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Taulia Launches its Early Payment Network

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 8, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012, Taulia

Afterwards, Taulia demonstrated how its Early Payment Network can help businesses get paid faster:

“Taulia is an expert in Early Payments through Dynamic Discounting. We are launching our Early Payment Network, which expands the power of Early Payments beyond our existing network to every business. The combination of our knowledge of Dynamic Discounting, our network of financing sources, and our new API allows us to extend our Early Payment Network to users of any accounting system, ERP software or e-invoicing network. In fact, any financial software provider can now offer Dynamic Discounting directly to their install base via the new Taulia-powered API. A very simple, one-time integration opens the door for the financial software provider to instantly share in the revenue generated by Early Payments.”

Product Launched: May 2012

HQ Location: San Francisco, CA

Company Founded: July 2009

Metrics: $11.7M raised, 50+ Full-time employees, user base that extends to over 40 countries

Website: taulia.com

Introducing Ian Sweeney (VP of Product) and Markus Ament (Chief Product Officer)

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WattzOn Shines Light on How Banks Can Drive Loyalty with Energy Management

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 8, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012, WattzOn

Second up, WattzOn lit up the stage with its energy management platform:

“WattzOn is a personal energy management platform that provides tools to help people use less energy and save money on an everyday basis.

The WattzOn Marketplace: A marketplace for energy-saving products and services (such as appliances, windows, solar systems, hybrid and electric cars), to be combined with financing (loans, credit cards, savings accounts, Home Equity Lines Of Credit, mortgages) and rebates to create compelling energy and money-saving opportunities.

The WattzOn Platform for Financial Services: Increase consumer engagement and drive loyalty with our WattzOn Personal Energy Management Platform. Incorporate branded personal energy management capabilities with your website or app. Provide your consumers with more ways to save money and promote complementary financial products, such as credit cards, car and home loans. Can be undertaken as a branded experience (for example, “MyBankGreenHome.com”) or integrated into your existing website or mobile app through our web services (APIs).”

Product Launched: June 2012

HQ Location: Mountain View, CA

Company Founded: 2008

Metrics: Over 250,000 households have already used the WattzOn Personal Energy Management Platform to save energy and money.

Website: wattzon.com

Introducing Steven Ashby (Co-Founder, CMO, Chief Product Officer) and Dan Sheehy (Executive VP of Business Development):

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Dwolla Releases New FiSync Iteration

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 8, 2012
Categories: Dwolla, FinovateSpring 2012

To kick things off, Dwolla launched a new iteration of FiSync:

“Dwolla is releasing the newest iteration of FiSync, the company’s revenue-generating financial services product.”

Product Launched: May 2012

HQ Location: Des Moines, IA

Company Founded: May 2008

Metrics:

Funding:

Series B: $5 million (Union Square Ventures, Thrive Capital, Village Ventures & more)
Series A: $1.3 million

Employees: 20+
Users: 100,000+
Merchants: 10,000+

Website: dwolla.com

Introducing Ben Milne (Founder and Builder):

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FinovateSpring 2012 Kicks Off Tomorrow

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 7, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012

It turns out that setting up for 1,200 attendees takes a bit more time than we had anticipated. But everything is set, the demos are all working, and we are ready to kick things off Tuesday morning at 9 AM sharp.

You can read all about the 64 product launches during the next two days at our Finovate blog. And we’ll be tweeting away from @finovate while hundreds of others do the same with the #finovate hashtag.

To everyone joining us in San Francisco, and for all that are following from afar, we truly appreciate it!

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One Year After its FinovateSpring 2011 Demo, Bankons Inks Deal with Capital One

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 7, 2012
Categories: BankOns

Bankons (think bank + coupons), a real-time mobile offers service, announced today that Capital One’s IT group, Capital One Labs,* has made a limited asset purchase agreement with the startup to obtain their software.

The relationship started exactly one year ago at the FinovateSpring 2011 conference when Joshua Greenough, former CEO of Bankons, took the stage to show off his his Best of Show-winning mobile offers platform.

Greenough states:

“The Bankons team wouldn’t be here without the great people who helped us launch at Finovate. We want to thank the community of technologists and banking professionals who we have worked with over the past year and look forward to future collaboration.”

Capital One, through the limited asset purchase, obtained intellectual property and talent from Bankons for an undisclosed amount (Bankons remains a separate and independent company). Greenough now serves as Senior Director of Capital One’s Technology Innovation in San Francisco.

Capital One states:

“The combination of our Lab and the strengths of the Bankons team will add to the talented Digital Innovation Lab team and help accelerate the Labs innovation and rapid prototyping agenda at our innovation labs.”

Through Capital One Labs, the former Bankons team now has access to Capital One’s customers and will be able to push the innovation forward to 45 million customer accounts– a number, Greenough says, that most startups can only dream about.

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

About Bankons

Bankons was an early stage technology company located in San Francisco. Founded in the summer of 2010, Bankons’ dynamic team comprised of individuals with many years of experience and expertise in the technology fields. Bankons built an app and platform to help consumers get the best offers via a mobile phone based on using geo-location and purchase history.

*Capital One Labs is a new group that does rapid prototyping, incubation, and testing of product ideas before they are rolled out to customers.

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Finovate Alumni News– May 4, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 4, 2012
Categories: Backbase, Betterment, SigFig, Yodlee

TechCrunch hosts Jon Stein, Betterment CEO, to talk about the future of investing.

Backbase signs Higher One, a leading financial services provider for colleges & universities.

Bank Technology News reports Yodlee opens a workshop to boost startups.

TechCrunch reports SigFig launches.

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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Feature Friday: Ally’s Mobile Cash-Bank Finder & Call-Center-Hold-Time Meter

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 4, 2012
Categories: ATMs, Credit/Debit Cards, Mobile Banking, Service

Ally Bank jumped into the mobile fray launching a pair of apps last week, one for customers with account access, and the other an "ATM & Cash-Back Finder," the anyone can use.

The apps are well designed, as you’d expect from a direct bank with 1 million customers and $30 billion on deposit (note 1). But there were two novel features worth highlighting:

1. Real-time wait time in the call center: The mobile app contains a very prominent real-time indicator of just how long you’ll be on hold if you call Ally Bank. I’ve already raved about the Website version of this feature, so I won’t go into much detail. But it makes even more sense to place it front and center on an app on a mobile phone used to call the bank (see left screenshot below).

2. Cash-back locations included with ATM finder: While I’m not sure if this is an industry first, but after a fairly extensive search in the Apple App Store came up empty, I know it’s not common. Ally combines ATM locations and places where you can get cash back at the POS into a single map and/or list view (see right screenshot below).

Ally mobile banking app Ally ATM & Cash Finder app
for customers for anyone

Ally also makes sure its website visitors know they’ve gone mobile with a clever graphic in the middle-right of the homepage.

Ally homepage featuring new mobile offering (3 May 2012)

————

Notes:
1. Ally announced the 1-million-customer milestone along with mobile apps (press release). Compared to a year ago, accounts were up 30% and deposits grew 25%.
2. While this could increase call-center calls, Ally must believe the customer advocacy positioning makes up for the increased costs.

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A Look at the Participants at FinovateSpring Next Week

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 3, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012

We have a diverse bunch on stage at the fifth annual FinovateSpring next week. The 64 demoing companies come from all over the U.S., and from around the globe.

Here’s the geographic distribution of the 64 demoing companies (click to enlarge). It’s no surprise that we have 24 from California. But there’s almost twice as many from elsewhere around the country and world.

Next, here’s a graphical representation of the job titles from the FinovateSpring 2012 registration records:

And if you will be in the record-breaking crowd next week (thanks, everyone!), here’s the demo schedule which lists each company. See you in San Francisco.

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Hot Topics at Next Week’s FinovateSpring

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 3, 2012
Categories: FinovateSpring 2012

We have a diverse bunch on stage at the fifth annual FinovateSpring next week. With 64 demos, many touching on multiple themes, it’s hard to boil down the topics to a few soundbites.

But that didn’t stop us from trying. We fed each presenter’s keywords into a nifty little software app and created our first ever "demo word cloud."

I don’t think anyone will be surprised there’s a bit of attention being devoted to "mobile payments." But who would have guessed (prior to last year), that "rewards" and "coupons" would get so much attention. Welcome to the new world of ad-supported banking.

Finally, here’s a graphical representation of the job titles from our registration records:

And if you will be in the record-breaking crowd next week (thanks everyone!), here’s the demo schedule which lists each company. See you in San Francisco.

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Finovate Alumni News– May 3, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 3, 2012
Categories: Boku, BrightScope, Check Point, Fiserv, FutureAdvisor, Lendio, Meniga, Personal Capital, SecondMarket, SecureKey

CNBC covers how SecondMarket is looking to move from trading Facebook to Pinterest.

TechCrunch reports Boku launched billing partnership with Sprint, giving it partnerships with all 4 major U.S. carriers.

Meniga’s PFM solution powers Sweden’s first Smartbank, launched by Skandia.

SecureKey adds 40 staff in past six months, reaches business and recognition milestones.

Lendio sees nearly 500% increase in matching businesses with small business loans.

Check Point launches free ZoneAlarm anti-virus/firewall combo.

Forbes features article by Mike Alfred, CEO of BrightScope, discussing the differing opinions he, Personal Capital and FutureAdvisor have on the role of financial advisors.

Fiserv to offer global ACH payments through partnership with Earthport.

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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First Look: U.S. Bank’s New iPad App

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 2, 2012
Categories: Mobile Banking, US Bank

Yesterday, U.S. Bank became the fifth top-10 United States bank to release an iPad app and only the second to include remote check deposit (Chase was first). The new app is not listed on the bank’s website yet, but became available in the Apple App Store on May 1.

I’ve been testing it for a day now and find it attractive, well laid out, and practical. It’s a genuine native tablet app, and not an enlarged version of its iPhone app.

Here’s what I liked:

Remote deposit: A cool feature that creates a nice point of differentiation for now.
Person-to-person payments (which I didn’t test because I needed to first enroll online)
Different portrait vs. landscape mode looks: The layout changes slightly depending on what position you use the app.
Built-in calculator and calendar: The lower-right corner contains a calculator/calendar widget.
Pinned account summary: Account balances are displayed in the upper-right corner on all pages.
Offers section: The bank has created an offers area in the middle of the page. Presumably this is where the bank will display card-linked offers from its partnership with FreeMonee, along with bank-product specials. Unfortunately, it’s empty, at least for my account (note 1). Unless, the box can be hidden, there should be at least one offer in it at all times (especially at app launch).
Contact info: The bank’s phone number and email address are prominently displayed.
Integrated location map: In landscape mode, the nearest US Bank branch and ATM locations are always displayed in the upper right corner (note 2).
Branding/advertising in front of login: Not everyone who downloads your app, is ready and/or able to login. Talk to them. Service them.
Full site access via button in right-hand column.

What’s missing:

Simplified login: U.S. Bank’s table login is 25% harder than its desktop banking login. It uses full username and password. There’s no option to remember username. And unlike the desktop, where the curser is automatically positioned in the fields, tablet users must touch the empty box before typing.
Financial management/PFM: There is no ability to sort, annotate, or interact with the data in any way.
Chat: There is no way to interact in real time online.
Search: There is no way to search transactions or any other info.
Security assurances: No security section to assure users that it’s safe to bank via tablet.
Content (other than account info): There is little content outside bank account info and the ATM/branch locator.
Visual interest: The app is attractive and functional. However, it’s fairly bland by iPad standards. Within the secure site, there are no photos, no interesting graphics, along with the aforementioned empty offers box.

Final grade: The app supports the brand, is easy to navigate and does a great job covering the important basics. Plus it has a few advanced features: offers, P2P payments, and remote deposit. Overall, I’ll give it an A-. Nice work.

———————

U.S. Bank iPad app pre-login (2 May 2012)
Note: Graphical images promoting the bank and its remote deposit service

U.S. Bank iPad main "Accounts" page in landscape mode
Note: Empty "offers" box; link to full site; calculator in lower right

U.S. Bank iPad main "Accounts" page in landscape mode
Note: Empty "offers" box

———————

Notes:
1. I’m a long-time customer with six current accounts plus a closed home equity line.
2. While the map makes a nice visual, it doesn’t have much use for the 97% of the time the user is logging in to mobile banking from their home or work. So it might be too prominent. This is only an issue in landscape mode. In portrait mode, the map is not displayed.

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cbanc Network Launches Premium Subscription Services

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 2, 2012
Categories: cbanc Network

cbanc Network, a free, online network for banking and credit union professionals to collaborate and share knowledge, launched two options for premium services this week. The premium services will grant paying members access to special features that go beyond what the free service provides.

There are two levels of service:

cbanc Plus — $250/ year

Can access the Peer Trends feature to see what similar institutions are paying attention to
Receive 5 free content downloads
Receive a 1.5x Points Booster that allows them to earn 50% more points every time they complete a vendor review, survey, content review, or exam watch

2. cbanc Pro — $750/ year

Same benefits as cbanc Plus
One free registration to the webinar of their choice
Five additional Free Content Downloads
Access to the Vendor Management and Due Diligence software solutions

To learn more about cbanc Network, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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