Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Balance Financial Updates iPhone App

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

BalanceFinancial.pngYesterday, Balance Financial unveiled a new iPhone app update that’s available to those currently using Balance’s services:

“Their new iPhone app compliments basic web access to Balance and includes a dashboard of activity, ability to contact your bookkeeper, alerts, payment history and photo bill pay.”

Devin Miller, CEO, says the most popular feature of the app is the photo bill pay, which comes in handy when clients receive one-time bills that occur outside of monthly payments:

“The bill will be sent to the users Balance account for processing and the assigned Personal Bookkeeper will ensure the bill is properly reviewed and processed. Balance software has an integrated image processing component that examines each bill image and automatically files and reviews the bills before payment.”
The app is now available in the Apple App Store for 99 cents.
For more information on Balance Financial, come see its live demo at FinovateFall later this month and watch its demo from FinovateSpring.

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Five Finovate Alumni Listed in Inc. 1000

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BancVue, Billeo, Braintree, Lendio, Q2ebanking
Last week, Inc. Magazine released its list of the 5000 fastest-growing, private U.S. companies. Five* Finovate alumni made the list, all in the top 1000. Three made the top 500 and one was in the top 50. 

BraintreeLogo.jpgBraintree

Rank: 47
Description: Assists businesses in processing payments by providing a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing service, and helping with PCI compliance. 
3-year revenue growth: 40x
2010 revenue: $4.6 million
2007 revenue: $100,000
Employees: 27
Employee growth: 25
Founded: 2007

LendioLogo8.31.11.png

Rank: 309 
Description: Helps business owners find capital by matching them with banks, lenders, or other funding sources.
3-year revenue growth: 11x
2010 revenue: $8.6 million
2007 revenue: $740,000
Employees: 45
Employee growth: 24
Founded: 2005

Thumbnail image for q2ebanking.jpg

Rank: 377
Description: Offers secure online banking, payment, and security solutions. 
3-year growth: 10x
2010 revenue: $18.5 million
2007 revenue: $1.8 million
Employees: 118
Employee growth: 73
Founded: 2004

BancVueLogo8.31.11.png

Rank: 597
Description: Consults with community banks and credit unions to offer them innovative products and marketing. 
3-year growth: 6.4x
2010 revenue: $57.1 million
2007 revenue: $8.9 million
Employees: 305
Employee growth: 193
Founded: 2005

BilleoLogo29.9.11.jpg

Rank: 760
Description: Provides a secure and easy method of populating payments and checkout forms.
3-year growth: 5.2x
2010 revenue: $3.1 million
2007 revenue: $580,000
Employees: 15
Employee growth: 3
Founded: 2006
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*Methodology: 
“Companies are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2007 through 2010. To qualify, companies must have been founded by, and be generating revenue by, March 31, 2007. Additionally, they had to be based in the United States, privately held, for profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2010. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.)
The minimum revenue required for 2007 is $100,000; the minimum for 2010 is $2 million. Revenue figures given in the company profiles are for calendar years, as are employee counts. Full-time and part-time employees are included in the employee counts; independent contractors are not.”

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Cardlytics Signs Alliance with Groupe Aeroplan, Receives $33 Million

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

Cardlytics.jpgCardlytics, a consumer advertising startup which delivers targeted promotions within bank and credit card statements, announced a major strategic investment today:

“It has signed a long-term global strategic alliance with Groupe Aeroplan, a global leader in loyalty management. As part of the alliance, Groupe Aeroplan and existing investors are injecting an additional $33 million in capital to fund U.S. and International growth.”

Groupe Aeroplan is a loyalty management company that has a wide international presence and is hoping the alliance with Cardlytics will facilitate its expansion into the United States.

To learn more about Cardlytics, come see its live demo at FinovateFall later this month or watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.

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Consumers Earn Points with Cartera Commerce’s Card-Linked Offers

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cartera Commerce

CarteraCommerce.jpgNew England-based Cartera Commerce was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D. The article depicts how Cartera is using card-linked offers and working with advertisers and companies such as Wells Fargo, American Airlines, Best Buy, and Barclayard that have close access to consumers through advertisements.

“Cartera is able to collect information at the aggregate level to find out about spending habits. Advertisers can selectively make offers to consumers who shop at their competitors, but not current customers who already visit regularly. That helps retailers acquire new customers and not just give discounts to already loyal patrons.”

Last month it announced a partnership with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) that will enable customers to earn points when purchasing everyday items at merchants who participate in Cartera’s card-linked advertising network.

“If users link a credit card to IHG’s loyalty program and make purchases at participating retailers with that card, they will earn points that can be redeemed at such InterContinental Hotel brands as Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo and Crowne Plaza.”
It currently has 60,000 merchant retail locations and 800 online locations where consumers can shop to earn points and has processed $1 billion in transactions on its platform.
To learn more about Cartera’s progress in the card-linked offers industry, come see its live demo at FinovateFall in New York this month. Get your ticket here.

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Dwolla Releases Developers Tools

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

DwollaLogo.jpgEarlier this week, Dwolla rolled out two payment tools for developers, the Facilitator and an off-site gateway:


  1. Facilitator: “Enables developers to set up a piece of software that incorporates Dwolla and keep a part of the transaction for themselves.”
  2. Off-site gateway: “Allows an online business to tie into the Dwolla API in a fashion similar to the PayPal Express Checkout flow. During the checkout process, a customer jumps to Dwolla’s website, finalizes an order, and then moves back to the merchant site, where all of the order information is neatly tied up.”

To learn more about Dwolla’s payment platform, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo. 

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Fiserv Introduces Mobiliti Payments Suite

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

FiservLogo9.1.11.pngOn Tuesday, Wisconsin-based Fiserv introduced Mobiliti, a mobile banking, alerting, and payments suite. This new platform supports a wide array of mobile banking functionality that includes remote deposit capture, bill payment, balance inquiry, and more.  

“Mobiliti unites the functionality of Mobile Money from Fiserv and BankAnywhere from the recently acquired M-Com within a single product suite, and will replace both of those product brands. Mobiliti is available in multiple distinct versions tailored for use by financial institutions of varying sizes within both the United States and international markets.”

Considering the current environment, the release of this product is well-planned:

“Of nearly 2,000 clients polled during the Fiserv Focus client conference in April 2011, more than 74% indicated that they planned to increase their investments in mobile financial services during the next 12 months.”

To learn more about Fiserv, watch its FinovateFall 2010 demo. 

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Outright’s Map Functionality Allows Users to View Sales by State

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

Outrightlogo9.1.11.png

Online accounting software startup, Outright, recently improved the way users can visualize sales. 
“At a glance, you can determine which states are sending you the most orders.  You can click on the individual state to see exactly how many sales you made during that time period.  Just go to the Reports tab and click on ‘Sales by State.’  You can click on the ‘Table’ link in the upper right to see the same information in a table format.”

OutrightMap.jpg

 To learn more about Outright, watch its FinovateFall 2010 demo.

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US Bank Implements eWise’s Secure Vault Payments for Online Tuition Payments

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

ewiselogo9.1.11.png

Yesterday, US Bank announced that it implemented eWise‘s Secure Vault Payments platform as a payment option for students at the University of Wisconsin-Stout who hold an account at US Bank or other Secure Vault Payment-enabled FI.
“With Secure Vault Payments, students or their parents initiate payments on a college or university web site and are automatically redirected to their own financial institution’s online banking platform to select which account they wish to use for payment. They are then returned to the school’s site, where they receive payment confirmation. Financial institutions authenticate the payer and immediately withdraw funds from the payer’s account and transfer funds to the school’s account the next business day.”
The school has received positive feedback so far and is expecting the new payment platform to mitigate tuition payment-processing costs.
To see an example of this payment platform, watch eWise’s FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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miiCard Closes First Round of Funding with $900,000

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

Thumbnail image for miiCard.jpg

Edinburgh-based miiCard, a company seeking to create a way for users to prove their identity online using an Internet identity card, closed its first round of funding today.
“The funding raised a total of over £550,000 ($900,000) from VC, angel and public sector sources. Investment has been secured from angel syndicate Par Equity, venture capital group IQ Capital and the Scottish Investment Bank’s Scottish Seed Fund.”
miiCard will demo its internet identity card at FinovateFall and is expected to launch in time for the 2011 Christmas season. 
Get your ticket here to come see miiCard’s live demo at FinovateFall this September 20-21st.

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PayNearMe Announces Utility Bill Pay with Cash in Fairfield, CA

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

PayNearMeLogo8.30.11.pngCalifornia-based PayNearMe announced today that it has partnered with InfoSend, the billing-service provider for Fairfield, California, to allow residents to pay their utility bills using cash at 7-Eleven stores.

“InfoSend is able to print a unique barcode directly onto each City of Fairfield utility bill. Upon receipt of the bill, customers can go to any local 7-Eleven where their bar code is scanned at the register. They complete the transaction by paying in cash in a process that takes less than 60 seconds. The funds immediately post to customers’ accounts, and they receive detailed receipts for proof of payment.”

To learn more about PayNearMe, come see its live demo at FinovateFall in New York this September 20-21. Get your ticket here. And, to see an example of its cash-based utility payment service, watch PayNearMe’s Best Of Show demo from FinovateSpring 2011.


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AcceptEmail Launches an SMS Invoicing Service

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

AcceptEmailLogo8.29.11.jpg

Email billing and payment solution, AcceptEmail, recently launched a text message-based invoicing service. With this new service, users can send payment requests to clients directly to their mobile phones. 
“The new feature to the existing service allows senders to simply convert an AcceptEmail into an AcceptSMS. A short URL sends the recipient via mobile internet to the secured AcceptEmail transaction page. From this landing page the payment can be done, choosing one of the many available payment methods. The outstanding amount is safely paid via credit card, debit card or online banking and soon also via mobile banking.”
AcceptEmail hopes this new way to pay will improve customer payment behavior through its user-friendly experience and, ultimately, reduce the number of outstanding bill collections.
To learn more about AcceptEmail, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo. 

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Finovate Alumni Website Traffic in July

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Adobe, Andera, BancVue, Betterment, Bill.com, Billeo, BillFloat, Bills.com, BillShrink, Blippy, Boku, BrightScope, Bundle, Cardlytics, CashEdge, ChargeSmart, Check Point, Cortera, Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Credit.com, DebtGoal, Discover, eRollover, eToro, Expensify, Experian, FIS, Fiserv, Infosys, Intuit, Jack Henry, Kapitall, Kasasa, Leadfusion, Lending Club, Lendio, Metavante, Mint.com, MoneyAisle, MyBankTracker, Online Resources, Outright.com, PayPal, Prosper, S1, Seeking Alpha, Simple Tuition, smartcredit.com, SmartyPig, Standard Chartered Bank, Sybase 365, TransUnion Interactive, TrustedID, Wesabe, Wikinvest, wipro, Yodlee, Zecco
Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of Finovate alums using data from Web-analytics company Compete. 
Out of 255 alumni, 59 (23%) had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in July 2011 (see tables below). Of those, 19 (32%) had more visitors than in the previous month and 25 (42%) were flat. Year-over-year, 26 (44%) had an increase, 10 (17%) were flat, and 23 (39%) were down. 

Private Companies
Notable successes:
  • Seeking Alpha had the most traffic in July with more than 2 million unique visitors.
  • eToro saw the highest monthly growth percentage with 3 times the number of unique visitors in July compared to June.
  • Bundle had the highest increase in number of unique month-over-month visits, with 450,000 more visitors in July than in June.
  • eRollover had the highest percent year-over-year traffic increase, with 260,000 more visitors from last July. 
JulyWebTrafficPrivate6.jpg
Source: Compete.com retrieved week of August 15, 2011
1. The previous month recorded was May 2011
2. Sears Credit Score is powered by CreditKarma.com
3. Kasasa is powered by BancVue
Public Companies
Notable successes:
  • PayPal had the highest number of U.S. visitors in July, with more than 30 million visitors.
  • Jack Henry & Associates saw the highest monthly growth with twice as many visitors in July than June.
  • Wipro Technologies had the highest year-over-year growth, with 3 times as many visitors this year compared to last year.
  • FIS Global and Online Resources also doubled their traffic compared to last year. 
JulyWebTrafficPublic4.jpg
Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of August 15, 2011
1. The previous month recorded was May 2011.
_______________________________________________________
Notes:
1. We reviewed 255 Finovate alumni. Only those with at least 10,000 unique visitors in July are listed. 
3. NM = Not measurable
4. Compete estimates online visitors based on the activity of a panel of more than 2 million U.S. Internet users. It is only an estimate of traffic and may undercount at-work usage.

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