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Finovate Alumni News– February 21, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 21, 2012
Categories: DoughMain, Dwolla, Kasasa, PayNearMe, PayPal, SecondMarket, TransUnion Interactive

DoughMain looks at how kids interact with their money.

Credit Union Times shares how Dwolla and PayPal are contributing to the P2P payments.

SteelSeries now allows shoppers to use PayNearMe for purchases, offers free shipping for trying it out.

Goldman Sachs Investment Arm & Buyout Group to acquire TransUnion.

CNBC features SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert, who describes the up and coming community bank market.

CNNMoney describes how Kasasa helps credit unions.

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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Friday Fails: Banking Site-Search Edition

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 17, 2012
Categories: Search Engine Marketing

I was doing some research into banks’ Facebook sites and found a couple pretty terrible results when using each bank’s own search feature. Here are three samples.

1. Citibank site-search results for “Facebook” (17 Feb 2012; 3 PM Pacific)
The search results try to convince you to search for “fake book” instead (why?). Ironically, the second search result does lead to the bank’s Facebook page, but you’d never know it from the title, “Citibank Online – IMPORTANT INFORMATION.”

2. Chase Bank site-search results for “Facebook”
Chase has more Facebook fans (3.4 million) than any bank on the planet, in fact almost 4x the nearest competitor. But you wouldn’t know if from their site search, which returns exactly zero useful results.

3. US Bank site-search results for anything
It looks like US Bank’s site search is broken today. Every search comes up with the same error message. Too bad there isn’t a better error message. “We could not process your request” sounds a bit like they are shifting the blame to the user.

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Note: We’ve covered banking site-search in our Online Banking Report industry newsletter (subscription).

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Doxo Launches Updates, Adds Billers

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 17, 2012
Categories: Doxo

In the past week, doxo, an online file organization and bill pay platform, launched new features and added billers to its system.

Features

1) Added a digital drawer feature to help users organize files. The simple drag and drop functionality allows users to easily categorize companies into the file cabinet drawers.

Screenshot from doxo’s blog on Feb. 17, 2012

2) Updated its desktop application to enhance session handling, intelligently name backup files, and allow for the creation of duplicate folders.

Billers Added

1) Benton and Franklin Counties in Washington state accept property tax payments

2) Eight healthcare systems across 40 hospitals including:

Saint Luke’s Health System

Advocate Health Care and Advocate Medical Group

Novant Health

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

University of Illinois Medical Center

Rockford Health System

Rush-Copley Medical Center

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

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StockTwits Launches Feature to Help Users Discuss Stocks

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 17, 2012
Categories: Stocktwits

Yesterday, online financial communication platform StockTwits launched a new capability called Conversations:

“StockTwits Conversations group new contributions made in response to any piece of content together, creating another way to share and consume messages beyond real-time StockTwits streams.”

The new feature should bring the communication from Twitter to the StockTwits platform and help users find and contribute to conversations.

To learn more about StockTwits, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 17, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 17, 2012
Categories: Doxo, HelloWallet, Intuit, PayPal, Prosper, SecondMarket, Stocktwits

Prosper celebrates its 6th birthday by offering to pay your second loan payment today (Friday, Feb. 17) only.

HelloWallet appoints Aaron Benway as new CFO.

American Banker reports PayPal is partnering with banks to attract new customers.

American Banker reports Intuit adds iPad banking app.

CNN Money looks at how SecondMarket will survive now that Facebook has gone public.

StockTwits launches feature to help users discuss stocks.

Doxo launches updates, adds billers.

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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Intuit Offers eBay Bucks Incentives for Mint, TurboTax Trial

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 16, 2012
Categories: Ebay, Rewards Programs

While I don’t use eBay for entertainment much any more, I still pick up the occasional used item now and then. And I love the rewards program which began about two years ago. It works like it should, with no qualification hoops to jump through or byzantine rules to discourage redemption (note 1).

Users accrue a 2% cash-back bonus, called eBay Bucks, for three months. Then they have 30 days to spend it on the site. When paying for a subsequent purchase, the eBay Bucks are automatically used first, with any remainder shunted off to PayPal for authorization.

It’s all well integrated and transparent. eBay even emails you multiple times as the spending deadline approaches.

They company also provides ways to earn extra eBay bucks. Today, for example, they offered an extra fiver if you bought something worth $100 or more.

In addition, outside brands can make offers on the rewards-summary page as well. The current featured offers (for me anyway) are from Intuit’s Mint.com and TurboTax units. Users receive one eBay Buck for signing up for Mint and two for using TurboTax. There are 36 offers altogether, paying up to 15 eBay dollars (People Magazine). All offers are powered by TrialPay. Two others are financial:

FreeCreditReport.com (Experian): 10 bucks
Credit Karma: 1 buck

Side note: The eBay rewards implementation is a good example to simulate when designing your own in-statement rewards program.

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Mint.com offer displayed in eBay rewards program area (16 Feb 2012)

Close-up of Intuit offers

Landing page powered by TrialPay (link)

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Notes:
1. I did fail to redeem my cash-back horde the first time, because I didn’t realize there was a 30-day redemption deadline. But not before eBay sent multiple messages reminding me of the pending deadline.
2. For more on in-statement rewards programs for banks, check out our Online Banking Report on the subject (published Feb. 2011).

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BillFloat is Loaning More than $1 Million per Month

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 16, 2012
Categories: BillFloat

The New York Times Bucks blog recently featured BillFloat, a startup that provides short-term loans to help consumers pay bills.

The metrics cited in the article:

Registered190,000 users in the past year
Provided 80,000 loans in past year
Total originations were nearly $13 million in past year
Average loan amount was $160
Works with over 2,500 companies across the U.S.
Loan default rate around 10%

Consumer costs:

Maximum interest rate is 36% APR (not including service fee)
Service fee ranges from $9 to $18 per loan

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

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Kabbage’s Partnership with UPS Provides More Funding by Using Shipping Data in Underwriting

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 16, 2012
Categories: Kabbage

Kabbage, a startup that provides financing to online merchants, announced yesterday that it has partnered with UPS to use customer shipping data to make better underwriting decisions.

“Effective today, small businesses will be able to direct UPS to share their shipping history with Kabbage via the Kabbage.com website, making it possible for them to potentially obtain more capital at lower rates.”

A video on Kabbage’s blog states that UPS is also providing Kabbage an undisclosed amount of capital to grow its customer base and fund more small businesses.

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

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ETRONIKA Piques the Interest of FinovateEurope Audience

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 16, 2012
Categories: ETRONIKA

In the week after FinovateEurope, I’ve been keeping track of press coverage from the conference. The media has generated a lot of buzz* about ETRONIKA’s use of Microsoft Kinect for online banking.

ETRONIKA, a Lithuanian startup, uses Kinect technology to provide users access to their online bank account via face and voice recognition, followed by a PIN number. After logging in, clients can navigate the system using voice commands and sweeping hand gestures.

Because this was the first time the Finovate team had ever seen this type of unique financial technology, we eagerly awaited seeing the demo. On the rehearsal day before the show, the microphones interfered with the voice recognition feature**. We sweated it out as the audio/visual team adjusted their equipment to minimize the echo caused by the large auditorium.

When ETRONIKA stepped up to the stage on the day of the conference, all fingers were crossed. Fortunately, the technology worked (almost) flawlessly, and the startup was able to share its unique technology with the audience.

ETRONIKA’s demo video will be posted on the Finovate website in a few weeks.

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*Press coverage includes:

Bank Innovation

7 New Services Launched at FinovateEurope 2012

by Mary Wisniewski

Link

Commercial Integrator

Etronika Unveils Improved Microsoft Kinect-Based Online Banking

by Rachel Cericola

Link

I Programmer

Kinect The Ultimate Security Device

by Harry Fairhead

Link

Inside Brunei fm

ETRONIKA Brings online banking to Gesture Control, But Why?

by Roshan Jerad Perera

Link

My Bank Tracker

Wave Your Arms in the Air: Etronika’s Gesture-Based Banking

by Willy Staley

Link

Slash Gear

ETRONIKA produce Kinect-based online banking

by Chris Burns

Link

TechCrunch Europe

Lithuanian company develops Kinect-powered online banking system

by Mike Butcher

Link

Ubergizmo

Kinect based online banking from Etronika a reality now

by Edwin Kee

Link

Visible Banking

Etronika: Kinect Banking at the Branch, Minority Report Style [INTERVIEW]

by Christophe Langlois

Link

**The voice-recognition feature works fine in a normal setting, this issue was solely caused by audio/visual technicalities.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 16, 2012

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 16, 2012
Categories: BillFloat, Dwolla, eToro, HelloWallet, Holvi, IDTheft 911, Kabbage, Kasasa, ReadyForZero, ValidSoft

InspirePay embeds Dwolla’s payment network.

Fast Co Design applauds ReadyForZero’s product and UI.

Phil D’Angio appointed as Senior VP of Global Sales for ValidSoft.

MAPFRE Puerto Rico selects Identity Theft 911 to provide ID theft protection & resolution services to policyholders.

HelloWallet implements new features.

Vision Research Lab highlights Holvi’s demo from FinovateEurope.

ForexPros interviews Yoni Assia, eToro CEO.

DepositAccounts.com looks at reward checking accounts from Kasasa.

Kabbage’s partnership with UPS provides more funding by using shipping data in underwriting.

BillFloat is loaning more than $1 million per month.

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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Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures Contributes to Xero’s Recent $16.6 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 15, 2012
Categories: Xero

Earlier this month, online accounting software Xero announced a $16.6 million round of financing, funded partially by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. This is not this first time the famed investor has funded Xero.

TechCrunch reports:

“Thiel first invested $3 million in New Zealand-founded Xero back in 2010, with the aim of fueling expansion in the United States. The company says that’s also the reason for the latest round.”

MYOB co-founder Craig Winkler and Sam Morgan also participated in the round.

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

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MasterCard Forms Alliance with Silver Tail Systems

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 15, 2012
Categories: Silver Tail Systems

Last week, MasterCard announced the formation of a relationship with Silver Tail Systems, an online security and intelligence startup.

“By combining Silver Tail Systems’ technology with MasterCard’s extensive payments experience and insights, merchants will be better equipped to spot malware or robotic (“bots”) activity originating from personal computers or smart phones attacking their online payments systems.”

The two will help U.S.-based online merchants by providing fraud solutions.

To learn more about Silver Tail Solutions, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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