Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Envestnet | Yodlee Forges Strategic Partnership with United Capital
  • Finovate Debuts: Cyberfend’s BotFender Detects Attacks in Real-Time

Around the web

  • TransferWise partners with Raphaels Bank as part of Faster Payments Service integration.
  • Token opens new London office.
  • Trulioo earns top honors for ID verification in 2016 Global RegTech report.
  • Check Point Introduces First Real-Time Zero-Day Protection for Web Browsers
  • P2Binvestor Delivers Biggest Line of Credit Yet at $10 Million
  • CR2 teams up with Diamond Bank to bring next-generation ATM technology to Nigeria.

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.

Fintech Fundings: 186 Companies Raised $1.6 Billion in June

pig_sunglasses_money_croppedSecond quarter 2016 closed with a frenzy of fintech fundings: 49 deals were announced the last week alone, 10 more than the previous weekly record. The total amount raised was $327 million across 34 fundings with announced amounts (15 deals had undisclosed amounts). Of the total, $61.5 million was debt.

Four Finovate alums raised a total of $77 million during the week:

Total fundings worldwide in June: $1.6 billion from 186 deals compared to May which totaled $1.7 billion across 113 deals. (Note: Due to our weekly tracking methodology, there was an additional week in the June total.) 

The weekly details can be found through the following links:

The total number of deals YTD stands at 737, double last year’s 371. Total dollars raised YTD is now $17.4 billion, more than double the $8.4 billion more raised during the same period a year ago.

——-

Fintech deals by size from 25 June to 1 July 2016:

Paycor
Online payroll system
Latest round: $45 million
Total raised: $164 million
HQ: Cincinnati, Ohio
Tags: SMB, payroll, employers, HR management, employee benefits, salary, payments
Source: FT Partners

Klarna
Ecommerce solution provider
Latest round: $35 million Debt
Total raised: $327 million ($291 million equity, $36 million debt)
HQ: Sweden
Tags: SMB, merchants, ecommerce, B2B2C, payments, Finovate alum
Source: CrunchbaseFinovate

Nvest
Crowd-sourced stock-recommendation platform
Latest round: $33 million Series D
Total raised: $60.15 million
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, trading
Source: Crunchbase

LendingKart
Alt-lender to small businesses
Latest round: $32 million Series B
Total raised: $42 million
HQ: Ahmedabad, India
Tags: SMB, lending, commercial credit, underwriting, loans
Source: Crunchbase

West Creek Financial
Consumer purchase financing
Latest round: $28.5 million ($3.5 million Equity, $25 million Debt)
Total raised: $28.5 million
HQ: Glen Allen, Virginia
Tags: SMB, B2B2C, lending, credit, underwriting, POS, point-of-sale
Source: Crunchbase

Bizfi
Alt-lending to small businesses
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, lending, commercial credit, underwriting, Finovate alum
Source: CrunchbaseFinovate

Goji (formerly Consumers United)
Consumer insurance portal
Latest round: $19 million
Total raised: $89 million
HQ: Boston, Massachusetts
Tags: Automobile insurance, home insurance, life insurance, membership, price quotes, price comparison, lead gen
Source: FT Partners

D3 Banking
Banking platform
Latest round: $16.4 million
Total raised: $33.4 million
HQ: Omaha, Nebraska
Tags: Institutions, B2B2C, digital banking, small business, Finovate alum
Source: CrunchbaseFinovate

SpotCap (Rocket Internet)
Alt-lender to small businesses
Latest round: $14.4 million Series C
Total raised: $66.2 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: SMB, lending, commercial credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Storm
Payment and trade finance for microbusinesses
Latest round: $13.2 million Series A
Total raised: $16.1 million
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Tags: SMB, merchants, point-of-sale, ecommerce, acquiring, payments, credit/debit cards, trade finance, inventory management, BI
Source: Crunchbase

Avoka
Digital sales and account opening
Latest round: $12 million
Total raised: $12 million
HQ: Sydney, Australia; Broomfield, Colorado
Tags: Institutions, sales, marketing, online account opening, Finovate and FinDEVr alum
Source: Finovate

i3 Verticals
Payment processing
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $10 million
HQ: Nashville, Tennessee
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, credit/debit cards, acquiring
Source: FT Partners

ForUsAll
401(k) platform
Latest round: $9.5 million Series A
Total raised: $12.84 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, SMB, saving, investing, human resources, employee benefits, employers
Source: Crunchbase

Final
Credit card with consumer controls
Latest round: $8 million Series A
Total raised: $9.1 million
HQ: California
Accelerator: Y Combinator
Tags: Consumer, lending, credit, credit/debit cards, spending controls, security
Source: Crunchbase

DV01
Marketplace lending analytics
Latest round: $7.5 million Seed
Total raised: $7.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Institutions, advisers, analytics, BI, lending, loans, securitization
Source: FT Partners

SMACC
Online accounting
Latest round: $3.9 million
Total raised: $3.9 million
HQ: Potsdam, Germany
Tags: SMB, accounting, bookkeeping, billing
Source: Crunchbase

TransferGo
International funds transfers
Latest round: $3.4 million Series A
Total raised: $6.1 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, SMB, funds transfer, remittances, foreign exchange, FX
Source: Crunchbase

Apruve
Trade finance and payments platform
Latest round: $3.1 million Series A
Total raised: $3.5 million
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

ProducePay
Payment solutions for the fresh-produce industry
Latest round: $2.5 million Seed
Total raised: $3.9 million
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: SMB, payments, credit, underwriting, trade finance, factoring, agriculture
Source: Crunchbase

Zirra
Crowd-sourced investment rating service
Latest round: $1.6 million Series A
Total raised: $2.3 million
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Tags: Consumer, investing, advisers, wealth management, information, analytics, crowdsourcing
Source: Crunchbase

Payzer
Mobile payment and financing platform for field sales
Latest round: $1.5 million Debt
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Charlotte, North Carolina
Tags: SMB, lending, credit, underwriting, payments, point-of-sale, mobile, trade finance
Source: Crunchbase

TrueBill
Recurring bill management 
Latest round: $1.4 million Seed
Total raised: $1.75 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Accelerator: Y Combinator
Tags: Consumer, billpay, personal financial management, PFM, budgeting, spending, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

FundedByMe
Equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $1.3 million
Total raised: $1.3 million
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Tags: SMB, capital raising, VC, venture capital, p2p, peer-to-peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Flip
P2P apartment-leasing marketplace
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.3 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, housing, rentals, marketplace
Source: Crunchbase

LeaseAccelerator
Equipment lease management software
Latest round: $1.2 million Series
Total raised: $7.1 million
HQ: Great Falls, Virginia
Tags: SMB, entrerprise, leasing, accounting, management, compliance
Source: Crunchbase

Tribe Insurance
Social insurance
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Oslo, Norway
Tags: Consumer, insurance, peer-to-peer, P2p
Source: Crunchbase

Amodo
Customer platform for insurers
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $536,000
HQ: Zagreb, Croatia
Tags: Institutions, B2B2C, insurance, customer service, CRM
Source: Crunchbase

Cindicator
Crowd-forecasting future events for financial markets
Latest round: $250,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $270,000
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Institutions, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, trading
Source: Crunchbase

Tabster
Mobile POS system for hospitality industry
Latest round: $250,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $250,000
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, acquiring, credit/debit cards, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Factom
Blockchain technology
Latest round: $200,000
Total raised: $3.3 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: SMB, blockchain, distributed ledger, database, security
Source: FT Partners

ValChoice
Car insurance portal
Latest round: $120,000 (Microsoft BizSpark Plus Award)
Total raised: $620,000
HQ: Bedford, New Hampshire
Tags: Autombile insurance, price quotes, price comparison, lead generation
Source: FT Partners

BanQu
Blockchain-based identity for the unbanked
Latest round: $100,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: Consumer, blockchain, financial inclusion, unbanked, underbanked, banking, security, identity
Source: Crunchbase

Taplend
P2P mobile lending platform
Latest round: $83,000 Seed
Total raised: $203,000
HQ: Kiev, Ukraine
Accelerator: SellaLab (Italy)/Level 39 (London)
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Daalder
Mobile payments platform
Latest round: $55,000 Convertible Note
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Consumer, payments, mobile, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

ExtractAlpha
Investment tools for institutional investors
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: $41,000 (prior to most recent funding)
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Tags: Institutions, advisers, investing, wealth management, trading, information, analytics
Source: Crunchbase

Hello Tax
Income tax preparation app
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New Delhi, India
Tags: Consumer, tax prep
Source: Crunchbase

Insurity
Insurance management platform
Latest round: Undisclosed Private Equity
Total raised: $49.75 million (prior to above)
HQ: Hartford, Connecticut
Tags: Institutions, insurance, management, analytics, BI
Source: Crunchbase

Karlo Compare
Financial services portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Karachi, Pakistan
Tags: Consumer, lending, banking, loans, credit cards, quotes, price comparison, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

LIQID Investments
Wealth management and digital family-office platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Advisers, wealth managers, investing, trading, retirement
Source: Crunchbase

Loansolutions.ph
Consumer loan portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Cebu City, Philippines
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

LoanStreet
Loan portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tags: Consumer, lending, price comparison, lead gen, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Moneybay
Foreign exchange rate portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Malaysia
Tags: Consumer, payments, FX, remittances, lead gen, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

Musoni System
Banking software for microfinance organizations
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Institutions, SMB, lending, credit, underwriting, microfinance
Source: Crunchbase

MyCashOnline
Online banking services for migrants
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Selangor, Malaysia
Tags: Consumer, payments, remittances, deposits, billpay, ecommerce
Source: Crunchbase

November First
International payments and transfers
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Tags: Consumer, SMB, foreign exchange, FX, remittances, payments, peer-to-peer, P2P, foreign trade
Source: Crunchbase

Razorpay
Online payment gateway
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $11.6 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: SMB, payment processing, credit/debit cards, acquiring, merchants, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Rundit
Revenue-based lending
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Finland
Tags: SMB, lending, credit, underwriting, commercial loans, crowdfunding, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Scripbox
Online mutual fund investment platform
Latest round: Undisclosed Series B
Total raised: $2.5 million (prior to Series B)
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, advisers, traders, investing, wealth management, funds
Source: Crunchbase

Surance
Retirement savings platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Consumer, savings accounts, investing, retirement planning, wealth management
Source: FT Partners

PTIN Gives Members Access to BizFi’s Aggregation Marketplace

PTIN Gives Members Access to BizFi’s Aggregation Marketplace

Bizfi_homepage_August2016

BizFi will provide tax professionals with access to its aggregation marketplace courtesy of a new partnership with the National Directory of Registered Tax Return Preparers and Professionals (PTIN).

PTIN President Michael Rosedale emphasized his organization’s commitment to supporting its members through innovative technology and resources. “Bizfi’s technology and expertise, and its more than 10 years of experience providing financing options to small businesses, will equip PTIN members and their clients with the tool to quickly find the right funding to meet their needs,” Rosedale said.

Bizfi_stage_FF2015

Left to right: Walt Levengood, chief strategy officer, and Stephen Sheinbaum, founder, demonstrated the Bizfi platform at FinovateFall 2015.

Bizfi founder Stephen Sheinbaum explained that since accountants and CPAs are often “the first people small business owners turn to when they need financial guidance,” they are often a great place for first contact with the small business owner. “Traditional lenders can’t always provide small business owners with the capital they need due to strict credit requirements,” Sheinbaum said. “Bizfi can now help PTIN members and their clients meet those needs.” Services include everything from access to offers and facilitating document transfer to underwriting and closing the deal.

Formerly known as Merchant Cash and Capital and rebranding as Bizfi in the fall of 2015, the company specializes in providing financing options to small- and medium-sized businesses. Its fully automated online marketplace provides businesses with a range of financing options including short- and medium-term loans; invoice, equipment, and franchise financing; business lines of credit, and SBA loans. Bizfi has provided more than $1.7 billion in financing to more than 30,000 SMEs across the U.S., and in addition to being a lender on its own platform, has more than 45 funding partners including fellow Finovate alums OnDeck and Kabbage.

Headquartered in New York City, Bizfi demonstrated its aggregation silo for business financing at FinovateFall 2015. The company raised $20 million in funding from Metropolitan Equity last month, an investment that brought Bizfi’s total capital to $85 million.

Ready for a Sneak Peek? How to Best Prepare for FinovateFall

Ready for a Sneak Peek? How to Best Prepare for FinovateFall

StageIMG

To give you a sense of the many new ideas at the upcoming FinovateFall conference in New York, we’ve launched our Sneak Peek series. Eight companies are featured each week leading up to the 8/9 September event (tickets now available).

In the meantime, here is a quick summary of the 66 announced companies (six more are in stealth mode). It’s a lot to take in; pace yourself!

  • Agreement Express offers an an end-to-end platform that helps traditional financial institutions automate labor-intensive parts of the customer onboarding process to remain compliant while quickly opening customer accounts.
  • Aleo’s marketplace uses e-procurement, e-commerce and supplier financing bundled in a single open platform to offer small and medium enterprises an online procure-to-pay solution.
  • AutoGravity’s mobile-first digital marketplace helps digitally minded customers, looking to buy and finance a vehicle, circumvent the inefficiencies of the auto-financing process by leveraging the full potential of their smartphone.
  • Avoka’s customer-acquisition platform integrates multiple fintech services to help banks, wealth managers and insurers use mobile and digital channels to onboard customers.
  • Backbase offers 60-second onboarding for financial services companies to accelerate customer acquisition with a simple, fast, and seamless omnichannel onboarding journey.
  • Bankjoy offers developers a banking API for a modern, real-time, holistic interface for credit unions and community banks.
  • Bitbond’s automated, international credit-scoring mechanism compares small business-loan applicants from different countries by using machine learning and data from the applicant’s business accounts.
  • Bluescape offers large financial services companies a highly interactive, visually collaborative platform that uses real-time, cloud-based architecture that’s ultra-scalable, all-capturing, and accessible anytime from any device.
  • BondIT offers financial advisers and portfolio managers a data-driven solution that uses machine learning advanced algorithms to manage fixed-income portfolios and solve optimization challenges.
  • brandCrowder has developed an alternative investment platform focusing on branded franchises. It leverages 45+ years of franchise-operations experience to help retail investors finance franchises, helping to bring them to market quicker.
  • Clinc’s mobile, voice-activated personal financial adviser uses artificial intelligence to help consumers get answers to financial questions and tasks.
  • Consdata offers banks and financial institutions a comprehensive platform for e-form management and customer-communication complexities.
  • Currencycloud’s dedicated API services use intelligent APIs to help businesses with the cost, limitations, and boundaries of existing payment infrastructure.
  • Daon bridges convenience and security by offering financial services companies a mobile biometric authentication platform that turns a smartphone into a mobile capture device.
  • Divy’s app and social investing community uses an approachable interface and engaging content to help first-time and emerging investors access direct marketing and financial literacy material.
  • Dynamics offers issuers and their cardholders interactive payment cards and an authorization-based, real-time loyalty processing system.
  • ebankIT’s platform offers financial institution clients an omnichannel experience.
  • Econiq’s Conversation Hub uses color-coded conversations to help bank and insurer frontline staff, and operational management and executives avoid disconnected customer conversations in branches and contact centers.
  • Envestnet | Yodlee offers millennials a solution for measuring financial health and promoting a healthy financial lifestyle.
  • Experian CrossCore is a single platform that helps manage customer identities, fraud-prevention tools, workflows and decision strategies in an easy-to-use and scalable format.
  • EyeVerify’s Eyeprint ID offers banks and other financial services companies eye biometrics via smartphone cameras for convenient, secure and private authentication.
  • Featurespace’s ARIC Engine helps financial services clients spot and prevent fraud attacks in real time using adaptive behavioral analytics.
  • Finicity offers an API for companies to build financial apps.
  • Fiserv helps financial institutions enable social finance by providing customers access to a safe, collaborative bank-secured social funding product.
  • Full Profile uses the blockchain and smart contracts for real-time settlement and reporting of physical agri-commodities to help farmers, buyers, banks and government counter party and credit-risk exposures.
  • FutureVault’s cloud-based filing cabinet helps financial service providers and their clients organize asset documents and accounts using a secure, structured and collaborative B2B2C cloud environment.
  • GainX’s SaaS platform uses decades of market research and leading-edge technology to help large financial institutions overcome innovation and adaption failures.
  • GoodData helps large banks, credit-card processing and insurance companies commercialize and monetize their data using a scalable, manageable and secure platform that is exclusively designed for data products and embedded analytics.
  • iBank Marketing offers millennials a multifunction digital wallet to help them achieve personal goals around life events by using its local eco-system that bridges consumers and small- to medium-sized enterprises.
  • identitii uses tokens and blockchain to help financial institutions with KYC, CTF and AML compliance using an information layer over legacy systems.
  • InSpirAVE’s social e-commerce platform curates advice and financial support from the user’s friends and family, financial institutions, and merchants. It helps multiply savings, for big-ticket purchases for customers who otherwise may not be able to afford them, by placing important goals for life’s special moments within reach, without the crushing burden of debt.
  • KORE’s platform transforms enterprise applications, online banking and mobile apps into personalized, conversational engagements to help financial institutions meet customer-experience expectations using the power of bots and simplicity of messaging.
  • LendingFront’s lending platform leverages a cloud-based system that furnishes small businesses with capital using their cashflow data.
  • Lidya offers African small- to medium-sized enterprises access to finance using online receivables-based lending and proprietary credit scoring.
  • Liferay’s Digital Experience offers banks a richer understanding of customers by orchestrating personalized customer experiences.
  • M1 Finance places assets held in low-yielding cash accounts into an asset-linked bank account and intuitive investment platform.
  • MapD’s Immerse helps quantitative hedge fund and asset managers query datasets with billions of rows in real-time by applying the parallel processing power of GPUs to the challenges of databases, visualization and analytics.
  • MarketX’s cross-border investment platform helps international investors with the lack of liquidity for U.S. startup shares and limited access to U.S. pre-IPO investment opportunities.
  • ModoPayments offers financial companies a digital payments hub to connect disparate sources of value to diverse destinations using Modo’s COIN technology.
  • Moonraft Innovation Labs helps banks innovate and evolve by rapidly adapting to changing market needs using Catamera, its unique customer experience delivery framework.
  • Moven’s growing platform reaches the millennial, mobile first, digital native audience by bringing banking (specifically savings) into the moment.
  • MX helps financial institutions become true advocates for their account holders by using analytics to power a revolutionary category of data-driven money management.
  • nanoPay offers a payments and loyalty solution for merchants.
  • Overbond’s digital platform offers transparency, efficiency, and liquidity in the fixed income market for corporate issuers, investors, and dealers.
  • Personetics offers financial services providers a digital personalization platform that uses real-time, ultra-scalable predictive analytics to keep customers engaged in the digital age.
  • ProActive FinTech uses a phone app and debit card featuring unlimited mini bank accounts and pre-purchase categorization to help millennial moms with cash-flow management.
  • QE Data offers commercial banking systems a real-time predictive model for net cash-flows that uses machine learning, rich visualization, speedy deployment and real-world banking experience.
  • Qumram uses 100% real-time, video-like recording of every mouse movement, keystroke and button click to help financial services organizations with compliance and transparency issues relating to digital business.
  • RightCapital’s financial and tax-planning platform helps advisers deliver unbundled, quality financial planning and tax-planning services. It works to efficiently and digitally help consumers with the lack of viable business and technology solutions.
  • SaleMove offers financial institutions a live engagement platform to help sell and service complex financial services products online. The platform uses instant video chat and guided browsing with no downloads or installations.
  • Sindeo’s self-directed consumer rate quote and prequalification tool simplifies home financing and refinancing using an integrated platform that offers consumer, real estate partner, and adviser tools that conform to CFPB regulation and ensure a simple and easy consumer experience.
  • SpeechPro’s customer onboarding solution offers multichannel access to help CTOs, developers and other technologists focus on KYC, identity and verification.
  • Swych’s mobile gifting platform offers gift-card recipients a better way to buy, gift, and manage gift cards.
  • Tango Card’s RaaS API 2.0 uses simple-yet-complete delivery technology and domain expertise to help enterprises deliver incentives efficiently and effectively.
  • TokBox’s Financial Services Accelerator Pack offers banks and financial organizations secure and easy-to-embed, real-time communications technology.
  • TransUnion’s interactive data-visualization solution uses big data and analytics to connect and interpret consumer financial data for lenders.
  • Trulioo’s GlobalGateway uses traditional and cyber ID data sources to offer banks, financial services providers, and online marketplaces secure access to reliable, global data sources for instant ID-verification.
  • Trusona’s anti-replay and TruToken technology offers an insured identity platform for sensitive assets.
  • Unbill’s API enables companies to offer bill pay in their app or technology platform without complicated integration or high costs.
  • Uniken’s REL-ID, a card-not-present approval solution, uses mobile API tool kits and DMZ software appliances to help enterprises secure mobile communications.
  • Urban FT’s enhanced, white-label digital banking platform gives financial services organizations, wireless carriers, and other consumer-facing organizations a long-term, competitive advantage that makes their brand integral to customers’ daily financial and online social activities, financial tools, and social features.
  • Xentral Station’s supply-chain funding app helps vendors of all sizes receive cash for trade financing within 24 hours.
  • Zenmonics uses a single, common platform to help banks and their customers minimize friction in customer engagement with channelUNITED.
  • Zooz offers an agnostic, cross-border payments platform to help merchants act on payment processes and save money to maintain their client base.

Stay tuned on the blog for more detailed descriptions. And don’t forget to register now to reserve your spot.

Q2 Leverages MX Technology to Launch Contextual PFM

Q2 Leverages MX Technology to Launch Contextual PFM

Q2_homepage_August2016

Q2 + MX = CPFM.

With the “always-on aggregation” and UX/UI of MX, the newly launched Contextual PFM from Q2 is designed to make actionable financial insights a part of every customer’s mobile banking routine. “As account holders continue to make heavier use of the mobile channel and seek to optimize their financial lives,” Q2 CTO Adam Anderson said. “Q2 Contextual PFM can give them the most accurate picture of where they stand and what actionable decisions they can make from any device.”

Q2 Contextual PFM uses APIs from MX to provide account aggregation, transaction cleansing, and transaction organization, delivering a data-driven money-management solution to help customers spot, understand, and respond to trends in saving and spending. MX’s data aggregation and innovative visualization technology provide accurate information in an engaging way that “makes it easy for people to manage their finances,” according to MX founder and CEO Ryan Caldwell, who underscored the technology’s “intuitive, innovative UI.”

MX_homepage_August2016

Q2 Contextual PFM can help FIs improve customer engagement and loyalty, as well. Directed at regional and community banks and credit unions, the solution gives them the kind of the technology customers are increasingly expecting, and getting, from larger FIs. This is in addition to the role the solution provides in helping customers become better banking consumers. Tye Jones, SVP of Digital Services at AimBank, where the technology is live with the employees, says the deployment “demonstrates how much we care about our customers’ financial health and providing them with the best possible banking experience, helping us compete with other larger financial institutions.”

A multiple Best of Show winner, Utah-based MX demonstrated its cross-platform fintech framework, Helios, at FinovateFall 2014, showing its technology at work on nine different devices from an iPhone to a Windows tablet. Last month, the company added a new feature, Cash Flow, to its MoneyDesktop platform, and in June, MX announced that it would power the Homeownership Preservation Foundation’s digital money-management app. MX signed a multiyear aggregation agreement with USAA in March and, in January, MX announced that former Intel and Fiserv executive Don MacDonald would become MX’s first CMO.

The company is also a FinDEVr alum. MX CTO Brandon Dewitt presented “How You Build Something Is More Important Than What You’re Building,” at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015. MX has raised $50 million in funding and its investors include USAA, TTV Capital, and North Peak Ventures, among others.

Q2 demonstrated its Risk and Fraud Analytics platform at FinovateSpring 2011. The company launched its cloud-based, open API developer platform, CorePro, in May. In December, Q2 acquired Social Money in a $10 million deal, the same month the company opened offices in Lincoln, Nebraska, to better accommodate their acquisition of Centrix Solutions. Based in Austin, Texas, Q2 trades on the NYSE under the ticker QTWO and has a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Q2 Leverages MX Technology to Launch Contextual PFM
  • PTIN Gives Members Access to BizFi’s Aggregation Marketplace

Around the web

  • iSignthis to verify ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) for fellow Finovate alum, Ixaris.
  • ABA Bank leverages TranzWare from Compass Plus to launch new Cash by Code service.
  • Top Image Systems earns spot as sample vendor in Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Banking Transformation 2016.
  • Coinbase to extend its Bitcoin, ether services to both Canada and Singapore.
  • The Economist reports how EquityZen is catching on.
  • PC Magazine labels Xero the fastest accounting-software innovator.

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.

Fintech Trending: Germany Grows, Pokemon Goes, PayPal Partners

Fintech Trending: Germany Grows, Pokemon Goes, PayPal Partners

PokemonGo_videoimage

Today we unveil our fintech trends column, a look at trending topics of the past week or two, compiled by the Finovate research team.


Trending highest: Pokemon Go

Our inaugural post leads with the Pokemon Go phenomenon which has fintech innovators rethinking their strategies around not just mobile, but the power of gamification, location-based marketing, and the diversity of data, as well.

Sberbank (F16) was clever enough to offer free accident insurance for distraction-prone Pokemon Go players. But the Russian-based bank has bigger plans to engage potential customers via the game, including bonuses for players who catch Pokemon in a Sberbank branch. Sberbank also plans to use lures to help drive traffic to its locations, an initiative already underway at CenterState Bank in Florida. Read our take on the technology, and its potential as a marketing tool for FIs.

It comes as no surprise that fintech’s foremost futurist, Brett King, makes the most far-reaching case in favor of a connection between Pokemon Go and fintech. Calling the game “a glimpse into how very different the world of banking, investing, and financial advice will be in 10 year’s time,” the Moven (F16) CEO and author of Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane tells The Financial Brand’s Jim Marous: “(Pokemon Go) illustrates why banking is no longer a place you go, but something you do—on a phone, in AR, and as a person lives their life.”

Other quality Pokemon posts:

  • Lessons Pokemon Go Can Teach the Banking Industry – The Financial Brand
  • Is Pokemon Go the Killer App for Location-Based Marketing – AdvertisingAge
  • Urban gamification: can Pokemon transform our public spaces – The Guardian
  • Pokemon Go Is Inspiring Small Retailers. So Has Augmented Reality Gone Mainstream? – AdWeek
  • Pokemon Go has reinvented the power of data – IT Pro Portal
  • Capture your business spend: no Pokeball needed – TradeShift blog


Other trending topics

Brexit a Boon for German Fintechs?
With the strong fundraising performance of Germany’s fintech startups in late June, and news this week that Peter Thiel took a $3.5 million stake in Cologne-based nextmarkets, London’s position as Europe’s fintech capital may be weakening. And Germany seems to be the likeliest beneficiary.

  • Brexit spurs London startups to investigate Berlin move – Reuters
  • ‘Over a hundred’ London startups have asked to relocate to Berlin since Brexit – International Business Times
  • Berlin bids to replace London as post-Brexit fintech capital – Financial Times

Nasdaq Fintech Index Goes Live
You know Wall Street loves you when they render your likeness in an index. This week, Nasdaq launched its Fintex Index which tracks the performance of 49 fintech companies including 17 Finovate/FinDEVr alums. The index of publicly traded fintechs excludes banks and is limited to companies that “mainly sell financial services,” are not brick-and-mortar based, and generate revenues from fees rather than interest.

A Week in the Blockchain
While in Florida, a judge ruled that Bitcoin isn’t money, the EU commission made a step fostering the cryptocurrency, proposing the creation of a central database that keeps a record of bitcoin users. With the new measure, the executive arm of the EU aims to prevent the use of the currency to fund terrorists.

Mastercard Accentuates the Digital
Mastercard (F14) enhanced Masterpass, allowing consumers to make in-store payments at 5 million brick-and-mortar stores. The company rebranded its logo with a lowercase ‘c’ to focus less on a physical card and more on a digital wallet. One week later the company purchased a majority stake in U.K.-based VocaLink for $1.14 billion, giving Mastercard a potentially larger role in the overall U.K. payments universe.

Pump Up the Visa Volume
Visa (F10) and PayPal (F12, FD16) partnered, putting to bed a long-standing conflict. PayPal will encourage users to make Visa their preferred payment method. And more importantly, PayPal will stop steering Visa cardholders to pay via ACH bank transfer, increasing the transaction volume sent to Visa and its card-issuing banks. In turn, Visa is adding PayPal to its Visa Digital Enablement Platform, allowing consumers to use PayPal mobile wallet at the physical POS at major retailers. PayPal has been trying to engage consumers with physical POS payments since 2012, when it first introduced its pay-by-phone-number at Home Depot.

More Fintech Companies Choose Chatbots
This ongoing trend saw new entrants with Polly Portfolio (F16) launching a chatbot, along with MyKAI and YouInvest. Additionally, text-based savings service Dyme (F15) launched the first prototype of its Facebook Messenger Bankbot.

We’re also keeping our eyes on:

  • Amazon partnered with Wells Fargo to offer a 0.50% discount on student loans for Amazon Prime members
  • Square adds same-day bank deposits for merchants. While relatively pricey, adding 1% of the transaction amount to the processing cost, it’s a simple way to improve cash flow for certain businesses.
  • Cambridge Savings Bank partnered with SigFig (F11) to become one of the first U.S. banks to offer a robo-adviser investment service.

Parentheticals after a company name refer to the year of their most recent Finovate or FinDEVr conference appearance (F = Finovate, FD = FinDEVr),

Refundo Previews Mobile Tax Filing App Connect

Refundo Previews Mobile Tax Filing App Connect

Refundo_homepage_July2016

Coming soon to both Android and iOS, Connect from Refundo will make it easier for taxpayers to file returns with their tax preparers. The new mobile app is designed to help tax professionals reach more customers, as well as reduce wait times for in-office clients.

Refundo_Connect_images“The beauty of this mobile application is that it will be yours,” Refundo Analytics, Growth and Product Hacker Jesse Arroyave wrote on the company blog. “Customize the app with your brand’s color, your logo and a brief description of what you can do for taxpayers.” Arroyave says mobile apps like Connect typically exceed 10 million downloads during tax season, and cautioned that too many smaller FIs were still missing out on the action.

“I’m just tired of small tax offices, who compete and work just as hard as bigger companies, not seeing the bigger picture,” Arroyave said. “Here’s an opportunity to compete and grab a piece of that pie you deserve.”

Launched in 2011 with a focus on helping low- and moderate-income households access quality financial services, Refundo followed its debut at FinovateSpring 2013 with a partnership with Stripe to enable tax preparers to accept credit-card payments via the Refundo Dashboard, and with a collaboration with fellow Finovate alum LendUp to provide short-term loans to taxpayers waiting for refunds. The company, which is headquartered in Elizabeth, New Jersey, won the Innovative Technology Company of the Year award from the New Jersey Tech Council last year. Refundo’s products include the Dashboard tax-refund-processing platform; a refund anticipation loan (RAL) alternative called NOW; and their audit-advisory service, Audit Pros. Roger Chinchilla is CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Refundo Previews Mobile Tax Filing App Connect

Around the web

  • Entersekt to bring its 2FA technology, Transakt, to Nigeria via partnership with First Authentication Services Ltd (FASL).
  • Inc.com features Stuart Frankel of Narrative Science on the “keys to startup success.”
  • Experian launches anti-fraud platform, CrossCore, in South Africa.
  • True Potential opens up its portfolios to all U.K. advisers.
  • Corporate Insight features iQuantifi in a look at best practices in goal-setting apps.

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.

France’s Groupe BPCE Acquires Munich-based Fidor Bank

France’s Groupe BPCE Acquires Munich-based Fidor Bank

FidorBank_homepage_July2016

Digital banking pioneer Fidor Bank has been acquired by Groupe BPCE of France; terms were not disclosed. Fidor  Bank founder and CEO Matthias Kröner will remain with the company.

Quoted in the Financial Times, BPCE chairman François Perol said the acquisition “demonstrates our commitment to innovation, to developing a customer-centric approach enabled by digital banking technology, and to be more involved in the digital and mobile banking field.” Kröner, whose bank expanded to the U.K. last fall, added that the acquisition will accelerate Fidor’s international expansion “and drive the development of our innovative digital technology even further.”

Fidor_stage_FinDEVrNY2016

Fidor Bank Chief Innovation Officer Patrick Gruban during his presentation at FinDEVr 2016 New York.

Munich-based Fidor Bank was founded in 2009, and has 350,000 members and 120,000 customers in Germany and the U.K. The bank garnered a reputation for leadership in digital banking, partnering with Currency Cloud last fall to support SEPA Direct Debit functionality, and being the first bank to deploy the Ripple protocol for cross-border transfers in 2014, as well as making inroads into social media, P2P lending, and crowdfunding. The bank participated in FinDEVr 2016 New York this spring where Chief Innovation Officer Patrick Gruban presented “How to Start Your Digital bank—Mobile Apps and APIs Included.”

Earlier this month in Wired magazine, Fidor was profiled as “the fintech bank run by its customers.” The bank announced new offices in Dubai last month and in May, Fidor reported that its technology would be used to help launch the new O2 mobile bank account. The bank was inaugurated into The FinTech50 for 2016 in April.

Savedroid Launches Intelligent Savings App

Savedroid Launches Intelligent Savings App

savedroid_homepage_July2016

Straight outta beta, savedroid’s intelligent savings app is now available for free at Google Play.

“Saving has been a super boring and complicated subject,” savedroid founder and CEO Dr Yassin Hankir said. “Many prefer to go to the dentist than to speak with a financial adviser. We change that. With savedroid, saving is finally integrated into the daily lives of users and is fully automated.”

savedroid_app_1Savedroid enables users to set behavior-based rules called “smooves” that help steer a small amount of money toward savings for various goals. For example, set aside $1 for every cup of coffee you buy at your favorite cafe, or $5 every time you spend more than an hour on social media. The savings strategy works as well for short-term goals like a vacation a few months from now or longer-term goals like saving for college. Hankir added: “We make saving exciting, convenient and rewarding, and thus particularly suitable for the target group of millennials.”

The savedroid app comes with a virtual MasterCard courtesy of a partnership with Wirecard, which also processes payments for users by way of an e-money account. “In Wirecard, we have found a reliable and experienced partner for this process, [one that] fulfills all the relevant technical and banking standards,” Hankir said.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, savedroid made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016. The company raised $1 million in seed funding last month in a round led by the investment and development bank Rheinland-Pfalaz (ISB) and featuring the participation of several angel investors.

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Personetics

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Personetics

Personetics_homepage_July2016

FF2016-Logo-wdate-largeA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on September 8 & 9, 2016. Register today.

Using AI-powered predictive analytics, Personetics Anywhere enables financial institutions to deliver timely responses, insight, and advice over popular messaging and personal assistance platforms.

Personetics is:

  • AI-powered, self-learning, and packed with financial knowledge
  • Highly secure and easily controlled by your financial institution
  • Able to work across all messaging platforms

Why it’s great
Personetics Anywhere allows financial institutions to quickly deploy a chatbot solution that can respond to customer requests and deliver smart, timely insight and advice in a conversational medium.

Personetics_DavidSosna3Presenter

David Sosna, CEO and Co-founder
Sosna is a 20-year fintech veteran. Personetics is his third startup following BI leader Gilon and Actimize, a leading provider of financial analytics acquired by NICE systems.
LinkedIn