Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fiserv, OutsideIQ, PayPal, Prairie Cloudware, Prevoty, ProfitStars, Quantopian, Sberbank, Temenos, ThetaRay, Vantiv, VISA, Wealthfront, Yoyo

On Finovate.com

  • Sberbank Earns Multiple Honors in Global Finance Awards.
  • California Bankers Association Selects Vantiv as EFT Processing Partner.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Prevoty Wins 2016 Stratus Award for Best Small Company Cloud Security Service.

Around the web

  • ITProPortal interviews Temenos Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Ben Robinson.
  • Fiserv launches Grapevine6 to help deliver content over its wealth management network.
  • Quantopian adds new Head of Trading, Dragan Skoko.
  • VISA and PayPal enter strategic partnership to improve payment experience for consumers.
  • Mobile Payments Today quotes Prairie Cloudware co-founder and CMO Michael Carter on banks and mobile wallets.
  • Wealthfront unveils updated iPhone app.
  • ProfitStars earns 2016 Top Workplace commendation from The Tennessean.
  • Espresso Capital features Outside IQ’s creativity in raising capital.
  • Yoyo Wallet expands to Singapore.
  • ThetaRay opens office in Singapore.

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

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SBDA Group Wins Gold, Sedicii Takes Silver at UniCredit Hackathon

SBDA Group Wins Gold, Sedicii Takes Silver at UniCredit Hackathon
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: SBDA Group, Sedicii

UniCredit_SBDAGroup

Two Finovate alums took home top honors at the UniCredit Appathon event this week. SBDA Group won first place for its Smartbanking app that uses transaction data to help users budget and manage their finances. Coming in second was Irish authentication specialist Sedicii, whose technology enables customers to authenticate themselves to a network or service without having to share a password or other personal information.

The goal of the Appathon is to stimulate innovation “both within and beyond the bank” said Paolo Fiorentino, UniCredit Deputy General Manager. Indeed, the first place prize of the hackathon is the chance to work with a team from UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions (an opportunity valued at €50,000). The second place prize was a pair of tickets to FinovateLondon 2017 (an awesome award, in our humble opinion), and the third place winner, Rome’s All Industries, won a virtual reality headset for its digital financial assistant, TalkForce.

UniCredit_SediciiNow in its third year and conducted 100% online for the first time, UniCredit’s fintech hackathon featured more than 190 teams across Europe. The event was judged by senior managers from both UniCredit and its subsidiary, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions. Teams were asked to demonstrate a solution in one of three categories: digital payments, digital wallets, and” instantaneous delivery of complex information using big-data analytics.” 70 cities from 26 European countries were represented, with most of the team (32) coming from Italy. Also participating were 10 “international” teams. The judges evaluated each solution on the basis of technology, completeness, innovation, feasibility, subject matter, and API relevance.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, SBDA Group demonstrated its SBDA Customer Insight solution at FinovateEurope 2016. The company’s solutions include Sberbank Messenger, demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2016 by Russia’s Sberbank and mobile banking app, Sense, demonstrated at FinovateFall 2015 by Alfa Banking Group. Check out our Finovate debut profile of SBDA Group from earlier this year.

A finalist in the Innotribe Startup Challenge and one of five Finovate alums to be included among the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Technology Pioneers, Sedicii’s authentication service can be used instead of one-time passwords, as well as deployed in a tele-service environment, and is effective against man-in-the-browser, man-in-the-middle, and server-side attacks. The company demonstrated its authentication platform at FinovateEurope 2015.

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Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $280 Million in 4th Week of June

Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $280 Million in 4th Week of June
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

german fintechIt was a huge week in German fintech funding, coinciding with, but too soon to be caused by, Brexit. Eight of the 26 global deals were German with five out of Berlin, one from Frankfurt (Finovate alum ayondo), and one in Koln. The total raised by the eight was at least $60 million (although two raised undisclosed amounts). Digital startup bank Number26 pulled in the bulk of that figure by landing a massive $40 million round.

All told, 26 fintech companies worldwide raised $281 million during the third week of June, including five Finovate alums:

The total number of deals YTD stands at 688, nearly double last year’s 353. Total dollars raised YTD is now $17.1 billion, $9 billion more than the $8 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

——-

Fintech deals by size from 18 June to 24 June 2016:

Circle
Global money-movement and -storage platform
Latest round: $60 million Series D
Total raised: $136 million
HQ: Dublin, Ireland
Tags: Consumer, payments, funds transfers, remittances, bitcoin, crypto-currency
Source: Crunchbase

Plaid
Account aggregation APIs
Latest round: $44 million Series B
Total raised: $59.3 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, institutions, SMBs, developers, API, payments, account aggregation, FinDEVr alum
Source: FinDEVr

Number26
Digital bank startup
Latest round: $40 million Series B
Total raised: $52.7 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, payments, debit card, deposits, mobile banking
Source: Crunchbase

Waddle
Invoice lender to small businesses
Latest round: $30 million Debt
Total raised: $30+ million
HQ: Surry Hills, Australia
Tags: SMB, lending, underwriting, alt-lending, factoring, trade finance, receivables
Source: Crunchbase

Pearl Capital
Alt-lender to small businesses
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: ISOs, SMB, lending, merchants, commercial loans, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase, PE Hub

Quoine
Bitcoin exchange
Latest round: $20 million Series A
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Singapore
Tags: Consumer, bitcoin, crypto-currency, virtual currency, investing
Source: FT Partners

Plastiq
Check replacement for bills
Latest round: $11 million
Total raised: $29.35 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, credit cards, billpay, credit, merchants, billers
Source: Crunchbase

Colu
Creating local currencies using blockchain technology
Latest round: $9.6 million Series A
Total raised: $12.1 million
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Tags: Consumer, payments, bitcoin, blockchain, P2P, person-to-person
Source: Crunchbase

McMakler
Real estate platform
Latest round: $9.36 million Series A
Total raised: $9.36 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, home buying, property search, mortgage, discovery
Source: FT Partners

OptioPay
Gift-card payment network
Latest round: $7.92 million Seed
Total raised: $7.92 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, P2P payments, person-to-person, rewards, gift cards, prepaid cards, funds transfer
Source: Crunchbase

Digital Asset Holdings
Distributed ledger systems for financial institutions
Latest round: $7.16 million from ASX ($200 million valuation)
Total raised: $67.2 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Institutions, blockchain, crypto-currency, database
Source: FT Partners

BankFacil
Alt-lending marketplace for consumers
Latest round: $4.5 million Series A
Total raised: $8.9 million
HQ: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, alt-lending, loans, secured lending, lead generation
Source: Crunchbase

Apruve
B2B ecommerece credit management
Latest round: $3.1 million Series A
Total raised: $3.1 million
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: SMB, lending, underwriting, trade finance, B2B ecommerce
Source: FT Partners

AppZen
Expense compliance system
Latest round: $2.9 million Seed
Total raised: $2.9 million
HQ: Sunnyvale, California
Tags: SMB, expense management, employees, accounting, bookkeeping, fraud detection, risk management
Source: Crunchbase

Payfone
Online identity and payment services
Latest round: $2.66 million
Total raised: $48.7 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, SMB, merchants, security, authentication, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

Loot
Banking & money management for students
Latest round: $2.17 million
Total raised: $2.17 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, banking, youth, millennials, payments, personal financial management, PFM, financial education
Source: Crunchbase

Savedo
Retail investment product marketplace
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $7.6 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, alt-lending, loans, personal financial management, P2P, person-to-person
Source: Crunchbase

Invesdor
Equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $1.3 million Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $3.45 million
HQ: Helsinki, Finland
Tags: Consumer, SMB, investing, P2P, peer-to-peer, equity
Source: Crunchbase

RevolutionCredit
Consumer credit education
Latest round: $922,000 Debt
Total raised: $6.62 million ($5.7 million Equity)
HQ: Irvine, California
Tags: Consumer, personal finance, financial education, credit, lead generation
Source: Crunchbase

iSENTIUM
Sentiment analysis for capital markets
Latest round: $810,000
Total raised: $810,000
HQ: Miami, Florida
Tags: Institutions, traders, investing, analytics, information, social media
Source: FT Partners

ayondo
Social stock-trading platform
Latest round: Unknown amount of new capital in Reverse IPO ($117 million value)
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Frankfurt, Germany
Tags: Consumer, advisers, wealth management, trading, investing
Source: Finovate

Socure
Digital identity verification
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $4.7+ million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Institutions, B2B2C, social media, security, compliance, Santander (investor), Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

MoneyMeets
Investment and insurance marketplace
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $1.73+ million
HQ: Koln, Germany
Tags: Consumer, investing, insurance, lead generation, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Processing.com
Payments solutions provider
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Watford, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, ISOs, merchants, acquiring, payments, debit/credit cards
Source: FT Partners

Simplesurance
Insurance products for ecommerce partners
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $8+ million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, B2B2C, insurance, upsell, ecommerce
Source: Crunchbase

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Finovate Debuts: How Blend is Reinventing the Mortgage Application Process

Finovate Debuts: How Blend is Reinventing the Mortgage Application Process
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blend, Finovate Debuts

Screen Shot 2016-07-13 at 12.15.12 PM

Blend, whose name stands for better lending, uses a two-pronged approach that benefits both lenders and borrowers. The San Francisco-based company offers mortgage lenders white-labeled technology to help efficiently originate loans while giving applicants the smoother user experience they’ve come to expect.

In the company’s FinovateSpring 2016 demo, Blend’s Head of Product Pranay Kapadia, speaking about the mortgage-application process, asked, “How do we make this financial, stressful transaction as humanistic as possible, so it’s as though you’re working with a financial adviser?” Kapadia went on to explain that Blend’s mobile-first design walks users through the mortgage-purchase experience by asking questions, offering contextual help, and learning about each applicant’s unique needs.

Company facts:

  • Founded in 2012
  • 80+ employees
  • Helped originate $6 billion in mortgage loans in Q4 2015
  • One third of Blend mortgage applications take place on mobile devices
  • Almost half of Blend’s applicants fill out mortgage applications outside of customer-support hours
Blend’s Alec Roth, sales, and Pranay Kapadia, head of product, demonstrated at FinovateSpring 2016.

After the company’s FinovateSpring demo, we interviewed Nima Ghamsari, CEO of Blend.

Finovate: What problem does Blend solve?

Ghamsari: There are approximately $1.5 trillion in new mortgages created in the U.S. every year. Getting a mortgage has historically been a slow, document-mired process; however, Blend’s data-driven technology—combined with its elegant design—is working to address pain felt by lenders and borrowers. Here are some key challenges the industry faces today:

  • Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases any of us will ever make, yet the process remains difficult and opaque, particularly in light of all of the other things we are now able to do online, and on our mobile devices, such as hailing a ride on Uber, ordering groceries on Instacart, etc.
  • While there’s been a boom of data powering other industries, the mortgage industry hasn’t fully adopted the rich-data sources that can drive financial decisions. This means manual paper review and an overall analog process.
  • The traditional mortgage process is flooded with paper documents, wet signatures, and fax machines, a process that leaves customers in the dark and makes it impossible for lenders to provide an experience that matches the significance of the transaction.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Ghamsari: Blend is partnering with some of the larger, more innovative banks and lenders in the country. We generally focus on having fewer, but higher-quality, relationships to drive success with our customers.

Finovate: How does Blend solve the problem better?

Ghamsari: Blend enables a best-in-class experience to consumers and data-driven efficiency to lenders:

  • A frictionless, end-to-end digital consumer experience, allowing for borrowers to interact with their lender in a modern, mobile- or web-enabled fashion.
  • Blend solves for the entire spectrum of consumers by being omnichannel: for a transaction as complicated as a mortgage, consumers can start the process online, take photos on their mobile device, then walk into a branch and have an employee handle some of the complicated questions in Blend, and head back to home to consult with their spouse before signing electronically.
  • By allowing the borrower to connect their financial accounts and income information digitally, they no longer have to search for documents to send to submit. Instead, they provide machine-readable information directly from the source, and the lender receives high-fidelity data that they can trust in [making] their credit decision.
  • Instead of keying core information into their system, information flows automatically through Blend. When new information is needed from the consumer to finalize the mortgage process, the borrower is immediately notified, giving both the lender and consumer full transparency [as to] where they are in the process.
Automated Follow-Up RequestsBlend’s co-piloting feature allows lenders and borrowers to fill out the mortgage application together in real-time.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.

Ghamsari: We recently began working with a large mortgage lender on the East Coast. We got their team up-and-running in a matter of a few weeks, and they were taking loans from consumers of all types. One of the things I love about that particular deployment is that a 76-year-old borrower completed the entire mortgage process using Blend, with all of his documentation and information, in just over an hour. Can you imagine that? Prior to using our technology, document collection could have taken a week or longer and would have been almost entirely analog.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Ghamsari: At my previous company, we were working with a few of the largest financial services institutions directly after the financial meltdown. The mortgage problem was pitched to us as one of the largest problems in the country, with $10+ trillion at stake. When we arrived, however, what we saw took us by surprise. There were 50-year-old technologies powering largely paper-based processes. People were often spending time on tasks such as manually typing information from a document into a system or scanning and uploading a faxed document. And despite the fact that the data revolution already had happened in a few other industries, there were so many problems with mortgages that data was practically an afterthought.

The ‘eureka’ moment came when we realized the inefficiencies were partially a result of Silicon Valley and the tech industry largely ignoring this major part of the financial sector. I couldn’t name a deep technology company that was focused on solving the infrastructure for home lending, despite it representing a large part of national debt. I also got a sense of [how] the magnitude of the problem—[not only] the delta between where technology could be and where it currently was, [but also] the sheer dollar volume—was lost on many folks in Silicon Valley, and so if we didn’t set out to solve the problem, it likely wouldn’t be addressed at all.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Blend that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Ghamsari: In addition to expanding connectivity to high-fidelity data sources for borrowers to prefill mortgage applications in minutes, we are looking forward to rolling out features to further enable airtight digital compliance for our lenders. Moreover, Blend is looking at ways in which intelligence can be used to dramatically compress the time it takes to underwrite a mortgage application, another huge efficiency sink in the mortgage process.

Finovate: Where do you see Blend a year or two from now?

Ghamsari: In the near future, the team at Blend is working to:

  • Create the most frictionless, end-to-end digital lending experience for consumers and lenders
  • Partner and allow third-party data providers to build connections and further remove friction from the lending process

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Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail

Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: MasterCard

Screen Shot 2016-07-21 at 7.44.19 AM

After launching the Masterpass mobile payment app for retail stores last week, payment giant Mastercard today announced it has agreed to purchase a majority stake of U.K.-based VocaLink for up to $1.14 billion.

In the all-cash deal, Mastercard will pay $920 million for a 92.4% stake in VocaLink and an additional $220 million if performance targets are met. The outstanding 7.6% share of VocaLink will remain in the hands of its 13 bank shareholders.

The acquisition is expected to offer Mastercard a stronger footing in the United Kingdom where VocaLink processes more than 90% of salaries and more than 70% of household bills. In 2015, the company processed 11 billion transactions and its revenues totaled $240 million. Once the deal is complete, VocaLink CEO David Yates will join the Mastercard management committee.

Mastercard told TechCrunch that the deal is unrelated to Brexit. “As you can imagine, it has been worked on for many months,” a spokesperson said. “MasterCard has been keen to acquire VocaLink for many months before the Brexit vote even took place. Brexit isn’t a factor in this transaction.”

This news comes a week after the New York-based company’s July 14 event that unveiled an enhanced version of the Masterpass digital payments service along with Mastercard’s new logo which features a lowercase c to signify the company’s transition from physical cards to digital payments. The expansion of Masterpass allows consumers to make contactless payments at more than 5 million brick-and-mortar stores in 77 countries.

Mastercardlogo

MasterpassMasterpass is partnering with multiple banks to allow consumers to use online banking credentials to log into the Masterpass Wallet. The company is also partnering with Pizza Hut Asia, Cheesecake Factory, ShopRite, JetBlue, mobile ticketing-service Masabi, and says there are more to come.

Mastercard anticipates consumers will reach for their phones instead of their wallets at the point of sale. This concept, while now made possible with the availability of Masterpass, ApplePay, Samsung Pay, Wells Fargo Wallet, ChasePay, etc., has yet to take hold.

At FinovateFall 2014, Mastercard took the stage to launch Mastercard Pay with Rewards, a solution that allows cardholders to redeem points at the point-of-sale. The company presented its Developer Zone at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blend, Cachet Financial Solutions, Cloud Lending, GMC Software Technology, Google Cloud Platform, MasterCard, ProfitStars, SBDA Group, Sedicii, Solace Systems

On Finovate.com

  • Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail
  • Finovate Debuts: How Blend is Reinventing the Mortgage Application Process
  • SBDA Group Wins Gold, Sedicii Takes Silver at UniCredit Hackathon

On FinDEVr.com

  • Mexico’s Grupo Bursátil Deploys Messaging Tech from Solace Systems

Around the web

  • GMC Software Technology announces integration with DocuSign to streamline business workflows.
  • Cloud Lending Solutions adds new online modules to its Learning program.
  • Google Cloud Platform opens its first West Coast region.
  • Rapid Financial Solutions Partners with Cachet Financial Solutions to Deliver Mobile Money Solutions to More Than 2 Million Cardholders
  • The Tennessean lists ProfitStars in Nashville’s top workplaces for 2016.

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

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Final Deadline to Present at FinDEVr Silicon Valley

By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2016 Silicon Valley, FinDEVr Marketing

iContactHeaderFindevrSV

29302507 - dog reading newspaper and relaxing on grass in the parkIt may be the dog days of summer with long weekends and vacations still to come, but don’t neglect the tech. The biggest and best FinDEVr Silicon Valley is just three months away. And the final deadline to apply to speak at the event is this Friday, July 22. If you want to reach 600+ technical attendees in the fintech and financial services industry, submit an application this week (see below for more details).

FinDEVr is the only conference focused on the technology side of fintech. Its mission is to serve the financial services developer community. Showcasing the latest tools, technologies, APIs, platforms, case studies and tutorials, we help CTOs, developers, software architects, UX designers, engineers, product managers and other technologists create the next wave of fintech innovation.

For presenters, FinDEVr is a powerful platform to:

  • Drive product adoption of APIs/platforms/SDKs
  • Showcase new technology and the inspiration behind it
  • Establish technical leadership of the industry while educating the market
  • Garner press recognition and gather feedback on innovations

If this describes you and your technology, then FinDEVr Silicon Valley may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

If you are interested in applying to speak at the event, follow these steps:

  • Step 1: Review the informational PDF for prospective presenters here: siliconvalley2016.findevr.com/presenterPDF. It contains details on the event, application process and criteria, presenter package and pricing.
  • Step 2: Once you’ve reviewed the PDF and are ready to move forward, submit an application by Friday, July 22, at the following link: siliconvalley2016.findevr.com/application.
  • Step 3: We’ll review your application and be in touch in the next couple weeks.

Hope to see you apply!

P.S. If this reminder is taking you by surprise, let us know at siliconvalley@findevr.com, and we will happily extend the deadline into next week.

FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp. 

FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 is partnered with Acuity, Bank Innovators Council,BankersHub, The BayPay Forum, BiometricUpdate.com, Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoinist.net, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, California Bankers Association,Celent, Cointelegraph, Colloquy, Emerging Payments, Empire Startups, FIDO Alliance, Global Platform, Juniper Research, Mercator Advisory Group, Payment Week, Payments & Cards Network, SecuritySolutionsWatch.com, SIMalliance, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Women Who Code.

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Actiance Now Supports Compliance for Instagram

Actiance Now Supports Compliance for Instagram
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 9.41.52 AM

Now that Instagram has launched separate profiles for businesses, social network-compliance company Actiance has stepped in to help banks engage in their own Instagram accounts in a compliant way.

The California-based company expanded Actiance Socialite to help banks and other companies monitor account activity, archive posts, and generate analytics from the post-image engagement and comments. Because business activity on Instagram is classified as advertisements, and comments are considered business records, a company’s Instagram posts are subject to regulatory scrutiny. Socialite helps banks retain data and instantly search and retrieve posts and images if necessary.

Joanna Belbey, social media and compliance specialist at Actiance, said, “Forward-thinking companies are increasingly using Instagram and other social channels to connect with digital audiences … . Actiance Socialite makes it easy for companies to support new channels, such as Instagram, as they enter the enterprise and make the most of their communications data for both regulatory and business purposes.”

Actiance helps banks and financial institutions manage, secure, and ensure compliance across applications and social media platforms. The company last presented at FinovateFall 2012 where it debuted Socialite. Actiance has raised almost $44 million from 7 investors since launching in 1998. Earlier this year the company brought on Naresh Bansal as its new CFO.

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Sezzle Adds Former PayPal Executives as Advisors

Sezzle Adds Former PayPal Executives as Advisors
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Sezzle

Sezzle_homepage_July2016

A pair of former PayPal vets are joining Team Sezzle.

Sezzle_ScottGuilfoyle

Scott Guilfoyle and Annick Fuchs will serve as advisers for the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based payments innovator. Guilfoyle, who was SVP and CTO of PayPal from 2008 to 2012, will join Sezzle as an adviser. Fuchs, former head of legal at PayPal, will be Sezzle’s new legal adviser.

In addition to his work with PayPal, Guilfoyle (right) was CIO of LendingTree, CIO of General Electric, and CIO of Consumer Products at Bank of America. Sezzle plans to leverage Guilfoyle’s diverse background to take on “the giants of payment processing,” said Sezzle CBDO Paul Paradis. Fuchs (below), who launched her law firm fuchsLAW this spring, pointed to her background in fintech in general and payments in specific as one reason why Sezzle was a good fit. “The plans and stage of the company match perfectly with what we specialize in at fuchsLAW.”

Sezzle_AnnickFuchs
       

Founded in 2016, Sezzle demonstrated its Sezzle Pay solution at FinovateSpring 2016. The company uses bank sign-on and ACH rails to provide lower-cost, immediate payments for retailers. And in charging 1.5% plus 15 cents, Sezzle is half the cost of credit and debit card processing. Sezzle Pay also enables rewards through debit card purchases, providing a 1% reward for consumers that pay via the platform.

Sezzle earned a semifinalist spot in the 2016 Minnesota Cup, the biggest, statewide, new-venture competition in the country. Currently in fundraising mode, Sezzle picked up an investment from Brussels-based E-Merge in June, the same month the company made major additions to its technology team.

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Zopa Taps Ronen Benchetrit for CTO

Zopa Taps Ronen Benchetrit for CTO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Zopa

Zopa_homepage_July2016

With more than 20 years’ experience in software and management, most recently as CTO for online gaming firm PokerStars, Ronen Benchtrit becomes the new chief technology officer for Zopa. Benchetrit will direct Zopa’s overall, growth-oriented technology strategy.

“I believe that Zopa is leading by example, with great innovative products and an award-winning team,” Benchetrit said. “I hope to use my experience and skills to drive rapid growth for Zopa, making it accessible to an ever-growing number of customers and leading Zopa as a fintech pioneer.”

Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana praised Benchetrit’s record in promoting business growth, as well as his IT and technical skills, and says the new hire is “yet another building block in our drive to continue and accelerate Zopa’s growth in changing the landscape of consumer financial products.”

Before his work at PokerStars, Benchetrit was senior R&D projects manager and architect for Avaya. He was also vice president of R&D and co-founder of Trinity Computing Systems, and spent six years as a software engineer and team leader for the Israel Defense Forces. Benchetrit holds degrees in computer science from Mamram—IDF Computer Science Academy and The Open University of Israel—and graduated from the Cranfield Leadership Programme at Cranfield University’s School of Management in 2013.

Founded in 2007, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. In May, the company began offering auto-loan refinancing through its Zopa CarReFi program and in February, Zopa launched three new lending products: Classic, Access, and Plus to replace a number of existing solutions. The company has raised more than $56 million in funding, and includes among its investors Augmentum Capital, Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Wellington Partners.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Braintree, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Kabbage, PayPal, Xignite

FinDEVrSV16-withdateOur FinDEVr New York developer showcase was a success! FinDEVr Silicon Valley will be held October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara. Register today and save.

Dev news

The latest from FinDEVr New York 2016 presenters

  • Institutional Investor features Xignite and PayPal CEOs in the 2016 Tech-50 list of fintech technologists.
  • CoinTelegraph names Braintree as a company that will shape the future of money.
  • Markit Unveils Chartworks Suite.
  • Inc’s look at global payment options features Braintree.

Alumni updates

  • Kabbage Revamps App to Enable Mobile On-Boarding for Loan Applications

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

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Fintech Fundings: 35 Companies Raise $470 Million the Third Week of June

Fintech Fundings: 35 Companies Raise $470 Million the Third Week of June
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

15143285 - antique store cash register buttons close

For the third week in a row, the number of deals flirted with the single-week record of 39. This week, 35 fintech companies worldwide raised $469 million the second week of June. Included were three Finovate alums:

The total number of deals YTD stands at 662, double last year’s 338. Total dollars raised YTD is now $16.8 billion, $9 billion more than the $7.8 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 11 June to 17 June 2016:

Fenqile
Consumer microlender
Latest round: $235 million Series D
Total raised: $335 million
HQ: Shenzen, China
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, alt-lending, purchase finance, ecommerce, installment loans
Source: FT Partners

Payoff
Credit card payoff loans
Latest round: $46.76 million Series C
Total raised: $71.56 million
HQ: Costa Mesa, California
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, alt-lending, loans, personal financial management
Source: Crunchbase

Shanghai Suntime Information Technology
Financial data provider
Latest round: $35 million ($140 million valuation)
Total raised: $35 million
HQ: Shanghai, China
Tags: Institutions, investing, trading, information, analytics, Ant Financial (investor)
Source: FT Partners

Better Mortgage
Mortgage lender
Latest round: $30 million Series A
Total raised: $30 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, lending, home buying, real estate purchase
Source: Crunchbase

LEAGUE
Digital health insurance platform
Latest round: $25 million Series A
Total raised: $25 million
HQ: Wilmington, Delaware
Tags: SMB, consumer, healthcare, benefits, insurance, health savings accounts, billing, payments
Source: FT Partners

FinLeap
Fintech company builder
Latest round: $23.6 million Series A
Total raised: $23.6 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: SMB, banking, insurance, payments
Source: Crunchbase

ClearTax (ClearSharp Technology)
Income tax prep
Latest round: $12 million Series A
Total raised: $15.4 million
HQ: New Delhi, India
Tags: Consumer, tax preparation
Source: Crunchbase

PromisePay
Payments for marketplaces
Latest round: $10 million Series A
Total raised: $12.25 million
HQ: Collingwood, Australia
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, credit/debit cards, POS, point-of-sale, acquiring, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

Tapp Commerce
Alt-payments
Latest round: $9 million Series A
Total raised: $9 million
HQ: Turku, Finland
Tags: Consumer, payments, mobile, ecommerce, barter, virtual currency, bitcoin, P2P, person to person
Source: Crunchbase

Overbond
Bond issuing platform
Latest round: $7.5 million Seed
Total raised: $7.5 million
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, investing, fixed income
Source: Crunchbase

Software Group
Banking and payments software
Latest round: $5.6 million
Total raised: $5.6 million
HQ: Sofia, Bulgaria
Tags: Institutions, banking, payments, lending
Source: FT Partners

Greytip Software
Cloud-based HR and payroll
Latest round: $5.21 million
Total raised: $5.21 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: SMB, payments, payroll, HR benefits, employees, insurance
Source: FT Partners

Huddle Money
P2P financial platform
Latest round: $4.4 million Seed
Total raised: $4.4 million
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, P2P, credit, underwriting, insurance, payments, funds transfer
Source: Crunchbase

Bipsync
Research management software for investors
Latest round: $4.2 million
Total raised: $5.7 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Advisers, institutions, investment information
Source: FT Partners

Invoice Cycle
Invoice-backed lender
Latest round: $4 million Seed
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, lending, underwriting, trade finance, factoring, alt-lender
Source: Crunchbase

Cachet Financial Solutions
Remote deposit capture
Latest round: $2.55 million Convertible Note
Total raised: $26.86 million
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: Institutions, B2B2C, mobile, deposit, checking accounts, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

CardsMobile
NFC-based mobile payments
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.5 million
HQ: St. Petersburg, Russia
Tags: Consumer, SMB, merchants, mobile, payments, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

StockTwits
Investment information platform
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $14.4 million
HQ: Phoenix, Arizona
Tags: Consumer, investing, information, trading
Source: Finovate

MarketLend
P2P trade finance loans
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: SMB, lending, peer-to-peer, P2P, credit, underwriting, investing, factoring, invoice loans
Source: Crunchbase

Valiant Finance
Business loan marketplace
Latest round: $590,000 Seed
Total raised: $590,000
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Tags: SMB, lending, commercial loans, price comparison, lead generation
Source: Crunchbase

Symbid
Equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $550,000 Debt
Total raised: $550,000 Debt
HQ: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Consumer, SMB, peer-to-peer, P2P, investing, stock ownership
Source: Crunchbase

Frontera
Alt-investing in emerging markets
Latest round: $500,000 Series A
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Singapore
Tags: Consumer, advisers, investing, venture capital
Source: Crunchbase

Sezzle
Payment via bank transfer (ACH)
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: SMB, ACH, payments, bank transfers, merchants, point of sale (POS), checking accounts, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Bee Card
Basic consumer bank accounts
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $4.85 million
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, prepaid debit card, deposits, underbanked, millennial, mobile, billpay
Source: FT Partners

Earnup
Consumer debt-repayment optimization
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, P2P, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: FT Partners

eCreditHero
Consumer credit repair
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, lending, credit, debt repayment, restructure
Source: FT Partners

Everlance
Expense and mileage tracker
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, SMB, personal financial management (PFM), expense reports, employees
Source: FT Partners

Meet Albert
Financial advice for consumers
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: Consumer, personal financial health, education
Source: FT Partners

Remedy
Consumer medical bill analysis
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, billpay, personal financial management (PFM), healthcare, insurance
Source: FT Partners

WiseBanyan
Consumer financial adviser
Latest round: $250,000
Total raised: $250,000
Accelerator: FinLab
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, investing, financial planning, wealth management
Source: FT Partners

Bidollar
P2P foreign exchange 
Latest round: $44,000 Seed
Total raised: $44,000
HQ: California
Accelerator: WOW Aceleradora
Tags: Consumer, SMB, peer-to-peer, P2P, foreign exchange (fx), remittances, exchange rates, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

Oval Money
Financial planning and savings app
Latest round: $28,000 Grant
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Accelerator: NTT DOCOMO
Tags: Consumer, education, underbanked, savings accounts, deposits, mobile banking, millennials
Source: Crunchbase

KiaKia
Consumer lending
Latest round: $12,000 Angel
Total raised: $12,000
HQ: Nigeria
Tags: Consumer, lending, alt-lending, credit, payday, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Lend
P2P lending platform
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Switzerland
Tags: Consumer, lending, peer-to-peer, P2P, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Navicure
Medical claims management and payments
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Duluth, Georgia
Tags: SMB, healthcare, insurance, payments, billing, accounting, analytics, BI
Source: FT Partners

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