Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Cardlytics Pulls in $70 Million in Series F Round, Prepares for IPO

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

CardlyticsLogoNew.jpg

Card-linked offers company, Cardlytics, closed a $70 million Series F round yesterday. The round was led by Discovery Capital, who will appoint a representative to Cardlytics’ board.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, with this newest installment, the Atlanta-based company has raised a total of $170 million since it was founded in 2008. Past investors include:

    • Groupe Aeroplan
    • Canaan Partners
    • ITC Holdings
    • Kinetic Ventures
    • Polaris Venture Partners
    • TTV Capital
    • Aimia

The company plans to use the funding to develop products that analyze data in new ways. It will not only help the merchants, who pay Cardlytics to list their offers, but it is also good news for its 400 bank partners.

This includes Bank of America, who uses the company’s technology to power its BankAmeriDeals (below). This year, Cardlytics anticipates the banks’ cut of payment it receives from merchants will add up to $20 to $25 million.

CardlyticsTablet1.1.jpg

The company plans to go public within the next 18 months. According to Cardlytics co-founder and President, Lynne Laube:

“We want to be ready to take advantage of the market, and getting ready for an IPO takes work.”

Check out Cardlytics’ demo from FinovateFall 2013, where it debuted its Gelocation Application.

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Finovate Debuts: HedgeCoVest

Finovate Debuts: HedgeCoVest
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: HedgeCoVest

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is HedgeCoVest, which demonstrated its Replicazor at FinovateFall 2014.

HedgeCoVestLogo

HedgeCoVest’s web-based tool enables users to replicate hedge fund investments in their own brokerage accounts. The platform is aimed at existing hedge fund investors, advisors, and retail investors seeking more flexibility.

The stats

    • $900,000 raised
    • 12 employees
    • Product launched in September 2014
    • 35+ hedge fund managers have signed up 
    • 50+ models coming in the next few months

Hedge funds vs. HedgeCoVest
While hedge fund returns can be impressive, investing in them is not always practical. To qualify, investors need to have a net worth of $1 million (excluding primary residence). Additionally, hedge funds have prohibitively high account and strategy minimums.

Investors also face liquidity restrictions, locking them into strategies, and there’s little transparency into strategy specifics.

In comparison, HedgeCoVest’s minimum is $30,000, and investors can allocate as little as $10,000 to individual strategies. Liquidating investments is easy, just one click. HedgeCoVest charges a flat fee of 2.5%, instead of the often-confusing legal, audit, and trade fees incurred with traditional hedge funds.

HCVHomepage

How it works
HedgeCoVest enables investors to automatically replicate real hedge fund portfolios in their own brokerage accounts, in real time. It does this using a trading technology called the Replicazor, which automatically mirrors hedge fund investments.

In milliseconds, the Replicazor registers a hedge fund trade and makes the same trade for HedgeCoVest clients.

The overview page (below) is used to search and compare available hedge fund models.

HCVSearchModels

Users select a model for an in-depth view of the strategy. The overview tab breaks down the exact sector allocations, both long and short.

HCVSectors

Other tabs include statistics (shown below), real-time fund performance, and an About Us section that profiles the firm and person behind the strategy.

HCVStatistics

When the user finds a strategy they like, they select Invest Now, enter the amount to allocate, and choose their leverage. The Replicazor buys the securities into the brokerage account and tracks the holdings going forward.

By trading outside of the rigid hedge fund structure and requirements, HedgeCoVest opens hedge fund investing to a wider audience.

Check out HedgeCoVest’s debut of the Replicazor at FinovateFall 2014.

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Finovate Debuts: Linqto

Finovate Debuts: Linqto
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Linqto

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is Linqto, which demonstrated its virtual Personal Banker solution at FinovateFall 2014.

LinqtoLogo

With Linqto’s Personal Banker, users can talk face-to-face with their bank teller in real time, from anywhere with an Internet or data connection.

The stats

    • Company founded in 2010
    • Product launched in 2014
    • Clients include Marriott, Intuit, NCR, and other major organizations

The product
Digital banking has transitioned from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have,” but many customers find that an online-only channel lacks the personal connection that comes with the in-branch experience. Personal Banker captures the convenience of remote banking while maintaining the personal, face-to-face relationship aspect of in-branch banking.

With Linqto’s system, customers launch a live video chat with a real teller directly on their mobile device. Personal Banker is built to accommodate all devices; even customers without a camera can use SMS to text with a teller.

LinqtoIphoneChat

How it works: Consumer facing

>>Banking
Customers launch the video chat by clicking a button on the web or mobile platform. The one-touch access works like the Mayday button for the Kindle Fire HDX.

To make it as easy as possible, there is no software to upload, no plug-in to install, and no additional user name or password required.

During a video chat, customers can view and discuss their balance and take a picture of a check to deposit it during the session. They also have the option to type in questions and answers during the discussion, in the event they are in a public place.

LinqtoPersonalBankerVideo

>>Learning
The Personal Banker solution also has community rooms that act as virtual conference rooms where banks can host seminars on subjects such as retirement and home buying. Customers can interact with the conference host by speaking through their microphone or typing into the chat box.

How it works: Bank-facing

The teller’s screen shows a streaming video of the customer, their location information, their account information, and notes, such as their preferred nickname.

The teller also sees the availability and location of other tellers or specialists. Similar to a call-in experience, the teller can transfer the customer to someone such as a loan officer or wealth management specialist.

LinqtoTellerApp

Since Personal Banker still requires the use of tellers, it enables banks to use idle teller resources, helping some branches remain cost effective. This serves digital customers while keeping tellers in geographical locations where they are needed.

Security

Personal Banker adds an extra layer of security. First, it is difficult to spoof a live video of a face, which enables the teller to verify the customer’s identity. Additionally, the video feed is delivered securely, and all proprietary information is sent behind a firewall.

Linqto markets Personal Banker to bank technology providers such as Intuit, who combine the functionality with other solutions and market it to banks. The Personal Banker solution is coded to fit seamlessly within a bank’s website, mobile app, and branch software.

Watch Linqto’s live demonstration of Personal Banker at FinovateFall 2014.

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Vaamo Raises $3.2 Million, Launches Out of Private Beta

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, vaamo

vaamoLogo2.jpg

A German platform where users save and invest money towards their long term goals has brought on some funding of its own this week.

Vaamo announced yesterday it closed a $3.2 million (€2.5 million) Seed round. The investment was led by Route 66 Ventures, the same firm that furnished U.S.-based D3 Banking with $7 million last week. The remaining funds have come from business angels.

This round comes a year after its angel round of $635,000 (€500,000), which brings vaamo’s total funding to $3.8 million (€3 million).

Goalsetup.jpg

According to vaamo co-founders Thomas Bloch, and Oliver Vins, the funding will be used to hire more talent, specifically for marketing, customer service, and engineering. It will also be used to bolster marketing efforts to improve customer acquisition.

Vaamo is opening to the public today after spending about four months in private beta. It currently has 250 customers saving real money on its goals-based platform. It is limited to German residents only, but vaamo has not excluded the possibility of expanding its usage across borders.

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D3 Banking Brings in $7 Million, with $3 Million More on the Way

D3 Banking Brings in $7 Million, with $3 Million More on the Way
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: D3 Banking, Funding
D3BankingLogo

Here’s the math: D3 = Data Driven Digital Banking. The funding amount = $7 million.

Today, D3 Banking announced it raised $7 million in venture funding from Route 66 Ventures, a private investment firm focused on emerging financial services companies.

The Nebraska-based company reports that in the next 60 days, existing investors and a subordinate VC will contribute another $3 million, finalizing the round at $10 million.

The $10 million projected in this round, along with previous Angel investments of $6 million, will bring D3’s total funding to $16 million.

D3BankingHomepage

Since its launch in 2007, D3 Banking (formerly Lodo Software) has built a customer base of 225 institutions that use its digital financial management tools.

D3 expanded beyond financial management tools last year when it launched a comprehensive digital banking solution at FinovateSpring 2013. The first customer to roll out the new solution plans to go live with it in the next 30 days. Additionally, D3 is in talks with a number of other institutions who are interested in deploying the new solution. According to CEO Mark Vipond, now is the perfect time for the company to bring in its first round of Venture funding.

D3 will use the new capital to expand its sales and marketing team, invest in other product innovations, and deploy a SaaS-based solution for FIs that prefer on-premise deployment.

Check out D3 Banking’s video from FinovateSpring 2014 where it demonstrated the money movement tools added to the comprehensive solution it introduced last year.

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Finovate Debuts: Thinknum

Finovate Debuts: Thinknum
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Thinknum

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is Thinknum, which demonstrated its collaboration and comparison tools for financial analysis.

ThinknumLogo

Thinknum’s web-based software is targeted to financial analysts. The collaboration and cloud-computing tools help build better financial models. It seeks to revolutionize asset valuation and empowers analysts to turn complicated spreadsheets into in-depth analyses.

Stats
    • 4,000 analysts on platform
    • $1 million raised
    • Product launched December 2013
The problem
To more accurately value stocks, sophisticated investors create financial models based on metrics such as company sales, website page views, and global events such as spikes in food prices. Often, analysts use simple spreadsheets which can be inefficient in managing complicated data.
Most financial models are shared by email, with different versions saved on various hard drives leading to lost content, mis-used models, and other confusion. Additionally, finding specific data points by sorting through spreadsheets is cumbersome.
Enter Thinknum.
The solution
Thinknum provides analysts with a platform to host their spreadsheet-based models. Users can either upload existing models from Excel or build them directly on the platform. Powerful search capabilities enable users to apply a single model to multiple companies, automatically aggregating company-specific information, such as earnings and revenue.
ThinknumSpreadsheet
Additionally, Thinknum serves as a collaboration platform where 4,000 analysts from major banks and hedge funds across the globe can share and tweak each others’ models using different assumptions.
What sets Thinknum apart? 
1) Computing power
With an overwhelming amount of data and hundreds of APIs created every day, it is impossible to capture all of the information needed for an accurate model. Even if it were possible, analysts would still lack the computing power needed to crunch the numbers in the model. Thinknum’s 50 computing nodes deliver results in seconds, pulling data from thousands of sources.
2) Crowdsourced insights
Similar to Github, Thinknum gives users visibility into the work of other analysts on the platform. This provides insight into how others value certain companies, and can lead to better financial models.
The example below shows how other analysts, listed along the bottom, value Google. The bubbles represent each person’s valuation based on their personal financial model. 
ThinknumModelsPage
From here, analysts can open the model, view its performance, or use the QuickBuilder feature.
With QuickBuilder (below), investors can test their models by simulating the effect of changes in inputs, such as company revenue and cost of goods sold, have on the overall stock price.
ThinknumQuickbuilder
Thinknum’s capabilities extend beyond the QuickBuilder feature. It also provides graphs detailing data from over 2,000 sources such as home prices, construction spending, and the unemployment rate.

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Alumni News– October 23, 2014

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bionym, CardFlight, Digital Insight, Flint Mobile, Forte Payment Systems, Insuritas, Intuit, Jingit, PayPal, Settle
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgJingit’s Head of Product, Chris Ohlsen, weighs in on loyalty and rewards.
  • Intuit launches developer experience and global app store for QuickBooks Online, including payments API.
  • Anovia Payments partners with CardFlight to offer mobile point of sale solutions to merchants and developers.
  • Richwood Bank hires Insuritas for its insurance agency solution.
  • Bionym forges own path to biometric harmony with the Nymi band.
  • Forte CEO Jeff Thorness comments on why omnichannel  is not just a buzzword.
  • MECU to provide members with digital banking services from Digital Insight.
  • PayPal’s Venmo earns a spot on VentureBeat’s list of 13 must-own apps for your smartphone.
  • Flint announces Verizon-led $9 million investment round.
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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Finovate Debuts: BioCatch

Finovate Debuts: BioCatch
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Finovate Debuts

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate. alums. Today’s feature is BioCatch, which demonstrated its invisible authentication methods at FinovateFall 2014.

By tracking the way users interact with web and mobile banking platforms, BioCatch uses invisible tests to authenticate users and prevent fraud.

The cloud-based solution gets ahead of malicious behavior by intervening before fraudsters enter the system.

Stats

    • Recently moved headquarters to Tel Aviv from Lod, Israel
    • Founded April 2011, launched BioCatch in 2013
    • $10 million raised
    • 25 employees
BioCatchuserDiagram

The experience

BioCatch helps banks and ecommerce enterprises catch fraudsters while authenticating the actual users. It uses 400 different parameters, such as how fast the user types and their usage preferences.

BioCatch starts by building a profile of each user to capture their typical behavior during an online banking session. Once complete, BioCatch is able to flag uncharacteristic usage patterns as fraud.

>> Catching the fraudsters

To determine fraudulent activity, BioCatch considers factors such as:

    • Does the user move between fields using a mouse or using the Tab key?
    • Do they click the submit button or use the Enter key?
    • When entering an amount, do they use the keypad or the number pad?
For each online banking session, the bank views a dashboard that shows geographical location, an analysis of each user’s session, the session flow, the behavioral patterns of the account, an analysis of the threat, as well as device and network risk scores. 
BioCatchAnalystStation1
The authentication analysis scores how the user performs compared to their regular behavior. The information is presented in a dashboard, similar to the one below, which indicates unusual login rythmics and mouse dynamics.
BioCatchAnalystStation
>> Proving the good user

Aside from just detecting and stopping fraud, BioCatch can reduce false positives, as well.

For example, if a New York-based customer is accessing their account while on a trip to Des Moines, the different geographical location may raise some red flags. The out-of-character activity may cause the bank to identify the actual user as a criminal.

The consequence (getting locked out of their account or having to call the bank to authenticate themselves) creates friction in the user experience and can harm the relationship.

What’s new?
BioCatch recently launched The Art of Fraud Catalogue showcasing patterns generated by malware. After analyzing user behavior, BioCatch realized that usage patterns created great art. 

The piece below was captured from fraud discovered in North America. It is titled, The Matrix Fraud.

BioCatchMatrixFraud

The idea is that fraud patterns are all unique, just like art itself.

Bottom line
BioCatch provides a low-friction way to catch fraud. When users don’t have to jump through hoops and are not wrongfully pegged as fraudsters, they have a faster and more pleasant experience.

Check out BioCatch’s demo its authentication methodology at FinovateFall 2014.

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Finovate Debuts: Settle

Finovate Debuts: Settle
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Settle

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate. alums. Today’s feature is BioCatch, which demonstrated its invisible authentication methods at FinovateFall 2014.

SettleLogo

Settle
Settle’s technology focuses on connecting merchants with their customers. Its built-in ordering system, combined with a loyalty platform and merchant dashboard, are tailored for restaurants and bars.

The stats
    • Founded August 2014
    • $1.8 million in funding
    • 15 employees
    • 50,000 users
    • 500+ merchant partnerships for their loyalty/rewards platform

The experience
To create a better customer experience, Settle provides merchants tools, including:

    • Point-of-sale system
    • Customer-facing pre-order system
    • Loyalty platform
    • Merchant analytic tools

How it works:

Customers

Using the Settle app on an iOS or Android device, customers make a payment at business’ Settle point-of-sale system.

At checkout, customers review their order and select the Pay button. For service-based merchants, such as a coffee shop, bar, or cafe, the customer also selects the tip amount.

The transaction is paperless, with the receipts emailed.

SettleMobileCheckout2

To gather feedback for the merchant, customers are prompted to rate their experience.

SettleMobilePaid2
At restaurants and coffee shops, customers can place their order ahead of time and skip the line. The system also manages reservations.
SettlePreOrder
Merchants
Settle offers a merchant platform that makes entering orders easy. It also helps cashiers personally connect with returning customers. When a Settle user walks in the door, the system prompts the cashier with the customer’s name, their usual order, and notes about the person (i.e., always in a hurry).
SettleMerchantDash
Aside from the point-of-sale interface, Settle comes with two compelling features:
1) Loyalty
Since the loyalty platform does not require stamps, cards, or checking-in, it is a low-friction way to encourage repeat purchases.
The Settle system incentivizes users to spend more in order to receive a larger discount. In the example below, the user needs to spend a total of 3,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia (around $230) to receive a permanent, ongoing 10% discount.
SettleLoyalty1

2) Merchant tools
With Settle’s Smart Engine, merchants see recent customer activity and can download a spreadsheet detailing new and returning customers, their purchase frequency, the total amount spent, average check amount, and how much they tip. Merchants can also evaluate their sales over time (see graph below). 
On the employee side, the system shows ratings for each waiter, along with the number of clients handled per check, and how well they are tipped.
The recommendations engine detects anomalies, such as decline in overall sales or average check, and advises how to fix the issue. Additionally, it automatically creates a list of customers who have not returned, and sets up a discount offer to entice them back.
SettleMerchantAnalytics2
The back-end system also enables merchants to push special deals and messages based on certain parameters, such as average spend and birthday month. Once the offers are sent, merchants can measure their effectiveness by seeing how many opened the message and redeemed the offer.
These examples illustrate the mobile purchasing experience, but Settle can also be used online. For both in-person and online purchases, customers are required to confirm the payment on their mobile device. This built-in two-factor authentication creates a more secure experience.
What’s new
The Settle app is currently working in Ukraine, Russia, and other Eastern European countries. It has plans to expand into Europe and is considering the U.S. market. For this expansion, it is seeking a U.S. bank partner.
Settle’s newest development is a P2P payment platform. Users can pay other Settle users by simply selecting their name, entering the amount, and the confirming payment. To see this work in action, check out Settle’s live demo from FinovateFall 2014.

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Hey, Developers! FinDEVr Presentation Videos Now Available

Hey, Developers! FinDEVr Presentation Videos Now Available
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014
FinDEVrLogo

Maybe you missed out on the first ever FinDEVr, which was held in San Francisco on September 30 and October 1, or maybe you wish you could go back to watch the presentations again.

Check out all of the presentation videos, fresh off the camera reel.

We have 47 fintech-focused presentations of APIs and back-end tools ready to watch, embed, and download for free. Don’t know where to start? Check out one of the award winning presentations from day one:

Avoka

https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/p7zbi64njm

BehavioSec

https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/3my6elyx7e

PayPal & Braintree

https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/y5r0p6kn2b

Yodlee

https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/02bb8bafg7

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be making some final edits to the videos. You can find the videos using the link above or in the video archives section on Finovate.com.

Thanks again to all who attended and presented!

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Finovate Debuts: NopSec

Finovate Debuts: NopSec
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2014, Nopsec
Finovate Debuts is a blog series to introduce companies who demonstrated for the first time on the Finovate stage. Today’s feature is NopSec, which demonstrated its Unified VRM system at FinovateFall 2014.
NopSecLogo

NopSec 

NopSec is focused on making the digital world a safer place. For banks, this means getting a handle on cyber security. If you’re a bank with 60,000 hosts under management, with thousands of security vulnerabilities, you have two major issues. First, you need to identify the vulnerabilities, and second, you need to know how to fix them.
With so much much information to sort through to determine and prioritize what needs to be fixed, this can be time consuming. This is where NopSec comes in. Its SaaS-based Unified VRM provides a solution for IT professionals to manage security threats. Using Big Data, it generates a prioritized list of what security issues need to be addressed, and how to address them.

The stats
    • Founded in 2009
    • Headquartered in New York
    • Works with infrastructure both on premises and in the cloud
The experience

The NopSec Unified VRM system helps bank security experts sort through the massive amount of data about security threats, and suggests actions to protect against the threats. Its holistic approach on security can be broken down into four steps:

    1. Identify threats
    2. Explore details
    3. Discover solutions
    4. Create reports 

Step 1: Identify threats

The first step is to identify specific vulnerabilities. The dashboard below provides an overall picture of security risk and vulnerability that is easily digestible for everyone from the technical security professional to the CIO. It is divided into modules that correspond to different threats– external and internal.
NopSecDashboard
Step 2: Explore details
Security analysts can drill down further into vulnerabilities by searching and filtering. The case below shows results filtered by “Top Exploited.”  Other filters, listed on the left-hand side in the graphic below, include criteria for geographic location, available patches, top trends, etc.
Once experts find the individual threats that interest them, they can view a summary description of each case. The graphs along the top provide an overall view of the risk factor, operating system, and location of each threat that matches the search criteria.
NopSecAnalytics_TopExploited
Step 3: Discover solutions
Identifying and understanding the security threats is only part of the equation. The crucial piece is solving the vulnerabilities. To do this, Unified VRM prioritizes the most dangerous and relevant threats by ranking them by importance.
Remediation recommendations are listed next to each vulnerability, along with the number of assets it affects. In the example below, the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities affect 134 assets, so it is ranked as the number one issue to fix. Dividing the bank’s security into manageable pieces helps security professionals know what to focus on.
NopSecInternalNetwork_RiskRankings
In addition to simply advising remediation, the platform has a social aspect that allows for team collaboration. Users just select others they would like to involve in the conversation, and everyone has the ability to comment on the solution.
Step 4: Communicate via reports

To communicate issues and progress with everyone from executives to other technical experts, NopSec provides a reporting tool. It offers four options that tailor the information in the report to the appropriate level for different intended audiences:

    • Executive, for a high level status view
    • Technical, for a more detailed view with technical specifications
    • Full, for a complete view
    • Customized, for an overview mixed with details 
NopSecReport
Benefit to banks
The largest benefit NopSec brings to banks is the ability to proactively secure their systems. By identifying and prioritizing major security threats that affect hundreds of assets, banks’ technical teams can spend more time solving those issues, and less time searching for the issues.
Additionally, the Unified VRM system takes the institution’s security a step above what government regulations require, since they are often times too generic and not applicable to every environment.

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Alumni News– October 16, 2014

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Behalf, Betterment, Jumio, Lending Club, Motif Investing, PhotoPay, Quantopian, ReadyForZero
  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgFidelity to offer Betterment to 3,000 financial advisers who use its institutional wealth services division.
  • Lending Club named winner of The Economist’s annual Innovation Awards in the consumer products category.
  • TechCrunch reports: Sequoia-Backed Behalf Buys Stuff For Small Businesses Looking To Grow.
  • ReadyForZero PLUS Credit now shows credit scoring factors.
  • FT column on technology and banking features PhotoPay.
  • Pando Daily takes a look at Quantopian’s plan to launch a hedge fund.
  • Jumio teams up with Ribbit.me to build ID verification process for RibbitRewards marketplace.
  • Motif Investing iOS app adds account access with Apple TouchID.
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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