Finovate Alumni News– January 4, 2012

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  • Forbes recommends Budgetpulse, Mint.com, Buxfer, and Yodlee as PFMs to help keep track of your money.
  • Fox News advocates ReadyForZero to help pay down debt.
  • Prosper launches Kindle Fire sweepstakes.
  • Fast Company breaks down how ReadyForZero works.
  • Tamebay shares how miiCard is helping to increase trust online.
  • P2P Lending News reports that Prosper and Lending Club facilitated $40 million in loans in December.
  • Expensify gives users 10 free scans per month.
  • Geezeo signs 5 credit unions during the last week of 2011.
  • Cortal Consors announces new version and expansion of Hopee.
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.

Lending Club Removes Service Fee on Large Loans

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Last week Lending Club announced that, for a limited time, it will forgo the 1% lender service fee on loans in excess of $20,000 for the entire life of the loan. 

P2P Lending News reports:

“Lending Club is likely dropping its service fee on a test basis to increase investor demand in larger notes. Because borrowers with larger loan sizes have much larger payments, investors tend to see them as riskier investment options.”

Lending Club has not yet disclosed how long the fee waiver will last.

To learn more about Lending Club, watch its FinovateStartup09 demo.

The Receivables Exchange Announces Strategic Alliance with Insperity Investment

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Last week, The Receivables Exchange announced a strategic alliance with Insperity Investment, a human resources and business performance solutions company.

“This venture will enable The Receivables Exchange’s working capital solution to be offered to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, including more than 100,000 businesses supported by Insperity.”

In addition, Insperity invested capital in The Receivables Exchange. The amount of capital and terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

To learn more about the Receivables Exchange, watch its FinovateFall 2010 demo.

Credit Karma Launches Free Credit Monitoring Service

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Today, Credit Karma launched a free credit monitoring service for all U.S. consumers. The service will monitor a consumer’s credit file on a daily basis and notify them of significant changes.

Here’s how it works:

    • The consumer visits CreditKarma.com and begins the free, two-minute registration process.
    • Every day, Credit Karma monitors the consumer’s credit report.
    • After a new credit inquiry, missed payment, or improved payment status hits the consumer’s credit file, Credit Karma alerts the consumer via email.

Credit Karma is the first company to provide this service for free and existing Credit Karma members need only to opt-in to take advantage of the service.

To learn more about Credit Karma, watch its FinovateStartup09 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– January 3, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgRobotDough leaves GoDaddy due to SOPA support conflict.
  • Philly.com describes the Jemstep signup process.
  • Providence Business News reports Andera moves to a new office building.
  • eToro blog launches new column dedicated to analyzing the weekly activity on eToro OpenBook.
  • Forbes looks at Dwolla’s payment revolution.
  • Ping Identity announces PingFederate is now available as an Amazon Machine Image on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
  • Credit Karma launches free credit monitoring service.
  • The Receivables Exchange announces strategic alliance with Insperity Investment.
  • Lending Club removes service fee on large loans.
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.

CBS Early Show Features Weemba, Lighter Capital, and Rebirth Financial

Last week, The Early Show on CBS featured three Finovate alumni (see video below). The newscast describes how Weemba, Lighter Capital, and Rebirth Financial are all working to find funding for small businesses.  

All three startups use different approaches to provide small businesses with funding when banks fail to come through:

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Weemba

Approach: Serves as a matchmaker for borrowers and lenders
Average loan amount: $27,500
FinovateFall 2011 demo

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Lighter Capital
Approach: Lends money based on business earnings
Average loan amount: $150,000

FinovateFall 2011 demo

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Rebirth Financial
Approach: Matches borrowers with lenders based on a desired loan amount and interest rate 
Average loan amount: $80,000

FinovateFall 2011 demo

Source: CBS News http://bit.ly/t2inQG

Finovate Alumni News– January 2, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgMaine Public Broadcasting Network profiles CashStar.
  • Bank Technology News describes how Bill.com uses capital infusion to build a cash flow dashboard for businesses.
  • SecondMarket’s homepage gets a makeover.
  • The CBS Early Show features Weemba, Lighter Capital, and Rebirth Financial.
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.

2011 Funding for Finovate Alumni– Over $423 Million Raised

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTo wrap up 2011, we’ve compiled a list of all of the funding Finovate alumni received over the course of the year. 

The results were impressive:
  • A total of 34 companies received funding, some more than once
  • The companies collectively raised over $423 million dollars
  • The months with the highest number of companies receiving funding were June August, both with 8 companies
  • The highest amount of funding came in the month of June, when the alumni brought in over $124.4 million
Here is a month-by-month breakdown of funding received:
January — $40.8 million raised by 3 companies
February — $10.3+ million raised by 3 companies
March — $20.4 million raised by 4 companies
June — $124.4 million raised by 8 companies
July — $1.1 million raised by 1 company
August — $103.4 million raised by 8 companies
September — $33 million raised by 1 company
October– $22 million raised by 2 companies
November — $16.3+ million raised by 3 companies
December — $52.2 million raised by 5 companies
Note: Funding that companies received before they demonstrated at Finovate was not counted. If you see any funding that is not on this list, please send the name of the company along with a link to the funding information to julie@netbanker.com and I will add it.

IP Commerce’s Solution Used in Billing Service Group’s New Web Checkout Platform

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Yesterday, Colorado-based IP Commerce announced an alliance with Billing Services Group, a payment solution company whose OrderBridge payment gateway will use IP Commerce’s Payments as a Platform Service to power a program called Secure Hosted Payments for Web Checkout:

“This valuable solution for quick, branded and secure online payments provides instant access to multiple payment services, payment providers, value-added capabilities, and customizable payment options. Secure Hosted Payments (SHP) for Web Checkout, protects customer credit card information, drastically reducing PCI Compliance scope and expediting future development requirements.”

Billing Services Group chose IP Commerce for the Secure Hosted Payments for Web Checkout because its open platform approach is solid, tested, and scaleable.

To learn more about IP Commerce, watch its FinovateStartup 2008 demo.

Capital Access Network Helps Banks Give Small Businesses Alternative Funding

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Last month, Capital Access Network (CAN) revealed two new services that help banks find alternative funding for small to medium sized businesses who don’t qualify for traditional loans. Its Different Look and Pre-Look programs were developed to fill the gap between the increasing number of loan requests and the bank’s lacking ability to meet those requests with traditional loans.

Here’s how they work:

Different Look

After a small business’ loan application is denied, this reactive approach uses non-traditional underwriting methods that leverage CAN’s Daily Remittance Platform to find alternative funding products.

Pre-Look

Based on a client’s profile information, CAN uses its behavioral modeling, a consideration of 90 different variables, to determine who will need capital over the next 12-18 months. This proactive approach also leverages the Daily Remittance Platform, but allows the bank to offer the applicant alternative funding even before they apply for a loan.

Quick facts:

  • 5 days: The amount of time it takes for new applicants to receive funding. Renewal customers can get funding in the same day they apply.
  • $30,000: The average amount of funding provided.
  • 75%: The percentage of businesses that are willing to renew funding

To learn more about Capital Access Network, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– December 22, 2011

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  • Best Buy Canada & Future Shop are the 1st major retailers in Canada to offer eGift Cards via CashStar.
  • The Street interviews Zecco CEO, Michael Raneri.
  • Fox News interviews Dwolla CEO Ben Milne about the startup’s business model.
  • PayPal partners with Fandango to allow users to purchase movie tickets using PayPal.
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.

HelloWallet Gives Away 20,000 Free Subscriptions in 2011 to Families In Need

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Subscription-based PFM, HelloWalletannounced  yesterday that it donated 20,000 free subscriptions to its PFM service in 2011:

“As part of their charitable mission to give away 1 free subscription for every 5 sold, online financial guidance company HelloWallet announced today that they have donated 20,000 free subscriptions to community organizations that serve families in need across the country in 2011…”

The goal of the donations is to provide families in need with a tool to better plan their finances. Based on the deals it recently signed, the startup estimates that it will give away 40,000 free subscriptions in 2012.

To learn more about HelloWallet, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.