Finovate Blog

After the final fintech demo at FinovateSpring next month, the next highlight to take the stage will be a committee of six fintech experts. Each analyst will have seven minutes to make their case for what they see as the hottest trend and opportunity in financial services.

The pressure is on for this group. Here’s who will be in the hot seat at FinovateSpring next month:

Jacob Jegher

Jegher is an experienced fintech executive and digital banking thought leader. He advises clients on emerging technologies and business strategies related to retail, small business, and corporate digital banking. Jegher provides strategic consulting to financial institutions and solution providers on issues ranging from digital strategy to vendor selection. In addition to his client-facing responsibilities, Jacob leads Javelin’s overall strategy, marketing, and product development efforts.

Most recently, Jegher was Vice President of Global Solution Marketing and Head of Analyst Relations at FIS, where he was responsible for marketing strategy efforts across all business units and solutions. He also brings extensive expertise in the banking research and consulting field, having spent over 10 years as a Research Director at Celent.

Tiffani Montez

Montez is a Retail Banking senior analyst at Aite Group covering card issuance for prepaid, credit, and debit cards. She has deep experience in global financial services with more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, strategic execution, and consumer experience design. Montez has the unique ability to not only build strategies but also provide the strategic guidelines for executing complex strategic plans to deliver results.

Prior to joining Aite Group, Montez held executive-level positions at Wells Fargo, building digital experiences for various product groups such as home lending, personal credit, wealth, brokerage, and retirement, and was a principal analyst at Forrester Research, covering topics such as mobile banking, digital financial management, multichannel banking, and next-generation sales strategies. Most recently, she was the VP of operations at Terafina, helping banks and credit unions transform their customer experience through an omnichannel strategy. Her unique blend of experience as a practitioner, analyst, and vendor solution provider gives her the foundation to be able to provide thought leadership to clients through all lenses of the financial services ecosystem.

Ron Shevlin

Shevlin is the Director of Research at Cornerstone Advisors where he heads up the firm’s strategic research efforts, including the Insight Vault service. Shevlin is the author of the book, Smarter Bank, and is the purveyor of fine snark on his Snarketing blog and the Fintech Snark Tank podcast. Shevlin’s experience includes research and consulting for Aite Group, Forrester Research, and KPMG.

Shane Hubbell

Hubbell is a Vice President at Arbor Advisors and has more than 10 years of experience as an investment banker, business operations manager, and entrepreneur. In his role at Arbor, Hubbell is responsible for driving the firm’s business development efforts to source new clients as well as helping clients execute successful transactions. He has executed over $600 million of M&A and capital raising transactions over his career.

Prior to joining Arbor, Hubbell helped drive the strategic development of Goldman Sachs’ derivative trading systems. Previous to this, he was co-founder and CFO of a biotechnology company that developed a safer device for a cricothyrotomy.

Daniel Latimore

Latimore, CFA, is the Senior Vice President of Celent’s Banking group and is based in the firm’s Boston office. Latimore’s areas of focus include the banking ecosystem, digital and omnichannel banking, and innovation. Underlying each is a keen interest in consumer behavior and technology-enabled strategy. Latimore is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and client gatherings, having addressed audiences ranging from intimate meetings of CEOs and central banks to conference keynotes in more than a dozen countries. He led research groups at Deloitte and IBM, worked in industry Liberty Mutual and Merrill Lynch (where he lived in New York, Tokyo and London), and was a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Jerry Silva

Jerry Silva is research director for IDC Financial Insights responsible for the global retail banking practice. Jerry’s research focuses on technology trends and customer expectations and behaviors in retail banking worldwide. Jerry draws upon over 25 years experience in the financial services industry to cover a variety of topics, from the back office, to customer channels, to governance in the technology shops at financial institutions. His work for both institutions and vendors gives Jerry a broad perspective in technology strategies.

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Join us on May 8 through 11 at the Santa Clara convention center to hear the experts talk about the latest in fintech. Register by April 27 and save.

Since the first spring fintech conference in 2008, a total of six companies have won Best of Show honors more than once. These companies range from some of our earlier innovators like oflows and Wikinvest that have since gone on to bigger and better things, as well as more recent multiple-time winners like MX and SaleMove that have picked up Best of Show awards at our other events in London and New York.

With FinovateSpring just over a month away, we thought we’d give a tip of the hat to the companies that have helped make our Spring shows especially memorable with their demonstrations of audience-pleasing, Best of Show-winning fintech. Below the six, two-time FinovateSpring Best of Show winners, we’ve also included a complete history of FinovateSpring Best of Show winners. It’s all designed to whet your appetite for the cutting-edge fintech you’ll see on stage on May 8-9 in Santa Clara, California for FinovateSpring 2018.

SaleMove (2017, 2016) – Dedicated to bringing the in-person customer experience online, New York City-based SaleMove leverages its engagement platform to give clients in wealth management, banking, insurance, and other verticals the ability to interact with their customers in the channel – or channels – they prefer. With live video, voice, live chat, and co-browsing, SaleMove’s platform helps financial services businesses communicate better and more effectively with their customers, leading to more sales, more conversations, and improved customer service. The company was founded in 2012, and has raised more than $5 million in funding.

Money Desktop/MX (2013, 2012) – In rebranding to MX in 2014, the multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner signaled it was ready to maximize its expertise in financial data acquisition, cleansing, and visualization to help financial service providers make the most of their underused and unused data. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX has raised $75 million in funding, and began the year with news that Coast Capital Savings – Canada’s largest credit union by membership with more than $20 billion in assets –  would deploy a next-generation PFM solution developed by MX.

PayNearMe (2013, 2011) – With more than $90 million in funding, PayNearMe operates a real time, cash transaction network that gives consumers without bank accounts or access to automatic payments the ability to pay with cash. Founded in 2009 and based in Sunnyvale, California, the company acquired Prism Money in 2016 and shortly afterwards reorganized itself as Handle Financial to better communicate its various brands to consumers.

Dwolla (2012, 2011) – Enterprise payments platform Dwolla is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa and was founded in 2008 by Ben Milne. The company’s white-label payments API enables businesses to credit or debit user-connected accounts, and its technology is also used for verification and user discovery. With more than $51 million in funding, Dwolla recently announced it would power identity verification for Yahoo!’s Tanda savings app.

oflows (2011, 2010) – Founded in 2009 and acquired by fellow Finovate alum Andera in the fall of 2011, oflows specialized in multi-channel paperless account opening solutions. The company was named a Top 10 Company to Watch in 2011 by Bank Technology News. Andera itself was the subject of an acquisition in 2014, when it was purchased by Bottomline Technologies for $48 million.

Wikinvest/SigFig (2011, 2010) – Known today as SigFig, the company was founded in 2007 as a consumer finance portal called Wikinvest. Picking up a pair of Best of Show awards in the early days of Finovate, the company has since grown into one of wealthtech’s biggest success stories as a wealth management services provider with more than $114 million in assets under management.

And here’s the full list of FinovateSpring Best of Show winners.

FinovateSpring 2017

• Alpharank
• Capitali.se
• Hedgeable AI Lab
• Microblink
• Neener Analytics
• SaleMove
• SpeechPro
• Unison

FinovateSpring 2016

• BanQu
• LendingRobot
• PayActiv
• Quid
• SaleMove
• Silver6

FinovateSpring 2015

• Alpha Payments Cloud
• Avoka
• Money Amigo
• Moven
• NAMU Systems
• Shoeboxed
• Stratos

FinovateSpring 2014

• EyeVerify
• Loop
• Interactions
• Motif Investing
• Ondot Systems
• PrivatBank
• SaveUp
• Stockpile

FinovateSpring 2013

• FamZoo
• LendUp
• MoneyDesktop
• PayNearMe
• TipRanks

FinovateSpring 2012

• BehavioSec
• BillGuard
• Dwolla
• iQuantifi
• MoneyDesktop
• Personal Capital
• SoMoLend

FinovateSpring 2011

• BancVue
• BankOns
• Dwolla
• oFlows
• Mitek Systems
• PayNearMe
• Wikinvest

FinovateSpring 2010

• Bobber Interactive
• Expensify
• oFlows
• Wikinvest

FinovateStartup 2009

• BillShrink (now Truaxis)
• Prosper
• Silver Tail Systems
• SimpliFi

FinovateStartup 2008

• First ROI (now BancVue)
• Jwaala
• Zecco
• Zopa