Fintech Favorites

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, eWise, Fiserv

Featured

Milestones

Trends

Tech

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Alkami Technology Inks Digital Banking Deal with Desert Schools FCU

Alkami Technology Inks Digital Banking Deal with Desert Schools FCU
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology

alkami_homepage_cached

One of our oldest alums just inked a deal with the biggest credit union in Arizona.

Alkami Technology, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2009 as iThryv and transitioned to its current incarnation a year later, announced this week that Desert Schools Federal Credit Union will use its ORB (Online Relationship Builder) digital banking platform. Desert Schools FCU is the largest credit union in Arizona, with $4 billion in assets and more than 220,000 online banking users.

Stephen Bohanon, chief strategy and sales officer for Alkami Technology, cited research indicating that mobile banking provided an “immediate lift in overall satisfaction” in praising his company’s partnership with Desert Schools. “Financial institutions like Desert Schools are embracing this shift in consumer expectations by investing in digital technology that delivers a superior, engaging experience,” Bohanan said.

Alkami’s ORB platform will give members of Desert Schools FCU access to a wide array of features inducing retail and business banking tools, mobile, billpay, PFM, P2P payments, and more. The technology will also enable Desert Schools to build their own apps and product extensions, as well as introduce additional, new features to provide its members with what Alkami calls a “highly, customized digital banking experience.”

And this is exactly what the Arizona-based credit union was looking for. “We selected Alkami for their modern and engaging user experience,” SVP of digital strategy for Desert Schools FCU, Tim Lipsky, said, “as well as their flexible and extensible platform, which aligns with our vision to strengthen our digital capabilities to meet our members’ needs.”

Based in Plano, Texas, Alkami Technology teamed up with security specialist Easy Solutions this spring, bringing enhanced fraud protection to Alkami’s digital banking platform. The company’s ORB was recognized in the 2015 GonzoBanker awards as part of Tim Daily’s “Online Banking/Mobile Banking Franken-Banking Product.”

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Juvo’s Global Launch Features Finovate Debut and $14 Million In New Funding

Juvo’s Global Launch Features Finovate Debut and $14 Million In New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Juvo

juvo_homepage_september2016

There are many great ways to kick off a global launch. We like to think demonstrating your technology live on stage at a Finovate conference is one.

But we’ll concede that announcing a $14 million funding-round featuring participation from the former CEOs at companies like AT&T Wireless, Telefonica International, and Vodafone Group is pretty good, too.

“Only Juvo can deliver financial services to millions of underserved consumers around the world instantly,” former NYSE CEO and Juvo investor, Duncan Niederauer said. He praised both the company’s leadership and its track record, saying Juvo was in a strong position to help mobile operators transition to digital technology as well as respond to “the wider socioeconomic issues around financial inclusion for all.”

img_1854

CEO and founder Steve Polsky and VP of Product Development Jason Robinson demonstrated Juvo Identity Scoring at FinovateFall 2016.

Juvo’s Identity Scoring technology leverages data science, machine learning, and game mechanics to provide financial identities to underserved populations around the world. Founded by CEO Steve Polsky, Juvo has a market footprint in 23 countries across four continents, giving the technology a reach of more than 100 million. Identity Scoring analyzes both subscriber and usage data in real-time to give mobile operators the consumer data they need to improve engagement and support growth. The company says that mobile operators using the solution have seen gains of 10% to 15% in average revenue per user, and has enabled them to offer high-value financial services.

“Juvo starts by reimagining the prepaid experience and encouraging identity-based relationships between subscribers and their mobile operators,” Polsky explained. “Juvo helps turn a previously ‘invisible’ customer into a ‘visible’ one,” he said, “opening doors for the customer, the mobile operator, and financial service provider alike, and bringing us closer to our vision of financial inclusion for all.”

Founded in March 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Juvo demoed its Identity Scoring solution at FinovateFall 2016 last week. Juvo’s investors include Wing Venture Capital, Freestyle, and Seed-Resolute.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech Favorites

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: FinanceIt, Flybits, Juvo, Mitek, Ripple, Yandex

Featured

Banks

  • TD Bank began rolling out its Flybits (F15) powered digital concierge TD for Me (press release). Check out its FinovateSpring ’16 demo. A first in Canadian banking, TD for Me enhances the popular TD app to include a “digital concierge” feature that curates content and services to create personalized, contextual experiences for customers based on their location and interests. Powered by Canadian start-up Flybits‘ secure cloud-based mobile intelligence product, TD for Me provides customers with useful TD-related content, like special nearby offers, helpful tips and details on local events, with more content and capabilities to be added in future updates.

Deals

  • In more TD Bank news, Financeit (F12) teamed with Concentra to purchase TD Bank’s indirect home-financing dealer-network and 45,000-loan portfolio for C$340 million. It’s a huge win for Financeit which assumes originations for 800 dealers previously working through TD Bank (check out its demo at FinovateFall).
  • Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank and Banco Santander participated in Ripple’s (F13) $55 million Series B round announced today. In addition to those three, five more banks signed long-term contracts to integrate Ripple into their own banking platforms: Westpac, National Australia Bank, Mizuho Financial Group, MBO Financial Group, and Shanghai Huarui Bank

Tech

  • Mitek (F11) released an SDK for mobile check-capture to make it easier for third-party developers to deploy (press release). Check out their latest Finovate demo last May. Our new SDK is a self-contained set of screens, workflows, and APIs that comprise a complete multi-check capture experience allowing developers to quickly deploy their commercial mobile banking app offerings,” said Michael Diamond, general manager, payments solutions, Mitek. “Previously, our partners and banks were on their own to develop the app-level functionality around our core MiSnap multi-check capture engine. With this SDK, we’ve done the heavy lifting for them.
  • Yandex (F13) introduces AI capabilities to browser to warn users when it’s unsafe to bank or pay online
  • Technologists! Don’t miss the upcoming FinDEVr in Santa Clara, October 18-19 (register now)

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Malauzai Features Enhanced Card Management, Personalization in Latest SmartApps Release

Malauzai Features Enhanced Card Management, Personalization in Latest SmartApps Release
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Malauzai Software

malauzai_homepage_september2016

Enhanced card management and personalized transactions are among the new features for the latest edition Malauzai Software’s mobile and online banking SmartApps. Enhanced card management improves security by giving users the ability to switch cards on and off, establish accepted merchants and dollar thresholds, and transaction categories. And the personalized-transactions feature enables users to attach a photo or image to any transaction to make it easy to record and track spending.

“The recent developments within our SmartApps enable banks and credit unions to offer truly distinct digital channels that combine custom designs and analytics to allow consumers and small businesses to better control their finances,” says Robb Gaynor, chief product officer for Malauzai, headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Bill Bunn, SVP and head of retail banking at Park Sterling Bank, praised Malauzai for being “quick to market with new products and features that positively impact our customers.” Bunn says he appreciates how Malauzai’s technology has helped banks like his—with $3.2 billion in assets—compete with its larger rivals. “We love that we can get in front of customers and show that we can provide the same, if not better, products that the big banks provide,” Bunn said, “and Malauzai helps us do that.”

In addition to enhanced card management and personalized transactions, the new features to SmartApps include a Family Financial Manager that enables users to create apps for additional users (such as family members or financial advisers) and a “View as User” feature that enables professionals at financial institutions to “see what the customer sees” from their own consoles to better respond to questions and help solve problems.

Founded in 2009, Malauzai Software demonstrated its MOX Pay Powered by Visual App Builder at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has more than 85 employees, and its solutions are live with more than 400 banks and credit unions. Earlier this summer, Malauzai announced that it was adding mobile deposit functionality to its MOX Everywhere Suite, courtesy of a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Cachet Financial Solutions. Malauzai teamed up with Finovate alum Geezeo in April 2016 to bring PFM tools to more community financial institutions, and in March, the company joined BizEquity (yet another Finovate alum) in earning recognition at the Bank Director’s FinXTech Awards.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr APIntelligence

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity, Avoka, BlockCypher, Bluefin Payment Systems, Concur, Expensify, Giftbit, Kyckr, MX, NCR Corporation

FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016FinDEVrSV16-withdate is just over a month away! Join us October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara, as our developers’ conference returns to the West Coast. Tickets are available now.

The latest from upcoming presenters at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016

  • AutoGravity wins Best of Show at FinovateFall 2016. Learn more about their technology at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 in October.
  • Six-time Best of Show winner MX partners with NCR to launch new money-management platform with more than three million end users.
  • Ahead of its FinDEVr debut next month, Kyckr has announced completion of phase one of its corporate identity blockchain service.

Alumni updates

  • Giftbit, formerly Kiind, launches its commerce currency platform.
  • Aerospike earns a spot on the Big Data 50.
  • Concur acquires travel-based startup, Hipmunk.
  • Digital onboarding technology from Avoka helps Ebury pick up 50% gains in its customer base.
  • Terry Roche of TABB Group interviews Stephane Dubois, CEO of Xignite.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems unveils its P2PE solution for Merchant Link.
  • BlockCypher announces instantaneous cross-border payments.

Keep up to date with the daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Bluefin Payment Systems, Concur, Malauzai Software, Misys, Revolut

On Finovate.com

  • Malauzai Features Enhanced Card Management, Personalization in Latest SmartApps Release
  • Check out the latest in developer news in our FinDEVr APIntelligence column.

Around the web

  • Bluefin Payment Systems brings point-to-point encryption (P2PE) to Merchant Link.
  • In less than 24 hours, Revolut signs up thousands of businesses for its beta launch.
  • Swedbank to deploy FusionBanking Loan IQ from Misys.
  • Ebury reports 50% gains in customer base, thanks to digital onboarding technology from Avoka.
  • Concur acquires travel-based startup, Hipmunk.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Read All About It! FinovateFall 2016 in the Press

Read All About It! FinovateFall 2016 in the Press
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2016

Grumpy Man Reads the News

FinovateFall 2016 is in the books. But with our two-day show ending on a Friday, much of the analysis and reporting on our event is just making its way into the media, both online and off.

finovate-fall16-successOur conferences maximize networking opportunities for attendees, presenters, sponsors, and partners alike. We are equally interested in helping the press get to know our industry, and for our presenters to meet journalists who are eager to bring the good news of fintech innovation to the world. As someone who spends about half of every Finovate in the press area, I can attest to the quality of the conversations between those who present at, and those who report on, our events.

So let’s take a look at what the women and men of the purple lanyards had to say about what they saw at FinovateFall 2016 last week.

AgreementExpress blog
Summary of FinovateFall 2016

American Banker
Takeaway from Finovate and Next Money: Ditch the Humans by Bryan Yurcan and Tanaya Macheel

The Australian Business Review
Blockchain technology extends to agricultural contracts by Richard Gluyas

Bank Innovation

Banking Technology

Beyond the Arc
Fintech Innovators: 4 Companies to Watch by Steven Ramirez

Business Insider

Crowdfund Insider

The Fintech Blog
Finovate: What You Missed by Gary Zimmerman

Forbes.com
The Best New Personal Apps and Sites by Richard Eisenberg

New York Business Journal
Mobile tech for automobile lending, gift card redeeming snag top prize at Finovate by Anthony Noto

PaymentsSource
Startups Want to Ditch the Humans by Bryan Yurcan and Tanaya Macheel

PYMNTS.com
Urban FT Launches New Workshop Management Portal

StartUpper (in Greek)
The Startups That Stood Out at FinovateFall in New York by George Batter

VentureBeat
Enterprise startup Kore: Banks need bots to woo young people by Khari Johnson

William Mills Agency Blog

We’ll update the list as more press comes in. If you’ve published a piece you’d like us to include, please email the link to research@finovate.com.

And for more insights into FinovateFall 2016, be sure to check out our Twitter coverage, FinovateFall 2016: Live from Twitterverse.

*Grumpy Man Reads the News” shared under the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Public Domain License through openclipart.org.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Ant Financial Acquires EyeVerify

Ant Financial Acquires EyeVerify
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EyeVerify, Mergers & Acquisitions

eyeverify_antfinancial

Less than a week after EyeVerify’s successful return to the Finovate stage, the company announced that it has been acquired by Ant Financial. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but EyeVerify will remain in operation as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ant Financial Services and will remain headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

EyeVerify founder and CEO Toby Rush said Ant Financial’s vision to support small and micro enterprises and their consumers “resonate(d) deeply” with the core mission of EyeVerify. Rush notes that EyeVerify’s payment-grade biometric platform is already trusted by more than three dozen banks and technology leaders, and says, “We look forward to helping even more people across the financial spectrum access digital services with security and convenience.”

eyeverify_stage_feu2016c

EyeVerify’s Director of Marketing Tinna Hung demonstrated EyePrint ID at FinovateEurope 2016.

EyeVerify’s innovation is to use the pattern of veins and white space in the human eye as a biometric marker, an identifier more unique than fingerprints according to the company. Using the camera embedded in most smartphones, EyeVerify users can take an “eyeprint” as easily as they would take a selfie and use that spoof-proof eyeprint for authentication purposes. The software-based technology, deployed by Wells Fargo for its corporate clients with commercial banks this spring, doesn’t require expensive hardware and has an accuracy rate of 99.99%.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, EyeVerify demonstrated its Eyeprint ID at FinovateEurope in spring 2016, where the company won Best of Show. More recently, EyeVerify demoed its technology here in the U.S. at FinovateFall 2016 (demo video available soon). Last month, EyeVerify integrated its Eyeprint ID technology into the Identity Platform of fellow Finovate alum, BioConnect.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Signifyd Raises $19 Million in New Funding

Signifyd Raises $19 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Signifyd

signifyd_homepage_september2016

E-commerce anti-fraud innovator Signifyd has locked in an investment of $19 million from American Express Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital. The funding, which takes Signifyd’s total to $50 million, will help the company grow its infrastructure and continue to enhance its machine learning technology.

American Express Ventures partner Rohit Bodas emphasized both Signifyd’s commitment to state-of-the-art technology as well as the Palo Alto-based startup’s confidence in its technology in discussing his firm’s decision to invest. “By leveraging machine learning and providing a 100% guarantee, Signifyd is making it possible for even the smallest merchants to combat fraud and achieve measurable cost savings in the process,” Bodas said.

signifyd_stage_fs2013b

Signifyd co-founder and CEO Rajesh Ramanand demonstrated Guaranteed Payments at FinovateSpring 2013.

Signifyd’s anti-fraud solution leverages the power of the “social graph” and what it says are “thousands of different data points” to help ensure that online consumers are who they say they are. The technology provides merchants with a clear “Accept or Decline” judgement on transactions, and assumes liability for any transaction that is incorrectly determined to be fraudulent. Signifyd says merchants can realize margin gains of 20% and enjoy cash-flow predictability from the company’s 100% financial guarantee alone. Signify serves more than 5,000 e-commerce companies, including major retailers like Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Lacoste.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Signifyd demonstrated its Guaranteed Payments technology at FinovateSpring 2013. Earlier this year, Signifyd unveiled a fraud-protection app for Magento Marketplace, and was featured in a March 2016 column from TechCrunch called, “The rise of APIs.” Named one of the best places in the area to work by San Francisco Business Times this past spring, Signifyd began the year extending its integration with Shopify Plus and added CyberSource founder Bill McKiernan to its board of directors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Daon, EyeVerify, Jack Henry, Klarna, Signifyd

On Finovate.com

  • Signifyd Raises $19 Million in New Funding
  • Read All About It! FinovateFall 2016 in the Press

Around the web

  • BBC America features Daon in a look at how biometric technology is replacing the password. Video of Daon’s FinovateFall 2016 debut will be available soon.
  • Klarna partners with retail giant Arcadia to provide “buy now, pay later” shopping for U.K. consumers.
  • ACI Worldwide earns 2016 Swift accreditation for its money-transfer system.
  • Jack Henry & Associates announces full integration of Banno Mobile.

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.

 

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

AnchorID Brings Custom Authentication to Credit Unions

AnchorID Brings Custom Authentication to Credit Unions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AnchorID

anchorid_homepage_september2016

CU Wallet, a Los Angeles-based provider of white-label digital wallet solutions for regional and community FIs, has picked Finovate Best of Show winner AnchorID to provide multifactor authentication. Pointing to the unique challenges of small and midsize banks and credit unions, CU Wallet CEO Paul Fiore praised both the level of KYC compliance and variety of authentication solutions available via AnchorID. Specifically, Fiore credited the enterprise-grade authentication specialist for developing a platform that does not require having access to core processor data. Fiore says AnchorID “levels the playing field.”

AnchorID CEO David W. Schropfer added that his company’s technology also makes it easier for FIs to keep up with new technological challenges. “Our proprietary platform solves the authentication problems of today and tomorrow by enabling access to new technology as it becomes available,” he said. This helps smaller banks and credit unions in particular take advantage of innovations in authentication and security without worrying about the spending money on soon-to-be-obsolete technologies.

anchorid_ff2014_stage

CEO David Schropfer demonstrated AnchorID at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

An innovator in the field of global access and identity proofing, AnchorID’s authentication solutions include a wide variety of technologies for the enterprise. From biometric solutions using fingerprint, voice and iris, to PIN, and soft token, and device-based authentication strategies, AnchorID’s multifaceted approach allows enterprises to experiment and select the authentication strategies that fit them best. The technology integrates readily with Microsoft Active Directory and Azure, Linux, LDAP, and SAML. As part of AnchorID’s new partnership with CU Wallet, more than 100 regional and community banks and credit unions will get access to AnchorID’s authentication solutions.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Kingston, New York, AnchorID demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014, where it won Best of Show. The company was featured in Mergermarket and highlighted by Consumer Reports in its “Bright Ideas” column in December 2014. AnchorID has raised more than $1 million in funding.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook