Welcome to Day Two of FinovateFall!

Welcome to Day Two of FinovateFall!

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1600!

It’s official: FinovateFall 2016 is our biggest event to date, eight times the size of our first Finovate conference back in 2007. Thanks to everyone who has made it possible. And with our developers’ event FinDEVr Silicon Valley just over a month away, and the return of FinovateAsia coming up in November, there is still much innovation to come.

Our first day of FinovateFall 2016 on Thursday showed how technology can leverage even the most old-fashioned of savings strategies into truly, behaviorally savvy PFM; how a few lines of code can turn abandonment into omnichannel engagement; and much, much more. Relive it all when free videos of every demo are released later this month.

All this just makes us that much more excited for what’s in store for the final day of our annual fall event. So without further ado, here’s the lineup for Day Two.

Registration begins at 8 a.m.

8 a.m. – 8:45 a.m., Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m., Demo Session #5 featuring:

10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m., Intermission & Refreshments

10:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m., Demo Session #6

12:05 p.m. – 1:00 p.m., Buffet Lunch & Refreshments

1:00 p.m. – 2:40 p.m., Demo Session #7

2:40 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., High Quality Networking & Open Bar with Appetizers

Best of Show Winners will be announced during the end of day networking session.

All demo videos will be available for free in a few weeks in our video archives.

New Report from AARP Explores the Longevity Economy

New Report from AARP Explores the Longevity Economy

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Guest post by Theodora Lau*
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By 2015, there were more than 1.6 billion people in the world who were part of the 50-plus cohort. By 2050, this number is projected to double to nearly 3.2 billion people. Throughout the world, the growth of this age group is having a transformative impact, economically and socially. The United States alone is home to 111 million in the 50-plus demographic, representatives of a powerful force driving economic growth and value. AARP has branded the group the Longevity Economy, because it represents the sum of all economic activity driven by the needs of Americans aged 50 and older, and includes both products and services they purchase directly and the further economic activity this spending generates.

The difference it makes is substantial. In the first Longevity Economy report released in 2013 by AARP and Oxford Economics, the Longevity Economy fostered $7.1 trillion in annual economic activity. This figure has now been revised to $7.6 trillion in the latest report. The out-sized contribution reflects the changing demographics, wealth, and spending patterns of the 50-plus population as the lifespan increases and the Longevity Economy becomes more pervasive and central to economic and social policies.

Key findings from this report include the following:

  • The 50-plus cohort represented approximately 35% of the U.S. population in 2015 and was responsible for over $7.6 trillion in annual economic activity—roughly 42% of total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
  • Direct spending on consumer goods and services, including health care, by those aged 50 and older, amounted to $5.6 trillion in 2015.
  • Approximately $1.8 trillion in federal, state and local taxes were attributable to the Longevity Economy in 2015—about 34% of federal tax revenue and 41% of state and local tax revenue collected in the U.S.

The economic contributions of the Longevity Economy are evident, and the beneficiaries are not limited to those over 50. In fact, the spending of the Longevity Economy supports more than 89.4 million jobs (61% of all U.S. jobs) and over $4.7 trillion in labor income.

As Jody Holtzman, senior vice president of market innovation at AARP, would often say:” Why would you leave money on the table by ignoring the only humongous growth-market that exists?!” So the question for entrepreneurs and VCs is simply this: What is your 50+ strategy?

The Longevity Economy Report is available for download at:

http://www.aarp.org/technology/innovations/innovation-50-plus/research/#longevity

For more information about AARP’s technology innovation initiatives and how AARP sparks innovation in the marketplace for the benefit of people over 50, please visit:

http://www.aarp.org/technology/innovations/innovation-50-plus/


*Theodora Lau is director of enterprise strategy and innovation at AARP. You may contact her for more information at [email protected].

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • New report from FinovateFall 2016 sponsor AARP explores the Longevity Economy.

Around the web

  • CR2 launches its next generation ATM software, BankWorld ATM Client 5 and BankWorld Studio.
  • RNC Genter Capital Management picks Asset Manager Connect from Fiserv.
  • CardFlight unveils new set of iOS and Android-compatible, Bluetooth-enabled mobile card-readers.
  • Xero teams up with Macquarie Bank to integrate with electronic billpay system, BPAY.
  • Entersekt forges reseller agreement with Blue Bay Technologies.
  • Zopa partners with Pariti to help millennials manage credit card debt.
  • Russell Investments selects Qumram for compliant, digital recording and retention. See Qumram at FinovateFall in New York.

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.

Welcome to FinovateFall!

Welcome to FinovateFall!

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It’s finally here; you made it to FinovateFall!

We have a full show today packed with plenty of fintech to explore. If you can’t make it, but want to come tomorrow, we have special one-day tickets. Buy them online or ask about them at the registration desk.

Here’s today’s lineup:

Registration opens at 8 a.m.

8 a.m. to 8:45: Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:45 a.m. to 10:15:

10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Intermission & Refreshments

10:45 a.m. to 12:05 p.m.:

Lunch 12:05 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.:

2:20 p.m. to 2:50 p.m., Intermission & Refreshments

2:50 p.m. to 4:10 p.m.:

4:10 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., Networking, Open Bar & Appetizers
Best of Show winners will be announced tomorrow.

All demo videos will be available for free in a few weeks in our video archives.

Rye Bread, Mustard, and Finovate’s Great Grand Slam

Rye Bread, Mustard, and Finovate’s Great Grand Slam

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To steal a line from the late, great Seattle Mariners play-by-play announcer, Dave Niehaus: “Bring out the rye bread and mustard, grandma! It’s Grand Salami time!”

This year, for the first time, FinovateEurope, FinovateSpring, and FinovateFall have all surpassed the “1,500+ tickets sold” milestone. To reach this point—coming at the same time we celebrate our tenth anniversary—is truly something special, and we couldn’t have done it without you. So consider this a sincere “Thank You!” from the bottom of our fintech-loving hearts.

It’s rehearsal day here at FinovateFall 2016. And in the ballroom of the New York Hilton Midtown, presenters for this week’s conference have been checking mics, testing laptops, and practicing opening lines in preparation for our upcoming two-day event. To help you get ready for the show, here are a few last-minutes tips and reminders.

Bizzabo_logo_newBe a part of it—with Bizzabo!

Join the FinovateFall community via our meeting app on Bizzabo. Registered attendees can use Bizzabo to network with presenters, show sponsors and partners, as well as your fellow Finovate attendees. Bizzabo is available for both iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as via an online web interface at Bizzabo.com.

After you’ve downloaded the app, search for “Finovate.” Select “Join” and you’re ready to go. Note that only registered attendees can join the community/networking section of the app.

Twitterlogo_lightblueLe tweet c’est chic

Whether you’re joining us in person or enjoying the conference remotely, our Twitter feed at @Finovate is a great way to follow the action on stage, to say nothing of the often-colorful reactions, analysis, and insights from our educated, fintech-savvy audience. Be sure to mark your tweets #Finovate so our more than 31,000 Twitter followers will be able to readily pick up what you’re putting down.

We hope you’re looking forward to this week’s show as much as we are. The conference begins Thursday morning here at the New York Hilton Midtown at 8:45am (registration is at 8am). If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to email us at [email protected] or check out our FinovateFall 2016 FAQ.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Four Fintech Companies Featured in Forbes 100 Most Innovative Public Companies

Around the web

  • Mambu announces plan to double staff to support 10% month-on-month growth.
  • NCR teams up with MX to bring data-driven money-management to FIs. See MX at FinovateFall in New York this week.
  • Expensify opens new office in Melbourne, Australia.
  • Online currency exchange b-Sharpe chooses Mobile Verify from Mitek for identity verification.
  • Leading hedge fund Logica Capital Advisors selects Vera to manage critical business information and internal collaboration files.

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.

FinovateFall: Mapping the Future of Fintech Today

FinovateFall: Mapping the Future of Fintech Today

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Every time we build a Finovate presenter headquarters map, we are reminded of how geographically diverse fintech innovation has become. For all the talent gathered in places such as the Bay Area, New York, and London, our map encourages us to keep in mind less talked-about locales—like Utah, for example, where multiple Best of Show winner MX and Finovate newcomer ProActive are both making personal finance technologies for the 21st century. And it’s not just the Mountain West. Three companies scheduled to demonstrate their latest technologies live on the Finovate stage this week hail from Texas, two from Florida, and five from the Great Lakes region of Wisconsin and Michigan.

Beyond the United States, familiar international fintech powerhouses like Israel and Canada (eight presenters from the Great White North alone!) are sharing space with Nigeria and Cyprus, countries that are relative newcomers to the global fintech scene. And with our return to Asia only a few months away, it will be great to get a preview of fintech innovation from the Far East in the form of South Korea’s eStorm and Japan’s iBank (as well as their neighboring APAC innovators from Australia, Full Profile and identitii).

The lights go up on FinovateFall 2016 Thursday morning, September 8th, and the conference continues on Friday, September 9th, culminating with our Best of Show awards Friday afternoon. If you are still making arrangements to join us in New York next week, know that tickets are still available; our venue at the New York Hilton Midtown is world-class, conveniently located, and easily accessible; and our entire team is busy at work with the final preparations that will make your FinovateFall experience one to remember.

So we hope to see you this week in NYC! In the meanwhile, if you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Check out our FAQ or e-mail us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.


FinovateFall 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, AARP, Financial Technology Partners, Grant Thornton, Hudson Cook, KPMG, and Leverage PR.

FinovateFall 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market Intelligence, Aite Group, American Bankers Association, BankersHub, Bankless Times, BayPay Forum, Bitcoin Magazine, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, CB Insights, Celent, Coin Telegraph, Crowdfund Beat, Digital Currency Council, Digital.NYC, EbankingNews, FemTechLeaders, Fintech Finance, The Fintech Times, Harrington Starr, Holland Fintech, IDC Financial Insights, Innovate Finance, Javelin, Juniper Research, Korea FinTech Forum, Mapa Research, Mercator Advisory Group, Next Money, NYPAY, Ovum, Payments & Cards Network, The Paypers, PitchBook, Plug and Play, SME Finance Forum, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Western Independent Bankers.

Four Fintech Companies in Forbes 100 Most Innovative Public Companies

Four Fintech Companies in Forbes 100 Most Innovative Public Companies

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We love seeing alums called out in the numerous “most innovative” articles. Usually, those skew to young private startups. But the recent Forbes list of innovators, limited to large public companies (minimum market cap = $10 billion, with 7 years of public ownership), didn’t disappoint. Four financial technology companies made the top-100 list, and all four have appeared on the Finovate stage. Interestingly, financial services firms are excluded by Forbes on the grounds that they “have no measurable investment in R&D.” (I am sure many readers would argue that point).

Here are the financial fab-four in order of their finish (the innovation premium is the extra value investors place on their growth vs. their enterprise value, methodology):

Note: Experian will be showing its latest tech at Finovate this week as well (sneak peek)

Mastercard Says “Me Too” to Visa’s PayPal Partnership

Mastercard Says “Me Too” to Visa’s PayPal Partnership

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Just over a month after PayPal signed a partnership with Visa, the online money-transfer company has inked a deal with Mastercard.

The terms of today’s agreement with Mastercard are similar to those PayPal laid out with Visa:

  • Mastercard will be clearly presented as a payment option within the PayPal app
  • Users will be able to set Mastercard as their preferred payment method
  • Mastercard will help PayPal boost its presence at the point-of-sale (POS)
  • Mastercard’s Masterpass will be available as a payment option for merchants using Braintree
  • Venmo users can withdraw their Venmo balance using Mastercard Send

Also similar to the Visa deal, PayPal will receive volume incentives and will not be charged a digital wallet-operator fee for using Masterpass.

PayPal spun off from parent company eBay last year and has since been focused on growing its presence at the brick-and-mortar POS to help it compete with the growing number of mobile-wallet apps. The company’s recent partnerships with Visa and Mastercard are expected to spur growth in this area.

PayPal debuted Instant Account Creation at FinovateEurope 2012. Justin Woo, the company’s Braintree developer evangelist, presented at FinDEVr New York 2016. Visa has also presented at FinDEVr: M. Tad Tilahun, VP of product development, and M. Tad Tilahun and Alan Johnson, senior director/digital developed markets, presented at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014. Visa previously appeared at FinovateSpring 2010, where it demoed a tool to help consumers collect and organize products. 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 showed off its Developer Zone at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

Payworks Raises $4.5 Million Series A

Payworks Raises $4.5 Million Series A

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Just a few days after launching its next-generation payment-gateway, Pulse, Payworks announced a $4.5 million Series A. The round was led by HW Capital and Rumford, and featured the participation of “leading U.S. and European payment executives” as well as existing investor, Speedinvest. The funding will help accelerate the Munich, Germany-based company’s continued expansion into Europe and North America.

“We are extremely happy on having closed our Series A with a great group of investors,” said Christian Deger, Payworks CEO and co-founder. “With their support, we will make Pulse available to even more merchants worldwide and establish our position in the market as a leading payment-gateway technology company.”

Nikolaus von Taysen, a partner at Rumford, had high praise for the German SaaS payment-gateway company, and called Payworks “one of the very few companies that has a shot at replacing an old and outdated infrastructure on a global scale.”

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CEO Christian Deger demonstrated the Payworks’ platform at FinvoateEurope 2014.

Payworks gives payment processors an alternative to the costly, inefficient, inflexible, and often poorly secured legacy systems still widely in use to process credit card payments. With Pulse, the company’s lightweight, next-generation, SaaS payment-processing platform, Payworks empowers smaller processors to keep up with the larger processors in the payment business. CEO and co-founder Christian Deger called the solution a “very important milestone for our company,” noting the technology provides fast, API-based, EMV, contactless card, mobile wallet, and chip and payment processing for both fixed and mobile point-of-sale systems.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, and founded in 2012, Payworks demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2014. Winner of the MPE Award for most innovative payment startup, the company is active in more than 15 countries, and its payment provider clients serve hundreds of thousands of merchants in a number of different industries.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • FinovateFall: Mapping the Future of Fintech Today
  • Payworks Raises $4.5 Million Series A
  • Mastercard Says “Me Too” to Visa’s PayPal Partnership

Around the web

  • Top Image Systems Signs Two Accounts Payable Automation Deals Valued at Over $480,000
  • EU-based mobile payments company SumUp achieves profitability.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Boku CEO Jon Prideaux.
  • ACI Worldwide brings UP Retail Payments to Erste Bank Hungary.
  • Braintree to offer Visa Checkout.
  • ayondo relaunches website with new design and features to improve trading experience.
  • TransferWise announces tripling of revenues in first public annual report.

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.

Yoyo Wallet is Prepared for Liftoff (But Not in a SpaceX Explosion Sort of Way)

Yoyo Wallet is Prepared for Liftoff (But Not in a SpaceX Explosion Sort of Way)

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The mobile wallet market in the U.S. is being inundated with apps from Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, CVS Pay, Wells Fargo Wallet, Xiaomi’s Mi Pay, and many others. Meanwhile, London-based Yoyo Wallet with its slow-and-steady approach is starting to take off with both merchants and consumers.

You might think of Yoyo Wallet as the Venmo of the mobile-wallet industry since the app has struck a nerve with millennials. The mobile wallet generates a unique QR code for each transaction and allows retailers to in-build rewards and loyalty to incent first-time customers and encourage repeat business.

The startup was recently featured in Fusionwire, which interviewed Yoyo’s cofounder and CRO Michael Rolph, who said:

Over the last six months we’ve gone through this evolution that I think is fairly unique in any company’s life cycle. We’ve probably done the most important work of our lives over this time in order to lay the foundations for scaling. We’ve signed some pretty monumental deals; deals we might well look back on in years to come and say: ‘That was the turning point.’ It’s the exciting part now … you know you’ve got something, the question is: How big can you make it? This scaling-up phase will be very challenging, but that also makes it huge fun to be part of.

Rolph went on to describe Yoyo’s growth since launching, explaining that within the next few months, the company will have a workforce of 40 people, which is double the number Yoyo employed just 12 months ago. “We’ll need for all of us to be at the top of our game,” he said, since he expects Yoyo’s user-base numbers to balloon beginning next year.

Yoyo processes 400,000 transactions per month for mobile wallet users at 65 U.K. universities, 150 large corporate offices—including Accenture, JP Morgan, Visa, and HP—and retail locations. By the end of this year, the company expects to expand to 100 universities and 250 corporate offices.

Yoyo debuted at FinovateEurope 2015. Since then, the company has made inroads into Asia after launching at National University in Singapore. In late 2015, the company quietly began rolling out with partners in the U.S. As for what’s next, Rolph mentioned that the company is close to launching with “several very well-known retailers with a strong presence across the U.K., and specifically London.”