Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Darwinex, Dwolla, HackerOne, LendKey, PayPal, PaySimple, Ping Identity, Truephone

On Finovate.com

  • Top Five Trends in Customer Engagement Technology.
  • Coder, Broker, Music Producer: Hellenic Bank’s Natasha Kyprianides is Inspired by Constraints.
  • HackerOne Powering Bug Bounty Program for Tor Browser.
  • Truphone Added to List of Carriers for Apple SIM.
  • LendKey Raises $13 Million in Equity and Debt Financing.

Around the web

  • PaySimple and Ping Identity named on list of top ten startups developing in Denver, Colorado
  • Citigroup expands partnership with PayPal to allow card members to use rewards points for purchases at PayPal checkout in the U.S.
  • Darwinex wins spot in South Summit Startup Competition 2017.
  • TD Ameritrade TickerTape blog spotlights social sentiments app, LikeFolio.
  • Dwolla adds multi-user feature to its Access API Dashboard.

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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Karmic Labs Lands $17.2 Million to Grow Enterprise Payment Solutions

Karmic Labs Lands $17.2 Million to Grow Enterprise Payment Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Karmic Labs

Karmic Labs, the creator of Dash expense management platform, has received $17.2 million in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total funding to just under $25 million. Participating in the round were Alsop Louie Partners, Arbor Ventures, Greycroft, Marketplace Funds, Startup Capital Ventures, and others.

As part of the deal Wei Hopeman, Managing Partner at Arbor Ventures, and Jim Whims, Partner at Alsop-Louie Partners, have joined the San Francisco-based company’s board of directors. Karmic anticipates the funds will fuel the expansion of its enterprise-focused business. “This investment propels Karmic to the next stage of growth, and adding Wei and Jim’s expertise to our board will help us get there quicker,” said Mario Furgiuele, CEO of Karmic.

Founded in 2014, the company debuted the Dash Prepaid Mastercard at FinovateSpring 2015. The platform supplies employees with prepaid Mastercards and enables managers to view, approve, and control employee spending via the Dash mobile app. Karmic also offers co-branded and fully-customized card and mobile app products for a more seamless, branded experience.

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EquityZen Secures $3 Million in Round Led by Draper Associates

EquityZen Secures $3 Million in Round Led by Draper Associates
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: EquityZen, Funding

EquityZen, a secondary marketplace for trading pre-IPO shares, has taken in $3 million in funding this week. This Series A round brings the company’s total funding to $6.5 million. Draper Associates led the round, with WorldQuant Ventures also participating.

The EquityZen marketplace connects shareholders of private companies with its current pool of 20,000 accredited investors. The platform offers shareholders the ability to unlock liquidity tied up in privately-held shares of startups, while providing an alternative investment opportunity for investors, who can access the privately-held shares for a minimum of $20,000.

Since it was founded in 2013, New York-based EquityZen has closed more than 2,000 investments in more than 20 private companies. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its operations both within and outside of the U.S. and to make investments more accessible to qualified investors. Atish Davda, EquityZen CEO said, “We are excited to partner with [Draper Associates] as we expand investment access to tens of thousands more qualified investors who are tired of sitting on the sidelines watching a small number of Silicon Valley insiders profit from the private returns.”

Atish Davda, EquityZen CEO & Founder, and Ketan Bhalla, Product Lead debut EquityZen Institutional at FinovateSpring 2016

At FinovateSpring 2016, the company debuted EquityZen Institutional, which enables institutional investors to browse and access listings on behalf of multiple investment accounts. The institutional offering also has post-investment analytics to help advisors monitor risk and simplify reporting. Last summer, EquityZen’s Davda was featured on CNBC and earlier this year we featured the company in our review of top wealthtech players.

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Innovation Acceleration: Incubators and Innovation Labs Driving Development in Fintech

Innovation Acceleration: Incubators and Innovation Labs Driving Development in Fintech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2017

 

Post updated to present Showcase sponsor, Fintech71 and latest Showcase addition, FinTech Innovation Lab.

—

To prepare for our expanded FinovateFall conference in September, we’re taking a look at some of the new additions during Discussion Days September 13 and 14. Today, we’re previewing our Showcase of Accelerators, Incubators, and Innovation Labs on the 14th.

FinovateFall 2017’s showcase on accelerators, incubators, and innovation labs features demos from startups representing each of our accelerators, with the audience selecting the most innovative startup based on “biggest impact in startup ecosystem.” Here is a sampling of the accelerators and incubators whose startups will be represented during our showcase.

Fintech71

We lead off with our Showcase sponsor, Fintech71. One of the newest fintech accelerators to emerge on the scene, Fintech71’s goal is to attract fintech startups to Ohio and grow the innovation pipeline for the state’s private sector stakeholders. Backed by companies such as KeyBank, Progressive, and Fifth Third, Fintech 71 provides innovative entrepreneurs with a $100,000 investment for up to 6% equity, daily 1-on-1 mentor support, as well as access to participating companies and  “millennial talent” thanks to nearby Ohio State University.

 

Fintech71 will begin its inaugural class on September 10. Up to 12 startups will participate in the 10-week program, which will be based in Columbus, Ohio. “Ohio’s ranking as a Top 5 Fortune 500 and Top 5 Fortune 1000 headquarter destination is not without reason,” Fintech71 executive director Matt Armstead said, adding, “We aim to leverage Ohio’s tech-savvy talent, attractive cost of doing business, and established industry strength to make Ohio a global hotspot for fintech innovation and growth.

Citi Ventures

Citi Ventures is the “innovation engine” of Citi. The division invests in startups, supports new technologies, and tests new products and services in its Innovation Labs and businesses. Citi Ventures made its first investment in July 2010, and saw its first portfolio company exit (Silver Tail acquired by EMC) two years later. Citi Ventures launched its first fintech accelerator in Tel Aviv in 2013.

  • Founded in 2010 by Debby Hopkins
  • Headquartered in Palo Alto, California
  • Notable Startups: Linkable Networks (FF12), Ayasdi (FF14), Feedzai (FE14), Betterment (FF11), Chain (FD15), BlueVine (FF14), Plaid (FD14), Pindrop Security (FF12)

In 2017, Citi Ventures began the year appointing a new chief, Vanessa Colella, who was also named Chief Innovation Officer of Citi. Citi Ventures launched its Citi University Partnerships in Discovery program in February and in May, the venture capital arm of Citi leveraged the technology from portfolio company (and Finovate alum) Chain, to launch Citi Connect for Blockchain integrated with Nasdaq Linq.

FinTech Innovation Lab

Fintech Innovation Lab specializes in early and growth-stage fintech companies, helping these startups get access to some of the biggest financial services companies in the world. With programs in New York, Hong Kong; Dublin, Ireland; and London, the Lab’s alums have raised $530 million in VC funding since graduating from the accelerator program – more than $460 million from the New York lab alone. FinTech Innovation Lab is sponsored by Partnership Fund for New York City and Accenture.

  • Founded in 2012 by Maria Gotsch and Robert Gach
  • Headquartered in New York City, New York
  • Notable Startups: AlphaPoint (FE15), Atsora (FE14), BehavioSec (FF15), Big Data Scoring (FF15), BillGuard (FS12), bondIT (FF16), Dashlane (FE13), DeMystData (FA12), EverSafe (FF14), ForwardLane (FS16), Logical Glue (FE16), MaxMyInterest (FF14), Modelshop (FD17), Narrative Science (FF13), PhotoPay (FE15), RevolutionCredit (FF13), True Office (FE13), Uniken (FF16)

Last month, FinTech Innovation Lab celebrated its seventh anniversary, as a new class of startups – including Finovate/FinDEVr alums BehavioSec, DemystData, and Modelshop – demonstrated their technologies at the Lab’s annual Demo Days event. The occasion encouraged FinTech Innovation Lab co-founder Robert Gach to note that many of the technologies that have been seen at the Lab have anticipated trends ranging from big data analytics to the blockchain. “We expect this year’s innovations will experience a similar trajectory,” Gach said.

Omidyar Network RegTech Accelerator

Omidyar Network is an active impact investor that provides both financial and human capital to entrepreneurs in five main focus areas: education, emerging technology, governance and citizen engagement, property rights, and financial inclusion. The firm, launched by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has a special interest in “entrepreneurs who share our commitment to advancing social good at the pace and scale the world needs today.”

  • Founded in 2004 by Pierre and Pam Omidyar
  • Headquartered in Redwood City, California
  • Notable Startups: Digi.me, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (FA12), Lenddo, Prosper (FS09), RevolutionCredit (FF13), Tandem Bank

Earlier this year, Omidyar Network teamed up with Finovate alum Twilio as the firm launched its Impact Fund to support social impact programs. In February, Omidyar Network invested $2.9 million in an initiative to support the development of civic technology platforms in Latin America. In total, Omidyar Network has committed more than $900 million in for-profit investments and non-profit grants since inception.

Startupbootcamp NY

With partners including Mastercard, Santander, and Route 66 Ventures, Startupbootcamp NY provides fintech startups with seed funding, professional mentorship, New York City office space, and access to a worldwide network of fintech investors and businesses. The program’s areas of focus includes advanced analytics, blockchain technology, financial inclusion, identity & authentication, investments & personal finance, mobile security, P2P lending, and payments.

  • Founded in 2o1o by Alex Farcet, Carsten Kolbeck, Patrick de Zeeuw, and Ruud Hendriks
  • Headquartered in London, U.K.
  • Notable Startups: BankGuard (FE17), bondIT (FF16), Dragon Wealth Asia (FA13), investUP (FE16), InvoiceSharing (FE17), iproov (FE17)

An accelerator network with a global reach, Startupbootcamp sponsors events in more than 100 cities every year. It has more than 460 startups in its portfolio, more than 70% of which received funding. Startupbootcamp was named Best Accelerator 2014 in the European Tech Startup Awards. In addition to its fintech accelerators in New York, London, Singapore, and Mumbai, Startupbootcamp also provides programs in e-commerce (Amsterdam), insurance (London), and IoT (Barcelona).

Techstars

Since its inception, Techstars has accelerated more than 1,000 companies, with an active or acquired rate of 90%. The firm has provided $3.7 billion in total funding to startups with a total market capitalization of more than $9 billion. “We fund technology oriented companies, typically web-based or other software companies,” Techstars explains in an FAQ, “but we’ve funded companies that don’t quite fit that mold as well.”

  • Founded in 2006 by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown, and Jared Polis
  • Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado
  • Notable Alums: Remitly, DigitalOcean, ImpulseSave (FF12), Realty Mogul, Good April (FS13), Market IQ (FF13), Bitfusion, Zighra (FF13), Robinhood,

Techstars just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Techstars Startup Weekend. Also this month, Techstars announced the addition of more than 100 companies to its Worldwide Network. In June, Techstars teamed up with GINCO to launch the Techstars Dubai Accelerator, which opens this month and will begin its first class in January. Techstars introduced a new accelerator in Paris in March, partnering with venture capital firm, Partech Ventures.

The upcoming Showcase of Accelerators, Incubators, and Innovation Labs at FinovateFall will feature demos from each of our featured accelerators. To be a part of our Discussion Days audience at FinovateFall, be sure to register and save your spot at the show today.

Image Designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Betterment, CrowdFlower, EquityZen, IBM, Karmic Labs, Mitek, NuCypher, Unison, Xignite, Xpenditure

On Finovate.com

  • EquityZen Secures $3 Million in Round Led by Draper Associates.
  • Karmic Labs Lands $17.2 Million to Grow Enterprise Payment Solutions.
  • Innovation Acceleration: Incubators and Incubation Labs Drive Development in Fintech.

Around the web

  • MoneYou integrates Mitek’s identity solutions for real-time digital onboarding.
  • Xignite launches the Xignite Channel Partner Program to offer partners integrated cloud-based market data solutions.
  • Betterment launches new Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Portfolio.
  • Forbes profiles Unison in look at the challenges facing homebuying millennials.
  • CrowdFlower adds former Amazon AI product specialist Robert Munro as VP of Machine Learning.
  • NuCypher introduces its decentralized key management system, NuCypher KMS.
  • AltFi talks about the role of “platformification” in supporting innovation in fintech with Avoka CEO Phil Copeland.
  • IDG Connect interviews Xpenditure CEO Boris Bogaert on current trends in banking including blockchain R&D.
  • IBM opens new data centers in London, U.K.; Sydney, Australia; and San Jose, California.

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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Flybits Raises $6.5 Million to Help Banks Put Data to Work

Flybits Raises $6.5 Million to Help Banks Put Data to Work
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Flybits, Funding

Consumer data contextualization company Flybits pulled in $6.5 million this week, bringing the Toronto-based company’s total funds to $14 million.

The Series B funding was led by Information Venture Partners. New investor Portag3 Ventures LP also participated along with existing investors Robert Bosch Venture and Trellis Capital. As a part of the agreement, Information Venture Partners’ co-founders Robert Antoniades and David Unsworth will join Flybits’ board of directors.

“This funding will allow us to ramp up our sales efforts in the United States and Europe, reinforce our existing global presence and expand our product and engineering teams to strengthen Flybits’ unique machine learning capabilities,” said Dr. Hossein Rahnama, Founder and CEO of Flybits. “Our product focus now is simplifying how our customers leverage their data ecosystem and drive customer engagement.”

Jordanne Pavao, Product Manager (left) and  Hossein Rahnama, CEO & Founder (right) demo Flybits Experience Studio at FinovateSpring 2017

Founded in 2013, Flybits helps banks convert big data into business intelligence to offer consumers personalized experiences, promotions, and product recommendations. Earlier this year, the company debuted its Flybits Experience Studio at FinovateSpring 2017. The Experience Studio helps banks create and deliver personalized, digital experiences for their clients at scale. This helps banks waste fewer resources on IT complexities such as machine learning, semantic processing, and data contextualization and instead focus on delivering an exceptional user experience.

Rahnama was recently named to Forbes’ Top 40 under 40 for 2017. In 2016, the company earned recognition as a cool vendor in Gartner’s Platform-as-a-Service report and in 2015 received Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Canada award as a “Company to Watch.” With offices in Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, and Singapore, Flybits not only serves the financial services industry, but also travel and hospitality, retail, and events.

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Expensify Announces Five New ReceiptBurner Partners

Expensify Announces Five New ReceiptBurner Partners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Expensify

Expensify unveiled a quintet of new partners for its automation-first ReceiptBurner platform this week. The new integrations will make it easy for qualified business expenses such as corporate travel bookings, on-demand parking payments, “and even private jet airfare” to be tracked and recorded into Expensify.

Calling his company’s technology a “full-time travel companion,” David Barrett highlighted the importance of removing the hassle from business travel. “We aim to make business travel smoother every step of the way,” Barnett said in a statement. “That means easing the burden of expense management for everyone involved, from the admin coordinating the travel to the employee out in the field.”

The five new partners are: The Parking Spot, ParkWhiz, Pana, TRAVO, and Jettly. The Parking Spot and ParkWhiz are on-demand parking reservation platforms; The Parking Spot is actually the largest owner/operator of airport parking properties near airports. Pana and TRAVO are trip booking and planning resources. Jettly is a private jet chartering marketplace.

Users of Expensify’s ReceiptBurner no longer have to smartscan or email their receipts to the company for tracking. Instead, when a transaction with one of the company’s growing number of partners occurs, ReceiptBurner automatically creates a receipt and sends it directly to Expensify where it is added to the user’s expense report. “ReceiptBurner eliminates one more step in the expense reporting process,” Expensify Marketing Generalist Gabi Horowitz announced on the company blog a year ago this month when the new solution was introduced. “(ReceiptBurner brings) us even closer to a utopian world in which business travelers can focus on business rather than the logistics of travel.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, Expensify demonstrated its Invoices solution at FinovateSpring 2013. Earlier this month, the company announced a new partnership with Lyft that will make it easier for business travelers using the ride-sharing service to manage their Lyft-related expenses using Expensify. And last month, Expensify reported exceeding the 35,000 customer milestone, reached in part by 15,000 new U.S. customers this year alone. In May, the company teamed up with fellow Finovate and FinDEVr alum, Xero, to power in-house expense management for the New Zealand-based cloud accounting innovator’s 21 offices around the world.

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Urban FT Acquires iParse

Urban FT Acquires iParse
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Urban FT

B2B digital banking platform Urban FT acquired Oregon-based iParse today. Urban FT plans to leverage iParse’s technology and its mobile banking-related patents.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Operations will continue as usual for iParse, which will function as a separate division from Urban FT. All staff (except for the founders, who are retiring) will continue as employees of Urban FT’s new unit. The company’s CEO, Richard Steggall, is calling the new deployment a “mobile banking plug-in solution” because it empowers financial institutions of any size to compete in the mobile banking space by plugging directly into their core, simulating integration. Urban FT estimates the mobile plug-in option will be available to clients within the next couple of months.

In the press release, Steggall said:

“The iParse tech strategically complements Urban FT’s suite of white-label mobile banking solutions by providing a proprietary way to bypass core processor integration, while delivering a robust mobile banking service for financial institutions to offer to their customers…. now credit unions and banks of any size can play—and play competitively—in the mobile banking space.”

Founded in 2013, Urban FT expects the number of bank clients it serves to double to more than 150 within the next year. Kasey Kaplan, Urban FT President said, “On the bank side, we size the market at approximately 12,500 potential targets, and we know that almost 42 percent of credit unions have yet to launch any form of mobile banking.”

At FinovateFall 2016, Urban FT debuted the Workshop, a real-time mobile app management platform that enables banks to quickly configure, brand, and launch mobile banking apps without coding. The company has 40 employees and, in addition to financial institutions, also serves clients in telecommunications, insurance, and travel. Among the New York-based company’s partners are Sprint, Boost Mobile, Yelp, Banc of California, and Sunrise Banks.

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Demo to 450+ Fintech Luminaries this November — Apply for FinovateAsia

Demo to 450+ Fintech Luminaries this November — Apply for FinovateAsia
By Erika Sanchez Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateAsia 2017

The second deadline to apply to demo at FinovateAsia is this Friday, July 21. If you’re interested and haven’t yet applied, you’re likely thinking: Is Finovate the right fit for my company? Is the timing right? What would we show on stage?

Finovate events focus on the best and most innovative financial and banking technologies showcased via seven-minute live product demonstrations. Our conferences consistently attract high-impact audiences of senior-level financial and banking executives, press and industry analysts, venture capitalists, regulators, and technology entrepreneurs.

So if you are looking to:

  • Drive product adoption of the latest and most innovative solutions in fintech
  • Showcase new, high-impact technology in front of an influential audience
  • Generate press recognition, find customers, network with peers, raise capital, and discover partners

in the Asia-Pacific market, then there’s a good chance that FinovateAsia 2017 – with our more than 450 fintech professionals scheduled to attend – is the place for you.

If you’re new to FinovateAsia, take a look at videos from our inaugural Hong Kong event last year. Be sure to check out our post on the companies voted Best of Show, as well, and see what kind of financial technologies are turning heads in Asia these days.

And then apply ASAP. Remember, the second deadline to apply to speak is this Friday, July 21. Even though the final application deadline is not until August, applying early is advantageous – especially with early-bird discounts on the presenter fee.

For more information on applying to demo, please review the brochure for prospective presenting companies, then fill out the online application, and that’s it. We will be back in touch toward the end of August about possible placement in the roster for FinovateAsia 2017.

If you have any questions, please email asia@finovate.com.

FinovateAsia 2017 is sponsored by: Invest Hong Kong, CeleritiFintech, Lleida.net, and more to be announced.

FinovateAsia 2017 is partners with: Aite Group, BankersHub, Banking Technology, Breaking Banks, Celent, FemTech, Financial IT, Fintech Finance, Holland Fintech, IBS Intelligence, Mercator Advisory Group, Ovum, The Paypers, Plug and Play, and SME Finance Forum.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Expensify, Flybits, Jumio, NYMBUS, PayPal, ThreatMetrix, TransferWise, Urban FT

On Finovate.com

  • Expensify Announces Five New Receiptburner Partners.
  • Flybits Raises $6.5 Million to Help Banks Put Data to Work

Around the web

  • Jumio introduces eyeball tracking to the “liveness” check of its biometric authentication solution, Netverify.
  • NYMBUS adds executive talent, opens center of strategic excellence in Glastonbury, Connecticut.
  • Co-founder Kristo Käärmann takes the helm at TransferWise.
  • PayPal announces strategic partnership with Samsung Pay.
  • ThreatMetrix named the Leader in The Forrester Wave: Risk-Based Authentication, Q3 2017.

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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Blend Launches Native Mobile App

Blend Launches Native Mobile App
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blend

Blend, a startup that helps lenders make better mortgage lending decisions, announced a native mobile app last week. The San Francisco-based company’s launch of Blend Mobile aims empower loan officers to manage borrower requests and applications on their mobile device in order to facilitate communication between the two parties.

Founded in 2012, Blend has 30 clients and has raised $60 million. The company’s lender-facing system offers a digital, paperless mortgage application process. The customizable interface is designed to reduce friction in borrower interactions and aims to help loan originators close up to seven to ten days faster.

With Blend’s new native app, lenders can cater to borrowers by enabling them to complete a mortgage application when and where they prefer, with the ability to switch among channels. The app also leverages push notifications and alerts to facilitate communication between the two parties. For example, the app notifies lenders if they have a period of inactivity greater than 48 hours in order to decrease the time to close. The new app is available to all current and new Blend clients.

Blend demoed its data-driven mortgage at FinovateSpring 2016. The company was recently named to CB Insights’ Fintech 2015 list. Earlier this year, we highlighted Blend’s role in growing the mortgagetech scene and interviewed CEO Nima Ghamsari in a feature on Blend last year.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: banqUP, Blend, Expensify, Flywire, Revolut

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • BanqUP announces alpha roll-out alpha of SME fintech bank.
  • Flywire announces record results in payments processed and institutions and students served in the past year.
  • Expensify ships 5 new travel integrations.
  • Revolut’s new feature allows users to generate their own IBAN for Euro transactions.

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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