FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: unblu

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: unblu
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, unblu

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-1-43-40-pmFE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

unblu’s live collaboration suite helps the world’s leading banks deliver an in-person experience online. Over 80 banks worldwide trust unblu.

Features

  • Facilitates customer acquisition and end-to-end onboarding
  • Lifts conversion rates and increases sales through live engagements
  • Offers customers consulting from the comfort of their home

Why it’s great
Allows you to create a virtual branch rivaling any high-street presence. unblu is changing how banks do business and deliver services through their digital channels.

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-1-52-16-pmPresenters

Jens Rabe, CMO
Rabe loves to understand technology and its potential impact on real life problems to help design new ways in which business can be done.
LinkedIn

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-1-56-39-pmLuc Haldimann, CEO, unblu
Haldimann combines vision, persistence and entrepreneurship. A true inventor, he strives to make lasting contributions to the technology and business worlds.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Wealth Wizards

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Wealth Wizards
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, Wealth Wizards

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FE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on 7 & 8 February, 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Wealth Wizards is the U.K.’s first independent online financial adviser. It is here to revolutionise financial advice and make it accessible to everyone.

Features

  • Gives the user a manageable plan for retirement
  • Checks whether new pension contributions are affordable
  • Fully-regulated advice, online

Why it’s great
It is making planning for retirement a lot less daunting thanks to the use of tech.

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-2-54-10-pmPresenters

Andrew Firth, Chief Executive
Part of the founding team of Egg, Firth is passionate about pioneering the development of automated financial advice in the U.K.
LinkedIn

screen-shot-2017-01-03-at-2-54-32-pmPeet Denny, Chief Technology Officer
Denny is a pragmatic and business-outcome-driven senior technical consultant and champion of achieving business agility through technical excellence.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA, Betterment, Craft Silicon, Flybits, Leveris, NetGuardians, ScientiaMobile, Sindeo, Streamdata.io, unblu, Wealth Wizards, Wealthify

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: Sindeo Revamps the Mortgage Application Process.
  • NetGuardians Brings Real-Time Fraud Protection to Nigeria’s Keystone Bank.

Around the web

  • Flybits CEO Hossein Rahnama interviewed in TechRepublic feature on IoT trends in 2017.
  • AFK Insider lists Craft Silicon’s Uber-challenging app, Little, in its look at major technology developments in Africa in 2016.
  • FinDEVr alum Streamdata.io joins Google Technological Partner program.
  • ScientiaMobile recognized by CIOReview as one of the most promising CDN solution providers of 2016.
  • PYMNTS: BBVA Buys Openpay To Boost Digital Business Portfolio.

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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FinovateEurope 2017 — £100 Early-Bird Discount Extended!

FinovateEurope 2017 — £100 Early-Bird Discount Extended!
By Greg Palmer Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateEurope 2017

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FinovateEurope 2017 is just over a month away, and time is running out for discounted Early-Bird tickets. Save £100 off the cost of your ticket when you register by the end of the week.

FinovateEurope 2016 was the biggest European Finovate ever, and this year’s showcase promises to be another one you won’t want to miss. With so much going on in European fintech, it’s never been more important to stay up to date on all of the latest trends and innovations that will define the future of finance.

Over the course of two days, you’ll get to see 72 leading fintech innovators doing live, seven-minute demos of the latest tech they have coming out of the shop. No slides, no videos, just wall-to-wall demos giving you an incredibly efficient way to see the state of the industry in just two days.

Early-bird tickets are still on sale through this Friday, 6 January, giving you a chance to save £100 off the cost of your registration. Make sure you register now while there’s still room (and before the price goes up!).

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FinovateEurope 2017 is sponsored by: Comarch, FT Partners, KPMG and more to be announced.

FinovateEurope 2017 is partners with: Aite Group, Bankers Hub, Banking Technology, Fintech Finance, Harrington Starr, Headcount, Mapa Research, Paybefore, and SME Finance Forum.

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Microsoft Marketing Vet Jeremy Korst Joins Avalara as New CMO

Microsoft Marketing Vet Jeremy Korst Joins Avalara as New CMO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avalara

avalara_homepage_jan17_b

Starting in 2017 former Microsoft executive Jeremy Korst will be the man driving the message at tax compliance innovator and FinDEVr alum, Avalara. The Seattle-based company announced this week that Korst will join Avalara as its new chief marketing officer and executive vice president. Coming onboard at what Korst called “an exciting inflection point” for the company, he praised Avalara’s “ideal combination (of) a terrific executive team; a cohesive, unique culture that embraces the ‘power of Orange;’ a proven platform; and a massive global market opportunity.”

avalara_jeremykorstKorst (pictured) arrives at Avalara after several years at Microsoft where he led planning and execution of the global launch of Windows 10. Previous to Microsoft, Korst served as vice president and general manager at T-Mobile, and senior product marketing manager at AT&T Wireless/Cingular. A member of the board of a number of companies including Shoelace Wireless and 9104 Studios, Korst is a mentor for Seattle-area technology accelerator, 9Mile Labs. He has a BA in Economics, Politics, and Government from the University of Puget Sound, and a MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

At Avalara, Korst will be responsible for brand, demand generation, as well as channel, international, product, and customer marketing. Avalara general manager and CRO Pascal Van Dooren said Korst’s experience in marketing “some of the most storied names in tech … make(s) him an ideal fit for Avalara.”

Avalara presented “The Wacky World of Sales Tax” at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015, explaining how its API makes it easy for developers to integrate transactional tax compliance into their applications. Last fall, Avalara announced an investment of $96 million that took its total capital to more than $300 million. In August, Avalara added a set of enhancements to its CertCapture management solution for compliance documents. And in June, in addition to unveiling a new integration with Stripe, the company was recognized at the American Business Awards.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avalara, Avoka, Bizfi, Boku, Dashlane, Kontomatik, Narrative Science, OurCrowd, Quantopian, SocietyOne, SuiteBox, Taulia, Trulioo

On Finovate.com

  • Microsoft Marketing Vet Jeremy Korst Joins Avalara as New CMO.

Around the web

  • New York-based BizFi reaches $2 billion in originations.
  • LTP: Trulioo CEO Stephen Ufford writes about the problem of gift card fraud.
  • Boku extends partnership with Microsoft to support carrier billing to France.
  • Exostar teams up with Taulia to bring supply chain finance to the aerospace and defense industry.
  • Avoka, SocietyOne, and SuiteBox named finalists for Fintech Business Awards.
  • HBR: Narrative Science CEO Stuart Frankel writes about talking chatbots.
  • Quantopian recognized by Boston Globe as a “Company to Watch in 2017.”
  • Let’s Talk Payments features Kontomatik’s successful 2016.
  • Dashlane to support Intel Software Guard Extensions to help protect your passwords with hardware-enhanced security.
  • OurCrowd marks 4 years, $320m raised, 100 startups, 9 exits.

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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Holiday Spirit Missing at Big Banks (redux)

Holiday Spirit Missing at Big Banks (redux)
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Key Bank, PNC Bank

tex-tech-cu-xmas-2016

Happy holidays everyone! The holiday spirit is everywhere, except it seems, at the big U.S. banks. I get that budgets are busted, employees on vacation, and you don’t want to offend anyone by mentioning (or NOT mentioning) Christmas. Still, how hard would it be to throw a couple non-denominational snowflakes on top of your logo and wish everyone a happy holiday? Or better yet, how about a little bonus, like the holiday skip-payment offer similar to that featured on Texas Tech Federal Credit Union’s homepage (see above).

In our annual holiday survey of the 25 largest banks, we found only two, PNC Bank and Key, that acknowledged the year-end holidays on their homepages. And while they are just barely outside the 25 largest, Navy Federal FCU was in the holiday spirit as well.

That’s a pretty poor showing, dramatically down from the 8 to 10 participants in years past (see links below). Caveat: The historical comparison is not perfect due to timing. I was tardy this year and didn’t take my holiday tour until 27 Dec, so I may have missed some decorations that had already been stored in the banks’ virtual attics.

Previous year-end holiday posts: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 (big banks); 2011(credit unions/community banks); 2009 part 1, 2009 part 2, 2007, 2006, 2006, 2004.

———-

Holiday 2016 messages

PNC Bank: PNC continues to go all-in with its long-running and clever cost analysis of the items from the 12 Days of Christmas song.

pnc-12-days-2016

Key Bank: Key has also consistently added holiday bling to its website. This year, running two holiday-themed items, one for checking and the other a broad security warning.

key-xmas-2016-2

 

key-xmas-2016

Honorable mention: While just outside the top-25 in size, Navy Federal FCU showed its holiday spirit with a classy page-dominating graphic along with a nice message about lack of fees on international purchases.

navy-fcu-xmas-2016

 

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Simple’s Annual Disclosure Will Be the Only One You’ll Read This Year

Simple’s Annual Disclosure Will Be the Only One You’ll Read This Year
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Simple

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When it comes to annual disclosures from financial services companies, I’ll be honest—I never read them. When they arrive as direct mail, I shred them. When they arrive in digital form, I file the unopened email into a folder.

All of this changed last week when I received an email from BBVA-owned Simple (FF11) titled Lint, floss, Regulation E. (Required legalese inside). Here’s how the email began:

Today’s the wonderful day! We’re legally required—and freely excited—to send you these very important Annual Disclosures of Regulation E Guidelines for Electronic Fund Transfers and Privacy Practices.

Encouraging expressions motivate readers to continue, saying, “Don’t sleep too soon!” and “Let go your reluctance!” Following these energy-inducing phrases, the email launches into “lines of regulatory poetry,” otherwise known as Regulation E, (a siren song to fraud).

To reward users for reaching the end of the disclosures, the email concludes with a “Museum of the Mundane.” In case you aren’t a Simple customer and don’t have the luxury of reading the most entertaining regulatory disclosure email ever created, here are the features from the “Museum:”

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Simple concludes the entertaining email with mundane wishes:

Give thanks, Julie! Today’s a bigger day than you thought. Pull out a blanket, pop some champagne, and gather your friends for a reading of this caring, protective, regulatory gift. Regulation E! Yes, please!

There you have it. From Team Simple to you and yours, bidding you mundane wishes this holiday season.

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BBVA Compass Announces New CEO, Onur Genc

BBVA Compass Announces New CEO, Onur Genc
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA

bbva_homepage_december2016

One of the world’s most innovative, fintech-friendly banks just onboarded a new boss.

BBVA announced this week that U.S. subsidiary BBVA Compass has named former Garanti Bank deputy CEO, Onur Genç, as its new CEO. At Garanti, Turkey’s largest bank by market cap at $9 billion, Genç (pictured) was in charge of retail banking, private banking, and asset management. He was promoted to deputy CEO at Garanti in 2015. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity,” Genç said in a press release. “I onurgenccan’t wait to join the team and to work with Manolo to extend the success story of BBVA Compass.” Genç will replace Manolo Sanchez, who became CEO of BBVA Compass in 2008 and will transition into a new role of non-executive chairman.

“BBVA is a global financial group that can tap the world’s best talent, and Onur is a clear example of that. I am looking forward to helping him take BBVA Compass to the next level,” Sanchez said.

Prior to his tenure at BBVA Compass, Onur Genç was a senior partner and Turkey office manager at McKinsey & Company. Before McKinsey & Company, Genç was a financial controller at American Airlines. He has a bachelor of science degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Bogaziçi University in Istanbul, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1857 and headquartered in Madrid, Spain, BBVA—Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria—demonstrated its stock market sentiment solution, Stockbuzz, at FinovateEurope 2013. The second largest bank in Spain and a member of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, BBVA held assets of more than €750 billion in 2015. Carlos Torres Vila is CEO.

BBVA Compass was founded in 1964 and has been a BBVA subsidiary since 2007. With assets of $85 billion, the firm is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and is active in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas.

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Nutmeg Closes $14.6 Million Series D Round

Nutmeg Closes $14.6 Million Series D Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Nutmeg

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U.K.-based wealth management company Nutmeg brought its total funding to $90 million today after closing its Series D round, which was led by Taipei Fubon Bank.

The news comes hot on the heels of Nutmeg’s most recent funding when it scored $37 million in Series C funding last month from Convoy, Hong Kong’s largest firm of independent financial advisers. Adding two Asian investors in the past two months comes as a hint as to what’s next for the roboadvisor. Nutmeg CEO Martin Stead told TechCrunch,

There is a very significant market opportunity before us, in the U.K. and beyond, and we are going to capture it. With these new funds, we will continue to invest in product innovations which disrupt the industry and deliver a better deal–and a better experience–for customers. And, we are going to expand into new categories and new territories.

Expansion into the Asia Pacific region is a logical move, since it’s currently experiencing a fintech boom, while the U.S. market is saturated (see our wealth tech coverage for more on this).

Nutmeg, which manages $735 million for its 25,000 clients, debuted its digital wealth management technology at FinovateEurope 2012 in London. In early 2016 the company was recognized on the European Top 100 List at the European Fintech Awards, and the company’s former CEO and founder Nick Hungerford was named one of the U.K.’s coolest people in fintech. In May of 2016, Martin Stead, Nutmeg’s former chief revenue officer, assumed the role of CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Credit Karma, Mint, Nutmeg, Simple, Taulia

On Finovate.com

  • “Nutmeg Closes $14.6 Million Series D Round”

Around the web

  • Taulia reaches supply chain finance into aerospace sector.
  • The New York Times highlights Credit Karma and Mint.

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

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Top Direct-to-Consumer Wealthtech Plays

Top Direct-to-Consumer Wealthtech Plays
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AnalytixInsight, ayondo, Betterment, blooom, eToro, FutureAdvisor, Hedgeable, LearnVest, M1 Finance, Motif Investing, Nutmeg, OurCrowd, Personal Capital, Scalable Capital, Seeking Alpha, SigFig, TickerTags, vaamo, Wealthfront, Wealthtech, WiseBanyan

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Our wealthtech industry coverage continues this week. We looked at the industry last week and reviewed the top trends earlier this month. Today we’re taking a look at industry players with B2C offerings—in other words, companies that market directly to consumers and not through businesses.

Since wealthtech is broader than just roboadvisers, we’ve divided B2C wealthtech players into seven categories and laid out our top picks for each group. Since category sizes vary, the number of our selections also vary.

Top in-house builds from traditional players
These are offerings from traditional wealth management firms that have been built in-house (or purchased and then white-labeled) and marketed under the firm’s brand.

Fully automated roboadvisers
These are online platforms that provide automated, algorithm-based portfolio management without intervention from human advisers and without personalized, one-on-one conversations with a human adviser.

screen-shot-2016-12-22-at-4-06-40-pmAcorns takes a unique approach by linking a user’s debit card and investing their “spare change”

Hybrid roboadvisers
These are traditional advisory services, including personalized conversations and actively managed portfolios blended with computerized portfolio recommendations. Business Insider reports hybrid roboadvisers will manage 10% of all investable assets by 2025.

screen-shot-2016-12-22-at-4-11-08-pmSigFig has partnered with multiple banks, including Wells Fargo, Pershing, and Citizens Bank

Non-U.S. roboadvisers

Alternative investing platforms
These are platforms that link participants to unconventional investment types, such as private equity, hedge funds, futures, real estate, etc.

screen-shot-2016-12-22-at-4-18-08-pmWith Motif, uses invest in grouped stocks and ETFs that revolve around a common theme

Non-U.S. alternative investing platforms

News and information companies
These are online platforms that help users discover news and market trends before they go mainstream. Some include social networking aspects.

screen-shot-2016-12-22-at-4-23-47-pmTickerTags helps users discover trends even before they become news

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