Blog - Page 658 of 1217

Avoka Locks in $12 Million in New Investment

By David Penn Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: Avoka

Digital customer acquisition specialist and multiple Best of Show winner Avoka has picked up $12 million in new investment. The venture round featured participation from a variety of institutions and professional fintech investors in Australia and is the first major funding for the company since 2013. Avoka CEO Phil Copeland said the new investment will be used to “accelerate our already strong organic growth prospects, expand our product capabilities … and explore new markets.”

With regard to products, Copeland highlighted Avoka Transact, saying that the investment will help the company continue to build and develop the technology, which he called “the leading single platform for driving customer-centric digital transformation.” He added that part of further developing his company’s solutions will be to integrate fraud, identity management, fund transfer, and core banking functionality into the platform.

Avoka’s Kevin Mortimer, technical director, and Derek Corcoran, chief experience officer, demonstrated Avoka Transaction Effort Score at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

Underscoring the importance of growth and expansion to the company’s past and future, Copeland noted that not only did 65% of Avoka’s revenue come from North American and European markets, but also that the percentage “is expected to grow substantially” in the wake of this latest funding round. Advising on the deal was Moelis & Company whose managing director, Ben Wong, called the company “a great example of an Australian technology company with a global footprint based on best-of-breed technology being adopted by global corporate customers.”

Recent headlines for Avoka include a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum Mitek to build a new mobile onboarding solution in May. In April, Beyond Bank won the Celent model bank award with a customer-engagement platform from Avoka, the same month Avoka partnered with Finovate alum eSignLive to enable 100% digital customer acquisition. Avoka was named to the Top Ten FinTech Worldwide by KPMG in March.

Founded in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, and co-headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Avoka demonstrated its Transaction Effort Score (TES) at FinovateEurope 2016. The company has more than 95 working in offices in Sydney, Denver, and London and includes 2 global banks; 5 of the top-50 banks in the U.S.; and 4 of the top-10 banks in Australia among its more than 80 customers.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Encap Security Acquired by Client, AllClear ID

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: Encap, Mergers & Acquisitions

Software-based multifactor-authentication provider Encap Security has been acquired by AllClear ID, an Austin-based company that provides data-breach and identity-protection services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a blog post announcing the change, Norway-based Encap made it clear that it will proceed with business as usual. The company will not only support its Smarter Authentication platform for new and existing customers, but also enhance its offerings by leveraging AllClear ID’s technology.

AllClear ID will use the acquisition to enhance its existing offerings using Encap’s device-authentication and e-signature technology. The move also allows AllClear ID to establish a presence in Europe to “capitalize on emerging opportunities, including major regulatory changes such as the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD II).”

Adam Dolby, Encap vice president of business development, presented at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Founded in 2007, Encap debuted Omnichannel Enablement platform at FinovateFall 2015. VP of Business Development Adam Dolby began his presentation by describing why people dislike security. Dolby continued the demo by showing how Encap keeps things simple for end users by keeping the complexities of security behind-the-scenes.

Last week Norway-based BankID partnered with Encap to pilot in-app authentication for its online identity service. In the spring of 2015, Encap integrated with Apple’s TouchID to help financial institutions leverage a new authentication method.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

LendingTree Launches CRA-Eligibility Tool

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: LendingTree

Online loan marketplace LendingTree launched a new tool to help lenders comply with Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations, which were enacted in 1977 to encourage banks to rebuild communities.

Banks subject to CRA evaluations can use the new tool to identify low- to moderate-income borrowers, extending credit to typically underserved individuals. Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree, said the new capability “offers more financing opportunities to borrowers who may otherwise find difficulty in securing loans due to income requirements.”

At FinovateSpring 2015 North Carolina-based LendingTree debuted My LendingTree, an online dashboard where users view all credit-related accounts. LendingTree alerts users to money-saving and other opportunities through its recommendation engine.

Earlier this month, LendingTree partnered with the Innovative Lending Platform Association in building a small business lending disclosure model, SMART Box. The model not only offers transparency to small business borrowers, it also provides a concise way for lenders to explain the loan terms.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

D3 Banking Brings in $10 Million from West Partners

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: D3 Banking

Nebraska-based D3 Banking secured $10 million from West Partners this week to bolster its Data Driven Digital banking technology. As part of the deal, San Diego-based West Partners is offering D3 the ability to borrow under a 3-year credit facility.

After today’s round, D3’s funding totals just over $27 million. CEO Mark Vipond said that West Partners offered the funds in response to recognizing “the pace and direction of change in the digital landscapes and the role D3 Banking can play in arming banks and credit unions with the tools they need to competitively differentiate themselves.”

D3 will use the funds to expand its digital banking offering to keep up with demand, invest in R&D and build its team. The company works with banks such as Arvest, First Tennessee Bank, and IBERIABANK and counts more than 1.5 million end users of its personalized banking offerings.

At FinovateFall 2015, D3 launched its small business banking offering that provides PFM tools to help entrepreneurs manage their small business. The platform analyzes transactions to generate cash flow and income statements and offer budget suggestions. In addition, banks gain visibility into the cash flow of the business, which provides insight into optimal times to extend loan offers and other banking products.

Earlier this year D3 integrated FI Navigator’s mobile banking module, furnishing the company with market intelligence on mobile banking services offered by 6,000 financial institutions. D3 was founded in 1997.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Klarna Raises $35 Million in “First Small Step” into Debt Financing

By David Penn Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: Klarna

One small step for Klarna. One giant leap for fintechs considering financing beyond equity investment.

The Swedish payments innovator is raising $32.2 million (300 million crowns) via a subordinated-note sale to “a limited number of large Nordic investors.” The 10-year, floating-rate notes come with an initial 4% coupon, which is based on the 3-month STIBOR plus 4.5%.

Speaking about the financing, Klarna’s Erik Engellau-Nilsson said that the funding was the company’s “first small step to a wider presence in debt capital markets.” The goal of the financing was first to fund Klarna’s accelerated growth, which Engellau-Nilsson credited to expansion into U.S. and U.K. markets. He said the second goal was to “test the debt capital markets, and see what the appetite was like.”

Jakob Söderbaum, SVP sales, demonstrated Klarna at FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco.

Testing the debt capital market will help Klarna diversify its funding sources. The company has raised more than $285 million in equity including £90 million in private equity to finance the acquisition of Sofort in 2014.

While much of the growing use of debt financing in fintech can be attributed to the rise of alternative lenders who may be institutionally more comfortable with debt, Klarna’s latest financing is a reminder that the debt capital markets are an option for a wide variety of fintechs. Consider the $60 million debt financing deal for Finovate alum Yapstone (payments); the $2.5 million debt financing for Socure; and $3 million in venture debt for ID.me (authentication); and the $1 million in debt financing for DeviceFidelity (hardware). Ahead of this latest financing, Klarna was believed to have a valuation of more than $2 billion.

Available at 65,000 online stores and with 45 million consumers using the technology, Klarna enables more efficient e-commerce by allowing shoppers to receive goods first and then pay for them within 14 days of delivery. Klarna assumes all credit and fraud risk, making the process safer for online merchants, and requires only minimal, top-of-mind information from consumers (i.e., name and address). The company says its revenues grew by 27% year-over-year (2.2 billion crowns in 2014 versus 2.8 billion crowns in 2015) and expects revenue gains of 40% in 2016 due in large part to Klarna’s U.S. expansion last fall.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Klarna demonstrated its payment technology at FinovateSpring 2012. In June, the company was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for a second year in a row and in May, Klarna announced that its payment-processing technology would be made available to brick-and-mortar merchants. The company announced a partnership with UK e-commerce host, EKM in April, the same month Klarna earned a spot on FinTechCity’s inaugural FinTech50 Hall of Fame.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on June 27, 2016
Categories: Asseco, Avoka, D3 Banking, Encap, Fidor Bank, Kasasa, Kensho, Klarna, LendingTree, Novabase, On Deck Capital, Ripple, SafetyPay

On Finovate.com

Klarna Raises $35 Million in ‘First Small Step” into Debt Financing

D3 Banking Brings in $10 Million from West Partners

LendingTree Launches CRA-Eligibility Tool

Encap Security Acquired by Client, AllClear ID

Avoka Locks in $12 Million in New Investment

Around the web

Banco CTT goes live with customer onboarding solution developed by Novabase.

Canada’s ATB Financial and Germany’s ReiseBank use Ripple to complete world’s first banking transfer using blockchain.

Wired UK profiles Fidor, “the fintech bank run by its customers.”

Asseco South Eastern Europe (SEE) named a Representative Vendor in Gartner’s report on open unified digital banking platforms.

Fortune.com’s list of the five hottest companies in fintech features alums Kensho and Ripple.

Kasasa’s MoneyIsland money-management game for children ranks among iTunes’ most popular apps.

Chip-Chap bitcoin marketplace leverages SafetyPay as a payment method.

OnDeck launches Accountant Advisor Program to help accountants arrange financing for their small business clients.

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

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

OurCrowd Wins Red Herring Awards; Announces Partnerships with Bayer, DuPont

By David Penn Posted on June 24, 2016
Categories: OurCrowd

It’s been a busy June for Jerusalem-based, crowd-investing platform OurCrowd. The company picked up a Red Herring award; announced partnerships with Bayer, Dupont, and FinistereAG; and earned positive press from The Times UK and Wired.

“Start-up companies don’t just need cash, they need help,” OurCrowd founder Jon Medved this week told James Hurley of The Times UK. Calling his crowd-investing platform a combination of “old-fashioned venture capital and new-age crowdfunding,” Medved emphasized the amount of due diligence performed in selecting portfolio companies, and said only 2% of the companies seeking a spot on the platform make it.

OurCrowd’s platform enables accredited investors to provide capital to early-stage startups. With as little as $10,000, investors can participate in platform-sponsored funding rounds to purchase equity in the companies. When the funding goal is reached and the round ended, a representative from OurCrowd joins the startup’s board to help advise the company and look after the interests of investors. It is this level of engagement that convinces Medved that private company investment is often a better route for tech startups than going public. “If you really want to have output from your investment,” Medved told Wired UK earlier this month, “you’ve got to be in private company investment.”

CPO Shai Ben-Tovim and VP of Engineering Oshrat Kfir demonstrated the OurCrowd app at FinovateSpring 2016 in San Jose, California.

OurCrowd was one of 19 Israeli companies earning a spot in the RedHerring 2016 Europe Top 100. Not only did OurCrowd hit the Top 100, but also two companies in OurCrowd’s portfolio—CropX and Zebra Medical Vision—made the cut. “There is no doubt about it,” the OurCrowd blog read today, “Israel has become a world leader in startup success.”

OurCrowd’s collaboration with Bayer, DuPont, and FinstereAG has led to the launch of a new accelerator fund, Radicle, that is designed to help foster innovation in early stage agricultural technology startups. The $15 million fund focuses on agricultural technologies that contribute to productivity, sustainability, and quality such as genomics, seed tech, and disruptive or novel farm systems. OurCrowd General Partner David Stark suggested that his firm had a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities of technology innovations in agriculture.

“Forced to overcome the challenge of making the desert bloom, Israel has a long history of agricultural innovation and today is home to a multitude of world-class AgTech startups,” Stark said. OurCrowd portfolio company and Red Herring Europe Top-100 award-winner CropX specializes in adaptive irrigation technologies.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, OurCrowd demoed its app at FinovateSpring 2016. Via its platform, OurCrowd and investors have put more than $220 million in capital into 100 portfolio companies, with six exits in the past three years.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Azimo to Launch Facebook Messenger Bot

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 24, 2016
Categories: Azimo

Global money transfer platform Azimo recently announced plans to make sending and receiving money more social by launching a chatbot for Facebook Messenger.

The U.K.-based company will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a natural, human-like conversational chat experience. At a WIRED event in London, the company’s co-founder Marta Krupinska said, “We want to get to a point where the experience is like going into a branch.” Krupinska went on to note that, in addition to simply conducting transactions, users can interact with the bot as they would a human, for example, by asking about international transfer rates.

This is the second step we’ve seen Azimo take toward integrating its money-transfer services into messaging applications. Last month the company raked in $15 million from Rakuten, the owner of messaging service Viber. Azimo says it plans to integrate the funds into messaging services.

Azimo, which is already using AI in an algorithm to detect originality of scanned documents, lets users send money to and from 204 different countries. The company debuted at FinovateEurope 2013 in London and prides itself on being a cheaper, faster, and simpler way to send money across the globe.

Founded in 2012, Azimo has raised a total of $40 million; its estimated value is $100 million.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Passport Raises $8 Million in Series B

By David Penn Posted on June 24, 2016
Categories: Passport

Here’s a funding from one of our more interesting alums that slipped below the radar last month: mobile payment innovator Passport has raised $8 million in new funding. The Series B round was led by MK Capital, and featured participation from Grotech Ventures and Relevance Capital. The new investment takes Passport’s total funding to $17 million.

Passport CEO Bob Youakim said that the capital infusion would help speed the company’s growth and expansion both in the United States and around the world, as well as enable Passport to add talent to the team. “Our enterprise platform is striking a chord with the market as they look to bring technology into their operations and drive efficiency.” Youakim said. Bret Maxwell, MK Capital managing general partner, called Passport “the clear market leader on many fronts” and praised the company’s “cutting edge platform, expanding revenue growth, and … strong industry partnerships.”

Passport CEO Bob Youakim and CBDO Khristian Gutierrez demonstrated their mobile payment for transit solution at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

Passport specializes in providing mobile payment solutions for transportation-related businesses, including parking and transit management. The company’s products include mobile parking-payment and public transportation ticketing technology, digital permits, gateway services for merchants, and integrations to help parking companies more efficiently monitor operations and collect revenue. Passport’s technology is being used in major metropolitan areas in North America such as Chicago, Toronto, Portland, and Salt Lake City.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Passport demonstrated its mobile payment for transit solution at FinovateEurope 2016. The company announced earlier this month that the Village of Orland Park had launched its new Passport-powered mobile parking-payment system. And in May, Passport partnered with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority to develop a mobile ticketing app for buses and streetcars. Also in May, Passport hired former Core Consulting Group CTO Mike Hulthen as its new VP of Engineering.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on June 24, 2016
Categories: AlphaPoint, Azimo, Clover Network, DAVO Technologies, FIS, ForwardLane, Kony, NCR Corporation, OurCrowd, Passport, SafetyPay, Xero

On Finovate.com

Passport Raises $8 Million in Series B.

Azimo to Launch Facebook Messenger Bot.

OurCrowd Wins Red Herring Awards; Announces Partnerships with Bayer, DuPont.

Around the web

NCR releases updated version of its transactions processing solution, Authentic.

Major update to Xero’s online invoicing technology to help businesses avoid phishing scams.

TimeTrade brings its Banking by Appointment functionality to FIS’ mobile banking app.

Clover selects DAVO’s Sales Tax App as first app featured on its new blog.

ForwardLane and AlphaPoint selected to participate in Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab.

ENGIE to leverage Kony’s enterprise-mobility platform.

SafetyPay increases its volume of transactions paid in cash by 86% compared to last year.

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

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Apply Now to Present at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016!

By Heather Stowell Posted on June 23, 2016
Categories: FinDEVr 2016 Silicon Valley, FinDEVr Marketing

Summer is here, and FinDEVr is heating up! The second deadline for presenter applications for FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 is today — Friday, June 24. If this reminder is taking you by surprise, let us know at [email protected] and we will happily extend the deadline into next week.

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. Last year the event attracted nearly 600, and we’re expecting many more this year.

26293806975_12dcbed94b_o

As a first step, please email [email protected] and we’ll send you a presenter packet with content criteria, the presenter package, costs, deadlines, and a link to online application. Once you’re ready to move forward, submit the online application. We’ll review them later this summer and be in touch in July. Hope to see you apply!

26270325266_b5b6e11b0c_o

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 .

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

With Ripple, Seven Banks Test Out the Blockchain

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 23, 2016
Categories: Ripple

Enterprise block chain solutions-provider Ripple has reached a “tipping point” as bank clients have transitioned from blockchain experimentation to deployment. This week the California-based company announced it is helping seven banks accelerate and improve their cross-border payments.

These aren’t just any seven financial institutions. The addition of the new players place 12 of the top 50 global banks as clients in the Ripple network. Here’s the list of new clients:

Santander
UniCredit
UBS
Reisebank
CIBC
ATB Financial
National Bank of Abu Dhabi

In a blog post, Ripple CEO Chris Larsen says, “This is a major step forward for the global financial system, and as the Ripple network grows, together we are paving the way for new connected commerce opportunities and growing demands for real-time, high-volume, low-value global payments.”

Ripple, which has completed 30 bank pilots, uses a distributed financial ledger technology that lowers the cost of real time payments by using algorithms to find the lowest foreign exchange rate. Many of the company’s bank partners already use Ripple’s ledger to transfer real money, and all have plans to use the ledger in commercial production. Earlier this year Santander became the first U.K. bank to use Ripple for cross-border payments and currently ten of Ripple’s bank clients are in various phases of commercial deals.

So far Ripple has received positive feedback. ATB Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Curtis Stange said, “Using blockchain technology, ATB Financial became the first financial institution in Canada to complete an overseas payment in a matter of seconds.” He added, “Without blockchain, that transaction would have taken two to six business days.”

Earlier this month, we reported a partnership between Ripple and Expertus Payment Platform that lets banks test transmittal of real-time payments using the blockchain in a safe environment with minimal disruption to a bank’s existing infrastructure. Founded in 2009, Ripple launched the Ripple Network at FinovateSpring 2013 under the name OpenCoin.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook