Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

DoughMain Launches Financial Education Game Sand Dollar City

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: DoughMain

DoughMainLogo11.11.jpgFinancial education company DoughMain announced the beta of Sand Dollar City, a multi-player virtual world where pre-teens (age 8 to 12) can learn about finance through game play:

“Players learn fundamentals of earning, saving, budgeting, spending, smart shopping, credit, and more as they attempt to upgrade their business and balance their purchases between the luxury clothing and furniture they want and the equipment they need to succeed.”

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To learn more about what DoughMain has to offer, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Bill.com’s Paperless Bill Management Wins Silver Award

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bill.com

Thumbnail image for bill.comlogo.jpgYesterday, bill payment startup Bill.com announced that its paperless bill management innovation was named by the Best in Biz Awards as a silver award winner in the Small or Medium Business Product of the Year category:

“Simple to use, but extremely powerful, Bill.com’s product offering was selected as a Best in Biz frontrunner due to its keen ability to help SMBs 

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streamline their tedious bill pay and receivables processes”

The award winners are selected by industry analysts and members of the press to recognize leading products from small and medium-sized businesses from companies of all industries. To learn more about the awards, click here.
To learn more about Bill.com, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 10, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bill.com, Clovr Media, DoughMain, Dwolla, FeeFighters, Lending Club, Lendio, Linkable Networks, Monitise, Offermatic, On Deck Capital, Simple, Striata, ThreatMetrix, Tyfone

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  • FeeFighters shares its web traffic spikes from being in TechCrunch articles.
  • Monitise launches mobile checkout service.
  • Fox Business News mentions how Tyfone is helping to retrofit cellphones with NFC capability.
  • Reuters reports how Lending Club uses consumer sentiment towards banks as an opportunity.
  • Striata selected by Securitas, a growing security company in South Africa, to provide eBilling & ePayment to customers.
  • ThreatMetrix deploys multi-layered data encryption architecture in new release of Cloud-Based Fraud Prevention Platform.
  • Iowa-based UNI CU and W.Va-based WV United FCU sign on for Dwolla’s FiSync.
  • MyBankTracker compares Offermatic to Groupon and Womply.
  • Linkable Networks (formerly Clovr Media) partners with 24/7 Real Media to tap into card linked offers.
  • Wade Arnold, T8 Webware CEO, is selected for The Courier’s Class of 2011 20 Under 40 award.
  • Bill.com’s paperless bill management wins silver award.
  • Simple explains its new “Simple” name.
  • DoughMain launches financial education game Sand Dollar City.
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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Expensify Creates Four Pricing Plans

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Expensify

Thumbnail image for Expensify.jpgExpensify, the expense reporting system that “doesn’t suck,” now supports 650,000 users across 90,000 organizations. 

To accomodate their different needs, the company is now offering four service tiers: 

  • Personal: For individuals who want to test out the app. Up to 10 free scans per month.
  • Professional: Intended for power users and contractors. Includes Freshbooks syncing capability and the ability to exceed 10 scans per month by purchasing them for 20 cents each.
  • Team: Provides the abilities to create and share expense policies and sync expenses with Quickbooks. This subscription costs $5 per submitter per month and 20 cents for extra scans.
  • Corporate: Adds a level of administrative control over employee accounts, enhances expense policies with customizable rules, and provides the ability to reimburse employees via direct deposit. This subscription costs $10 per submitter per month and 20 cents for extra scans.
Receipt scanning will be free until the end of the year.
To learn more about Expensify, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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Billeo Launches ShopSmart To Bring Consumers Relevant Discounts

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Billeo

Thumbnail image for BilleoLogo29.9.11.jpgBilleo, the registration and checkout assistant with 1.5 million users, launched a new app earlier today. This free app, called ShopSmart, brings consumers relevant discounts from over 1500 merchants and instantly alerts users of deals available from their loyalty or rewards programs. 

For financial institutions:

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“The app gives Billeo’s network of financial institution and program provider partners the ability reach, engage and incentivize iPad users during the holiday shopping season.”

In addition to alerting users of their rewards, it also serves as a platform to help them organize their daily deals and share them on Facebook.

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

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Finovate Alumni News– November 9, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Billeo, Dwolla, eWise, Expensify, GoalMine, Intuit, Lendio, MiiCard, PayPal, Simple, Xero, Zecco

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  • Read Write Web argues the mobile payments capital of the US is Des Moines, IA thanks to Dwolla.
  • Fox Business News reports GoalMine seeks to level the investing field.
  • PayPal updates its Android app with support for NFC payments.
  • eWise hires Alexandre Gonthier, former Boku CTO, as new CEO.
  • Lendio makes its business loan matching service free.
  • Finextra reports Intuit partners with AT&T to take on Square in the emerging mobile card processing market.
  • Xero updates its app: increases speed and improves UI.
  • Business Insider lists Dwolla and Simple as 2 of 20 most innovative startups in tech.
  • Billeo launches ShopSmart to bring consumers relevant discounts.
  • Zecco hosts $500 sweepstakes.
  • miiCard gives first 10,000 users free accounts for life.
  • Netbanker: Top 10 Reasons Why BankSimple Dropped the Bank.
  • Expensify creates four pricing plans.
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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eToro Launches iOS Mobile App for On-The-Go Trading

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: eToro

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eToro announced a non-native mobile app to trade currencies, commodities, and indices on their mobile devices: 

“The Mobile Trading application is based on HTML5 that runs the eToro OpenBook™ social trading platform and its award winning CopyTrader™ functionality and supports IOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod) and all Android mobile devices including tablets. eToro also provides a native Mobile Trader application for Android™ which was launched September of last year.”

Javier Paz, Senior Analyst at the Aite Group notes that the new app makes it easier for users to check their account performance, search for people to follow, and find a user to copy.

To learn more about eToro’s trading platform, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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BankSimple Launches to the Public, Changes its Name to Simple

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Simple

SimpleLogo.jpgThis morning, BankSimple made two big announcements.

1) It opened its service to a select group of non-employee customers for the first time:

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“We want to understand what works for them and what can be improved. We also want to learn how our customers prefer to reach us so that we can intelligently grow our customer relations team. Using this feedback, we’ll rework and revise; the experience we’re launching today will continuously evolve.”
2) It changed its name to Simple
(Simple.com). This is a logical move because the word “bank” was a misnomer. In fact, Simple is not a bank, but a consumer-facing product that partners with chartered banks that hold your money in FDIC-insured products:
“Simple is a better representation of what we aspire to. It releases us from the constraints of an industry in desperate need of innovation.”

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To learn more about Simple, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 8, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase, BillGuard, Budgettracker, Credit Karma, eToro, Geezeo, Ixaris, Kony Solutions, SecureKey, Wesabe
  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgNetbanker: Credit Karma Launches “Hands Free” Account Aggregation.
  • Kony and CIBC deliver new mobile brokerage application.
  • Ixaris to introduce the Opn Payment Partner.
  • Backbase & Forrester Research to host free webinar Nov 9: ‘Banks Need to Become SUPER.’
  • Everything PR lists BillGuard in the Money category of 2011′s Top 100 Best Startups for PRs.
  • eToro launches mobile HTML 5 App for social trading on the go.
  • SecureKey Technologies Inc. to power the Government of Canada’s new online authentication service.
  • Malta Independent Online looks at Wesabe, Geezeo, and Budgettracker as key online money management tools.
  • BankSimple launches to the public, changes its name to Simple.
  • eToro launches iOS mobile app for on-the-go trading.
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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Balance Financial Launches Professional Platform

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Balance

Thumbnail image for BalanceFinancial.pngBalance Financial announced today that its Balance Professional platform has launched out of beta and is now available to any financial, accounting or tax advisor. 

“Balance Professional gives financial professionals a free client portal to start that allows them to collaborate with their clients over shared files and documents as well as a client’s financial accounts. The Balance platform allows clients to connect their financial accounts and use the integrated budgeting, expense tracking and reporting tools.”

The screenshot below shows the PFM platform for advisor clients.

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To learn more about Balance Profesional, watch the demo from FinovateFall 2011.

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peerTransfer Partners With 30 New Universities

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: peerTransfer

Peertransferlogo.jpgLast week, peerTransfer announced that during the third quarter of 2011 it signed up more than 30 new universities:

“Schools such as Oberlin College, Georgia State University, Western Kentucky University, Mount Holyoke College, University of San Diego and Stevens Institute of Technology join peerTransfer’s now 50 plus partner schools.”

The startup allows international students to finance tuition in their own currency helping them save on currency exchange fees.

To learn more about peerTransfer, watch its demo from FinovateSpring 2011.

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Finovate Alumni News– November 7, 2011

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Balance, Betterment, Bill.com, BillGuard, Dwolla, Expensify, FTRANS, peerTransfer, Prosper, Wikinvest, Yodlee

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  • BillGuard CEO, Yaron Samid, shares lessons learned as a startup entrepreneur.
  • Expensify listed as 1 of 7 software makers to bring integrated, cheaper add-ons to Google Apps.
  • The Globe and Mail lists Wikinvest as a tool to help ordinary investors dig through the data.
  • Investors.com explains the benefits of using Yodlee to track your finances.
  • Fast Company examines Betterment and BillGuard’s  #occupywallstreet event.
  • Dwolla alters its registration process into a more pleasant experience.
  • VentureBeat explains how Prosper is helping to support the #occupywallstreet protesters.
  • peerTransfer partners with 30 new universities.
  • Bill.com receives “Awesome Add-On” award.
  • Social Lending Network provides details on Prosper’s recent round of funding.
  • Balance Financial launches professional 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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