Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Baker Hill, Bill.com, CRMNEXT, IBM, Payoneer, Revolut, Roostify

On Finovate.com

  • Revolut Launches Cryptocurrency Trading.
  • CRMNEXT to Enhance Customer Journeys for $4.4 Billion First Bank.
  • Payoneer Lands Funding from China Broadband Capital

Around the web

  • TechCrunch examines IBM’s new chip for AI.
  • Bill.com and CPA.com expand Accountant Partner Program.
  • Baker Hill integrates LenderLink into its NextGen solution as part of strategic partnership with Lowenstein and Associates.
  • Roostify announces integration with Black Knight’s LoanSphere Empower loan origination system (LOS).

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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Following J.P. Morgan Chase Acquisition, WePay to Power Payments for Volusion

Following J.P. Morgan Chase Acquisition, WePay to Power Payments for Volusion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, WePay

Having finalized its acquisition of WePay today, JP Morgan Chase announced that it has already put the payments platform to work: powering commerce platform Volusion.

Since it was founded in 2009, WePay has been creating payment APIs and processing payments on behalf of small businesses. Earlier this fall, the company announced it would be acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in a deal that was finalized today. While the terms of the deal were officially undisclosed, TechCrunch reported that Chase picked up WePay for $300 million (up to $400 million including retention bonuses and potential earn-outs).

Now that the acquisition is complete, WePay will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity and serve its 1,000 clients, including Freshbooks, Constant Contact, and GoFundMe. Under its new parent company, California-based WePay will continue to expand its client-base. The company’s CEO Bill Clerico will remain as head of the company, working alongside Chase Merchant Services CEO Matt Kane.

“We see exponential growth ahead of us as we combine our fintech products and culture with the global brand, scale, proficiencies, and distribution of Chase,” said Clerico. “We are headed into a massive expansion of our team, with particular focus on engineering and product management, and looking for a new headquarters in the Bay Area to accommodate our planned growth.”

As a part of this growth, WePay will power a new service from Volusion called Volusion Payments. The Austin-based ecommerce company serves 30,000 active SMB merchants with $28 billion in cumulative sales. In a statement, Kevin Sproles, Volusion’s founder and CEO, said that the new offering will allow Volusion to help its SMB clients “get up and running instantly, with next-day settlement, competitive rates, and all of their payment processing tightly integrated within the software they’ve already chosen for managing their online stores.”

WePay launched its Veda Risk API at FinovateSpring 2014. In 2015, the company was named to the Inc. 500 list as the 62nd fastest-growing private company in the U.S. In May 2016, WePay launched a white-label mobile card reader, and this March, WePay announced its merchant clients can now use Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay.

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HooYu to Provide Verification Services for U.K. Challenger Bank Countingup

HooYu to Provide Verification Services for U.K. Challenger Bank Countingup
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HooYu

 

Challenger bank Countingup is the latest firm to call on London-based HooYu for its innovative identity confirmation services. “It was important to us to design the account opening process to make it as easy as possible to open an account in less than five minutes,” Countingup CEO Tim Fouracre said. “HooYu helps us not just to comply with money laundering regulations and to prevent fraud but also helps us to curate a great digital journey that makes for easy and convenient account opening.”

Marketing Director for HooYu David Pope called Countingup “a truly differentiated offering from a challenger bank. He credited the institution for “offering more than just a bank account but the tools to help their customers manage and grow their business.”

(left to right) Marketing Director David Pope and Product Director Grant Greenwood demonstrating the HooYu platform at FinovateEurope 2017.

Countingup specializes in combining banking and accounting services for U.K. entrepreneurs, providing assistance with VAT returns, P&L reporting, invoicing, and book-keeping.  Customers who open a current account with Countingup, which plans to launch in early 2018, will get a U.K. sort code and account number, as well as a contactless MasterCard. Countingup announced a fundraising of $750,000 in October in a round led by Frontline Ventures.

HooYu won over Countingup based on the wide variety of identity confirmation solutions the firm provides. These include identity database checks and ID document validation as well as facial biometrics and digital footprint analysis. HooYu’s platform will also help Countingup meet AML requirements.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, U.K., HooYu made its Finovate debut in February at FinovateEurope. Marketing Director David Pope and Product Director Grant Greenwood demonstrated the company’s global identity confirmation service that can be used by both businesses and individuals when making sensitive transactions.

In October, HooYu partnered with Cars-as-a-service innovator easyCar Club, providing identity verification for the 100,000 member car hire marketplace. In August, the company teamed up with online money transfer platform, BCRemit, to help the U.K.-based firm improve on-boarding and reduce fraud. Keith Marsden is CEO.

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Fintech Luminaries, Lock in Presale Savings for FinovateSpring

Fintech Luminaries, Lock in Presale Savings for FinovateSpring
By Erika Sanchez Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateSpring 2018

As you’re thinking about your holiday shopping, now is the perfect time to lock in your spot for our Silicon Valley event and snag another cyber week deal. Register for FinovateSpring 2018 by this Friday, December 8 and – save $800 off the list price!

On May 8 – 11, FinovateSpring will showcase the latest innovations spanning the spectrum of fintech. The event features two days of our signature demo-only format, followed by two days of fast-paced discussions and deeper dives covering the most important topics and trends in fintech (a new piece for next year!). If you’re looking for the cutting edge in fintech, Finovate is the place to be.

And with our new expanded format, there are even more opportunities for you to meet and network with hundreds of fellow fintech professionals. The audience will consist of senior-level financial executives, venture capitalists, other entrepreneurs, and influential press, analysts, and bloggers. This mix ensures you’ll have good conversations with the right people about the latest developments in fintech and the trends that lie ahead.

Pick up your ticket now before prices go up. Presale tickets expire this Friday, December 8, so save $800 by registering soon.

And if you’d like to apply to demo your latest fintech product at the event, please email us at [email protected] for more information.

FinovateSpring 2018 is partners with: Aite Group, BankersHub, Banking Technology, BayPay, BeFast.TV, BigData-MadeSimple.com, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, Celent, FemTech, Financial IT, Fintech Finance, Headcount, Holland Fintech, IBS Intelligence, Innovate Finance, Mercator Advisory Group, NexChange, The Nilson Report, Ovum, The Paypers, Plug and Play, SME Finance Forum, and Swiss Finance + Technology Association.

Raise your profile and showcase your thought leadership

Grow your business at FinovateSpring by becoming an event sponsor. We can provide flexible and tailored solutions to maximize your time at the event and ensure you meet your business goals. For more information please contact us via email.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Blackhawk Network, CashStar, Expensify, HooYu, Lendio, Neustar, Persistent Systems, SecureKey, Temenos, WePay, wipro

On Finovate.com

  • HooYu to Provide Verification Services for U.K. Challenger Bank Countingup.
  • Following J.P. Morgan Chase Acquisition, WePay to Power Payments for Volusion.

Around the web

  • Temenos named a leader in global retail core banking by Gartner for eighth year in a row.
  • Bloomberg looks at the blockchain-based digital identity solutions from SecureKey.
  • CBInsight features Expensify among its 4 Mobile Apps Every Executive Should Download Now.
  • CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2017 recognizes Wipro as one of India’s most innovative companies.
  • Zinnov Zones 2017 features Persistent Systems in the “leadership zone” for enterprise software and consumer software for the fifth consecutive year.
  • Blackhawk’s CashStar wins a 2017 Emerging Payments Award.
  • Capgemini names Backbase Growth Partner of the Year.
  • Neustar moves its website from Neustar.biz to Home.Neustar.
  • Lendio opens new Lendio franchise in Nashville, Tennessee

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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ID.me Teams Up with General Motors to Support Military Discount Program

ID.me Teams Up with General Motors to Support Military Discount Program
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ID.me

Making sure the beneficiaries of any rewards or loyalty campaign are truly qualified is key to ensuring the program works as planned. To this end, General Motors has called on digital identity platform, ID.me to provide ID verification for its GM Military Discount Program.

This week’s partnership takes ID.me back to its roots in many ways. In a statement, ID.me co-founder and CEO Blake Hall said, “I founded ID.me after observing a veteran display his DD-214 separation paperwork, which listed all of his sensitive personal information, just to prove his military service to an organization. There had to be a better way.” Since then, ID.me says it has provided verification services for more than half the active duty military community and “millions of veterans” using the same Troop ID feature the company is bringing to GM’s Military Discount Program.

ID.me CEO and co-founder Blake Hall demonstrating ID.me Identity Gateway at FinovateSpring 2017.

The discount program is available to eligible service members purchasing new Chevrolet, Buick, or GMC vehicles. Those on active duty, as well as reservists and National Guard members are eligible, as are veterans within one year of their discharge date, and retirees of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy – as well as their sponsored spouses.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia, ID.me demonstrated its Identity Gateway at FinovateSpring 2017. The company’s technology provides affiliation verification and online identity authentication that helps fight fraud and identity theft. In October, the company announced a partnership with fellow Finovate alum ThreatMetrix to provide ID verification for government and commercial digital services. And in September, ID.me announced support for FIDO U2F (Universal Second Factor) security keys. Former Moneygram International executive Julie Filion joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer in August, and in May, ID.me won the Trailblazer Award at the 1st Annual K(NO)W Nodes Awards Show.

ID.me has raised more than $45 million in funding, including a $19 million Series B led by FTV Capital in March of this year. The company’s platform has more than 200 partners including federal agencies, state governments, veterans groups, and e-commerce retailers. Blake Hall himself is a veteran of the U.S. Army, receiving a pair of bronze stars for his service in Iraq.

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Coinbase Names Asiff Hirji as President and Chief Operating Officer

Coinbase Names Asiff Hirji as President and Chief Operating Officer
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase

Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has a new president, Asiff Hirji, who will also serve in the newly-created position of chief operating officer. Formerly of Hewlett-Packard and Andreessen Horowitz, Hirji joins the company at a time of soaring interest in bitcoin and digital currencies, and will bring his expertise in managing large investment platforms and brokerage firms to Coinbase at a key moment in the company’s growth.

Writing at The Coinbase Blog this morning, co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said, “Coinbase is moving into an exciting phase of our journey. Asiff’s knowledge of traditional financial services, as well as his deep technical expertise, makes him the perfect person to guide our operations as we grow into new markets and products.”

“Asiff is an elite operator, with fantastic domain expertise from Ameritrade, and a deep technical background,” Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Ben Horowitz said, calling Coinbase’s new executive “the perfect fit.”

In addition to his experience with Hewlett-Packard and Andreessen Horowitz, Asiff Hirji (pictured) has served as a senior advisor at Bain Capital, founded private investment and operating company Inflekxion, and is a director at number of technology firms including Eze Software Group, TES Global Limited, RentPath, and Saxo Bank. With a BSc in Computer Science from University of Calgary, he earned an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

“Coinbase is uniquely positioned like no other company to capitalize on the burgeoning crypto-economy,” Hirji said. “Its breadth of offerings, global footprint, and unique capabilities mean that it will continue to be the first place that retail and institutional investors look when they invest in cryptocurrencies.”

As such, Hirji told The Wall Street Journal that the challenge for Coinbase will “definitely” be growth. He said that both finding engineers that are well-versed in cryptocurrency technologies and dealing effectively the “patchwork of regulations around bitcoin” have been among the challenges to bitcoin businesses that “have yet to be resolved.”

With more than 10 million customers served, and more than $50 billion in digital currency exchanged, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2014. Earlier this month, the company introduced Coinbase Custody, a new solution to help institutional investors securely store digital assets. In August, Coinbase closed a $100 million Series D funding round led by IVP that took the company’s total capital to $217 million and an estimated valuation of $1.6 billion.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Entrust Datacard, Finastra, ID.me, IDology, Intelligent Environments, TIBCO Software, Voleo

On Finovate.com

  • Coinbase Names Asiff Hirji as President and Chief Operating Officer.
  • ID.me Teams Up with General Motors to Support Military Discount Program.

Around the web

  • Forrester Research names TIBCO a leader in Enterprise Data Virtualization.
  • Entrust Datacard acquires cloud cryptographic service provider, Trustis Limited.
  • Finastra finishes testing to provide connectivity to the European instant payments infrastructure.
  • The Silicon Review features IDology in its list of the 50 fastest growing tech companies in 2017.
  • Credit Strategy reviews how Intelligent Environments won the Best Collections Technology Award.
  • Voleo enables cryptocurrency trading on its SimuTrader App.

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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Plug and Play Plans New Middle East Innovation Platform in Partnership with Abu Dhabi Global Market

Plug and Play Plans New Middle East Innovation Platform in Partnership with Abu Dhabi Global Market
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: accelerator

The agreement by Silicon Valley accelerator Plug and Play and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is the latest sign that the hot MENA fintech sector is about to get a lot warmer. The new partnership calls for Plug and Play to open a new office in Abu Dhabi and bring some of its top fintech startups along to work with local FIs.

“We have already talked to close to 100 portfolio companies that we have investments in, (who) would like to come to the Middle East, implement their technologies with different banks, as well as perhaps raise money here and have a technical team here,” Plug and Play chief executive Saeed Amidi told The National late last month when the project was announced. The Abu Dhabi-based accelerator will be part of the new ADGM FinTech Innovation Centre – slated to open in 2018 – which will house ADGM’s RegLab fintech sandbox program.

“We are planning to bring to this fintech innovation platform 10 to 20 startups per year,” Amidi added, “say 10 in each batch; generally we (would) invest in half of those startups.” Accelerator programs would run for three months with the first cohort coming onboard in the third quarter of 2018.

A frequent Finovate event sponsor, Plug and Play has made the globalization of Silicon Valley one of its top goals in recent years. The accelerator has expanded from six satellite offices to 24 since 2015, and refers to their upcoming Abu Dhabi branch as “the latest addition to our global family.” In addition to helping connect local FIs with fintech startups and international banks, Plug and Play is hoping the initiative in Abu Dhabi will “generate POCs, commercial agreements, and investment opportunities” for startups and FIs.

“Through ADGM’s regional sphere of influence, we are able to empower startups and entrepreneurs to gain access to top-tier regulatory mentorship, whereby they can gain more ‘push-power’ in working with financial enterprises in the private sector,” explained Director of Plug and Play EMEA Omeed Mehrinfar.

Founded in 2006, the Sunnyvale, California-based innovation platform has invested and accelerated some of the most familiar names in technology such as Dropbox, SoundHound, and Zoosk, as well as Finovate alums like PayPal, Credit Sesame, and Lending Club. The firm has more than 6,000 startups and 180 official corporate partners, and provides active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VC. More than $6 billion has been invested in Plug and Play portfolio companies.

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RightCapital Announces Integration with Envestnet | Tamarac

RightCapital Announces Integration with Envestnet | Tamarac
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: RightCapital

Thanks to a new partnership between RightCapital and Envestnet | Tamarac, financial advisors on RightCapital’s platform will be able to use Tamarac’s API to directly access account and holdings information from their clients, enabling real-time financial and tax planning advisory.

“We are very excited about our integration with Tamarac, an industry leading performance reporting and portfolio management system,” RightCapital CEO and co-founder Shuang Chen said. “We’re pleased that this integration will allow advisors to seamlessly connect our two platforms and get the most up-to-date information they need to create comprehensive financial plans for their clients.”

RightCapital’s technology leverages advanced Monte Carlo simulations to enable financial advisors to build personalized retirement plans, optimize Social Security, as well as manage tax liability, budgets, and debt retirement. The solution provides both cash flow and goal based planning, stress testing, and exploration of what-if financial events. RightCapital also helps advisors and clients manage their annuity products, and see how the value of these investments would be affected by changes in market volatility.

(left to right) Song Chen (CTO) and Shuang Chen (CEO) demonstrating the RightCapital platform at FinovateFall 2016.

“Financial advisors have delivered holistic financial planning in the past, but mostly for their high net worth clients,” RightCapital CEO Shuang Chen explained from the Finovate stage last fall. “Not so much for the mass affluent client.” Chen cited complexity, cost, and the time-consuming nature of the financial planning process as the main challenges, and pointed to RightCapital’s approach of digitization and simplification as the solution.

“Our vision at RightCapital is to create a cutting-edge technology that digitizes and streamlines the financial planning process, making it easy for a financial advisors to create a financial plan and intuitive for a client to understand their plan,” he said. “This enables financial advisors to profitably and efficiently create financial plans and serve their mass affluent clients.”

RightCapital was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York City. The company demonstrated financial and tax planning solution for financial advisors at FinovateFall 2016. The company has enjoyed a very busy 2017. RightCapital began the year announcing partnerships with Garrett Planning Network, Parsonex Advisory Services, and Wells Fargo clearing service, First Clearing. Integrations with Albridge, Interactive Brokers, and XY Planning Network followed in the spring. RightCapital has raised $2.6 million in total funding, including a seed round of $1.6 million raised in June.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity, FIS, Ixaris, Plug and Play, RightCapital

On Finovate.com

  • RightCapital Announces Integration with Envestnet | Tamarac.
  • Plug and Play Plans New Middle East Innovation Platform in Partnership with Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Around the web

  • FIS introduces FIS Code Connect to facilitate access to its APIs.
  • Ixaris launches its Open Payments Cloud initiative.
  • Auto Finance News interviews AutoGravity EVP of Business Development, Stuart Holmes.

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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Ephesoft Unveils Transact Mobile SDK 4.0, Leveraging Deep Learning to Create Clearer Images

Ephesoft Unveils Transact Mobile SDK 4.0, Leveraging Deep Learning to Create Clearer Images
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ephesoft

Document capture and analytics solution developer Ephesoft released version 4.0 of its Transact Mobile SDK this week. The latest version of the technology takes advantage of innovations in everything from deep learning to mobile architecture to give consumers more accuracy and flexibility when it comes to document capture with their mobile devices.

Ike Kavas, Ephesoft CTO, highlighted the way the enhancements paved the way for better, easier-to-read images. “For example, deep learning is employed in our live-edge detection functionality that has historically been a challenge for identifying document boundaries on mobile devices,” Kavas explained. “This new approach captures clearer images.” Deep learning provides a better solution than typical bitonal image recognition because deep learning has predictive capabilities. The system is able to predict edges, for example, which along with the ability to extract text and numbers, makes it ideal for credit card recognition.

(left to right): Alastair Allars (Success Engineer) and Ike Kavas (CTO) demonstrating Ephesoft Transact Cloud Service at FinovateAsia 2017 in Hong Kong.

Ephesoft’s Transact Mobile SDK 4.0 also includes image auto-capture and auto-alignment, making images scanned by mobile devices comparable to those created by topline scanners. Online and offline batch processing enables users to do character recognition, document classification, and data extraction when offline. Version 4.0 also features security enhancements such as a private directory for storing images temporarily when using mobile devices (the directory is erased when the application is closed). The solution uses ARM 64-bit architecture to improve memory capacity for more powerful processing, and also includes image enhancement tools, simple barcode interpretation, and on-device OCR.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Laguna Hills, California, Ephesoft demonstrated its Ephesoft Transact Cloud Service at FinovateAsia 2017 earlier this month. The company has raised $15 million in funding, completing a Series A round led by Mercato Partners in August. Also in August, Ephesoft announced that New Zealand’s Motor Trade Finance (MTF) would use Ephesoft’s Transact platform. An Inc. 500 company with customers in more than 30 countries. Ephesoft released its analytics and business intelligence platform, Insight 3.1, in October. Don Field is CEO.

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