Ready, Set, Go…. Finovate Lands in London

Ready, Set, Go…. Finovate Lands in London
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018

If your idea of fun is hanging out with fellow fintech and banking enthusiasts and discussing what the future of the industry holds, then you’re in good company this week as FinovateEurope is taking place this week. Here are the details

Ready…

First, don’t forget to register ahead of time. Tickets are still available online. The event takes place March 6 through 9 and will be held at ExCel London (Finovate veterans, take note– it is a new venue!). Also, to help you prepare, we’ve compiled a Sneak Peek series to get an advanced look into what some of the companies will debut on stage.

Set…

Check out the list of demoing companies, view the agenda, and finalize your accommodations. And if you have additional questions or need help with a special ticket request, please contact our events team.

Go!

Registration and a continental breakfast take place at 8 AM on 6 March, and the first demo will begin at 9 AM. Come early to settle in with a coffee or tea and save your seat.

We’ll be live Tweeting throughout the event from @Finovate, using the hashtag #Finovate. Be sure to check the Twitter feed for presenter information, analyst insights, and even bonus video content throughout the four-day event.

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FLEETCOR Launches Blockchain-Based Payments Pilot with Ripple

FLEETCOR Launches Blockchain-Based Payments Pilot with Ripple
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ripple

For all the buzz around blockchain technologies, few companies have seized the moment like Ripple. And this week, the enterprise blockchain solution provider announced a new partnership with FLEETCOR Technologies. The two firms will launch a pilot program to test the viability of Ripple’s digital asset XRP to improve the efficiency of international payments.

Cambridge Global Payments, the B2B international payments provider owned by FLEETCOR will execute the pilot, using XRP in payment flows through Ripple’s on-demand liquidity solution, XRapid. Cambridge processes more than $20 billion in cross-border, B2B payments each year for its 13,000 business customers. This newly-announced initiative adds to the work Cambridge and Ripple have already done together with the latter’s real-time messaging and transaction settlement for the enterprise solution, xCurrent.

“We are excited for the insights this pilot program is expected to deliver, and we will use that information to help both Cambridge and FLEETCOR develop our use case for blockchain in international payments,” Cambridge Global Payments COO Mark Frey said. Speaking for Ripple, Danny Aranda, Director of Business Development, praised Cambridge as a company that “understand(s) the benefits of digital assets and (is) serious about using XRP to overcome the inefficiencies in the global payment system.”

Making its Finovate debut at OpenCoin at FinovateSpring 2013, Ripple has been recognized as both a pioneer and a critical company in the bringing the benefits of distributed ledger technology to the enterprise. In recent months, the company has forged a wide variety of partnerships with FIs and financial services firms such as UAE Exchange, Banco Santander, and MoneyGram to help establish pilot programs and use cases for blockchain technology in areas ranging from international payment facilitation to the Internet of Things.

Ripple has raised more than $93 million in funding and includes IDG Capital Partners, SBI Investment, Core Innovation Capital, and Santander Innoventures among its investors. Both founder Larsen and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse were featured in Forbes.com’s article Prophets of Boom: Meet Crypto’s Richest, “a list of the richest secretive freaks, geeks, and visionaries” in the world of cryptocurrencies,” earlier this year. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore, and Sydney, Australia.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, ChartIQ, Chetu, Electronic IDentification, First Data, HackerOne, NuCypher, SoFi

Around the web

  • TechCrunch talks with HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos on bug bounties and the value of white hat hackers.
  • Cardlytics bolsters executive ranks with pair of new group presidents: Randall Beard and Shannon Johnson.
  • American Banker interviews new SoFi CEO Anthony Neto.
  • First Data goes live with Clover Mini and Clover Flex smart terminals in Germany and Austria.
  • Chetu earns Best Custom Business Software Developer Award from US Business News.
  • Ivan Nabalon, CEO and founder of Best of Show winning Electronic IDentification discusses the mainstream potential for cryptocurrencies.
  • ChartIQ teams up with Trading Central to provide technical insights and tool to traders.
  • Blockchain healthcare platform HealthCombix partners with NuCypher.

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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Kofax’s Kapow to Fuel Spotcap’s Credit Assessment Algorithm

Kofax’s Kapow to Fuel Spotcap’s Credit Assessment Algorithm
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Kofax

Kofax announced this week that small business financing provider Spotcap has implemented Kofax’s Kapow Robotic Process Automation software.

The Kapow software automatically aggregates, extracts, and transforms business and cash flow data into actionable information. Leveraging this information, Spotcap’s machine-learning credit models offer underwriters insight into a company’s creditworthiness. Ultimately, this helps Spotcap meet its goal of providing flexible financing options to SMEs.

The application takes businesses only 15 minutes to complete and are reviewed within 24 hours. If the application is accepted, businesses gain access to funds immediately.

“For every loan application received, thousands of data points must be analyzed to make a decision about whether to offer a loan,” said Karl Sponholz, COO of Spotcap. “Unlike traditional lending processes, where credit decisions are based primarily on historical financials and credit scoring, we are tapping into Kapow smart automation software to quickly and easily access data from a large number of sources for in-depth insight.”

Kofax CEO Reynolds C. Bish said that when fintechs digitally transform their operations they are poised to better serve their customers and will “thrive by developing deeper and better engagement with customers across their entire lifecycle.”

It seems that machine learning, automation, and AI are much more than just buzzwords for Kofax. In January, the company announced its largest single transaction for a robotic process automation solution. The order, which came from a top 10 global bank, totaled more than $8 million. And early last month, Kofax’s Kapow was named to Constellation ShortList for its robotic process automation technology.

Founded in 1985, Kofax offers products ranging from information capture, robotic process automation, financial process automation, and customer onboarding solutions. The company’s network of more than 1,000 partners in 70+ countries across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, leverage Kofax to serve 20,000 end customers.

Last May, Kofax was acquired by Thoma Bravo, marking Kofax’s second acquisition after Lexmark acquired it for $1 billion in 2015.

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Kore.ai Unveils New Bots Platform, Adds Former Citi CIO as Strategic Advisor

Kore.ai Unveils New Bots Platform, Adds Former Citi CIO as Strategic Advisor
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Kore

Developer of conversational AI solutions for the enterprise, Kore.ai has launched the latest version of its Bots Platform. Version 6.1 not only enables enterprises to build high-value chatbot solutions faster and more efficiently, but also gives companies the ability to better understand how their chatbots are performing compared to user expectations.

The new platform includes usability enhancements such as a collapsible sidebar navigation and revised layouts. Version 6.1 also provides better bot insights by analyzing how user utterances are processed by the platform’s natural language processing engine and graphically displays how these utterances are classified against various bot tasks. Additionally, the platform enables developers to combine individual bots into a multi-purpose, branded universal bot or VPA (virtual personal assistant) that can communicate with many bots on behalf of an individual. Other features include smart alerts, IVR voice support, new channels including telegram and live person, and a bot sharing facility across users of different domains.

“Our promise has always been to design an end-to-end platform, running in the cloud or on-prem, creating secure, smart, conversational and quick-to-market bots for enterprises,” Raj Koneru, CEO and founder of Kore.ai said in a statement. “We’ve bolstered our Kore Bots Platform with rich new capabilities for enterprises, and are also bringing in fresh thinking into how AI-powered conversational solutions could be engineered better for specific industries.

This “fresh thinking” comes in the form of Devendra Kumar Sharma, former CIO of Citigroup International, who has joined Kore.ai as a strategic advisor and will, in the words of Koneru, “advise us on how to create strategic digital value through great customer engagement.”

Sharma praised the company’s “powerful and unique combination” of growth potential and what he called “strategic relevance in an emerging technology space.” With almost three decades of experience in working with consumer banking technology platforms and operations capabilities, Sharma led initiatives on core operating platforms, digital transformation, and more while working at Citigroup International. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA in Information Systems and Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and founded in 2013, Kore.ai demonstrated its Bots Platform at FinovateFall 2016. With strategic partners ranging from Facebook to SAP to Cisco, Kore.ai has developed more than 150 pre-built bots that use machine learning, natural language processing, AI, and speech recognition to provide actionable, “human-like” communications to the interactions between businesses and their customers, employees, systems, and things.

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Take Note: FinovateEurope Keynotes Announced!

Take Note: FinovateEurope Keynotes Announced!
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018

FinovateEurope is coming to London next week, and while our Sneak Peek series may have prepared you for the first two days of non-stop fintech demos, you still need to get ready for the extra content and discussions taking place the second half of the week.

Here are the folks who will– in just a few days from now– step up to the Finovate stage to share their insights on some of the most topical issues in fintech:

Rohit Talwar

The Rise Of The Machines – The AI Revolution And The Road To Superintelligence. What Will AI Mean For The Future Of Financial Services – And The Future Of Work?

Talwar is an award winning global futurist, entrepreneur and specialist advisor on business transformation, disruptive strategies and radical innovation. Nominated as one of the top ten global future thinkers by the U.K.’s Independent newspaper, he comments regularly on the future and innovation for global news networks. Talwar has been published widely. He is the initiator, editor and a lead author for The Future of Business, which was published on June 23rd 2015 – completed in just 19 weeks. This 60-chapter book brings together the work of 62 future thinkers from around the world to explore the forces shaping our world and highlight the implications for business.

Jamie Woodruff

Cyber Security – Why We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid…

In his early 20s, Woodruff is one of the world’s leading authorities on hacking and cyber security.

Woodruff entered the public eye when he successfully hacked Facebook as part of a student competition at Bangor University where he was studying computer information systems. He has since uncovered security holes in numerous high-profile operations, including Kim Kardashian’s website, which he hacked to reveal that it was putting her fans’ data at serious risk.

Woodruff is a director of Metrics Cloud specialising in training, penetration testing, and recruitment. He is also the cyber safety advisor for the Cyber Smile Foundation which specialises in online cyber bullying.

Woodruff talks about the importance of system and network security and is known for disclosing world-wide exploits and vulnerabilities within leading security applications such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Apple, and Google. He finds existing exploits by infiltrating the companies in question. He demonstrated this by impersonating a Domino’s pizza delivery boy at a large financial institution and gaining access to their server room via pick-locking. All carried out under fully authorised, ethical penetration testing.

Simon Taylor

Why Blockchain Is The Next Generation Of The Internet

Taylor is Co-Founder and Blockchain Practice Lead at 11:FS. He led Blockchain Research and Development at Barclays, where Barclays became the first bank in the world to perform a live trade finance transaction over a Blockchain / DLT with a real customer attached. Today at 11:FS, Taylor advises governments, regulators and some of the worlds largest banks, financial institutions, and corporations on how blockchain and DLT will impact their business in the short, medium, and long term. In addition Taylor also co-hosts the industry-leading podcasts Fintech Insider and Blockchain Insider.

We’ll see you on 6 through 9 of March at the ExCel Center in London. If you haven’t saved your spot, register today. And don’t hesitate to contact us with any enquiries or customer service needs.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CapitaWorld ME, Carta Worldwide, Google, Lendio, OPENTECH, Samsung, Sberbank, Unison, Yoyo

Around the web

  • Opentech ranked third in the Mastercard’s worldwide Directory of Digital Wallet providers. Come see Opentech’s live demo at FinovateEurope next week.
  • Yoyo named Best Mobile Payment Solution at MPE Awards. Come see Yoyo’s demo at FinovateEurope next week in London.
  • CapitaWorld launches smart loan disintermediation ecosystem for micro, small, and medium (MSM) enterprises.
  • Unison launches 5% down payment program in conjunction with an 80% LTV mortgage.
  • Sberbank adds Google Pay and Samsung Pay services for the customers using its business cards.
  • Railsbank partners with Carta Worldwide.
  • Lendio Franchise Announced in Clemson Region.

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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Pendo Systems Ships New Release of Pendo Machine Learning Platform

Pendo Systems Ships New Release of Pendo Machine Learning Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Pendo Systems

Data insight company Pendo Systems launched the latest release of the Pendo Machine Learning Platform (PMLP) this week.

The new iteration, version 4, of PMLP balances improving productivity while keeping user requirements convenient. New features in this latest release are:

  • Improved machine learning toolset that accelerates time to implementation and solves complex processing challenges
  • Ability to create and train models against training data
  • New connectivity options with Content Management Interoperability Services support
  • New plugins that integrate with other systems to provide access to a range of machine learning algorithms

In the press release, Phillip Dodds, Pendo Systems CTO said that this release is a “significant step forward” for Pendo because it is designed with the business user in mind. “By enabling onsite training of models that are less IT-dependent means our clients can now use their own data to train Machine Learning algorithms in an agile and cost-effective way, irrespective of whether it is behind their own firewall or in a secure cloud environment,” Dodds added.

Pam Pecs Cytron, CEO at Pendo Systems, who described the release as a demonstration of the company’s “ruthless commitment” to product innovation, said that empowering the business user is an essential component of Pendo’s strategy.

Founded in 2007, and with headquarters in New Jersey, Pendo converts unstructured data into AI-ready datasets and improves on natural language processing libraries by applying real-world, customer training data. With this approach, the company helps improve accuracy to over 95%. At FinovateAsia 2012, the company debuted BasisPoint to offer multi-jurisdictional processing for capital markets firms. Earlier this month, the company announced its intention to target the insurance sector.

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Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection to E-commerce Merchants

Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection to E-commerce Merchants
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Signifyd

Fraud prevention specialist Signifyd announced a strategic partnership with e-commerce website designer Corra that will bring guaranteed fraud prevention technology to Corra’s high-end enterprise retail customers.

“Corra embraces the same deep commitment to merchants that Signifyd does,” Lee Hadsock, head of partnerships for Signifyd, said. “We believe in doing what needs to be done to ensure that merchants are successful – and to provide fraud-protection services, technology and tools that mean they don’t have to be distracted by issues and operations that are outside the core of their businesses.”

The partnership, announced at the eTail West conference, will give Corra clients both full financial protection from fraud costs, as well as the technology merchants need to establish the legitimacy of customer orders within milliseconds. Corra is a digital agency that builds commerce experiences for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands around the world. Signifyd’s partnership with the company is in some ways an extension of the relationship the company developed with Magento Commerce last fall.  The press release accompanying the announcement noted that both companies had been honored by Magento in 2016 – with Corra being named Magento Omnichannel Partner of the Year and Signifyd earning plaudits as Magento Best New Technology Partner of the Year.

Director of Global Strategic Alliances for Corra, Martina England praised Signifyd as an “enterprise-ready partner that can help us help our customers grow and succeed.” England referred specifically to the fraud fighter’s technology and domain expertise, as well as the firm’s sizable customer roster and history of success in supporting e-commerce. “We examined the full complement of guaranteed fraud protection players and found that Signifyd, far-and-away, met the needs of our clients,” England said.

Leveraging big data, machine learning, and human intelligence, Signifyd’s technology protects more than 5,000 online merchants and more than $37 billion worth of products against fraud. Available as an e-commerce platform plug-in as well as via an API, Signifyd automates back office operations including auto-fulfill and auto-cancel on orders, and makes it easy for merchants to get paid for chargebacks within 48 hours. Additionally, Signifyd offers a 100% financial guarantee in the event that an order approved by Signifyd’s technology proves ultimately to be fraudulent.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Signifyd demonstrated its Guaranteed Payments solution at FinovateSpring 2013. Earlier this month, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Rajesh Ramanand, was named to One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencer’s list (along with 19 other Finovate alums). Signifyd partnered with Authorize.Net to bring its fraud protection technology to that firm’s U.S.-based e-commerce merchants last summer, less than one month after being added to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list. The company has raised more than $89 million in total capital, including picking up $56 million in funding last year in a Series C round led by Bain Capital Ventures.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capitalise, Dynamics, FICO, Infolio, Klarna, MasterCard, MaxMyInterest, Nopsec, Signifyd, TSYS, Worldline

On Finovate.com

  • Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection for E-Commerce Merchants.

Around the web

  • Estonian financial group LHV to leverage technology from FICO to fight money laundering.
  • Klarna announces double-digit sales growth thanks to more retailers using the company’s solutions.
  • CNBC quotes MaxMyInterest head of business development and partnerships Michael Halloran on cash strategies for investors during times of market volatility.
  • Dynamics unveils enhanced functionality for its connected Wallet Card. See its latest demo at FinovateEurope next week.
  • TSYS Extends Existing Agreement with Capital One UK.
  • Mastercard to use Facebook Messenger to help small businesses in Africa and Asia drive mobile and electronic payments acceptance.
  • Worldline teams with Total to launch TOTAL eWallet.
  • FutureTech Podcast hosts Capitalise CEO Shahar Rabin on using natural language to automate trading strategies.
  • NopSec Awarded Most Innovative Cybersecurity Company 2018.

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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FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show Winners Announced!

FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show Winners Announced!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: APPICS, Best of Show, Electronic IDentification, FinovateMiddleEast 2018, Ondot Systems

 

The votes have been counted and the winners of the first FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show competition have been selected.

Congratulations are due to all of the companies that presented their latest fintech innovations live on stage this week. From wealth management and lending to innovative approaches to making payments faster, more efficient, and more secure, what makes Finovate such a great opportunity for fintech professionals is the breadth and variety of technologies on display.

And while we love seeing which companies – new or old, local or global – are the ones that have developed solutions that capture the imagination of our knowledgeable fintech audience, we always maintain that the value of our Finovate demos lies in the diversity of approaches taken by different creative, insightful entrepreneurs and engineers solving real world problems for individuals, consumers, SMEs, corporations, and even governments all over the globe.

That said, there are always a handful of demos that stand out to our attendees – and these are the innovations we highlight with our Best of Show awards. So with no further ado, let’s take a look at the companies taking home Best of Show trophies for their demos this week at FinovateMiddleEast 2018 (in alphabetic order):

APPICS for its next-generation, rewards-based, social media app that enables people to connect with one another around the globe and leverages blockchain technology to turn social media “likes” into currency. Video.

Electronic IDentification for its VideoID solution which combines video streaming, advanced machine learning, and AI to remotely identify customers in seconds from any device and over any channel. Video.

 

 

Ondot Systems for its card control technology that empowers card holders to “remote control” their credit and debit cards from a smartphone app. Video.

Our first foray to the Middle East has been a huge success for us. We’ve both seen and learned a great deal about the kind of fintech innovations that are making it easier for those living in the MENA region to have safer, more transparent, and – hopefully – more prosperous financial lives.

We want to thank our sponsors and partners – especially the UAE Ministry of Finance, which was indispensable in helping make FinovateMiddleEast happen. We had a wonderful time bringing our fintech conference to Dubai for the first time and are looking forward to coming back soon. Remember to follow us on Twitter @Finovate, as well as here on the Finovate blog to keep up with the latest in fintech news from the Middle East and elsewhere around the world.

To see all of the demo videos from FinovateMiddleEast, visit our video archives.

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The three companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2017 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017

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Dream Payments Speeds Up Insurance Payouts with Mastercard Partnership

Dream Payments Speeds Up Insurance Payouts with Mastercard Partnership
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dream Payments, MasterCard

Cloud-based payments platform Dream Payments is teaming up with Mastercard this week. The two payments players will leverage Mastercard Send to help insurance policyholders receive payments faster into any account.

Mastercard Send, a global push payments platform, facilitates local and cross-border money delivery in near real-time. Integrating with the Dream Payments Hub will create a scalable way to digitize and automate the disbursement of insurance claims. By removing the need to sort and mail physical checks, the integration ultimately increases the speed and efficiency of digital payouts into the customer’s preferred debit card account.

Piloting this is Northbridge Financial, which will be the first insurance provider in Canada to use the Mastercard Send platform through the Dream Payments Hub. “Our claims experience is the moment of truth when it comes to the promise we make to our customers,” said George Halkiotis, EVP of Claims for Northbridge Financial. “We know that waiting for and depositing checks are key pain points and we’re excited be able to deliver a better, faster claims experience that helps make things right for our customers as quickly as possible.”

“Mastercard and Dream Payments are helping to digitize payments for insurance providers of all sizes,” added Brent Ho-Young, chief executive officer, Dream Payments. “Insurance customers deserve to receive their claims payments quickly, electronically, and into the financial accounts of their choice, whether it be a bank account, debit card, prepaid card, or mobile wallet.”

With operations in Stamford, Connecticut, Dream Payments helps small businesses accept all payment types. In addition to ties with Quickbooks and First Data, the company also counts TD Merchant Solutions and Chase Paymentech in its partnership ecosystem. At FinovateSpring 2015, Dream Payments debuted its mobile POS device. Dream Payments was founded in 2014 and has raised $14.9 million. Brent Ho-Young is CEO.

Founded in 1966, Mastercard demoed its Cash Pick-Up ATM solution at FinovateFall 2017. Cash Pick-Up allows the sender to disburse cash to banked and unbanked consumers without a card at an ATM. Last fall, the company announced it has tested and validated its blockchain and will be opening access to it via a set of three APIs published on the Mastercard Developers website. At FinovateEurope next week, Mastercard, alongside Vipera, will demo SME-Pay, a solution that enables small business owners to make and receive payments anywhere and view and control staff spending on their Mastercard cards.

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