Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, FICO, MasterCard, NYMBUS, PayPal, TASCET, TransCard

On Finovate.com

  • TASCET Teams with Secured2 to Launch Algo5 Data Security Offering.
  • NYMBUS Launches Digital-First Banking Platform, NYMBUS SmartDigital.

Around the web

  • Mastercard and PayPal expand partnership to Canada, Europe, LatinAm, Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa.
  • Affirmative Technologies partners with TransCard to provide electronic payment processing for SMBs.
  • FICO introduces new payment card fraud detection models.
  • Arxan receives ISO 13485 certification.

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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Join the Next Wave of RegTech Innovators

Join the Next Wave of RegTech Innovators
By finovate Posted on
Categories: Regulations

Call for Demos at RegTech Rising 1 & 2 November 2017 London.

RegTech Rising is the first large scale event in Europe dedicated to RegTech.  We’re bringing together the entire ecosystem – regulators; financial institutions; RegTech providers; industry advisers – to debate how to collaborate in order to accelerate innovation and capture the RegTech opportunity.

The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in a tranche of new regulations for the financial services sector and these reforms dramatically increased costs and complexity for the financial services sector relating to compliance, supervisory and reporting requirements.  Many financial services providers have legacy systems that are just not capable of delivering the breadth of functionality required to take the pain out of regulatory compliance. RegTech could be a real breakthrough but there are real challenges in bringing new technology into the institution and integrating it with legacy systems.

RegTech Rising will address all these issues and more.

On 31 October our New Tech For RegTech Lab will examine the new technologies which are driving change and explore applications of artificial intelligence; machine learning; open APIs and distributed ledger technology for regulatory compliance.

On 1 & 2 November the RegTech Rising Conference will explore key strategic issues as well as offering deep dive sessions into specific regulatory areas.  Hear from regulators spearheading the RegTech initiative; those leading the charge for change within financial institutions and the providers who are creating the innovative solutions.

Visit finance.knect365.com/regtech-rising to see the latest agenda and the speaker list.

If you wish to demo your RegTech solution to Heads of Innovation; Heads of Digital Innovations; Heads of Regulatory Change; Chief Compliance Officers; Chief Technology Officers; Chief Risk Officers; Chief Operating Officers, please contact aman.duggal@knect365.com

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Aviva Acquires Majority Stake in U.K. Online Wealth Management Specialist, Wealthify

Aviva Acquires Majority Stake in U.K. Online Wealth Management Specialist, Wealthify
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Wealthify

U.K.-based insurer Aviva is the latest financial services company to turn to fintech in general and online investment services in specific in order to provide greater value for its customers. The firm announced today that it had acquired a majority stake in robo advisor, Wealthify. And while terms were not disclosed, the company was valued at £9.7 million in the wake of recent £1 million crowdfunding campaign.

Writing at the Wealthify blog, company CEO and founder Richard Theo called the acquisition “a huge vote of confidence” in both Wealthify’s vision to make investing more democratic, as well as, “the way we have delivered that vision.” Theo said the move affirmed the company’s place as a significant disruptor in the wealth management space, and takes Aviva closer to being a “one-stop-shop for all their customers’ insurance, pension, and investment needs.”

Left to right: Wealthify founder and CEO Richard Theo and Chief Investment Officer Michelle Pearce demonstrating the company’s online investing service.

Theo added that the investment will enable the company to pursue its “ambitious customer acquisition targets” as well as support new products, particularly JISA and SIPPs. Wealthify also plans to add talent to its team, and will take on a trio of non-executive directors from Aviva. The company will remain headquartered in Cardiff, Theo noted with pride, referencing both Wealthify’s Welsh roots and the promise of the growing financial services community in and around Cardiff.

Managing director of Aviva U.K. Digital Blair Turnbull praised Wealthify’s platform, which will be integrated into Aviva’s digital hub, MyAviva. Turnbull called the technology “remarkably easy to use” and underscored its appeal to both traditional cash savers and millennial investors. Aviva is the biggest general insurance provider in the U.K., and a leading life and pensions provider. The firm serves 33 million customers in 16 markets around the world.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Cardiff, U.K., Wealthify demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2017. With as little as £ 1, users can use the platform to save for specific financial goals, create a monthly investment installment plan, set an investment time horizon, and articulate a personalize risk profile – all of which guide the way the platform chooses potential investments. The platform gives users a “predicted value” of their portfolio and the ability to see the actual plan summary of asset class allocations, fees, and more. Wealthify has more than 1,800 registered users.

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TIBCO Acquires Cisco’s Data Virtualization Business

TIBCO Acquires Cisco’s Data Virtualization Business
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TIBCO Software

Integration, analytics, and event-processing software company TIBCO has agreed to acquire Cisco’s Data Virtualization business (formerly Composite Software). Today’s acquisition, which is subject to conditions, is expected to close in a few weeks.

The solution powers enterprise-scale data virtualization and offers associated consulting and support services. TIBCO will leverage the new solution to enhance its portfolio of analytics products and will help clients onboard analytics solutions faster than competing products. Additionally, it will help TIBCO adapt to a range of data sources — from traditional,  IoT-sourced, to big data. The new technology creates a virtual layer of data (without the need for extracting) and leaves the original data sources in tact.

“Data Virtualization helps our customers find and analyze the data they need in hours or days, rather than months, so that they can quickly discover insights and take insight-driven action,” said Mark Palmer, senior vice president of analytics at TIBCO. “The next generation of business intelligence depends on doing more with analytics than just putting data on a graph. Data Virtualization is a key component of getting the right data at the right time to business analysts, data scientists, and automated applications using streaming analytics.”

This is the California-based company’s third acquisition this year, after announcing plans to acquire both nanoscale.io for its microservices in July, and data science company Statistica in May. Last month, TIBCO received a number of accolades, having been named a leader by Dresner Advisory Services, and Forrester, and ranking first in Dresner Advisory Services 2017 Advanced and Predictive Analytics Market Study.

TIBCO presented at FinovateAsia 2013, showcasing how banks can leverage their clients’ transactional data to gain insight into customer behavior. Founded in 1997, TIBCO was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2014.

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Temenos Teams Up with MuleSoft to Accelerate Open Banking

Temenos Teams Up with MuleSoft to Accelerate Open Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Temenos

Banking software provider Temenos has teamed up with Mulesoft, a platform provider for building application networks. The move is intended to break down barriers to the open banking initiative by facilitating API connections.

As a part of the partnership, Temenos will develop a core banking adaptor for MuleSoft’s AnyPoint platform, a system that helps companies connect applications, data and devices into a network that allows for reuse and self-service. This will establish a standard interface between MuleSoft and the Temenos integration framework and “reduce barriers” to offer banks a “seamless experience on a unified banking platform.”

Neal McLoughlin, Head of Partners at Temenos said, “With MuleSoft, clients gain an experienced and knowledgeable partner to facilitate integration between our Core Banking platform and countless other applications and devices. We are pleased to partner with MuleSoft on this open banking initiative.”

Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateFall 2015 in London. Earlier this month the company announced that the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO) went live with its UniversalSuite. Temenos is headquartered in Switzerland, employs 4,300+ people in 63 offices to serve clients in 145+ countries. David Arnott is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, CoverHound, Neustar, PayNearMe, Temenos, TIBCO Software, Wealthify

On Finovate.com

  • Temenos Teams Up with MuleSoft to Accelerate Open Banking.
  • TIBCO Acquires Cisco’s Data Virtualization Business.
  • Aviva Acquires Majority Stake in U.K. Online Wealth Management Specialist, Wealthify.

Around the web

  • PayNearMe announces the PayNearMe Channel Partner Program for U.S. Partners.
  • CoverHound reveals an expanded partner and insurance carrier network.
  • Neustar’s Trusted Device Identity solution integrates with NetFoundry’s Application Specific Networking. platform to extend ID-based solutions across multiple networks and clouds.
  • BlackRock in talks for stake in Capital Preferences.

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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Worldpay Makes Strategic Contribution to Featurespace’s $21.9 Million Funding Round

Worldpay Makes Strategic Contribution to Featurespace’s $21.9 Million Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Featurespace, Funding, WorldPay

Behavioral analytics company Featurespace has raised $21.9 million today. The round was led by Highland Europe and supported by Worldpay, Touchstone Innovations, Invoke Capital, and existing investors. Today’s investment brings the company’s total funding to $38.3 million.

Global payments company Worldpay will play a strategic role in the investment as well, forming a technology partnership with UK-based Featurespace. According to the agreement, Featurespace will leverage behavioral analytics to power risk management and fraud prevention services for Worldpay’s merchant clients. Atlanta-based company Worldpay will also use Featurespace’s technology to enhance its own capabilities in the development of Intelligent Payment Services.

Mark Kimber, Chief Information Officer at Worldpay, said that the company is “confident that this partnership will deliver superior outcomes for our customers, by preventing more fraudulent transactions whilst reducing the number of genuine transactions that are declined.” Kimber added, “We’ve been incredibly impressed by the evolution of this business and believe it has the potential to grow significantly. With our investment in the company, we are looking forward to supporting the Featurespace team as they grow their business and capabilities.”

At FinovateFall 2016, Featurespace demonstrated its ARIC Fraud Manager that understands the real-time behavior of each customer, then uses machine learning to prevent fraud by pinpointing anomalous behavior. The company’s clients — including Vocalink/Zapp, William Hill, and TSYS — have deployed products and services in more than 180 countries. In August, Featurespace was selected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to power the organization’s fraud prevention solution. Earlier that month, the company teamed up with PwC to offer the firm’s clients a solution for combating financial crime risk.

Founded in 1989, Worldpay presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 about the payment journey. The company offers payment products and services to a client base of 400,000. Worldpay’s technology can process payments from 146 countries and 126 currencies, enabling customers to accept more than 300 different payment types. Earlier this summer, Worldpay agreed to merge with U.S. credit card processor Vantiv in a $10 billion deal.

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HooYu to Provide ID Confirmation for UK’s Cars-as-a-Service easyCar Club

HooYu to Provide ID Confirmation for UK’s Cars-as-a-Service easyCar Club
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HooYu

 

ID confirmation specialist HooYu announced a new partnership this week. The London-based fintech has teamed up with easyCar Club to provide identification verification for the 100,000-member P2P car hire marketplace.

“Our partnership with easyCar Club helps all parties in the equation to transact confidently,” HooYu Director of Marketing David Pope explained in a statement. “Insurers have the comfort that they know who is renting vehicles, easyCar Club are able to grow user numbers confidently and new users can enter the world of peer-to-peer marketplaces secure in the knowledge that they know who they are dealing with,” Pope said.

HooYu Director of Marketing David Pope demonstrating the company’s ID confirmation platform at FinovateEurope 2017.

“HooYu helps us add another layer of trust and safety to our marketplace giving our vehicle owners additional confidence in knowing that we proactively verify the identity of our users,” easyCar Club Product Manager Jin Ng said. easyCar Club leverages the growing popularity of the sharing economy to offer Cars-as-a-Service (CaaS) as a revenue opportunity for car owners and a convenience for people who only need cars on a short-term basis. Car owners earn an average of more than $1,900 (£1,500) a year lending their vehicles out and the company says its platform has facilitated “tens of thousands of rentals.”

HooYu cross-references and analyzes data from digital footprints in order to provide identity confirmation. The platform also uses a biometric face check, as well as data extraction and verification of the ID document itself to confirm real-world identity.

Founded in 2016 and based in London, U.K., HooYu demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2017. In August, the company announced a partnership with BCRemit, an online money transfer platform based in the U.K., that will help the firm accelerate its customer onboarding process. Earlier this year, HooYu reported that it would bring its ID confirmation technology to the equity crowdfunding platform, Vestabyte.

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More than $1 Billion Raised by 31 Alums in Q3 2017

More than $1 Billion Raised by 31 Alums in Q3 2017
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings

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*Update: 10/10/2017. Bill.com disclosed today the amount of its September funding at $100 million. This takes our September 2017 funding total to more than $187 million, and puts Bill.com in our “top ten” fundings for the quarter, as well. The total raised for Q3 2017 now stands at $1.13 billion.

In reeling in more than $1 billion in funding over the months of July, August, and September, Finovate alums in the third quarter of 2017 raised more than twice as much in equity capital compared to Q3 2016. This happened with the number of alums funded in both Q3 2015 and Q3 2016 – 31 versus 30 – being virtually the same. In this regard, the third quarter of this year was even more impressive than the $1 billion raised by 40 alums in 2015. For all the concerns over the slow start to funding this year, it appears the world’s fintech investors are more than making up for lost time.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q3 2016: $500 million raised by 30 alums
  • Q3 2015: $1 billion raised by 40 alums
  • Q3 2014: $194 million raised by 17 alums

The biggest deals of the third quarter this year were the $250 million raised by Kabbage and the $225 million raised by Klarna. Also impressive were the pair of $100 million fundraisings by Blend and Coinbase, as well as the $70 million investment in Betterment that edges the company that much closer to unicorn status. The top 10 equity investments totaled more than $922 million or more than 89% of the quarter’s total alum funding.

Top 10 Equity Investments (equity only)

  1. Kabbage: $250 million
  2. Klarna: $225 million
  3. Blend: $100 million
  4. Coinbase: $100 million
  5. Betterment: $70 million
  6. Prosper: $50 million
  7. Juvo: $40 million
  8. Personal Capital: $40 million
  9. Stockpile: $30 million
  10. Karmic Labs: $17.2 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q3 2017.

July 2017: More than $374 million raised by 15 alums

August 2017: More than $570 million raised by 10 alums

September 2017: More than $187 million raised by six alums

If you are a Finovate/FinDEVr alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2017, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Heckyl Technologies

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Heckyl Technologies
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017, FinovateAsia 2017 Sneak Peek, Heckyl Technologies

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on November 7 and 8 in Hong Kong. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Heckyl Technologies is in the space of real-time analytics of structured and unstructured data. Its news and sentiment analysis product helps companies through the reduction of the information arbitrage.

Features

  • Aggregation of data from thousands of sources to cover all asset classes: equities, FX, commodities, etc.
  • Deep-dive news and sentiment analytics
  • Real-time actionable intelligence

Why it’s great
A scalable product with a global appeal that performs the real-time analytics of structured and unstructured data.

Presenters

Mukund Mudras, Co-Founder
Mudras has 18+ years of techno-commercial and techno-functional experience. Responsible for overall strategy, sales and marketing, client relationship, and delivery management.
LinkedIn

Anand Vaidya, VP of Sales
Vaidya is an experienced VP of Sales with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Vaidya is skilled in sales, business development, capital markets, equity research, and financial modeling.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Moven Enterprise

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Moven Enterprise
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017, FinovateAsia 2017 Sneak Peek, Moven

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on November 7 and 8 in Hong Kong. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Moven is transforming the financial experience. The company does this by bringing value to your customers in real-time and driving positive measurable business outcomes for your bank: a true win-win situation.

Features
At FinovateAsia 2017, Moven Enterprise is very excited to demonstrate the increased capabilities of its recently launched Wishlist functionality, in addition to unveiling an all-new credit feature.

Why it’s great
The Moven platform offers a range of innovative, behavior-based features that help banks improve their customers’ financial experience and develop deeper, more trusted customer relationships.

Presenters

Andrew Clark, VP APAC
Clark has spent over 20 years in financial services in a variety of leadership positions across all financial services domains. He cannot wait to share the latest from Moven at FinovateAsia 2017.
LinkedIn

 

Taylor May Woolsey, Business Development and Marketing
Woolsey is on a mission to make an impact on financial services and to promote financial wellness around the world. Like Andrew, she is excited to share the Moven story at FinovateAsia 2017.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Bambu

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Bambu
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, FinovateAsia 2017, FinovateAsia 2017 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on November 7 and 8 in Hong Kong. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Bambu is a B2B robo advisory software firm that offers financial and non-financial companies the ability to integrate and benefit from the shift in digital wealth.

Features

  • Statistically augmented data ready for every company size
  • Recommends life goals based on similar spending and saving habits
  • Automated financial planning under 30 seconds

Why it’s great
People Like Me is the perfect plug-in solution for users seeking financial guidance based on their current age and situation.

Presenters

Ned Phillips, Founder & CEO
Former managing director and now an entrepreneur, Phillips has been based in Asia for the past 25 years and started his fintech journey in 1999 with E*TRADE as one of their very first brokers.
LinkedIn

 

Aki Ranin, C0-Founder & CEO
A technology industry veteran and former software developer, Ranin is a recognized authority in fintech and an accomplished technology executive with a highly technical background.
LinkedIn

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