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 [email protected]. 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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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Solus

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

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.

Solus is an adaptive, next-generation, multi-factor authentication platform that utilizes biometrics and machine-learning behavioral tools to detect and predict fraudulent behavior.

Features

  • Agile platform allowing biometric and behavioral tools to be incorporated easily and cost-effectively at enterprise and individual level.
  • Futuristic machine-learning capabilities
  • No hardware requirements

Why it’s great
Solus is the only adaptive platform in the market today that allows clients to customize their multi-factor authentication requirements at enterprise and individual levels.

Presenters
Matthew Ainscow, CEO
LinkedIn

 

 

Lee Macdonald, Chief Strategy Officer
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateAsia Sneak Peek: Five Degrees

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

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.

Five Degrees is a next generation, digital core banking provider. The company’s product, Matrix, enables banks to provide true digital capabilities to their clients to support them in their daily financial lives.

Features

  • Automates paperless loan onboarding of a business with multiple directors structure
  • Uses advanced analytics for predictive behavior to support the business making the right financial decisions

Why it’s great
Five Degrees brings digitization of banking to the next level with the digital core banking platform Matrix using the fintech ecosystem to provide high levels of automation and predictive behavior.

Presenters

Peter-Jan van de Venn, Chief Commercial Officer
After a career at Atos/KPMG Consulting, van de Venn moved to domestic consulting party ConQuaestor where he has set up a practice that guides banks into the digital era. Since 2011, he has worked for Five Degrees.
LinkedIn

 

Bjorn Holmthorsson, Chief Technology Officer
After graduating from Reykjavik University, Holmthorsson started as a software developer. Afterwards, he became a successful IT director at Landsbanki Luxembourg. In 2011, he co-founded Five Degrees.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Diebold, Featurespace, Finantix, HooYu, Jack Henry, Ledger, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

  • More than $1 billion raised by 31 Finovate alums in Q3 2017.
  • Worldpay Makes Strategic Contribution to Featurespace’s $21.9 Million Funding Round.
  • HooYu to Provide ID Confirmation for UK’s Cars-as-a-Service easyCar Club.

Around the web

  • Actiance helps FinServ companies meet toughest MiFID II compliance challenges.
  • Finews.Asia features Finantix’s AI solution for wealth management.
  • Gemalto and Ledger join forces to provide security infrastructure for cryptocurrency based activities.
  • The Charlotte Observer names Jack Henry & Associates to Top Workplaces list for third consecutive year.
  • Diebold Nixdorf expands managed services portfolio with new offerings.
  • Kasasa now 5th largest banking branch network

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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Best of Show Winner Voleo and Nasdaq to Launch Equity Trading Competition

Best of Show Winner Voleo and Nasdaq to Launch Equity Trading Competition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Voleo

Less than a month after earning Best of Show honors in its debut at FinovateFall, social investing platform Voleo has teamed up with the NASDAQ to launch its Voleo Equity Trading Competition. The competition begins Monday, October 9th, and winning investors and investing teams will win $10,000 in real cash portfolios.

“The goals of the competition are to improve financial literacy, to break down the knowledge barrier, and of course, to have fun,” Voleo CEO Thomas Beattie wrote, announcing the contest. “The most important part of investing is starting early and contributing regularly – we believe that participating will teach you a little about the markets, and a lot about yourself,” he said.

Left to right: Voleo’s Olivia Lovenmark (Communications), Thomas Beattie (CEO), and Anthony Tsui (VP Technology) at FinovateFall 2017.

Geared toward college students and millennial investors, the equity trading competition enables investor/trader teams of three or more to form or join an investing club on Voleo. Using the company’s SimuTrader platform, the clubs will manage simulated portfolios of $1 million. Participants can be on more than one club (up to a maximum of five) to allow them to try different investment strategies and methods. The competition ends December 8th. In addition to their share of the $10,000 cash prize, the top teams and investors will be hosted by the Nasdaq for a tour of their MarketSite in Times Square.

With Voleo, members of each investment club vote via the iOS, Android, or web-based app as to which investment ideas the club will pursue. Each trader and investor has the opportunity to make their case on the platform, while the Definitive Return On Investment Decisions (DROID) score keeps track of decisions and hypothetical positions taken to make it easy to spot the top performing investors – as well as those traders whose good investing calls are being overlooked. In putting the wisdom of the crowd above the inclinations of the individual, the platform does not provide for individual accounts, for example, and instead encourages collaborative investing that keeps trading costs down, provides for better diversification, a more educational experience for new investors, and a more collaborative investing environment for everyone.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Voleo demonstrated its social trading app at FinovateFall 2017, winning Best of Show. A direct-to-consumer fintech, Voleo has hundreds of live users and thousands of users of its SimuTrader system. In August, Voleo announced it had been selected to participate in PlugAndPlay’s Fintech Fall 2017 program.

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Truphone Raises $339 Million to Fuel Global Expansion

Truphone Raises $339 Million to Fuel Global Expansion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Truphone

What would you do with $339 million? London-based mobile operator Truphone gets to answer that question today, as the company closes its $339 million (£255 million) private equity round. This brings Truphone’s total funding to more than $430 million.

The company will use the funds to retire its debt, help it “disrupt the trillion-dollar mobile industry and power the world’s connected devices,” and fuel its global expansion. Aside from its London headquarters, Truphone currently has offices in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and in three cities across the U.S. in New York, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Truphone CEO Ralph Steffens said that the funding will empower the company to “offer highly differentiated Enterprise products and are the enabler of choice for disruptive IoT and eSIM solutions.” Steffens adds, “It is an important step in achieving our long-term goal to power billions of connected devices around the world.”

Founded in 2006, Truphone leverages eSims (software-based SIMs) to enable mobile customers to use their voice and data allowances across 40 countries without incurring roaming charges. In addition to SIM-based data plans, Truphone also offers mobile plans for businesses and a mobile recording solution, which it showcased at FinovateEurope 2014. Truphone Mobile Recording enables businesses and banks to record, encrypt, and store mobile communications securely and without disrupting the user experience.

The company has 350 employees across 10 countries. In July, Truphone formed a strategic partnership with Apple to allow iPad users to stay connected across 50 countries. Earlier this fall, the company earned its spot on the Inc. 5000 Europe list, which ranks private companies based on three-year revenue growth.

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