. See what you missed.

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With your ticket to see the future of fintech, you’ll watch 72 live demos of never-before-seen technology, plus meet the innovators themselves, along with other influencers in the space.

You’ll join top representatives from companies such as American Express, USAA, and Lending Club, and investors from Foundation Capital, Route Sixty-Six Ventures, and thirdstream.

Here’s what Matt Ankrum, Co-Founder of BodeTree had to say about Finovate:

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And some of the companies that will take the stage at this year’s event:

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With FinovateSpring just six weeks away, don’t wait to be a part of the action; pick up your ticket today. We’ll see you in San Jose!


FinovateSpring 2015 is sponsored by The Bancorp, Capital Source, City National Bank, Envestment, Financial Technology Partners, Hudson Cook, Kyriba, and Life.SREDA.

FinovateSpring 2015 is partners with Aite Group, Bank Innovators Lab, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, bob’s guide, Breaking Banks, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, ebankingNews, Filene, Fin-Tech.org, Hotwire, Javelin Strategy & Research, Mercator Advisory Group, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

Wallaby Launches Wise Bread Rewards Maximizer

Wallaby Launches Wise Bread Rewards Maximizer

WallabyHomepage

Wallaby Financial, a company that focuses on helping consumers maximize their credit card rewards, and Wise Bread, a website that focuses on frugal living, have partnered to launch Wise Bread Rewards Maximizer, a tool that helps users maximize their credit card rewards.

The tool is powered by Wallaby’s algorithms, along with CardBase, Wallaby’s database of more than 2,500 credit card programs.

WiseBreadWallabylanding

The user experience is quick and straightforward. Users first answer a few questions regarding their credit card use. Next, the Rewards Maximizer analyzes patterns and recommends new credit cards that offer higher savings and more rewards compared to the cards they currently use. If they like what they see, users click through to apply for the new card.

WallabyRewardsIn December of 2014, Wallaby was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Bankrate.com, an online publisher of personal financial advice.

Pasadena, California-based Wallaby debuted Wallaby Wallet Boost at FinovateSpring 2013. Check out the live demo video.

Handpoint’s EMV-Capable Mobile POS Comes to U.S. and Canada

Handpoint’s EMV-Capable Mobile POS Comes to U.S. and Canada

HandpointHomepage

NFC and EMV compatible point of sale (POS) terminals used to be called future-proof. With Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and the liability shift coming later this year in the U.S., the future is now.

Handpoint, a U.K.-based company that offers its EMV (Chip & PIN) solution to merchants in Europe and South Africa, announced today it is launching its complete EMV payments solution in the U.S. and Canada.

U.S.-based POS developers can now integrate Handpoint’s APIs and SDKs, offering merchants a white-label POS solution. Additionally, Handpoint will distribute its card readers that are PCI-DSS compliant and are able to handle EMV, MSR, and NFC payments, and global processing capabilities.

HandpointEMV

Handpoint HiLite EMV-capable card reader

To get started, merchants must pay a one-time setup fee for the card reader. While there’s no word on how much this will cost, Handpoint charges £99 in Europe. The company does not charge a monthly fee, but merchants pay a flat rate of 2.65% per transaction on Visa and MasterCard payments.

This comes on the heels of CardFlight’s announcement yesterday that it now offers an EMV-capable mPOS device.

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Handpoint demonstrated its hybrid magstripe chip reader unit at FinovateFall 2012.

Finovate Debuts: Bendigo and Adelaide’s Mobile Wallet Has a Charity Play

Finovate Debuts: Bendigo and Adelaide’s Mobile Wallet Has a Charity Play

RedyMobileHomepage

Australia’s Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (Bendigo) has long been known for its philanthropy. Its Community Bank branches, which enable local communities to own and operate a Bendigo Bank franchise, have contributed $125 million to local projects and charities. At FinovateEurope 2015, the Australia-based bank debuted redy, a mobile payments platform with a charitable element developed specifically for Bendigo by its subsidiary, Community Telco Australia.

Facts

  • Fifth-largest bank in Australia
  • Has almost 900 branches and agencies across Australia
  • $52 billion assets under management
  • $3 billion market cap

Redy positions itself as a community ecosystem more than a payment ecosystem. The local rewards system enables customers to earn creds (points) for every transaction on the redy platform. Creds add up to 0.5% of customers’ transactions, and can be donated to local charities or causes, or used in exchange for a discount toward a future purchase.

By offering customers an easy way to give to causes they care about, redy helps small businesses connect with customers.

For merchants

To begin using redy, Bendigo must first approve the merchant and set them up with a business account and a redy point-of-sale tablet.

Redy charges merchants a membership fee of $25 per month and a transaction fee of 1.5% of each purchase, 0.5% of which is returned to the customer to use as creds. The creds system offers businesses a way to encourage repeat spending and gives them an easy way to support local campaigns and charities.

RedyMerchant The Redy merchant terminal

Merchants also receive access to reports and analytics of transactions on the redy platform.

For customers

Customers download the free redy mobile app on their iOS or Android device, and link their Visa, MasterCard, or Bendigo savings account.

When ready to pay at a business that accepts redy, the customer enters their PIN, scans the QR code on the merchant’s tablet, and confirms the payment amount. The payment is secure and does not transfer the customers’ financial data to the merchant.

The redy system sends the customer a digital receipt. The creds the customer earns from the purchase are automatically credited to their account and ready to be donated or applied toward a repeat purchase.

RedyPaymentMethods Redy payment methods

For charities and local causes

Charities that register with Redy can tap into the pockets of Redy shoppers, who may opt to donate their creds to causes that matter to them and their community.

Here’s a sample of causes and charities registered on Redy:

RedyCausesandCharities

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank debuted redy at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.

Advanced Merchant Payments Pulls in Undisclosed Amount of Funding

Advanced Merchant Payments Pulls in Undisclosed Amount of Funding

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Advanced Merchant Payments (AMP), a company that provides banks technology to offer loans to their small business customers, pulled in an undisclosed amount of funding today from Route 66 Ventures.

The new installment is a follow-on round to the $5 million Series A round received in November 2014 from SBT Venture Capital.

Hong Kong-based AMP enables banks and merchant acquirers to originate and manage small business loans. The loans are  made to serve small businesses that are too large for a consumer loan and too small for a traditional small business loan.

AMP will use the new funds to accelerate the development of its lending platform.

AMP, which operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom, debuted its small business lending solution for banks at FinovateEurope 2014. Check out the live demo:

Printer Giant Lexmark to Acquire Kofax for $1 Billion

Printer Giant Lexmark to Acquire Kofax for $1 Billion

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Kofax creates mobile and web solutions made to simplify customer interactions. The California-based company announced today it has been acquired by Kentucky-based Lexmark International, a global corporation with approximately $3.8 billion in revenue.

Kofax’s Board of Directors, which accounts for 25% of the company’s shareholders, unanimously voted in favor of the merger. Lexmark will pay $11 per share in cash for all outstanding shares of Kofax, for a total value of $1 billion (net of cash acquired).

Lexmark is well-known for its hardware, such as printers, copiers, and fax machines. The company also distributes document imaging and electronic form software, under the brand Perceptive Software, that competes with Kofax’s offerings. Scott Coons, Perceptive Software president and CEO and Lexmark VP states:

“The combination of Perceptive Software and Kofax solutions strengthens the breadth and depth of our offering, giving us an… ability to help customers… connect unstructured information to their systems of record.”

Additionally, Lexmark anticipates the acquisition will expand its reach to mid-market business customers. Kofax has 20,000 customers and 850 channel partners across the globe.

LexmarkHomepage

When the acquisition closes in Q2 of 2015, Lexmark will double the size of the software branch of its business.

Kofax was founded in 1985. Reynolds Bish is CEO. The company last demoed at FinovateSpring 2014 where it debuted its Mobile Capture Platform. Kofax won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore.

In Partnership with Equifax, Zumigo Further Protects Merchants

In Partnership with Equifax, Zumigo Further Protects Merchants

ZumigoHomepage

Online merchants generally rely on a card’s CVV number to protect against fraud, but that 3-digit code is easy for a fraudster to obtain. Today, Zumigo is helping to change that by launching an enhancement to its payment validation service, Assure Payments.

In a partnership with Equifax, the San Jose-based company is making it more difficult for a fraudster to complete an online purchase using stolen card credentials. This ultimately protects merchants against chargebacks.

During the online checkout flow, Zumigo asks the customer to provide information such as name, address, and mobile number. It verifies the credentials by pairing the information against Equifax’s mobile billing records. As a secondary verification method, Zumigo compares the location of the customer’s mobile phone with their IP address and shipping address.

Here’s a sample risk analysis:

ZumigoPaymentsResultsNegative

When some data points do not match up, as in the example above, the merchant identifies the transaction as high-risk, and is advised to take further measures to verify the purchaser’s identity.

At FinovateSpring 2014, Zumigo launched Assure, which automatically populates forms on behalf of consumers for easy checkout flow or account opening. Both solutions are available to merchants via an API integration into their mobile or web checkout flow.

Alt Credit Score Startup, Aire, Raises $1.1 Million

Alt Credit Score Startup, Aire, Raises $1.1 Million

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London-based Aire.io, the startup that is democratizing credit scores for people with thin or no credit files announced a $1.1 million round of funding today.

While Aire received the new installment in January, it has not been made public until now. The funding comes from existing investor SparkLabs Global Ventures, with additional contributions from:

  • Andrew Mullinger
  • Peter Jackson
  • Tom Glocer

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Aire pulled in its initial Seed round of $300k in the summer of 2014. When added to the second Seed round in today’s announcement, the startup’s funding totals just under $1.5 million.

Aire’s recently launched Credit API enables lenders to perform a credit check on people who do not have financial history on file with traditional credit bureaus. Its predictive algorithms assign a score to consumers based on self-declared data and other reliable sources, such as LinkedIn.

The startup is a TechStars company, and has received multiple other accolades. Here are the latest:

  • Fintech City: Hottest Ten Fintech of Europe
  • Business Insider: Top 15 Start-ups in Europe
  • DataMonitor Financial: FinTracker Award

Aire launched its Credit API at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. Check out the live demo video.

Finovate Debuts: OnlinePay.com’s Mobile Wallet Review

Finovate Debuts: OnlinePay.com’s Mobile Wallet Review

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Onlinepay.com has created a mobile wallet for shopping, topping up online accounts, and P2P payments. The app, which it debuted at FinovateEurope 2015, launched in the Apple App store last December.

Facts

  • Founded 2014
  • Established in Singapore
  • Partnered with e-commerce and gaming companies

The app is targeted toward millennials. It functions as a prepaid mobile wallet with three main features:

  1. Shopping
  2. Social Payments
  3. Services

The features, along with the user’s wallet balance, are displayed on the home screen:

OnlinePayShop

1) Shopping

Users browse items in the in-app shopping mall. When they find something they’d like to purchase, the entire transaction is handled within the app.

E-commerce companies partner with OnlinePay to add a button to their checkout flow that enables customers to pay using their mobile wallet balance. Retailers can also send targeted offers such as the one above.

2) Social payments
Similar to Venmo, OnlinePay makes P2P payments social by enabling users to share their payment history with others. An activity feed broadcasts to the entire network of OnlinePay users or just to their group of friends. Users can elect to keep their payment activity private.

OnlinePayP2PPayments2

3) Services
With the Services tab, users top up Forex trading accounts or purchase online gaming components, which are instantly applied. Users are not require users to exit their Forex trading application or leave their game to make purchases.

Chat
The company offers 24/7 chat support to resolve any issues. Users can also use the feature to chat with their friends.

OnlinePay debuted its mobile wallet at FinovateEurope 2015.

Finovate Debuts: PhotoPay’s BlinkOCR Recognizes Data by Context

Finovate Debuts: PhotoPay’s BlinkOCR Recognizes Data by Context

PhotoPayHomepage

PhotoPay’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology helps replace manual data entry. The company demonstrated BlinkOCR at FinovateEurope 2015.

While there are a handful of successful companies with OCR solutions on the market, PhotoPay has three distinguishing features:

  1. Works with no internet connection
  2. Recognizes data type by context (email, URL, reference number, dollar amount)
  3. Flexible enough to capture data from non-standardized paper, computer screens, and unique documents, such as a letter invoice

Facts

  • Self funded
  • 13 employees
  • Partnered with banks in 10+ countries
  • Over 16 million end users of PhotoPay technology
  • Based in the UK
  • Creator of the Photomath app calculator

The software works in 40 countries. A total of 15 banks in Europe have implemented the solution, including the second largest bank in Germany and second largest bank in the Netherlands.

The BlinkOCR software development kit (SDK) has 50 lines of code, making it easy to embed into a bank’s existing mobile app. The user experience is simple:

1) Select the desired field

Selectfield

2) Scan the fields necessary for payment (IBAN, reference number, and amount due):

PhotoPayAmtandIBANScan

3) Edit the data, if necessary, and select the checkmark to finish and confirm the payment.

Other solutions for financial institutions include:

  • Standardized payment forms
    The user photographs their entire bill, and PhotoPay captures, recognizes, and categorizes the data from the document. This enables the customer to pay the amount they owe without keying in data. The technology currently works with standardized payment forms for 15 European countries.

PhotoPayPayment

  • Customer mobile on-boarding solution
    PhotoPay’s BlinkIDScan captures data from ID documents and securely stores the data locally on the phone. Depending on the document type, the user scans elements such as the machine readable zone (MRZ), the form, or barcode, to capture the data.

PhotoPayBlinkID

The technology is free for end-users, and helps remove the sting from the chore of paying bills. In fact, one large European financial institution reported that, after implementing PhotoPay’s technology, the number of bill payments on its mobile app increased six-fold.

PhotoPay demonstrated at FinovateEurope 2015.


The company created the Photomath app in October of 2014 to showcase its OCR technology. The app has been downloaded more than 11 million times on iOS alone in the last 3 months (it will launch on Android soon). Additionally, the Netexpolo Forum and UNESCO recently awarded the Photomath app the 2015 Netexpolo prize in the field of educational technology.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: PhotoPay’s BlinkOCR Recognizes Data by Context.
  • Finovate Alums Win Gold, Silver, and Bronze at PYMNTS Innovation Awards 2015.

Around the Web:

  • PYMNTS interviews DealStruck CEO & Co-founder about how the startup works with traditional banks. Come see DealStruck demo at FinovateSpring 2015.
  • BBC News features BehavioSec’s behavioral biometrics security.
  • iZettle integrates with Xero to keep business’ sales, VAT, deposits & processing fees updated with accounting.
  • Consumers Credit Union deploys online, mobile, and tablet banking solutions from Digital Insight.
  • Arxan Technologies earns finalist spot in Info Security Product Guide’s Annual 2015 Global Excellence Awards.
  • Gartner’s CRM Vendor Guide 2015 features Comarch.
  • Robb Gaynor, chief product officer for Malauzai Software, talks about plans for an Apple Watch app. See Malauzai demo its technology in San Jose at FinovateSpring 2015.
  • True Potential launches True Potential One to help investors consolidate and simplify their finances.
  • The Economic Times feature on mobile banking quotes BankBazaar.com CEO Adhil Shetty.
  • Dealstruck appoints Ryan Campbell as Vice President of Sales.
  • Quantopian-supported research to be published in Stocks & Commodities magazine.
  • Oink featured on NBC 24 Today’s Money Monday program

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.