AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution

AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint

One way to make a smart contract even smarter is to enhance document access and security. Digital currency exchange platform AlphaPoint has achieved that with today’s partnership with Intel. The two have teamed up to launch TrustedVM, a solution for secure smart contracts that enhances AlphaPoint’s Asset Digitization solution.

TrustedVM leverages Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) technology to enable smart contracts and any set or subset of blockchain data to remain confidential. The data is protected against access by intermediaries and network participants to boost the security of AlphaPoint’s Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP).

“Our collaboration with AlphaPoint aims to deliver enterprise-ready blockchain solutions to the financial services community,” said Rick Echevarria, Vice President of Software and Services Group and General Manager of the Platforms Security Division at Intel. “AlphaPoint is expanding blockchain use cases to include illiquid assets; art, collectibles, and real estate, and [the] use of Intel SGX will help increase the security and privacy of those transactions.”

AlphaPoint’s President and COO Igor Telyatnikov noted that the company’s customers seek the benefits of the blockchain but don’t want the security and privacy issues that typically come with existing blockchain solutions. Since smart contracts execute inside TrustedVM, the hardware layer ensures that unpermissioned parties never have access to the data.

Founded in 2013, AlphaPoint powers digital asset networks and maintains the AlphaPoint Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP), the platform on which the asset issuance and custody solution is based. The ADLP interoperates with more than 20 ledger technologies. Earlier this year, the company launched a crowdfunding capability on the ADLP, which enables users to host ICOs. The ICOs issue newly created digital assets on the exchange, which is hosted on AlphaPoint’s infrastructure.

At FinovateFall 2017, the company showcased the ADLP Reconciliation Platform, which combines blockchain-based asymmetric access controls and machine-enforced domain compliance for order management and other activities. The Reconciliation Platform reduces time and cost associated with manual, post-trade reconciliation processes. The company was recently selected by Capital Trust Group and W Ventures to create a blockchain infrastructure for Trust City. AlphaPoint is headquartered in New York, has raised $3 million, and has 30 employees.

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JPMorgan Chase Acquires WePay

JPMorgan Chase Acquires WePay
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, WePay

JPMorgan Chase has demonstrated a number of different ways for banks and other FIs to keep up with the competition: investment, in the form of its capital infusion into Bill.com,  partnership, as in the recently extended deal with OnDeck, and outright acquisition, as in today’s case of WePay.

The bank has agreed to acquire the Palo Alto, California-based fintech, which will function as the payments innovation incubator in Silicon Valley for JPMorgan Chase. The terms of the acquisition were not immediately available, but the Wall Street Journal suggests the WePay price tag is just above the company’s most recently established valuation of $220 million.

“With WePay, Chase is taking the work out of payments for both our business clients and the software providers who serve them,” Chase Merchant Services CEO Matt Kane said. “We are powering payments for growth, so businesses can accept payments instantly, get paid faster, and never lose a sale.” Kane added that ISVs will get a “payment facilitator-like experience” with less cost and fraud risk. WePay founder and CEO Bill Clerico said the acquisition would enable the company “to better support (its) growing list of platform partners and the businesses they serve.”

The two companies have set out distinct areas where the merger will provide new opportunities to software providers and merchants. These include instant onboarding for small businesses, instant payments for merchants, and the ability for software platforms to serve as payment facilitators or third party payment processors.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, WePay demonstrated its Veda Risk Engine/Risk API at FinovateSpring 2014. The company’s API-based technology gives simple payment functionality to software platforms like Constant Contact and GoFundMe. Payment integration can be a significant challenge for many software providers; in a statement JPMorgan noted that software-enabled payments are growing at 4x the industry average.

Earlier this month, WePay announced a partnership with SignUpGenius. Over the summer, the company released new national research that showed 41% of businesses suffered from cash flow challenges and 16% experienced payment fraud in the past year. The research also revealed high adoption of business management software tools or apps among SMBs (84%) and a high preference for faster service from their technology (50%) and improved security (45%). In March, WePay began accepting Apple Pay and Android Pay online.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Aerospike, AlphaPoint, Check Point, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, FIS, iSignthis, Kony, Modo Payments, Sberbank, WePay

On Finovate.com

  • AlphaPoint Teams with Intel to Launch Secure Smart Contracts Solution.

Around the web

  • Finextra: Sberbank joins Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
  • Aerospike announces upcoming new version of its database — Aerospike 4.0 Enterprise Edition.
  • Checkpoint Systems wins Asia Business Achiever Awards.
  • Kony unveils its next generation digital banking platform and suite of applications.
  • FIS to provide cash management and payment solutions for Citi’s corporate treasury customers in new partnership.
  • iSignthis to integrate its Paydentity UBO Service with Web Shield’s InvestiGate platform.

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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BlueVine Lands $130 Million in Debt Financing

BlueVine Lands $130 Million in Debt Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BlueVine, Funding

Alternative lending company BlueVine received a boost today, landing a $130 million round of debt funding. The company’s overall financing now totals $273 million, which is now comprised of $205 million in debt and $68 million in equity.

Supporting BlueVine in this round are Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi, and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corporation. The company will use the funds to support its invoice factoring offering and grow its overall business. Ana Sirbu, BlueVine’s Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets said the company is “building a business for the long term” and notes that more than 80% of the company’s business comes from returning customers.

Additionally, the company has launched a new credit line that allows businesses to make payments on a monthly, instead of a weekly basis over the course of a 12-month term. Last year, the company increased its maximum line of credit to $100 million. “BlueVine’s goal is to offer the optimal solution for every working capital challenge faced by business owners, and our new product is another step forward in fulfilling this vision,” says BlueVine Founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz. “Business owners have diverse needs, and by augmenting our product offering, we are able to offer the solution that fits best.”

Founded in 2013, BlueVine is best known for Invoice Factoring, in which it issues cash to small businesses who sell their unpaid invoices at a discount, then receive up to $2 million in working capital in a matter of days to help manage operations. This summer, the company partnered with Solomoto to combine its offering with Solomoto’s digital marketing platform.

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Sensibill Brings Receipt Management to Royal Bank of Scotland’s Business Banking Customers

Sensibill Brings Receipt Management to Royal Bank of Scotland’s Business Banking Customers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Sensibill

 

Royal Bank of Scotland will add receipt management services to its mobile banking app courtesy of a new partnership with FinovateFall Best of Show winner Sensibill. The service will be made available to RBS’s business banking customers in January 2018, giving iOS and Android users alike the ability to scan physical receipts with their mobile device. Small business owners benefit from a streamlined process that reconciles scanned receipts with card transactions, tracks and categorizes spending, and builds reports for invoicing and accounting.

“Every time a customer uses a competing solution to solve their financial pain, customer loyalty erodes,” Sensibill CEO and co-founder Corey Gross warned. He pointed to new challenges from the rise of open banking and innovative fintechs, adding “there has never been a more critical time for banks to invest in their customers and invest in services that will retain them.”

Left to right: Sensibill’s Jamie Alexander (CTO and Co-Founder) and Corey Gross (CEO and Co-Founder) demonstrating Pulse at FinovateFall 2017.

“No bank can expect to thrive without listening to the evolving needs of customers,” added Marcelino Castrillo, MD of business banking at NatWest/Royal Bank of Scotland, “and by partnering with Sensibill, we’re offering proactive help and best-in-class innovation for free.”

Sensibill’s white-label solution makes it easy to capture, track, and manage e-commerce and paper receipts. Users designate whether or not the purchase is personal or business, and use folders and notes to provide context as to what the purchase is for. From there, Sensibill’s technology extracts key purchase data from the receipt. “Not only do we extract (the) merchant name, date, and total, we decipher all of the 150+ unique data points that can be found on receipts, down to the item and SKU-level details,” Gross explained. “Simply put, nobody is better at structuring receipt data than Sensibill.”

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sensibill demonstrated its Pulse solution at FinovateFall 2017, winning Best of Show. Pulse provides financial institutions with the customer insights they need in order to become and remain top-of-wallet. Built on Sensibill’s item-level data, Pulse helps FIs spot new revenue opportunities, target incentives, and develop targeted prospect lists for in-app campaigns.

Sensibill has raised more than $18 million in funding. The company has 62 employees in the United States and Canada. Earlier this year, Sensibill – in partnership with Scotiabank – won the Best of FinXTech Award for its eReceipts solution.

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Feedzai Secures $50 Million in New Funding

Feedzai Secures $50 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Feedzai, Funding

In a round led by an undisclosed investor, real-time, AI-enabled risk and fraud management platform Feedzai has raised $50 million in Series C funding. The financing, which takes Feedzai’s total capital to $82 million, also featured participation from existing investor Sapphire Ventures.

“We’ve made major headway on our vision in the last year, and this new round of funding will help us accelerate our growth as we continue to invest in the top people, as well as the most advanced data science and machine learning technology, to make banking and commerce safe across the globe,” Feedzai CEO and co-founder Nuno Sebastiao said. The company plans to grow its workforce to 300 by the end of 2017, and highlighted the hiring of former Box SVP Jim Priestly as its new Chief Revenue Officer as an example of the kind of year Feedzai has enjoyed.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Feedzai demonstrated its Feedzai Fraud Prevention platform at FinovateEurope 2014. The company leverages artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning to provide fraud prevention solutions for banks, payment providers, and merchants. Securing online account opening, payments, and e-commerce are among the ways that Feedzai’s omnichannel fraud prevention solutions have been deployed since the company’s founding in 2008. “Feedzai’s proprietary platform puts the power back in the hands of merchants, issuers, and payment networks to manage risk while improving topline revenue,” Sapphire Ventures partner Anders Ranum said.

This summer Israel-based consumer credit card service provider Leumi Card announced that it would use Feedzai’s platform to detect and fight fraud. A member of Planet Compliance’s RegTech 100, Feedzai partnered with Co-op Financial Services in March and teamed up with the Merchant Risk Council (MRC) in February. We featured Feedzai in our January look at AI in fintech, A Fintech Filter for Artificial Intelligence in 2017.

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BankBazaar Receives $30 Million in Funding Round Led by Experian

BankBazaar Receives $30 Million in Funding Round Led by Experian
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BankBazaar, Funding

India-based online credit processing platform BankBazaar is sure to have a happy Diwali this year. That’s because the company has landed $30 million in a Series D funding round led by Experian.

The company didn’t name other contributors to today’s round, but cited existing backers Amazon, Sequoia, Eight Roads (Fidelity Growth Partners) and Walden International, who have helped boost BankBazaar’s total funding to $110 million. “The funds from this round will be used to further strengthen our position as the leader in secure paperless access to loans, cards, and Mutual Funds,” said BankBazaar CEO Adhil Shetty. The company also noted that it will use the funds to support international expansion efforts. BankBazaar has already made inroads into Singapore and is considering further expanding into Asia, the Middle East, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, UAE, and the Philippines.

Founded in 2008, BankBazaar serves as a single platform where users can shop for and access a variety of financial products, including mortgages, personal loans, car loans, credit cards, fixed deposit accounts, and insurance offered by more than 75 financial institutions. The company began focusing on paperless finance last year, when it introduced paperless loan applications. Shetty expects Experian to help it “accelerate towards [its] vision of paperless access to all financial products.”

Ben Elliott, CEO of Experian Asia Pacific, said, “We believe that consumer adoption of fully digital experiences coupled with paperless access to financial products will push customer acquisition 10X by 2020. With e-commerce shoppers growing significantly over the next few years, companies with paperless technology platforms are well-positioned to leverage the latest trends in consumer technology and help millions of Indians gain access to formal banking and finance products, further enabling financial inclusion for millions of underserved consumers.”

BankBazaar demoed its real-time credit processing platform at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. The company recently partnered with Experian to offer users access to view their credit score for free. Last year, BankBazaar was awarded the ‘Emerging Brand of the Year’ and ‘CEO of the Year’ awards at the 7th CMO Asia Awards in Singapore for Excellence in Branding and Marketing.

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: CASHOFF

FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: CASHOFF
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CASHOFF, 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.

CASHOFF provides innovative solutions for banks by collecting and analyzing their consumers’ financial flows.

Features

  • Accurate forecasting of consumer buying behavior through itemization of receipts and predictive models
  • Customized loyalty
  • Data collection from different sources (banks, e-wallets, etc.)

Why it’s great
CASHOFF’s white-label analytical engine inside your e-banking system is a source of deep customer understanding. By integrating it, a variety of options to generate profit will be revealed.

Presenters

Dmitry Gorkov, CEO & Founder

Yulia Clarke, Marketing Director

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Harborx

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

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.

Harborx is a fintech company created with the mission to simplify currency trading (forex), making it fun and accessible to anyone with a mobile.

Features

  • Simplifies FX trading through an intuitive mobile interface
  • Supports beginners with recommendations from Harborx pro traders
  • Provides gaming features like competitions, achievements, and missions to make trading fun

Why it’s great
Harborx is a simplified forex trading app that combines guidance from professionals with fun gamification features, where users have fun while enjoying multiple revenue channels.

Presenters

Cyrus Wen, Director
Wen has over 9 years of experience in investment, merger and acquisition, asset management, corporate finance, and business management and development.
LinkedIn

 

David Sung, Technical Manager
During his years at Harborx, Sung had the privilege of building the tech team which takes leading-edge technology to its extreme.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: WeInvest

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

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.

WeInvest is a digital wealth management solutions provider for banks, wealth and asset managers, insurance companies, and independent financial advisors.

Features

  • Drill down to any client’s portfolio with comprehensive analytics across performance, exposures, and risk
  • Generate ideas which could be relevant for the client across products
  • Manage, trade, and advise

Why it’s great
The RM Workbench is a capability built to deliver a holistic picture to the relationship managers about their clients, client communications, product information along with the ability to precision-service clients.

Presenters

Bhaskar Prabhakara, CEO
Prabhakara co-founded WeInvest and TrackWealth with the vision to help everyone take control of their finances, make better investment decisions and gain access to simpler, smarter, and transparent investing.
LinkedIn

 

Aananth Solaiyappan, CTO
Solaiyappan is a passionate technologist and a firm believer in the transformative power of design lead innovation. He is an accomplished executive and a serial entrepreneur.
LinkedIn

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Zafin Unveils New Pricing and Governance Solution for Corporate Banking

Zafin Unveils New Pricing and Governance Solution for Corporate Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Zafin

In the words of Adam Nanjee, SVP for Digital Banking at Zafin, today’s announcement on the launch of Zafin Client Offer Management is the product of “fifteen years of domain expertise and collaboration” with the company’s clients and partners. “We are proud to release another avenue for our corporate banking clients to drive more revenue, create operational efficiencies, and expedite digital deployments,” Nanjee said.

Designed for Relationship Managers at Tier 1 banks, Zafin Client Offer Management enables them to test and analyze “what-if” pricing models in real-time without needing technical expertise or IT involvement. The cloud-based platform automates manual, often spreadsheet-based processes and works seamlessly with legacy banking systems to create efficiencies and reduce costs for banks.

Adam Nanjee, Zafin SVP for Digital Banking, demonstrating miRevenue Enterprise Banking Platform.

“Zafin’s platform is trusted by several Tier 1 corporate banks to enhance revenue and service their clients effectively,” Dinesh Krishnan, MD of Global Product Development at Zafin said, adding that the platform has been designed “from the ground up to suit the needs of our corporate banking clients.” Client Offer Manager, which helps FIs ensure profitability by linking pricing to specific performance metrics, is currently deployed with a Tier 1 bank, according to Zafin’s announcement.

Founded in 2002, Zafin demonstrated its miRevenue Enterprise Banking platform at FinovateFall 2017. Earlier this year, the company was a finalist for PwC’s Vision to Reality Innovator of the Year competition. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and with offices around the world, Zafin’s global banking customers include HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, TD, and National Bank of Abu Dhabi.  The company has raised $30 million in total funding and includes Vistara Capital Partners, Kayne Partners, and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors among its investors.

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Mitek Acquires ICAR for $15 Million

Mitek Acquires ICAR for $15 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Mitek

Mobile capture and identity solutions company Mitek Systems scored a win for its identity verification arm this week. The company has acquired Barcelona-based ICAR for $15 million (€12.75 million).

In addition to strengthening Mitek’s position in the consumer identity and access management market, the move is expected to bolster the company’s stance overall in the industry. The acquisition will enable Mitek to offer extensive identity document coverage in North America, Europe, and Latin America and will increase Mitek’s capabilities with several new factors of authentication. Additionally, Mitek can now enable customer onboarding and authentication on both web and mobile interfaces.

“The technical and cultural fit between ICAR and Mitek is a tremendous opportunity to maximize value for shareholders, while expanding our mission to bring the highest quality user experience and digital identity verification solutions to our customers globally,” said James B. DeBello, Chief Executive Officer of Mitek and Chairman of the Mitek Board of Directors.

ICAR was founded in 2002 and facilitates more than 20 million identity validations per year. The company is headquartered in Barcelona with offices in Madrid, São Paulo, and Mexico City. ICAR is a spin-off of Computer Vision Center of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona which, combined with researchers from Mitek Labs, will boost Mitek’s expertise in how machine learning and computer vision enhance digital identity verification.

At FinovateEurope 2017, ICAR’s CEO Xavier Codó and CMO Mariona Campmany demonstrated the company’s IDMobile solution that analyzes factors such as the consumer’s geolocation, email address, social networks and compares them with the user’s selfie and ID photo. Check out an interview we conducted with Campmany earlier this year.

Mitek recently demoed its MobileVerify solution at FinovateFall 2017. The company is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker “MITK”. Mitek was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. Last month, the company began leveraging near field communication (NFC) technology to add another factor of authentication by reading data held on RFID chips embedded into documents.

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