Q2 Announces New Partnership with Acorns

Q2 Announces New Partnership with Acorns
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Q2ebanking

 

Cloud-based digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdings has entered into a new collaboration with financial services platform, Acorns. Via the multiyear partnership, Acorns will take advantage of the Q2 Open portfolio, a suite of open-API financial services solutions originally unveiled by Q2 last year that give developers the ability to build customer-facing financial products and experiences.

Matt Flake, Q2 CEO, said it was important for both incumbent FIs and newer firms to get access to the right technology in order to build the financial solutions that clients demand. “We believe many fintech companies and traditional FIs share the goal of strengthening their communities, and we’re excited to provide them a common set of technology they can use to deliver on their respective missions,” Flake said.

Among the APIs available via Q2 Open are Q2 Debit, which enables the building of checking account functionality within apps, Q2 Save, which enables building savings account functionality into apps, Q2 Ledger, which adds ledgering functionality for FBO (“for the benefit of”) accounts; and Q2 Biller Direct, which brings bill presentment, aggregation, and billpay functionality to apps. Among the fintechs already using Q2 Open include fellow Finovate alum, Qapital, whose CEO George Friedman said the solution “enable(d) our team of creators, designers, and developers to rapidly deliver new features in our app – allowing us to build a product that our customers really love.”

Founded in 2004, Q2 demonstrated its Q2 CardSwap solution at FinovateFall 2017. CardSwap helps financial service providers earn interchange revenue by enabling account holders to use their bank card for digital subscription services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Uber. The technology can be integrated into existing front-end platforms or companies can leverage their internal engineering talent and the APIs within Q2 Banking’s Open API portfolio to build their own CardSwap front end.

Last year, Q2 was named to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for a second year in a row in 2017 and earned a finalist spot in the NAFCU Services 2017 Innovation Awards. Also in 2017, Q2 Holdings added financial services and technology veteran Christine Petersen as Chief Revenue Officer last year and unveiled its new targeting and messaging platform, Q2 Smart. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “QTWO.” The company has a market capitalization of $1.8 billion.

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Coinbase Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance

Coinbase Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase

Digital currency wallet Coinbase is expanding its horizons– and its potential client base– this week with the launch of Coinbase Commerce.

The new offering aims to enable merchants across the globe to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin payments and deposit the funds directly into their personal wallets. Coinbase Commerce gives merchants full control of their own digital currency, since it is not a hosted service.

To sign up, merchants just need an email address and a smartphone and can directly integrate Coinbase Commerce into their existing checkout flow or add it as a payment option on an e-commerce platform. Coinbase Commerce already integrates with Shopify, which serves 500,000 merchants. The company is actively adding new integrations to facilitate payment acceptance.

Coinbase also provides a merchant dashboard, where business owners can manage payments and monitor earnings from a single place.

The Coinbase Commerce merchant dashboard

Merchants that leverage Coinbase Commerce will join the list of other large businesses that currently accept cryptocurrencies, including Overstock.com, Newegg, Dish, Gyft, Expedia, and Microsoft. That said, the volatility of cryptocurrencies, combined with the fact that most people hold cryptocurrencies as a speculation tool and are hesitant to spend it, means that there might be slow adoption for cryptocurrency merchant acceptance.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. In August of 2017, the company became a fintech unicorn after it closed a $100 million round of Series D funding. At that point, Pitchbook estimated Coinbase’s value to be $1.6 billion. Last month, the company acquired talent from Memo.AI to bolster its engineering team during the bitcoin boom.

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IdentityMind Global Raises $10 Million to Fuel Global Growth

IdentityMind Global Raises $10 Million to Fuel Global Growth
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, IdentityMind Global

In a Series C round led by Benhamou Global Ventures and Eastern Link Capital, IdentityMind Global has secured $10 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured the participation of Hanna Ventures, Overstock.com, and Zanadu Capital Partners, will help support the digital identity specialist’s expansion within international markets and to grow its new business unit designed to provide KYC and AML solutions for ICO and cryptocurrency markets.

“We feel privileged to be working with an elite group of high quality investors who have a proven track record of success,” IdentityMind Global CEO Garrett Gafke said. “The market demand for digital identity-based solutions in today’s global digital economy is booming. IdentityMind, the pioneer in digital identities, with hundreds of customers spanning six continents, is uniquely positioned to meet growing global market demand.”

An alum of Finovate’s developer conference series, FinDEVr, IdentityMind Global is looking specifically to markets in Asia, Latin America, and Europe for expansion. And with regards to the new market of ICOs and cryptocurrencies, the company’s announcement comes only one week after unveiling its new business unit dedicated to providing anti-fraud solutions for ICOs.

Overstock.com CEO and IdentityMind investor Patrick Byrne referenced the rise of ICOs and their needs in the funding announcement. “ICOs and cryptocurrencies are going mainstream and IdentityMind is one of the key players in helping ensure transparency, legitimacy, security and compliance which will only lead to faster and greater marketplace adoption.”

In addition to new opportunities in the emerging ICO and cryptocurrency space, IdentityMind Global has also taken advantage of new trends in regtech more broadly – including the EU’s GDPR – that will increase demand for its AML, KYC, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and fraud prevention services. The company cited statistics from Frost & Sullivan that indicated that the global RegTech market could reach $6.45 billion by 2020.

“The ongoing growth of synthetic or stolen identities requires digital identity-based solutions to prevent identity fraud and maintain the integrity of the global digital economy,” Managing Partner for Eastern Link Capital Yodong Hou said. “IdentityMind has been identified as a ‘go to’ partner for those companies needing to implement an effective defense to identity thieves, online fraudsters, and money launderers worldwide.”

IdentityMind Global participated in Finovate’s developers conference in London in 2017, presenting its Entity Link API that helps businesses meet KYC and AML-related risk and compliance requirements. Last month, the company announced a partnership with fellow Finovate alum Mitek, integrating the two fintechs’ digital ID verification capacities. With this investment, the company’s total capital stands at more than $20 million.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Fortytwo Data

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Fortytwo Data
By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek, Fortytwo Data

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.

Fortytwo Data uses the very latest technology in its AI-powered anti-money-laundering (AML) platform for use with client behaviour monitoring, transaction monitoring, and sanction screening.

Features

  • Combines traditional rule-based scenarios with the latest machine learning techniques
  • Offers dynamic scenario building empowering the AML analyst
  • Provides a 90% reduction in false positives in sanction screening

Why it’s great
Fortytwo Data’s Advanced AML Platform provides a full, end-to-end solution to manage transaction monitoring and screening using the most advanced machine learning techniques.

Presenters

Luca Primerano, Head of Strategy
Primerano has 10 years’ strategic and operational leadership experience gained at Deloitte, Deutsche, and Goldman Sachs. His expertise lies at the intersection between process and technology.
LinkedIn

Julian Dixon, CEO
Dixon has more than 20 years of financial services experience gained at major investment banks including Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and Commerzbank. His roles have included front-office sales leader.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Horizn

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

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.

Horizn’s Horizn Knowledge Platform helps financial institutions dramatically accelerate market adoption of digital innovation and new products at lightning speed.

Features

  • Gets employees and customers fluent on the latest digital innovation
  • Improves the customer experience and drives digital adoption
  • Combines micro-learning, social technologies, gamification, and analytics

Why it’s great
Using Horizn, banks increased mobile adoption 25%, and brought call centre times down 45 seconds. Using the in-branch demo with non-digital customers, 20% converted to mobile banking.

Presenters

Janice Diner, CEO Founder
Diner is the CEO and founder of Horizn. Launching 6 years ago, her creative vision and determination led to the development of a world-class SaaS company.
LinkedIn

Robin Dindayal, Chief Product Officer
Dindayal is the chief product officer. He leads product management, engineering and PMO. His leadership has been integral in developing the Horizn product.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: YUKKA Lab

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: YUKKA Lab
By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek, YUKKA Lab

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.

YUKKA Lab is a technological leader in the field of augmented language intelligence, delivering fact-based actionable insights for the financial branch.

Features

  • Fast and efficient overview of relevant topics and news, better-informed advisory
  • Fact-based investment decisions
  • Risk Mitigation

Why it’s great
YUKKA´s technology systematically aggregates and evaluates financial news based on context in real-time. It allows users to reliably anticipate market moods and trends and adjust strategies accordingly.

Presenters

Oliver Berchtold, CBD & Co-Founder
Berchtold is an experienced business developer and digital transformer passionate about integrating the benefits of artificial intelligence to support the transformation of the financial industry.
LinkedIn

Andreas Pusch, CEO & Founder
Pusch is an experienced entrepreneur with a long-standing background in the finance industry. He is passionate about providing customers with solutions that truly simplify their investment decisions.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: ebankIT

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: ebankIT
By finovate Posted on
Categories: ebankIT, 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.

ebankIT’s ebankIT Platform is the hub that enables banks to provide customer journeys with empathic experiences. The next banking revolution will demand this.

Features

  • Offers a flexible omnichannel digital banking platform, business middleware, and class-leading apps
  • Enables fully empathic customer interactions
  • Has an API gateway to embrace fintechs and third parties

Presenters

Diana Winstanley, Business Developer
Winstanley coordinated several projects on business analysis and international business development, with experience showcasing the latest technological innovations to financial institutions throughout the globe.
LinkedIn

Vitor Barros, Pre-Sales Director
Project director for the R&D department of ebankIT, Barros has managed and implemented several projects over the years, ranging from middleware to mobile platforms and the development of innovative applications.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: aixigo

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: aixigo
By finovate Posted on
Categories: aixigo, FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek, Uncategorized

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.

aixigo offers the fastest wealth management technology. It enables innovation leaders to digitalise all aspects of the personal investment business.

Features

  • Offers the fastest wealth management platform
  • Manages millions of portfolios
  • Provides millisecond responses combined with big data scalability

Why it’s great
aixigo’s wealth management technology is the fastest available. It will manage millions of portfolios your way.

Presenters

Mario Alves, Head of Sales and Partner Management
Alves is a proven expert in retail and private banking, with a special focus on investment and advisory in MiFID related markets and products.
LinkedIn

Marcus Gruendler, Head of Portfolio Management Systems
Gruendler is Head of Portfolio Management Systems at aixigo with international project experience. He develops aixigo’s high performance wealth management platform.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Intelligent Environments

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Intelligent Environments
By finovate Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018, FinovateEurope 2018 Sneak Peek, Intelligent Environments

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.

Intelligent Environments is on a mission to help financial service organisations transform their digital customer experience. It has rewired the consumer debt collection process for the digital world.

Why it’s great
The company will show you a low stress, non-confrontational debt collection environment that is proven to increase recovery performance and reduce call centre costs.

Presenters

Simon Cadbury, Director of Strategy, Marketing & Innovation
Cadbury has swum the length of Royal Victoria Docks (in front of FinovateEurope’s new venue, the ExCeL Centre). If he and Tom win Best of Show, he has promised they will take another dip.
LinkedIn

Tom Stinton, Head of Product
While Stinton is really hoping for your SEAL of approval, he is no longer sure he still wants to win Best of FIN-ovate (because that means he would have to come through on Cadbury’s promise of swimming the length of the Ryoal Victoria Docks).
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CASHOFF, Coinbase, Finastra, IdentityMind Global, Mambu, NICE Systems, Onfido, Q2, Revolut, Ripple, Roostify

On Finovate.com

  • IdentityMind Global Raises $10 Million to Fuel Global Growth.
  • Coinbase Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance.
  • Roostify Lands $25 Million to Disrupt the Mortgage Industry.

Around the web

  • Revolut partners with payment issuer processor GPS ahead of APAC launch.
  • Ripple teams up with Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to begin cross-border payments pilot program using xCurrent.
  • NICE Actimize brings financial crime, risk and compliance technology to global provider of core banking systems technology.
  • South Africa’s Absa Bank goes live with Finastra’s CLS platform, PAYplus.
  • CASHOFF wins finalist spot in PFM & Robo Advice category of Innovate Finance’s 2018 Pitch360 competition.
  • Microsoft features Onfido. Come see Onfido at FinovateEurope next month!
  • Softtek and Mambu launch banking platform as a service.

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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Placecast Acquired by Ericsson’s Emodo

Placecast Acquired by Ericsson’s Emodo
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Placecast

In a deal announced today, location-based marketing and loyalty company Placecast has been acquired by Emodo for an undisclosed amount.

Emodo is a Swedish networking and telecom company that helps telcos monetize their subscriber data. The company, which debuted just months ago in November, is an Ericsson-owned entity.

As part of today’s deal, San Francisco-based Placecast’s CEO Alistair Goodman will transition to the role of Emodo Chief Commercial Officer. Placecast’s 38 employees will join Emodo’s workforce of 27 at its headquarters in the same city.

In a blog post, Goodman said that the deal builds on the strengths of both companies. “Placecast brings its leading carrier-verified, location-based data solutions to an experienced Emodo team, backed by Ericsson’s reputation as a neutral, trusted partner for mobile operators, advertisers, and publishers,” he said. The two firms plan to complete the integration by the second quarter of this year.

Founded in 2005, Placecast offers location-based marketing and loyalty programs for mobile operators, payments companies and brands. The company maintains and scrubs location data from more than 400 million mobile user profiles, tens of millions of merchant records, IDs and addresses from around the globe. Placecast’s other location-based solutions include Mobile Data Management Platform, Mobile Demand-Side Platform, and Native Mobile Advertising, among others.

The company demoed Shop Alerts mobile wallet at FinovateSpring 2013, at the height of fintech’s mobile wallet boom. Last July, Placecast launched Location Verification, a solution that leverages data from U.S. carriers to confirm the location accuracy of mobile ads, audiences, and attribution to bring geolocation to the next level.

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Bankjoy Brings New Online and Mobile Banking System to SafeAmerica Credit Union

Bankjoy Brings New Online and Mobile Banking System to SafeAmerica Credit Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bankjoy

SafeAmerica Credit Union’s investment in its partnership with Bankjoy has begun paying big dividends. The 35,000+ member credit union unveiled its online and mobile banking platform last week, successfully enrolling 25% of its active users within the first day of the launch.

Steven Page, VP of Marketing and Digital Banking for SafeAmerica CU said that customer engagement is a priority for the institution, and that Bankjoy’s platform and API integration capabilities would go a long way toward this goal. “(We are) always trying to find an easier way for our members to transact with us,” Page said. “Teaming up with Bankjoy has helped give SafeAmerica that flexibility to be nimble. With the new Bankjoy online banking and mobile app, we can continue to make improvements faster from the feedback we get from our members.”

Chartered in 1953 as a credit union for Safeway employees, SafeAmerica serves the Northern California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara, as well as a number of employer groups. It has $430 million in assets.

Bankjoy demonstrated its modern REST-based banking API for developers at FinovateFall 2016. The Mountain View, California-based fintech gives community banks and credit unions the ability to offer an omnichannel banking experience including mobile and online banking, as well as financial goal management. FIs can benefit from Bankjoy’s targeted advertising platform that enables banks and credit unions to send relevant marketing and other communications to their customers and members over all digital channels.

A graduate of the Y Combinator program, Bankjoy inked a deal with Michigan-area Coca-Cola Credit Union last spring. This added to the three credit unions that partnered with the company at the beginning of the year – Indiana’s CommunityWide FCU, Idaho’s Advantage Plus FCU, and Illinois’ One Detroit CU. The company was founded in 2015 by Michael Duncan (CEO).

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