FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Hydrogen

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Hydrogen
By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek, Hydrogen

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 6 through 9 of March 2018 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Hydrogen is Stripe for fintech. Build and manage sophisticated fintech applications anywhere, globally, and in minutes.

Features

  • API platform to run sophisticated fintech applications globally
  • Public blockchain in any app with one API call
  • AI in any app with one API call

Why it’s great
Hydrogen’s platform brings instant product, blockchain, and AI innovation to any organization at a fraction of the cost.

Presenters

Mike Kane, Co-Founder
Mike Kane is co-founder at Hydrogen, Master Sensei at Hedgeable (a 2x Finovate Best of Show winner), and a U.K. Great Fintech Awards Winner. He was formerly at Bridgewater Associates.
LinkedIn

Matthew Kane, Co-Founder
Matthew Kane is co-founder at Hydrogen, Chief Ninja at Hedgeable (a 2x Finovate Best of Show winner), and a U.K. Great Fintech Awards Winner.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: DSwiss

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: DSwiss
By finovate Posted on
Categories: DSwiss, FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 6 through 9 of March 2018 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Zurich-based secure digital services provider DSwiss will demo its privacy-protected collaboration tool for bank clients and advisors, together with Deutsche Bank.

Features

  • Secure document-centric collaboration
  • Contextual secure message exchange between customers and advisors
  • Digital workflow for common, customer-related tasks

Why it’s great
DSwiss’ product is the first completely privacy-protected, one-to-one collaboration possibility for bank clients and advisors.

Presenters

Tobias Christen, CEO of DSwiss

Malte Morawietz, Vice President and Head of Digital Investments and Valuable for Deutsche Bank

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Efigence

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Efigence
By finovate Posted on
Categories: Efigence, FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 6 through 9 of March 2018 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Efigence – a company specializing in implementing innovative technologies and designing user experiences for banks – presents a new feature from the EFI4 Digital Banking Platform: EFI4 Analytics.

Features

  • Real-time analysis both on public and secure sites
  • Conversion of insights into recommendations with sales automation
  • On-premise solution, ensuring that the bank remains the sole owner of data gathered

Why it’s great
Take control with EFI4 Analytics, your one-stop tool to manage all customer data securely and effectively and transform it into real-time recommendations.

Presenters

Andrzej Szewczyk, Vice President and Managing Director
Szewczyk combines technology knowledge with experience in business management, creating innovative solutions for banks and other financial market players. He has worked in the Internet industry since 1999.
LinkedIn

Marek Lesiak, President & CTO
Lesiak is a fintech evangelist specializing in innovative product development. He has almost 20 years of experience designing web solutions.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alfa-Bank, CREALOGIX, Geezeo, Jack Henry, Moneyhub, Temenos, Thomson Reuters, ThreatMetrix, Vera

On Finovate.com

  • Jack Henry Marks 100 Bank Clients Using Geezeo-Powered Service.
  • Vera Partners with Canon to Enable Data Security Across Devices and Services.

Around the web

  • Moneyhub sends CTO to Europe to implement PSD2 strategy.
  • CREALOGIX, Temenos, and Thomson Reuters win in Asian Private Banker Technology Awards.
  • Alfa Bank teams with Ingenico to enable local card processing in Russia for international merchants.
  • ThreatMetrix President and CEO Reed Taussig recognized by One World Identity as one of Top 100 Influencers in Identity.

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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Dwolla Lands $12 Million

Dwolla Lands $12 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dwolla, Funding

In a short, three-sentence blog post, Dwolla CEO Ben Milne announced that the company closed a $12 million round of funding. The investment, which brings the Iowa-based company’s total to $51.4 million, was led by Foundry Group with participation from Union Square Ventures, Next Level Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, High Alpha, and Firebrand– all existing investors.

The funds will be used to support the financial platform’s growing capital requirements and to expand its team. Founded in 2008, Dwolla is growing. “We have more than 40 openings to fill this year,” Milne noted in his blog post announcing the funding. “As we build our team, we do so knowing that the best teams are built by the inclusion of diverse ideas, experiences, and people,” he added.

Dwolla offers a white-label payments API that allows firms to credit or debit any U.S. bank account the user has connected. The company integrates with Sift Science to offer real-time identity verification to help reduce fraud. And in May of 2017, Dwolla integrated with Plaid to instantly verify and authenticate customers’ bank accounts using tokenization.

Dwolla, which most recently demoed FiSync at FinovateSpring 2015, is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Last summer, the company added a multi-user feature to its Access API dashboard. In January, Dwolla began powering identity verification for Yahoo!’s Tanda savings app.

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UAE Exchange Partners with Ripple

UAE Exchange Partners with Ripple
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ripple

Is there anyone who still doubts that governments and financial institutions in the Middle East are committed to taking advantage of distributed ledger technology? If so, the announcement today that the UAE Exchange has joined Ripple’s RippleNet network is a reminder that when it comes to the blockchain: MENA means business.

“Incorporating Ripple’s blockchain technology into our payments systems will bring customers and enhanced, new payments experience,” UAE Exchange Group CEO Promoth Manghat said. “The early adoption of this game-changing technology allows us to offer a competitive service, as it will have an impact on the speed and cost of cross-border transactions. We are proud to deliver the future of payments with Ripple.”

Ripplenet is an enterprise blockchain network that features more than 100 participating banks and FIs. Via the network, members are able to conduct real-time messaging, clearing, and settlement of financial transactions for their banking and payment clients. In joining the network, UAE Exchange becomes the largest payment solutions provider in the Middle East to use Ripple’s technology for real-time, worldwide, payment processing.

“We choose to focus on solving inefficiencies in key corridors where payment flows are significant and growing,” Global Head of Infrastructure Innovation for Ripple, Dilip Rao said. “Adding a market leader like UAE Exchange to RippleNet will bring instant, certain, low-cost payments to the millions of retail customers in the UAE who send money abroad.”

Ripple and its technology have been gaining momentum along with the broader growth in interest in the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and distributed ledger technology. Earlier this month, the company announced that Banco Santander would leverage its technology to offer same day mobile international payments. In January, Ripple launched a trial project with MoneyGram in which the remittance services specialist will use XRP through Ripple’s xRapid service and explore integration with Ripple’s API for businesses, xVia.

Founded in 1980, UAE Exchange has nearly 800 branches in 31 countries – with nearly 150 branches across the seven Emirates and 17 branches in Dubai metro stations. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE has more than 9,000 employees and more than 15 million customers worldwide using its remittance services.

Making its Finovate debut as OpenCoin at FinovateSpring 2013, Ripple currently has more than 100 customers around the world. The company’s digital asset XRP, available on more than 50 exchanges globally, is used by banks and payment providers to better enter new markets and keep costs low. With offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, Luxembourg, and Mumbai, Ripple has raised more than $90 million in funding, and counts Santander Innoventures, SBI Investment, IDG Capital Partners, and Core Innovation Capital among its investors.

Interested in fintech developments in the Middle East? FinovateMiddleEast comes to Dubai, UAE, February 26 and 27, for two days of keynotes, panel discussions, and live fintech demonstrations. 

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NetGuardians Inks Agreement with FirstOntario Credit Union

NetGuardians Inks Agreement with FirstOntario Credit Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: NetGuardians

NetGuardians announced today that FirstOntario Credit Union ($5 billion in assets) has deployed its anti-fraud technology, earning the Swiss fintech its first North American customer. NetGuardians’ solution was integrated into the credit union’s core banking platform – Temenos’ T24 – in just three months, and gives the province’s second largest credit union new tools when it comes to defending its members against cyberfraud.

“FirstOntario has joined a growing number of leading financial service providers around the world choosing NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution.” Joel Winteregg, NetGuardians’ CEO said. “Our focus on prevention as well as detection means FirstOntario is giving its 115,000+ members the best possible protection.”

“We were impressed by their focus on financial crime mitigation and the well-developed library of relevant fraud controls,” VP for Information Technology at FirstOntario Michael Walsh said. “Together, they give FirstOntario enhanced protection against a wide spectrum of fraud schemes.” Walsh noted that the decision to deploy NetGuardians’ technology came after the CU’s IT and risk team highlighted global cyberfraud trends and recommended FirstOntario take action to improve its defense. In their statement, NetGuardians underscored the financial burden of cyberfraud, quoting a 2016 Cyber Crime Report from Cyber Security Ventures that anticipated cyberfraud costs of $6 trillion by 2021.

Headquartered in Yverdon-les-Bains, NetGuardians demonstrated its technology at FinovateAsia 2016. The company’s FraudGuardian solution uses Big Data, dynamic profiling, pattern-based intelligence, and predictive analytics to monitor and analyze both transaction level activity as well as real-time behaviors across all banking channels. FraudGuardian sends instant alerts when suspicious behavior is detected, giving FIs the ability to take risk mitigation measures as soon as possible.

NetGuardians ended 2017 by forging a new partnership with Masaref Business & Systems Consulting (Masaref-BSC) in a move that will spread the company’s fraud-fighting solutions to FIs in the Middle East. The company teamed up with Swisscom back in November to launch a fraud prevention service, and deployed its fraud fighting technology at Ghana’s Premium Bank last June.

Named to the Chartis RiskTech 100 for 2018 and honored with a spot in the European Fintech 100, NetGuardians has raised more than $14 million (CHF13.5 million) in funding, and includes Freemont Management, Swisscom Ventures, Polytech Ecosystem Ventures, and MoneyTime Ventures among its investors. The company was founded in 2007.

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Stash Raises $37.5 Million, Launches Custodial Accounts

Stash Raises $37.5 Million, Launches Custodial Accounts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Stash

Mobile-first financial platform Stash  closed $37.5 million in funding today to help Americans rethink how they invest and save. Union Square Ventures led the Series D round, with contributions also coming from existing investors Breyer Capital, Coatue Management, Entree Capital, Goodwater Capital, and Valar Ventures.

“Through customer focus and a data-driven mindset, Stash has been able to create a powerful consumer brand, with unprecedented growth, on its journey to fix the inequities plaguing financial opportunity across the U.S. We’re excited to join them on this mission to shake up the status quo,” said Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures.

Stash’s Smart-Save

Today’s round brings Stash’s total funding received in its three-year history to $116.3 million. After last October’s $40 million round, Business Insider estimated the company’s value at $240 million. The New York-based company will use the funds to support the launch of its newest batch of products, including Custodial Accounts, which will be rolling out this week. Custodial Accounts will allow Stash clients to open new accounts for minors to give them a head start on their finances.

Additional new features include Smart-Save (pictured right) and Stash Coach. Smart-Save studies a user’s spending habits and uses an algorithm to determine where they have spare cash, then moves a portion of that amount into a savings account, from which clients can withdraw at any time for free. Stash Coach provides financial recommendations and challenges, while providing guidance and support for accomplishments.

“Stash’s goal since day one has been to help the masses of underserved Americans jump start their journey towards building a healthy and prosperous future,” said Brandon Krieg, co-founder and CEO of Stash. “Through intelligent products and an emphasis on education, we’ve been able to meaningfully improve the financial lives of nearly two million clients. We’re proud of what our customers have accomplished, but we’re even more excited for what’s ahead.”

Stash currently serves over 1.7 million clients on its investing platform, which allows users to choose from a selection of over 40 curated ETFs, and is showing strong growth– approximately 40,000 new clients join its investing platform weekly. The company counts 5 million subscribers to Stash Learn, a financial education content newsletter.

The company’s mobile investing platform doesn’t collect add-on commissions or trading fees, and charges $1 per month for accounts under $5,000. Users with portfolios over that threshold pay 0.25% per year. For all accounts, Stash has lowered the overdraft fee to $0.50 for returned deposits. This is significantly lower than the $35 average overdraft fee that traditional banks charge.

Krieg debuted Stash Retire at FinovateFall 2017. In November of last year, KPMG and H2 Ventures named the company on its 2017 Fintech 100 list. The month prior, Stash announced plans to expand its platform from investing to a more robust banking service. This is part of the rebundling of fintech trend that many analysts predicted would dominate 2018.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: DAVO Technologies, Dwolla, InComm, Larky, NetGuardians, Neustar, Ripple, SecureKey, Stash

On Finovate.com

  • Dwolla Lands $12 Million.
  • Larky Deepens Partnership with Core Processing Solutions Provider Sharetec.
  • Stash Raises $37.5 Million, Launches Custodial Accounts.
  • NetGuardians Inks Agreement with FirstOntario Credit Union.

Around the web

  • InComm subsidiary On-Line Strategies launches partnership with National Bankcard Services to enable prepaid at the gas pump.
  • Neustar expands its DDoS mitigation defense network in EMEA.

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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Webinar: What’s Hot and What’s Not in Global Fintech

Webinar: What’s Hot and What’s Not in Global Fintech
By finovate Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

Summary

The fintech revolution continues to gather pace globally and there is heated debate about the challenges and opportunities fintech could bring. The critical question of whether fintech start-ups threaten traditional providers of financial services or will become trusted partners remains unanswered.

For Europe 2018 is set to be a pivotal year. Major developments including the unfolding of Brexit; the onset of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); open banking and the implementation of the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) will all have a huge role to play in reshaping the future of financial services in Europe. Globally the fintech train is unstoppable with game changing developments in artificial intelligence; robotics; identity verification; internet of things; RegTech; InsurTech; challenger banking; Blockchain and crypto capitalism. With so much happening it is hard to know where to really pay attention.

In the run up to Finovate Europe, our panel of experts, chaired by the inimitable Ruth Wandhofer, will share their views on what’s hot and what’s not in global fintech in 2018.

Speakers

Moderator: Ruth Wandhöfer, Global Head of Regulatory & Market Strategy, Citi

Ruth is highly recognized in the European payment industry as one of the foremost authorities on the PSD and she is the Chair of the European Expert Group on the transposition of the Payment Services Directive, a joint initiative of the three European Credit Sector Associations.She is also a member of the Plenary of the European Payments Council as well as a member of the SEPA schemes working group, driving the continued evolution of SEPA.

 

Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst, Payments and Banking, Celent

Zilvinas Bareisis researches and advises clients on consumer payments. He has a keen interest in payments innovation, and how the “perfect storm” of competitive (e.g. Fintech), regulatory (e.g. EMV, PSD2), and technology (e.g. digital, blockchain, Internet of Things) developments shapes consumer payments today and tomorrow. Zilvinas has over 20 years of experience advising senior executives at the leading financial institutions and their technology and service providers. He joined Celent in April 2010 from Oliver Wyman.

Michelle Evans, Head of Digital Consumer Research, Euromonitor International

Michelle Evans is the Head of Digital Consumer Research at Euromonitor International. In her role, she oversees the firm’s research on the digital consumer, providing actionable insights and in-depth analyses into how technological advances are reshaping the way consumers browse and buy goods and services globally. She regularly writes and speaks about Euromonitor’s research with her specialty spanning mobile payments, digital commerce, e-commerce, m-commerce, digital marketing and social media. Recognized as a thought leader in digital commerce, she was named a Power Women in Fintech by Innotribe in 2015, a Woman on Top in Tech by Asian Entrepreneur in 2016 and a Woman to Watch by Remodista in 2018. She has shared her expertise across industry events, including Money 20/20, Trustech, Forum E-Commerce Brasil, Mobile Shopping and CONNECT Mobile CX Summit in the capacity as a speaker, chairperson or juror. Leveraging her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, she has a reoccurring column in Forbes and is regularly quoted in publications globally.

Kieran Hines, Head of Industries, Ovum IT

Kieran Hines is Head of Industries at Ovum, providing research to support clients across a range of sectors including financial services, retail, government, education, healthcare and utilities. He specializes in retail banking, primarily digital channels, and regularly produces research and advises customers on the issues driving change in this sector. Kieran also examines the payments area, with a special emphasis on digital commerce and merchant payment strategy, He leads research into payments technology, strategy and infrastructure. Before joining Ovum, Kieran spent 11 years at Datamonitor Financial where he led research into consumer payments and private wealth management.

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DAVO’s New Sales Apps Bring Savings Technology to Small Businesses

DAVO’s New Sales Apps Bring Savings Technology to Small Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: DAVO Technologies

Small business tools company DAVO launched two new apps to help small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with their cash management needs. DAVO Sweep & Save and DAVO Savings Club are the two new apps available to SMBs today.

Both apps are automated savings tools that use fractional daily funding technology, which connects to a merchant’s Point of Sale (POS) platform or accounting software to set aside cash to save for a future use. This automated savings technology is a similar concept to the consumer-facing apps Dyme and Digit, which move money from a user’s checking account into a separate savings account. Check out our overview of those platforms from last year.

DAVO Sweep & Save returns the saved amount to the merchant on a monthly basis to go toward expenses such as rent, business loans, or equipment leases, while DAVO Savings Club sets aside the cash on an annual basis. DAVO notes that the annual funds are intended for “an ongoing cookie jar or Christmas Club like savings.” With both Sweep & Save and Savings Club, merchants opt to either set aside a fixed dollar amount or percentage of daily sales to go toward the savings. “For example,” DAVO co-founder David Joseph explained, “using DAVO Savings Club a merchant can put aside $20 a day and at the end of a year have over $7,000 to use as they see fit. They won’t feel the $20/day but they will love having $7000.”

In a press release, Joseph said, “SMBs are passionate about their businesses and are very good at generating revenue but very often they are far less skilled at cash management. DAVO was originally started to solve the challenges of sales tax for SMBs, but has evolved into a powerful cash management tool.”

Founded in 2011, DAVO demoed its flagship product at FinovateFall 2015. During the demo, the company’s CEO Owen Brown showed how DAVO Sales Tax automatically and passively collects, files, and pays sales tax on a merchant’s behalf. Similar to the two savings apps launched today, the Sales Tax app integrates with a merchant’s POS and backend accounting platforms to set aside the sales tax collected each day. Last October, DAVO made the Sales Tax app available in the Square Marketplace. The company has raised $4 million. And with 1,800 clients, DAVO has grown its customer base by more than 12X since 2015.

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Larky Deepens Partnership with Core Processing Solutions Provider Sharetec

Larky Deepens Partnership with Core Processing Solutions Provider Sharetec
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Larky

Core processing solutions provider Sharetec announced today that it is expanding its relationship with mobile engagement and loyalty program specialist Larky. Sharetec plans to use Larky’s technology with credit unions that use Sharetec’s core system to increase engagement through better membership perks, and boost revenues with more effective cross-selling strategies.

“With our location-based platform, members receive mobile notifications when they are near a specific location where there is a special offer or the credit union wants to promote a specific product or service,” Larky CEO Gregg Hammerman said. “This encourages local purchasing at the most convenient time for the member while increasing cross-selling opportunities for the credit union.”

Larky’s relationship builds on the collaboration the two companies announced last April. The company’s merchant-funded loyalty platform gives CU members instant savings and discounts at local retailers while simultaneously extending the CU’s brand. Larky provides a CU-branded iOS and Android mobile app and sends smartphone alerts to users when they are physically close to a merchant where a qualifying reward is available. Customers save as much as $1,000 in qualifying discounts, and institutions can earn additional interchange revenue from more frequent use of their credit or debit cards.

GBS Credit Union VP Dan Miller said, “The challenge to reach members is significantly lessened with the Larky platform as this tool engages and alerts members to relevant cost-saving information.” Miller added that by making it easier for credit unions to market their financial products and services to members – especially mobile-oriented members – also “strengthen(s) the credit union’s cross-selling success.”

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Larky demonstrated its new Android app, as well as new white-label mobile and web solution at FinovateFall 2014. Larky’s platform has been deployed most recently with First Alliance CU in Rochester, Minnesota, and with United Teletech Financial FCU in Tinton Fall, New Jersey. In December, Larky’s Hammerman and VISA’s Head of Community and Regional Accounts Doug Leighton sat for an interview with Filene to discuss credit unions and digitization.

With $2.4 million in funding, Larky includes North Coast Technology Investors, Michigan Angel Fund, Ann Arbor SPARK, and the First Step Fund among its investors. The company was founded in 2012.

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