Tax Day Turns to Funding Day for Some: LearnVest Raises $28 Million, The Currency Cloud Pulls in $10 Million

Most of us know April 15 as Tax Day, but for three Finovate alums, today is about a different flow of money than a tax return. Aside from Betterment’s announcement of its $32 million round (see our post from this morning), LearnVest pulled in $28 million in Series D funding, while The Currency Cloud garnered $10 million in Series B.

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LearnVest, a personal financial management and planning platform and service
    • New funding: $28 million Series D
    • Investors: Northwestern Mutual Capital, Accel Partners, and American Express Ventures
    • Total Funding: $69 million
    • Founded: 2007
    • Headquarters: New York, NY

LearnVest will use the funding to boost hiring efforts at its Arizona-based Expert Hub and to scale its LearnVest at Work channel, which won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2013.

Check out its Best of Show-winning FinovateFall 2013 demo video:

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The Currency Cloud, a company that powers international payments with its API that enables secure, global payments
    • New funding: $10 million
    • Investors: Atlas Venture, Anthem Venture Partners, Notion Capital, XAnge Private Equity, Silicon Valley Bank
    • Total funding: $17 million
    • Founded: 2012
    • Headquarters: London

The Currency Cloud will use the funding to expand its focus on the UK and Europe to a more international realm, specifically into the the U.S.

Check out The Currency Cloud’s demo from FinovateEurope 2014, where it debuted its new e-wallet functionality and user interface.

Finovate Alumni News– April 14, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPYMNTS looks at how Ripple hopes to build a global payments network.
  • Android Headlines reviews TradeHero.
  • FIS acquires CMSI, provider of consumer loan origination and portfolio management software.
  • CNBC’s Squawk on the Street interviews Dashlane CEO Emmanuel Schalit on Heartbleed.
  • SeedInvest raises $2 million in crowd funded investment campaign.
  • Ignite Sales wins 2014 Monarch Award for its Profitability Dashboard for OmniChannel Measurement.
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.

Kabbage Brings in $270 Million in Debt Financing to Provide Small Businesses with Funding of Their Own

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Further highlighting Forbes’ point that the traditional banker is dead, small business financing company Kabbage announced today it received a revolving, 3-year line of debt financing, totaling $270 million.

The funds, which were provided by Guggenheim Securities, will be used to supply small businesses with working capital, both in the U.S. and internationally.

This new installment comes a year after the Atlanta-based company received $75 million in debt financing from Victory Park Capital and Thomvest Ventures.

Kabbage has seen an increasing demand for small business financing, both for web-based businesses and brick-and-mortar stores. The Wall Street Journal commented on its growth, reporting:

“In the last 15 or so months, default rates have dropped by more than 50%…. while Kabbage’s business has grown five-fold. The company aims to provide $1 billion in credit to businesses next year.”

Rob Frohwein, CEO, hinted that growth has been so dramatic that the company expects to pull in more financing soon. In an interview with TechCrunch, Frohwein comments on the funding, stating:

“Yes, this is a large facility, but looking at our growth rate, it’s something that we will need to look at again in a reasonably short period of time, believe it or not.”

To learn more about Kabbage, check out its live demo from FinovateSpring 2013 where it debuted its QuickBooks Financing Platform.

Finovate Alumni News– April 9, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgMichigan Education Association selects Billhighway to improve membership experience.
  • ProfitStars’ iPay Solutions Resource Center receives NACHA’s 2014 PayItGreen Award.
  • miiCard launches IDaaS for Lenders, a solution that combines ID proofing, bureau data, bank data, & authentication.
  • CardFlight launches SwipeSimple to offer a co-branded mobile POS product to merchants.
  • LA Parent features Oink among its “Cool Tools.”
  • OTP Banka Slovakia to deploy CRIF Credit Framework.
  • LendUp launches in Mississippi, the state with the highest percentage of unbanked and underbanked households in the U.S.
  • Rippleshot CEO Canh Tran to join Chicago-area startups at White House summit on entrepreneurialism. See Rippleshot demo at FinovateSpring in San Jose.
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.

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 5

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 5

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Below, we’ve brought you another set of companies that will show off their newest technology at FinovateSpring on April 29 and 30 in San Jose. The six companies featured below will demo their fintech solutions that target problems ranging from marketing to security.

In case you missed them, check out the following posts in our series, each featuring 6 companies:


EncapLogoFS14

Encap Security allows FIs to think outside the “authentication box,” providing the ideal solution for mobile and online banking, CNP transaction and call center authentication.

Features:
Encap Security’s in-app authentication solution:

    • increases security while improving customer experience
    • increases adoption, revenue while decreasing costs
    • satisfies regulatory requirements.

Why it’s great:
For the first time, you can forget that old trade-off between security and ease-of-use.  

Presenters:

Adam Dolby,VP of Business Development
Dolby serves as Encap Security’s VP of Business Development, with a focus on the Americas. He brings over 20 years of experience in the development and delivery of e-banking products.
LinkedIn

David Nayes, Director of Sales
Nayes has a deep understanding of strategies for combating payment and mobile banking fraud.
LinkedIn


InsuritasLogo

Insuritas is the nation’s leading SaaS banking solution delivering on the high demand for Web based services from financial institutions that converts online banking sites into sales engines.

Features:
    • SmartCART delivers shop, compare, buy, single check-out and post-sale online account creation
    • Sales revenue annuitizes at 82% YOY
    • Contains products consumers purchase and repurchase every year
Why it’s great: 
Transforms bank web eco-systems for 69 million online banking customers from service sites into ecommerce platforms that generate value added, annuitizing, non-cyclical fee income.  
Presenters:

Jeffrey Chesky, Founder, President & CEO 
Chesky pioneers the design, installation, and outsourced management of insurance agencies for financial institutions nationally.
Matt Chesky, SVP
Chesky joined Insuritas in 2012, oversaw design and deployment of Insuritas SmartCART Technology and SaaS platform; Graduated Yale ’12 with a degree in Economics.
LinkedIn

PellucidAnalyticsLogo

Pellucid Analytics fixes pitchbook creation. It is a tablet and browser product that lets you browse print-ready charts and drag them into a pitchbook.

Features: 

    • Leverage a large gallery charts formatted to firm-specific branding standards 
    • Quickly assemble charts into a pitchbook 
    • Focus on applying judgment to information and crafting a compelling message 

Why it’s great:
Pellucid compresses the time required to perform a broad range of pitchbook-related activities from days to seconds.

Presenters:

Adrian Crockett, CEO and Cofounder
Crockett has over 14 years of investment banking experience, heading groups at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank.
LinkedIn

Jamie Ballingall, Chief Scientist and Cofounder
Ballingall oversees delivery of the product and was formerly an investment banking quant and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.
LinkedIn


RadiusLogo2

Radius is the modern way to market to small businesses. Unlock your best SMB customer segments. Deploy targeted marketing campaigns and measure your success.

Features:

    • Gain insights on more than 27 million U.S. businesses
    • Discover your best customer segments and create look-alike lead lists
    • Deploy campaigns and measure success

Why it’s great:
Radius takes the guesswork out of lead generation. Identify your best market segments. Deploy amazing marketing campaigns. Learn. Repeat.  

Presenter:

Darian Shirazi, Founder & CEO
Shirazi was an early employee at Facebook and worked on the Sell Your Item team at eBay. He has founded, invested in, and advised many successful technology companies.
LinkedIn


TextPowerLogo

TextPower’s TextKey protects data, websites, and VPNs by having users send a simple text message which authenticates by verification of up to seven factors.

Features:

    • World’s first omni-factor authentication (checks every factor)
    • Virtually unhackable; authenticates via simple SMS
    • Affordable and easy to install for any size business

Why it’s great:
Simple, strong, secure protection for your data, website and company. TextKey’s patent-pending technology is virtually unhackable because users text the key from their cell phone.  

Presenter:

Scott Goldman, Co-founder/CEO
Technologist, successful entrepreneur, author, consultant, globally-recognized speaker, and “Wireless Wizard”. Mileage-mad cyclist. Favorite hobby: Making dark chocolate disappear.
LinkedIn


VenovateLogo

Venovate’s Marketplace is an online platform that makes investing in and fundraising for private securities faster and more efficient.

Features:

    • Verification of investors and fundraisers
    • Thorough due diligence on investment opportunities
    • Back office for efficient execution of transactions

Why it’s great:
Venovate is the smarter alternative for investing and fundraising.  

Presenters:

Michael Raneri Chairman & CEO
Raneri has over 20 years of experience in executive positions with four leading online brokerage firms. Uniquely qualified to lead the next generation of financial industry innovation.
LinkedIn

Thomas Foley, Co-founder
Foley has been successful at several startups and in investment banking. Recognized for outstanding entrepreneurship in BusinessWeek’s 30 Under 30.
LinkedIn


Be sure to check back on Thursday of this week, when we’ll post a sneak peek of another six companies.

Finovate Alumni News– April 8, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPYMNTS: Shopkeep POS undergoes latest revision and releases 2.0 version.
  • Jumio partners with Equifax to make mobile transactions more secure.
  • Leaf launches Payments Apps Marketplace.
  • Dallas Business Journal names defiSOLUTIONS CEO Stephanie Alsbrooks one of its 40 Under 40. See defiSOLUTIONS demo at FinovateSpring in San Jose.
  • Bloomberg column on apps for financial health features Level Money, Check, Mint, LearnVest, and Betterment.
  • Level Money earns spot on Entrepreneur.com’s “5 Must-Watch San Francisco Tech Startups in 2014”.
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.

Finovate Alumni News– April 7, 2014

  • Lighter Capital provides growth funding to 3 tech co’s in Colorado: Envisiontel, Influence Tech, & YogaDownload.
  • Dexterity Consulting gives sneak peek of its Give API v. 2.0.
  • Vietnam Eximbank deploying biometric fingerprint authentication from TSYS.
  • New partnership to bring ProfitStars’ remote deposits and bill pay capabilities to Online Banking Solutions’s Messenger Financial Center e-banking platform.
  • PYMNTS: Leaf Disrupts Acquirer Market.
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.

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 3

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This week’s sneak peek of FinovateSpring 2014 features everything from account opening to loan underwriting, and is just a small selection of items we’ll see in San Jose on April 29 and 30. Get your ticket here to satisfy your fintech hunger.

If you missed the two installments from last week, you can catch them here:


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CREALOGIX, the Swiss market leader for digital banking and e-learning platforms, presents its comprehensive digital banking suite with a seamlessly integrated e-learning management system.
Features:
    • Provides contextual compliance where needed
    • Supports client advisors and enhances quality of advice 
    • Enables effortless learning combined with rewards (gamification)
Why it’s great:
The CREALOGIX digital banking suite with integrated e-learning management system offers clear added value for both sides: banks and their clients.  
Presenters:
Geraldine Critchley, Head Product Marketing

Critchley is responsible for mastering the digital mindset of the next generation online banking and dealing with all inbound/outbound marketing activities concerning digital banking.
LinkedIn

Ivan Inderbitzin, Senior E-Learning Author
Inderbitzin writes innovative online staff trainings for financial, medical and other industries. He taught at universities in Australia and likes asking questions.
LinkedIn


D3 Banking is a single solution that delivers a LodoSoftwareD3Logo.jpg

comprehensive set of digital banking services to any digital device replacing disparate online and mobile point solutions.
Features:
    • Omnichannel – one solution for any digital channel
    • Innovative money movement – contextual user experience, least cost routing
    • Powerful customer data analytics for personalized marketing
Why it’s great:
D3 Banking is an omnichannel, data driven, digital solution that lowers cost, decreases complexity and personalizes the customer experience.  

Presenters:
Mark Vipond, CEO
Vipond has been in the FinTech industry for almost 30 years beginning his career as a systems engineer at IBM and most recently serving as president and COO of ACI Worldwide.
Kevin O’Kane, CPO
O’Kane has 25 years experience in the industry including serving as Director, Professional Services at Harland Financial Solutions.

EndeavourLogo

Endeavour and Zoot’s mobile account opening solution meets consumers’ evolving expectations and banks’ complex fraud and risk management requirements.

Features:

    • Beautiful mobile interface, intuitive customer experience
    • Secure, compliant, & robust ID verification & risk management
    • Business user web portal to manage any feature with no app-store redeployment
Why it’s great: 
Endeavour has partnered with Zoot to deliver the most sophisticated mobile account opening solution in the industry.  
Presenters:
Steven Staley
Staley is a Consulting Executive, Entrepreneur, and Business Owner with 10+ years in the banking Industry. He oversees Endeavour’s Banking Practice and Global Strategic Alliances while smiling daily.
Tom Johnson, VP of Strategic Alliances at Zoot 
With over 30 years of experience in technology, Johnson is Zoot’s “Chief Idea Guy”; responsible for developing new partnerships and solutions concepts.
LinkedIn

JumioLogo.jpg

Jumio is a next-generation payments and ID software-as-a-service company that utilizes proprietary computer vision technology to reduce mobile payment friction and ID fraud.

Features:
    • Turns customer’s mobile device into an ID scanner
    • Personal data is populated into forms in seconds
    • Increases your sign-up and shopping cart completion rates  
Presenters:
Michael Orlando, Chief Sales Officer
Orlando heads up Jumio’s worldwide sales and business development efforts and brings over 20 years of high-growth company experience to this role.
Anthony Lanham, Senior Vice President, Sales
Lanham started his career with Dun and Bradstreet. He spent 10 years at D&B companies in several sales and sales management roles. In 2001 while at D&B RMS he pioneered the idea of outsourced credit.

VisibleEquitySmall

Visible Equity provides innovative and easy-to-use software that helps financial institutions analyze the risks and opportunities in their lending data.

Features:
    • Uses advanced modeling to estimate race/gender
    • Calculates expected pricing, denial rates, etc. using multiple variables 
    • Provides easy to interpret indicators of likeliness of disparate impact 
Why it’s great:
It’s unlikely a financial institution ever knowingly discriminates, but now proving you are treating all borrowers fairly can be as simple as clicking a button.  

Presenters:
Matthew Court, VP of Sales & Marketing 
Court oversees all sales, marketing, and corporate communications.
David Gilbert, COO 
Gilbert is at the forefront of marketing, business development, and new product research.
LinkedIn


Stay tuned later this week when we’ll feature six more companies.

Finovate Alumni News– April 1, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgNBC Chicago hosts Bolstr to discuss crowdfunding and SMB growth.
  • Actiance’s Socialite gets new features for better UX on native websites & more integrations w/ CRM platforms.
  • FIS’ licensing agreement to make the Visa EMV debit solution available to all NYCE debit network participants.
  • Truphone is offering unlimited voice and SMS recording through June.
  • Misys launches new Regulatory Reporting Service to help managers and banks meet EMIR regulations.
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.

ID Analytics Launches ID Score 9.0, Partners with ThreatMetrix and Others

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Today, San Diego-based ID Analytics launched the newest version of its flagship fraud detection platform, ID Score.

This newest release improves the effectiveness of the company’s existing identity fraud detection by:

    • Providing more insight into consumer behavior
    • Uncovering the risk level of the user’s device
    • Finding associations between device usage and fraudulent occurrences

As a part of this effort, it has partnered with device authentication and intelligence providers, including ThreatMetrix, to incorporate their risk assessments into the consumer’s ID score itself.

The end result, ID Score 9.0, is a fraud assessment that is composed of both identity and fraud risk.

ID Analytics demonstrated My ID Alerts at FinovateSpring 2011 and ThreatMetrix debuted its Fraud Prevention 2.0 at FinovateStartup 2009.

Finovate Alumni News– March 27, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTSYS partners with Virgin Money to provide consumer credit processing services for UK customers.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions appoints Darin McAreavey as EVP and CFO.
  • Prosper to cross the $1 billion mark in personal loans originated through its platform next week, hosts giveaway.
  • Tech Zulu interviews Trustev after the company’s win at SXSW Accelerator.
  • Jumio to help form Identity Security Network with eight leading Bitcoin exchanges.
  • InComm’s corporate B2B store enables retailers to streamline management of corporate gift card sales.
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.

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 1

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The northern hemisphere’s first day of spring last week can mean only one thing: FinovateSpring 2014 is just around the corner. To help you prepare for the upcoming onslaught of innovation, we’ll be dishing up bite-sized pieces of some of the companies you’ll see in San Jose on April 29 and 30.

In this first installment, we showcase ChiaraMail, Dealstruck, Digital Insight, ID.me, LendingRobot, and Verde International:


ChiaraMailLogo

ChiaraMail offers the first technology to protect your customers from becoming victims of e-mail address spoofing, while providing them unprecedented e-mail privacy without the use of encryption.

Features:
    • Eliminates spoofing and the resulting identity theft.
    • Ensures in-transit privacy.
    • Adds critical functionality such as changing e-mails after sending, and improved mail network efficiency.
Why it’s great:
ChiaraMail technology assures your customers that a message that claims to be from you is actually from you.  
ChiaraMailRobert.jpg

Robert Uomini, CEO/President
Uomini is founder of ChiaraMail and inventor/developer of the patented technology behind ChiaraMail. He has been developing disruptive technologies for many years.
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David Head, Chief Marketing Officer
Head is a senior marketing and sales executive with more than 20 years of experience in enterprise and start-up companies bringing game-changing technologies to market.


DealstruckLogo

Dealstruck is a web-based peer-to-peer lending company that offers a suite of financing products to small business borrowers designed to progressively graduate them toward conventional financing.

Features:

    • Real-time access to borrowers and deals
    • Ability to manipulate data from Dealstruck loan packaging to augment underwriting/yield
    • Opportunity to participate alongside others or take down full loans
Why its great:
Dealstruck provides the most complete suite of financing options for business borrowers and investment opportunities for lenders.  

DealstruckSenturia.jpg

Ethan Senturia, co-founder and CEO
Senturia is Wharton Business School graduate who previously ran Internet marketing for a lead generation startup, Ampush Media, and in distressed credit at Lehman Brothers.

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Russell McLoughlin
McLoughlin, co-founder and CTO, is a B.S./M.S. who has worked at the Biodefense Knowledge Center at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and at Google Machine Translation and Apple.

DigitalInsightLogo

Digital Insight’s Promotion Suite for mobile reaches the right customers on their mobile device with the right offers at the moment of truth.

Features:

    • Brings personalized, relevant cross-sell offers from financial institutions to their customers.
    • Engages consumers in their moment of need anywhere, anytime and on any device.
Why it’s great:
Provides personalized engagements and enhanced communications to connect financial institutions with their customers like never before. 

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Karishma Anand
Anand is the director of product management for Digital Insight. She is responsible for driving product strategy, execution for digital banking and payments solutions.
LinkedIn

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Marshall Yuan 
Yuan is a senior product manager at Digital Insight. In this role, he oversees the strategy and go-to-market plan for Android banking applications.
LinkedIn


IDmeLogo

ID.me verifies attributes of a consumer’s identity and ties them to a payment medium

Features:

    • CRM, Offers, Loyalty and Authentication via a payment medium
    • Elimination of physical credentials needed at checkout
    • Fraud prevention for high-value transactions via authentication
Why it’s great:
User-centric digital identity, attribute verification and a mobile device enables the holy grail of marketing: personalization  

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Blake Hall 
Hall is a former Army Ranger and Harvard Business School graduate. Thanks to The Economist, he is the first Google result for “muscly entrepreneur.”

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Matthew Thompson
Thompson is a former Army Ranger and a decorated combat veteran. He co-founded ID.me while attending Harvard Business School.
LinkedIn


LendingRobotLogo

LendingRobot automates loan selection and investment in Peer Lending.

Features:
    • Fully automates investment in LendingClub and Prosper
    • Submits orders within one second after new loans appear
    • Automated definition of investment strategies
Why it’s great:
LendingRobot makes investing in Peer Lending simple and efficient, and allows individuals to compete with institutional investors.  

LendingRobotGilad.jpg

Gilad Golan, CEO 
Golan shipped almost every product he ever built (and he built a lot of them).
LinkedIn

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Emmanuel Marot, President
Marot uniquely mixes backgrounds in both user experience design and quantitative finance.


VerdeInternationalLogo

Verde International’s Verde Aurora is a next-gen automated loan-underwriting optimization engine satisfying customers, shareholders, regulators, dealers, and other stakeholders, instantly.

Features:
    • The best possible decisions and counteroffers, delivered in seconds
    • Loss models that outperform industry leading models by fourfold
    • Scalable deployment that any financial institution can afford
Why it’s great:
Verde Aurora obsoletes today’s decision systems by integrating behavioral models, DCF analysis and MPP-driven optimization for perfect instant offers, pleasing customers and shareholders alike. 
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Patrick Reily, CEO and Co-Founder Verde International
Reily’s multidisciplinary approach to strategic planning and business development is the result of 25 years of experience in banking and financial services. 
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Robert Hughes, CEO of Finance and Thrift Co.
Bob has over 30 years of experience as the President/CEO of federally insured financial institutions.

Stay tuned for a sneak peek of another six companies later this week.