Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Five Degrees Raises $10 Million in New Funding”

Around the web

  • Through partnerships with Arvest Bank and First Tennessee Bank, D3 Banking adds 1+ million users to its digital banking platform.
  • Jack Henry partners with Early Warning to offer P2P payment service Zelle to FI clients.
  • TIS deploys cloud-based forms-processing integrated with Salesforce for electricity supplier Powercor Australia.
  • Credit Karma expands operations to Canada.
  • Lending Robot files to form pooled investment fund.
  • Xero launches Xero HQ for accountants and bookkeepers.

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.

Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha

Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha

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Fresh off its performances at FinovateAsia and FinDEVr—where the company was awarded “Favorite Alum” by conference attendees—Lleida.net announces a partnership with the largest financial institution in Ecuador. The agreement will bring Lleida.net’s electronic notification and contracting technology, Connectaclick, to Banco Pichincha and its customers in Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Panama, as well as Ecuador. “The agreement ratifies the interest of the banking sector for contracting and notification services as an added value for their clients,” Lleida.net CEO Sisco Sapena said. “We are proud that such a consolidated bank in Latin America entrusted us for an important and sensitive area for the company.”

Lleida.net’s data-validation technology provides businesses and other organizations with confirmation of both receipt and content of electronically delivered material. The company’s Connectaclick solution, active in more than 150 countries, enables e-signature contracts to be delivered from anywhere using any device, with proof of delivery provided via registered SMS, email, or invoice. “Keep in mind that (telecom) operators are considered trusted third parties in front of the law,” Sapena explained at our FinDEVr conference this fall, adding that the technology provides an additional level of assurance that satisfied legal notification requirements. “Depending on what we say on that certificate,” Sapena said, “and depending on the case obviously, people can be jailed.”

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Lleida, Spain, Lleida.net demonstrated its registered email and electronic contracting technology at FinovateAsia 2016. In September the company announced that it had won a key U.S. patent it said marked a “turning point” for its plans to expand internationally. Earlier this year, Lleida.net launched its Platform4Shares campaign in which the company offered its services in exchange for equity shares. The initiative was modeled after MediatorEquity, in which advertising agencies provide services to startups in exchange for a stake in the company.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked”
  • Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha.

Around the web

  • Swiss fintech innovator Net Guardians to deploy its security solution, FraudGuardian, with National Bank of Malawi.
  • iSignthis partners with Leverate Financial Services, providing the online FX and CFD broker with its full Paydentity solution.
  • YourStory profiles Finovate newcomer MarketsMojo and its plan to make equity investing mainstream.
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine features Fintura in a look at the fintech scene in Frankfurt.
  • True Potential wins approval as workplace pension adviser from The Pensions Regulator.
  • PayPal reports mobile shopping represented a third of sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
  • Lighter Capital named the fastest growing private tech company in Washington state.
  • LTP lists BankBazaar, CoverHound, InforcePRO, and Sureify on its list of revolutionary insuretech startups.

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.

Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked

Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked

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Bye-bye blockchain consortium?

What are blockchain watchers to make of the recent decision by three big banks to withdraw from blockchain consortium, R3?

Goldman Sachs was the first to break ranks. One of the founding members of R3 in 2014, Goldman let its membership lapse as of the end of October, according to the Wall Street Journal. The withdrawal from R3 was not a reflection of Goldman’s interest in the technology; WSJ reports that the bank continues to focus on blockchain technology internally, pursue patents in the field, and last year was part of the team that invested $50 million in bitcoin startup, Circle Internet Financial.

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Santander was second, announcing its decision “within hours” of Goldman Sachs. The Spanish bank has said little about its decision (Santander provided CoinDesk with a nine-word response that confirmed their withdrawal and nothing more). And this past week, Morgan Stanley announced it was leaving R3.

So why are these banks headed for the R3 exits? One argument is that R3 is passing the hat, looking for equity investment in order to take the consortium to the next level. In fact, R3 is said to have lowered its funding target from $200 million to $150 million, and give bank members an equity stake of 60%. In a statement issued the same day as Santander’s announcement, R3 noted that consortium members “all have different capacities and capabilities which naturally change over time.” If the $150 million fundraising target is not reached, the round will be opened up to “the strategic investors.”

Blockchain and the underbanked

  • The role of the blockchain in supporting underserved communities is more than social justice hype. This week, more than 100 migrant workers from Myanmar concluded a test of a blockchain remittance solution developed by Everex. The mobile payments app is based on the Ethereum blockchain, and more than 850,000 Thai baht (approximately $24,000) was transferred.
  • A new paper by the Charities Aid Foundation cites blockchain technology as a way to help charities better manage donations, handle complex accounting challenges, as well as conduct research. The report, “Giving Unchained—Philanthropy and the Blockchain,” discusses a variety of ways the blockchain technology could be put to use, including enabling the donation of intangible assets such as intellectual property, “radical transparency,” and smart, “self-governing contracts.”

Blockchain.gov?

RJ Krawiec and Jason Killmeyer took to TechCrunch recently to look at ways that blockchain technology can be used to improve government services. “Blockchain is already driving a tremendous amount of investment and innovation across a wide range of industries, starting with financial services,” the pair wrote. “The government could be next.”

For Krawiec and Killmeyer, the just-concluded presidential election season in the U.S. provides one example of how blockchain technology’s “unique and seemingly contradictory combination of attributes” could be put to use. Digital voting and identification, electronic health records, and “audit-free tax audits” were among the use-cases the two suggested could be right around the corner given a sufficiently motivated public sector.

Bitcoin’s mini boom

Blockchain opened its 10 millionth digital wallet this week. Peter Smith, Blockchain co-founder and CEO, credited the election victory of President-elect Trump for the surge in interest in the alt-currency. Quoted in Business Insider, Smith said, “People are basically hedging against economic instability. It’s a worrying time to be holding a lot of British pound, or if you’re America, people flee to safe-haven assets. Bitcoin is one of those.”

Part of the gain in bitcoin prices is also widely believed to be a function of India’s rumored decision to ban the importation of gold. The country is one of the largest gold importers in the world, buying 700 tons a year. But efforts to fight money-laundering and reduce corruption may lead the Indian government to put restrictions on gold imports, as criminals shift toward alternative “safe haven” assets like gold.

A bitcoin pioneer’s blockchain-based comeback

Bitcoin pioneer Charlie Shrem has launched Intellisys Capital, a startup that will offer a private equity investment portfolio called Mainstream Investment that will issue tokens representing “blockchain-based shares” in a variety of companies in manufacturing, real estate, and other industries.

“The strategy is designed to create symbiosis between blockchain assets and traditional finance and to help many traditional sectors move toward state-of-the-art improvement,” Shrem’s company said in a statement.

Shrem was arrested and convicted of money laundering and acting as an unlicensed money transmitter in 2014. He was released from a high-security federal prison camp this spring. The case was controversial, with some in the cryptocurrency community insisting Shrem did nothing wrong.

Like the blockchain? You’ll love FinDEVr

If you’re a developer working with blockchain technology, have we got a conference for you! FinDEVr returns to New York, 21/22 March 2017 for two days of presentations all about the technology driving innovation in financial services today. Visit our FinDEVr page for more information.

Germany’s figo Picks Up $7 Million in Series B Funding

Germany’s figo Picks Up $7 Million in Series B Funding

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Banking service provider figo has picked up an investment from strategic partner DB1 Ventures, the VC wing of Deutsche Börse Group. The “seven digit” investment gives Deutsche Börse a sizable minority stake in figo, and is designed to help fuel the company’s international expansion. Also participating in the round were “reputable business angels from Germany.” With the completed series B, figo raised more than $7 million (€ 6.8 million), and now has total capital of more than $12 million.

“In a changing financial landscape, figo has established itself as a reliable partner and has built up a fantastic fintech ecosystem around itself,” Deutsche Börse Managing Director Ankur Kamalia said. “We look forward to supporting their growth and also learning from the innovation they are driving.” Calling Deutsche Börse a “perfect partner” for his company, figo CEO André M. Bajorat (pictured) said the investment and strategic partnership will enable figo to “gain new enhanced visibility in the industry.”

figo_andrebajoratFounded in 2012 and headquartered in Germany, figo demonstrated its cloud banking API at FinovateEurope 2013. Europe’s first banking service provider, figo provides a banking API that enables third parties to connect apps and services to more than 3,000 FIs and financial service organizations. Operating in Germany and Austria, figo specializes in solutions to help companies with their Payments Services Directive strategies (PSD2). This, according to some, has been key to renewed investment interest in the company and was highlighted by Deutsche Börse’s Kamalia. “The figo team led by André Bajorat has made clear the opportunities that exist for virtually every player in the financial sector and the enormous potential that PSD2 implementation offers to European industry,” Kamalia said.

Last month, figo organized Hamburg FinTech Week, bringing together 85 programmers and product developers to focus on the latest innovations and trends in the German fintech scene. The event also featured a hackathon called Bankathon 2016 designed to promote development and create solutions based on PSD2 and XS2A (“access to account”). Access to account is a key component of PSD2, which encourages third parties to participate more directly in financial services, specifically in the areas of enabling financial data to be read and deployed in third-party services and solutions, as well as bank transfers using third-party apps. Writing about figo—the company’s recent funding and PSD2—Finance Magnates noted that figo’s embrace of PSD2 has “strategically placed itself at a key point in the payments realm, helping build a new banking infrastructure in a world hamstrung by open APIs.”

Finovate Alumni News

Around the web

  • Mitek recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America.
  • FinDEVr alum Hyperwallet teams up with music and media rights company, USA Media Rights.
  • San Diego Union-Tribune adds Jack Henry & Associates to its Top Workplaces list.
  • Yseop wins Information Technology Innovation award from Ventana Research.
  • Liferay opens new office in Dubai.

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.

 

Sezzle Raises Seed Funding Ahead of Shopify Debut

Sezzle Raises Seed Funding Ahead of Shopify Debut

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It’s a good time to be Sezzle.

The alternative payments company that made its Finovate Debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring has just completed a seed round of funding, raising $1.85 million. The funding surpassed expectations, according to Sezzle founder and CEO Charlie Youakim, who stated that the company has seen continued interest from investors, oversubscribing their round. “Our ultimate goal is to be successful, even if the founding team ends up owning a little less,” he said. Participating in the seed round were Belgium’s E-Merge and China’s CSC Upshot, as well as “angels, superangels, friends and family.”

The funding for Sezzle accompanies news that the company will launch on Shopify with its first set of merchants. Sezzle is in final testing with clients now and expects to be able to announce the names of its merchant partners in mid-December. Merchants are expected to roll out the integration over the next couple of weeks, Youakim said.

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CEO and founder Charlie Youakim demonstrated Sezzle at FinovateSpring 2016.

Founded in January 2016 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sezzle introduced its payment solution at FinovateSpring 2016. Sezzle is a payment platform that leverages bank sign-on technology and ACH rails to give merchants a cheaper option—fees of 1.5% and 15 cents for transactions—that is half the cost of credit cards and PayPal. At the same time, consumers using Sezzle benefit from rewards—currently 1% cash back—on purchases that are essentially debit-card transactions. “Typically, people convert to credit cards because of rewards,” Youakim explains, “but there are issues and anxieties for young people [when it comes to credit cards and debt].” For these consumers, debit payments are much more familiar. Youakim also points out that Sezzle is a cardless option, which also appeals to younger consumers.

Going forward, Youakim hopes to add merchant-backed rewards as well as potentially increasing the cash-back amount as adoption of Sezzle increases. “We are getting more attention from users and merchants,” he said, pointing out that some merchants who are planning to deploy the technology are waiting until after the Christmas season. “We are definitely getting some interest out there from merchants,” Youakim added, “a few ‘not yets,’ but not very many [saying] ‘No.'”

The Best of FinovateAsia 2016 in Photos

The Best of FinovateAsia 2016 in Photos

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We had a blast at FinovateAsia in Hong Kong earlier this month and now we get to re-live the experience through pictures. The show, which was held on 8 November, was our largest conference in Asia to-date, and we can’t wait to return next year with an even bigger crowd.

Here are some of our favorite photos from the event:

30777350990_3bb7a48639_kIn the networking hall at PMQ
Taking a break for a selfie
31005619702_67a9af5ec9_kSentifi presenter Tran Huyen preps for her live demo

You can check out all of the photos from FinovateAsia on our Flickr page. Aside from the lively photos, the Twitter conversation was quite engaging. And in case you missed it, check out our press coverage from the event:

Thanks to everyone who participated in our very first event in Hong Kong. We look forward to seeing you at FinovateEurope in February 2017 or at next year’s event in Asia!

Klarna Acqui-hires P2P Payment Company Cookies

Klarna Acqui-hires P2P Payment Company Cookies

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Online payment solutions company Klarna made a move to bolster the brain power of its team today. The company has acquired Germany-based Cookies, a P2P payments startup that filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cookies was founded by former N26 employees Garry Krugljakow and Lamine Cheloufi who launched the startup in an effort to become the Venmo of Europe. For Klarna, the acquisition is about talent and not about Cookies’ money-transfer technology. The entire Cookies team, except for cofounder Krugljakow, will join Klarna and remain in Germany to become Klarna’s new Berlin office.

In August, we covered Cookies’ effort to change its business model into a messaging-based P2P payment service geared toward millennials. The messaging service included paymojis, emojis with special powers (such as a lightning bolt to make the payment send faster) that could be included alongside the payment. Regarding the transition, Cookies co-founder Cheloufi said, “I am thrilled to become part of Klarna together with our strong team and take on new innovative projects out of Berlin. For us, this is a unique chance to join Klarna and benefit from their wealth of expertise, tech and talent.”

Founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Klarna is headquartered in Ohio with offices in San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, and across Europe. The company demonstrated its online payment-processing service at FinovateSpring 2012. Recently, Klarna went live with SAP’s Smart Accounting for Financial InstrumentsSmart AFI—a solution that offers a centralized sub-ledger that integrates directly into a company’s accounting-documentation chain. In September, the company added American Express as a payment option at checkout.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “The Best of FinovateAsia 2016 in Photos
  • “Sezzle Raises Seed Funding Ahead of Shopify Debut”

Around the web

  • PayNearMe to power cash payments at Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
  • IBM to launch 4 new data centers in the U.K.
  • NYMBUS partners with QTS Realty Trust to enable financial institutions to move legacy core systems to NYMBUS’s private cloud.
  • Compass Plus enabled processing center Quipu to reach 100% service availability in 2015.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at the challenges facing Prosper and its incoming CEO David Kimball.
  • Trustly hires new Head of People Operations, Ulrica Falkenberg.
  • HVAC manufacturer Mestek to offer Student Loan Genius benefit via Prudential.
  • Lighter Capital ranked #4 in Puget Sound Business Journal’s list of fastest-growing private companies in Washington state.

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.

True Link Financial Lands $3.6 Million Investment

True Link Financial Lands $3.6 Million Investment

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With an investment of $3.6 million, True Link Financial has more than doubled its total capital, which now stands at more than $7 million in combined equity and debt financing. The company’s latest investment comes courtesy of a quartet of investors: Kapor Capital, Initialized Capital, Symmetrical Ventures, and the Ziegler Link-Age Longevity Fund.

While much of the fintech world remains mesmerized by the millennial market, True Link Financial CEO and co-founder Kai Stinchcombe believes that baby boomers—and increasingly genX-ers—are where it’s at. “We think seniors are the most exciting market in financial services today,” Stinchcombe said. “Half of the wealth in the U.S. is owned by people 59 years and over, and as baby boomers retire, the tidal wave is only growing.”

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Fom left: Kai Stinchcombe, CEO, and Claire McDonnell, COO, demonstrating the True Link Card at FinovateSpring 2014.

True Link Financial said that the funding will help the company’s sales and marketing in support of its key products; namely, the True Link Card and a suite of solutions to help administrators manage trusts and benefit eligibility. The additional capital will also help the company as it launches its new online advisory service, True Link Financial Advisors, which emerged from private beta this week after spending the past year serving “several hundred” of the company’s existing customers.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, True Link Financial demonstrated its True Link Card at FinovateSpring 2014. The company provides a variety of financial planning and management services, specializing in retirees, including both free online portfolio planning and construction as well as fee-based, ongoing advisory services. True Link provides a hybrid investment planning solution, combining online planning technology and customized investment plans with human advisors to give clients the best of both worlds in terms of convenience and support.

“We want our customers to feel confident that investment decisions are always made in their best interest,” the True Link CEO said. Saying that “trust” is often the missing ingredient in the relationships between financial services companies and their customers, Stinchcombe added that True Link advisers do not work on commission and do not sell proprietary products. “Our broad-based approach is delivered for one simple, transparent fee,” he said.

Envestnet | Yodlee to Support Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Business

Envestnet | Yodlee to Support Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Business

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In October, Envestnet | Yodlee reported the full integration of Yodlee’s technology into the Envestnet platform. A month later, the company has announced the full integration’s latest win: a partnership that will put Envestnet | Yodlee’s data aggregation, reconciliation, and digital apps at the core of Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management business.

Anil Arora, Envestnet | Yodlee CEO, cited the partnership as evidence of his company’s ability to sell “more comprehensive solutions to large sophisticated financial institutions.” Managing more than $2 trillion in client assets, Morgan Stanley will integrate digital apps and data-aggregation technology from Yodlee and data-reconciliation solutions from Envestnet. “We look forward to building value for Morgan Stanley’s advisers and clients with our combined market leading technology,” Arora said.

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Katy Gibson, VP, product applications, demonstrated Envestnet | Yodlee’s dynamic intelligence technology at FinovateFall 2016.

The news from Envestnet | Yodlee comes as the company ramps up its relationships with wealth managers and financial planners. Earlier this month, CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions announced a partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee that will help its financial plan-sponsors satisfy regulatory requirements. In October, Envestnet | Yodlee reported that it had “deepened its integration and relationship” with the National Advisors family of companies and in August, Envestnet | Yodlee announced that it would power United Capital’s FlexScore solution. And, yes, that’s the same FlexScore Finovate alum that was acquired by United Capital earlier this year.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Yodlee was purchased by Envestnet for $660 million in August 2015. The company demoed its Tandem PFM app at FinovateAsia 2013, earning a Best of Show trophy, and was a crowd favorite a year later at the inaugural FinDEVr developers conference in 2014. More recently, at FinovateFall2016, Envestnet | Yodlee’s Katy Gibson (pictured above) and Sam Tomushev demonstrated the company’s dynamic intelligence technology.