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Yesterday, card-linked offers company Affinity Solutions announced it closed a round of $14.5 million in funding from Chestnut Hill Ventures.
Affinity Solutions, which counts over 4,000 financial institutions and 25,000 brick-and-mortar retailers as clients, plans to use the funding to fuel growth, finance product innovation, business development, and technology initiatives.
To learn more about Affinity Solutions, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo.
Austin Business Journal discloses Bazaarvoice reports $104M financing.
I put my name on the list for PayPal Here (its response to Square) when it was announced in the spring. Yesterday, I received my invitation to “apply” for the service.
I was a little surprised that I still had to apply given that I’ve had this PayPal account since 1999, and have run many thousands of dollars through it, both as a buyer and a merchant. But I understand the enormous risks in payment acceptance, so I will happily oblige some hassle.
Interestingly, the process must be done via the mobile PayPal Here app. You cannot simply complete the application via PayPal’s normal online system. Again, this is slightly inconvenient for me, but it’s good to see PayPal enabling the mobile app for signup. This may be the first financial product from a major U.S. company that has a mobile-only app process.
The mobile signup process is a little confusing. First, you must download the separate PayPal Here app (it in not integrated with the regular PayPal app). Then when launched, if you press “register” on the opening screen (screenshot below), instead of being allowed to register, you are asked to put yourself on the PayPal Here waitlist
I thought I’d hit a dead end, so I went back to the invitation email (below). What you must do instead is login to the app with your PayPal credentials (note 1). Once in, users go through a quick account verification, then a merchants services mini-application, and ID check against credit bureau data.
At the end of the process, a reader is mailed to your business address and an optional debit card is mailed to your primary address on file. But you are immediately allowed to begin accepting payments through by scanning a card with the mobile camera or keying it in. That’s impressive.
The next day, I received an email with a tracking number for the reader (screenshot below).
Bottom line: The process seemed a little convoluted for an existing customer. But, in all it took 4 to 5 minutes and required no supporting info and I was able to accept a credit card immediately. Had I not had trouble logging in, I could have completed it in closer under 3 minutes. Overall, I score it a B+.
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Email to apply for PayPal Here (26 June 2012)
PayPal Here login screen
Note: Invited users must login, NOT try to register (which won’t work)
Pre-populated account Card reader
verification confirmation screen
Confirmation email the next day (28 June 2012)
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Note:
1. The email said to login with my PayPal email address and password. I got an odd error message doing that, saying to “append my code to the password.” I think this is because I have second factor authentication turned on for my PayPal account. But I could not see any way to get a code sent to me through the PayPal Here app, so I was stuck. I then tried logging in with my PayPal mobile credentials, and that worked fine. It seems like there might be a bug here.
Financial education site, DoughMain, announced earlier this week it received an investment from Iacocca Family Capital. This investment marks the New Jersey-based company’s second round of funding since it launched in August 2011.
The undisclosed amount of money will help support the enhancement and expansion of DoughMain’s platform.
In unrelated news, DoughMain also announced it acquired Allowance-Plus, a site with a similar focus on financial education.
To learn more about DoughMain, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.
The Bank Of Marion selects Continuity Control for compliance platform.
Shopping and billpay platform, Billeo, announced two new services yesterday, ZipThru Pay and ZipThru Buy. With these new features, the California-based company aims to simplify and speed up the online shopping and bill pay experiences.
ZipThru Pay
Enables financial institutions and card issuers to place a pay now button on an online bill payment platform or in a mobile app.
Without leaving the app or website, consumers can pay their bills using their credit, debit, or prepaid card in one click and receive confirmation information.
ZipThru Buy
Enables any website or app that features products from multiple merchants to place a buy
Without leaving the shopping site, consumers can purchase the item in only two clicks and receive all confirmation information.
Both services can be integrated into any new or existing website or app using Billeo’s API.
To learn more about Billeo, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.
CU Times reports T8 Webware expanding, expects to add 20 employees to its staff of 60.Virtual Piggy’s platform now supports subscription payments.
While personal financial management (PFM) may be THE most important feature of online/mobile banking going forward, it’s time to stop thinking of it as "product."
PFM is part of every thing you do when communicating account info to customers. The paper statement is a PFM tool. The call center offers PFM. Even the branch helps certain customers with their financial management.
But those old-school tools have limitations. They are expensive, difficult to customize, and aren’t always timely or available.
So online banking has been a boon to personal financial management. Can you imagine going back to the world where you actually had to keep track of your balance in your check register?
But 17 years after Wells Fargo put the first customer statement online, most customers are still stuck looking at an online rendering of their circa-1960 paper statement. It’s an area ripe for disruption, and Mint.com, with 3% to 4% penetration of U.S. households, proved that users want better-looking, more functional online info.
However, unlike record stores, newspapers, and travel agents, incumbent banks and credit unions have a much better chance to stay relevant and hold on to their market share. Other than early-adopter types, few customers will entrust their money to Internet-based startups (Bank Simple may be poised to prove me wrong, we’ll see). And even if consumers have the desire, it’s often too much of a hassle to make the switch.
As long as financial institutions stay up-to-date in online/mobile delivery, keep prices in check, and provide decent service, there are no compelling reason for customers to ever leave.
For banks, a big part of staying current is helping customers stay apprised of their financial situation, and helping them improve it. We are lumping those things together and calling it PFM. One of the biggest changes coming, thanks in part to Bank Simple making it central to their UI, is the forward-looking "balance forecast" (or Safe-to-Spend balance in Simple-speak). See last Friday’s post for more on that.
But that’s just the tip of the PFM iceberg. There are dozens of needed new features to bring online banking up to 2012 "web standards."
In our new 54-page report we cover:
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About the report
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Personal Financial Management 4.0 (link)
Moving forward with the most misunderstood financial
service of the online eraAuthor: Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder
Published: 25 June 2012
Length: 56 pages, 12 tables, 16,000 words
Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$495 for others here
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Sample screenshot
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HelloWallet combines budget status (e.g., at "coffee shops") and a macro "left to spend" balance on its mobile view
Xconomy reported today that card marketing company, Arroweye Solutions, raised $3 million in Series B funding.
Neither the investor(s) nor the purpose of the funding was disclosed.
To learn more about Arroweye Solutions, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.
Virtual Piggy, whose technology enables children to safely make purchases online, announced last week that it now supports subscription payments.
With the new subscription model, Virtual Piggy supports users who want to pay subscription fees on a regular basis (usually monthly). Parents can even set the monthly payments to come out of their kids’ online allowance.
Fanlala, an online pop culture destination for tweens and teens, will be one of the first companies to implement Virtual Piggy’s subscription model. Users will be able to pay for subscription music and gaming services through Virtual Piggy’s online payment platform.
To learn more about Virutal Piggy, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo.
Netbanker highlights Simple’s Safe to Spend balance feature.