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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on December 20, 2016
Categories: Aerospike, Arxan Technologies, Blend, Cortera, Dashlane, Experian, Fidor Bank, Finicity, NIIT Technologies, NuData Security, TickSmith, Token, Trustly

On Finovate.com

“NuData Security Brings Behavioral Biometrics to Arvato Financial Services”

On FinDEVr.com

“CTO Talk with Eugene Marinelli, CTO of Blend“

Around the web

Token signs memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Fidor Bank for digital payments.

PYMNTS.com interviews Nick Thomas, cofounder of Finicity, in the wake of his company’s latest funding round.

Aerospike announces 100% year-over-year bookings growth.

Touch Bank to deploy FraudNet, online fraud prevention technology from Experian.

More than 100,000 customers of Avanza Bank have used Trustly’s real-time deposit service since the two companies forged a partnership last year.

Dashlane joins two-factor authentication awareness campaign, #TurnOn2FA.

Cortera Decisions‘ credit scorecard capability is now available through Boost, its self-service tool that gives businesses insights on their customers and prospects.

TickSmith’s TickVault Big Data management platform is compatible with Thomson Reuters Tick History.

NIIT Technologies partners with a top-ranked retirement plan provider to manage their legacy systems.

Arxan Technologies wins six industry IoT security awards.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Akamai Acquires Cyberfend for Bot Detection

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 19, 2016
Categories: Akamai, Cyberfend, Mergers & Acquisitions

Web and mobile security company Akamai added to its expertise today after acquiring Cyberfend, a bot detection company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Massachusetts-based Akamai, which went public on NASDAQ in 1999, aims to help banks and businesses protect their websites, mobile apps, and cloud environments. Akamai launched Bot Manager earlier this year to help thwart automated bots, which use stolen credentials to log into legitimate ecommerce and financial services websites.

Launched in 2014, California-based Cyberfend debuted BotFender, a cyber attack automation detection service, at FinovateSpring 2016. BotFender combines human cognitive science with machine learning algorithms to create a website security layer that is invisible to the end user and detects attacks in real time. Cyberfend is backed by Y-Combinator and protects 1 billion transactions every month.

Stuart Scholly, senior vice president and general manager of Web Security at Akamai, said, “The addition of Cyberfend’s technology is intended to give our customers a better way to spot and stop credential abuse on their sites—benefiting both the online business and its users.”

Cyberfend is Akamai’s third acquisition this year—after acquiring Concord Systems in September and Soha Systems in October—and its 16th acquisition since launching in 1998. As we reported earlier this year, Akamai is bolstering its security capabilities to become more appealing to potential, large acquirers, such as Google or Microsoft.

Akamai most recently presented at FinovateEurope 2015 in London where it debuted Client Reputation Service, designed to help FIs forecast security issues and protect against DDoS attacks, web attackers, screen scrapers, and scanning tools. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Tom Leighton is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 19, 2016
Categories: Akamai, Backbase, Cyberfend, Fiserv, i-exceed, Temenos

On Finovate.com

“Akamai Acquires Cyberfend for Bot Detection”

Around the web

Fiserv Portico to power core account processing and enhanced functionality for commercial lending for Green Country Federal Credit Union.

Forbes names Backbase one of 10 European growth businesses to watch in 2017.

i-exceed recognized as Samsung’s 2016 Mobile B2B: ISV Partner of the Year.

Temenos‘ MarketPlace receives the Banking Technology Readers’ Choice Award for “Best emerging/innovative technology product/service” at the Annual Banking Technology Awards.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Tuition.io Appoints Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as New CEO

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 16, 2016
Categories: Tuition.io

Student loan repayment platform Tuition.io will get a fresh start in 2017. The Los Angeles-based company today announced Scott Thompson (pictured) will take the reins from Brendon McQueen as CEO.

Thompson most recently served as CEO for ShopRunner. Prior to that he held a short-lived role as CEO of Yahoo and served as president of PayPal for seven years. He also worked at Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa; Barclays Global Investors; and Coopers & Lybrand.

The company’s former CEO Brendon McQueen debuted Tuition.io at FinovateFall 2012. The company has since transitioned into a strict B2B business model in which it helps businesses pay down student loan debt on behalf of their employees. Clients include Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, HP, and Staples.

Since launching in 2012, Tuition.io has experienced a 17x year-over-year increase in participants, helping tens of thousands of borrowers manage $2+ billion in loans. The company hopes to continue expanding to help businesses serve the 44 million Americans dealing with student loan debt. Thompson, who helped build revenues at PayPal from $1 billion to $4.4 billion, was brought on to facilitate growth at Tuition.io.

“Scott has made an incredible career of taking businesses and scaling them to new heights,” said Bryan Stolle, Tuition.io board member and general partner at Wildcat Ventures. “With all our recent momentum, this is a pivotal moment for the company, and we need a strong leader with a clear vision to help us make student loan repayment an employee benefit that is as widely adopted as the 401(k).”

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Behavioral Biometrics Startup Zighra Lands $1 Million in Seed Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 16, 2016
Categories: Funding, Zighra

Behavioral biometrics and fraud prevention company Zighra closed $1 million in seed funding recently. The round was led by the Investment Accelerator Fund, Export Development Canada, and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

This is the Ottawa-based company’s third round of funding. The amounts of the first two rounds were undisclosed, but Zighra’s funding total is now greater than $1 million. Zighra CEO Deepak Dutt said he plans to use the funds “to go into acceleration mode.” Specifically, he plans to bolster sales and marketing efforts to reach more mobile banking and mobile commerce clients.

Zighra, an Invest Ottawa portfolio company, offers security software that analyzes users’ behavioral patterns to validate their identify and prevent fraud. At FinovateFall 2013, Zighra debuted KineticID, a mobile authentication solution that evaluates the user’s unique, kinetic interaction with their mobile device. Earlier this year, the company graduated from Barclays Techstars Accelerator, which led to Zighra taking on a pilot project for the banking giant. The accelerator program also offered Zighra exposure to the U.K. market, a new geography for the company, which has previously focused on North America, the Middle East, and India.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Canada, Zighra has six employees and anticipates it will double its workforce by the end of 2017. Earlier this month, the company won Best Tech at the C100 48Hrs in the Valley program and last year was featured in the Wall Street Journal for its behavioral authentication efforts.

Behavioral biometrics has been a hot topic in 2016, and we expect it to be a star topic of 2017, as well. Finovate alums such as BehavioSec, BioCatch, NuData Security, and Trusteer (acquired by IBM in 2013) each offer unique solutions to combat fraud using behavioral biometrics.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on December 16, 2016
Categories: Betterment, Bizfi, FinanceIt, Green Dot, InComm, Passport, SigFig, SocietyOne, Temenos, ThetaRay, Tuition.io, Wealthfront, Zighra

On Finovate.com

Behavioral Biometrics Startup Zighra Lands $1 Million in Seed Funding

Tuition.io Appoints Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as New CEO

Around the web

Commerce Bank chooses Temenos to upgrade core deposit banking system.

ThetaRay earns recognition from CIO Review as a top 20 financial services provider for 2016.

Financeit reports a doubling of its business since acquiring the home improvement financing assets of TD Bank.

Green Dot teams with WalMart to encourage Americans to build savings.

Bizfi expands its business lending capabilities through a new partnership with InterNex Capital.

OnWallStreet recommends advisers keep their eyes on Wealthfront’s Andy Rachleff; SigFig’s Mike Sha; and Betterment’s Jon Stein.

Passport acquires Arizona-based mobile parking payment startup ParkX.

P2P lender SocietyOne facilitates $126 million in loans in 2016, finishing a record-breaking year.

InComm expands partnership with Target Australia to offer gift cards in stores and online.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Personal Capital’s Growth Leads to Additional $25 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 15, 2016
Categories: Funding, Personal Capital

Digital advisory service and wealth management firm Personal Capital is closing out 2016 by adding another $25 million to the $75 million in equity investment the company took home from IGM Financial in May. Today’s funding was part of a contingency from investor IGM Financial that stated Personal Capital had to reach a certain growth milestone by Q2 of 2017. Since the California-based company exceeded the specified growth target, the funds were distributed early, just in time for the new year. This closes Personal Capital’s Series E round and increases its 2016 funding to $100 million and boosts its total funding to just over $175 million.

“IGM Financial has been a great investor,” said Bill Harris, CEO of Personal Capital. “Over the past six months, we’ve been able to grow marketing, staffing, and offerings to our users and clients. With the final $25 million in investment secured, we look forward to seeing even more growth as we help more families manage their financial lives.” The company used the initial $75 million to increase its marketing efforts and hire new staff across its offices in San Carlos, San Francisco, and Denver.

Personal Capital’s CEO Bill Harris and CPO Jim Del Favero demoed at FinovateSpring 2014.

The new investment lifts Personal Capital’s valuation to around $500 million. That’s double what the company’s valuation was after its Series D funding round closed in 2014—$200 million shy of competitors’ valuations. Betterment and Wealthfront (pure robo advisory plays), as well as SigFig (a hybrid robo advisor) each have valuations of $700 million.

In addition to the funding from IGM Financial, Personal Capital has received a $25 million line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. With regard to the credit, Mike Armsby, CFO of Personal Capital, says it will help the company “spur rapid growth in the New Year.”

Personal Capital delivers financial planning and investment portfolio management services. The company blends high tech and high touch by combining unbiased, algorithmic investing approaches and conversations via video chat—with real, human advisers. Personal Capital has added $1.5 billion in AUM in 2016. This represents 80% growth in less than 12 months and brings the company’s total AUM to $3.4 billion. In addition, Personal Capital offers a free, account-aggregation tool to help its 1.3 million registered users view all of their accounts in one place.

Personal Capital most recently presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, where Ehsan Lavassani, the company’s founding engineer and chief engineering officer, talked about data-driven account opening. At FinovateSpring 2014, CEO Bill Harris and Chief Product Officer Jim Del Favero debuted One Click Investment Proposals.

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Investment from Rakuten Boosts Kreditech’s Total Capital By More than $10 Million

By David Penn Posted on December 15, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Kreditech

Germany consumer finance innovator Kreditech has just picked up a $10.4 million (€10 million) investment from Japan’s Rakuten. The new funds, which will be used to develop Kreditech’s partnership business, take the company’s total capital to more than $160 million. According to TechCrunch, the investment gives Kreditech a valuation of $313 million (€300 million).

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Kreditech founder and CEO Alexander Grabner-Müller emphasized how the capital will help drive the company’s partnership business. He also praised Rakuten’s investment in his company’s “mission to improve financial freedom for the underbanked through technology.” Kreditech CFO Rene Griemens added that Rakuten’s “strong market position in Asia” could be a “door opener” for the company which already has a presence in Russia, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Mexico, as well as its home country of Germany.

Kreditech is not the only fintech, nor the only Finovate alum, that Rakuten has invested in. The firm invested $15 million in Azimo this spring, and contributed to Currency Cloud’s $18 million Series C round last summer. Speaking of Kreditech, Rakuten Fintech Fund managing partner Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel highlighted the company’s “distinctive big-data-driven credit model and tech expertise” and complimented Kreditech’s “unique model of individual empowerment through access to credit.”

Founded in 2012, Kreditech demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2014. The company’s solutions leverage non-traditional data and machine learning to provide financing options such as loans, PFM, and digital wallets to underbanked communities. In October, Kreditech was named to the 2016 Fintech 100 sponsored by H2 Ventures and KPMG—the same month the company announced that former mBank veteran Michal Panowicz was joining it as chief product and information officer. Kreditech launched its online POS financing solution, Monedo Now, in June, providing online consumers with instant financing of as much as $5,500.

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Socure Raises $13 Million In New Capital

By David Penn Posted on December 15, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Socure

In a round led by Flint Capital, digital identity verification technology specialist Socure has raised $13 million in funding. Featuring participation from ff Venture Capital, Santander InnoVentures, and Two Sigma Ventures, this week’s investment takes Socure’s total financing to more than $17 million.

“Security, compliance, and fraud prevention are key issues for investors, consumers, regulators, and employees in the financial services industry,” Socure CEO and co-founder Sunil Madhu said. “As a year when major breaches made headline news now draws to a close, we are thrilled to be able to provide them with a technologically advanced and proven solution.” The company says it will use the funding to fuel innovation on its platform and scale operations—including Socure’s 300% growth in 2016.

Sunil Madhu, Socure CEO and co-founder, demonstrated Perceive at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Socure specializes in providing identity verification for unbanked/underbanked, thin-file customers, making the solution ideal for younger populations as well as for those in developing regions. Sergey Gribov, a partner at Flint Capital, in his praise of Socure, says the firm “supplements market deficiencies in which current identity verification solutions fall short—including millennials, who largely avoid the use of credit, or [for those] abroad, where credit systems don’t exist at all.” Socure provides a suite of RESTful APIs delivering over a secure, scalable cloud-based system that operates in real-time. Stash CEO and co-founder Brandon Krieg called the technology “a key element in our identity verification stack.” He added, “Socure … has enabled us to substantially increase acceptance of new customers.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, Socure develops online identity-verification solutions. The company’s Social Biometrics Platform is designed to provide ID verification and increased acceptance rates by leveraging both social behavior data from major social networks as well as online and offline GLB and DLPA data. Socure demonstrated Perceive, its remote facial biometrics solution at FinovateFall 2015. Last month, Socure unveiled a “momentous redesign” of its digital ID verification solution, and in May, the company announced expanded coverage for KYC, CDD, CIP, and AML compliance.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on December 15, 2016
Categories: eToro, FIS, Kreditech, NICE Systems, NuData Security, PayPal, Personal Capital, Quantopian, SocietyOne, Socure, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

“Socure Raises $13 Million in New Capital”

“Investment from Rakuten Boosts Kreditech’s Total Capital More Than $10 Million”

“Personal Capital’s Growth Leads to Additional $25 Million in Funding”

Around the web

eToro forges strategic partnership with Lufax Holding, China’s largest internet financing company.

PayPal teams up with Citibank, FIS to expand cross-channel presence.

NICE Systems celebrates record year in customer acquisitions.

SocietyOne appoints Maria Loyez as chief marketing officer.

NuData Security partners with Arvato Financial Solutions to combat fraud and enable a smoother customer experience.

Worldpay appoints Ruth Prior COO.

Quantopian hires Marc Volpe as chief financial officer.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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BlueVine’s $49 Million to Fuel Product Expansion

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 14, 2016
Categories: BlueVine, Funding

Alternative lending company BlueVine landed $49 million in a Series D funding round this week. Contributors include existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, Rakuten Fintech Fund, and Silicon Valley Bank.

BlueVine’s funding now totals $113 million. In a press release, the company notes the new funds will “support BlueVine’s rapid growth as it expands its team and range of offerings.” Since launching in 2014, BlueVine has funded more than $200 million in working capital for thousands of small businesses. The company projects it will fund more than $500 million in 2017.

BlueVine offers a straightforward line of credit to help small businesses get the working capital they need. The company is best known for Invoice Factoring, in which it issues cash to small businesses who sell their unpaid invoices at a discount, then receive working capital in a matter of days to help manage operations. Unlike BlueVine’s traditional line-of-credit offering, the term of the financing is short, usually 60 to 90 days.

Along with the funding news, BlueVine also announced it has once again increased its line of credit. The invoice factoring limit has lifted to $2 million, and its business line of credit has been bumped to $100,000. The company’s last increase occurred in July, when the maximum credit line for invoice factoring increased to $500,000 and its Flex Credit line, which launched in April, increased to $50,000.

Recently, BlueVine was dubbed Best B2B Factoring Service by Business News Daily. The company’s CEO Eyal Lifshitz, along with CTO Nir Klar, CRO Moti Shatner, and VP of Operations Edward Castaño debuted BlueVine at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

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Empyr Powering Yelp’s New Cash Back Program

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 14, 2016
Categories: Empyr

Commerce monetization company Empyr announced yesterday that crowdsourced reviews-giant Yelp is the latest company to join its card-linked offers empire. Yelp launched Yelp Cash Back, which uses a card-linked rewards service powered by San Diego-based Empyr.

Founded in 2015, Empyr seeks to help marketers track and monetize the data captured in the 93% of transactions that happen offline. Its online-to-offline (O2O) commerce solution offers an API that helps online publishers, such as Yelp, display offers from offline advertisers. When consumers pay at a participating merchant using a credit or debit card they’ve linked with the platform, Empyr’s partnership with the three major credit card companies facilitates a credit to the user’s account on a monthly basis.

Empyr’s parent company MOGUL was cofounded by Jon Carder in 2010. In an interview with Forbes, Carder, who currently serves as Empyr CEO, said:

Utilizing Empyr’s real-time offline purchase tracking, Yelp, for the first time, can show a brand how many online impressions they got and exactly how much those consumers spent in their stores. Knowing the in-store revenue driven from digital marketing allows a brand to calculate, rather than guess, their ROI. This is a game-changer for marketers who are trying to drive traffic into physical stores.

To start reaping rewards, Yelp users search cash back in the app and will see the range of businesses that participate in the program. After linking their credit and/or debit cards, users will automatically, on a monthly basis, be credited 10% of their purchase amount back. This not only helps businesses attract and retain customers, but also ensures top-of-wallet for the card issuers and, in the end, makes the customer happy.

Yelp Cash Back is now available at participating bars and restaurants in major cities across the U.S. Yelp reports that while the rewards service is not available for online orders or food delivery, it will be expanding the service to more brick-and-mortar restaurants in the future. In addition to its partnership with Yelp, Empyr also fuels card-linked rewards for Microsoft Earn, LivingSocial’s Restaurant Plus program, Coupon.com’s rewards program, and the Swagbucks Local app.

CEO Jon Carder debuted Empyr at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has raised $35 million from its parent company MOGUL and has 60 employees.

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