Ping Identity Acquired by Vista Equity Partners

Ping Identity Acquired by Vista Equity Partners
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, Ping Identity

PingIDHomepage2016

Colorado-based Ping Identity, a cloud identity security solutions provider, announced today it has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners. The terms were not disclosed for the deal which is expected to close in Q3 of this year.

Austin-based Vista Equity Partners has almost $8 billion in capital commitments, partnering with firms in software and technology-enabled businesses. Founded in 2000, the firm has acquired four companies, including Ping.

The acquisition is anticipated to help Ping Identity accelerate the growth of its security solutions through acquisitions and to boost investment in its Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) capabilities. Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand says it’s “a great day for Ping Identity” and added that the acquisition “validates what we’ve built: the leading Identity and Access Management platform.”

In the press release, Ping Identity noted a few metrics:

  • Annual recurring revenue grew by 40% in 2015
  • Annual recurring revenue is expected to reach more than $100 million in 2016
  • Clients include 1,500 global enterprises, including over half of the Fortune 100

PingIDDemoIn February, the company launched enhancements for Ping Federate, an omnichannel authentication and access management solution that uses multifactor authentication, single sign on, and limited access security.

Founded in 2003, Ping Identity took the stage at FinovateEurope 2012. The demo showed how banks can increase conversion rates and reuse existing infrastructure by implementing social networking logins. The company has raised a total of $128 million in funding and counts Draper Fisher Jurvetson, General Catalyst Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank among its investors.

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NICE Funding! CallVU Raises $3 Million

NICE Funding! CallVU Raises $3 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CallVU, Funding, Fundings, NICE Systems

CallVU_homepage_June2016

In a round led by Liberty Global Ventures and featuring the participation of fellow Finovate alum NICE Systems, CallVU has raised $3 million in new funding. The investment is the second major capital infusion for the digital engagement platform developer since its undisclosed seed round in 2012.

Joining the round were AfterDox Angel Investment Group and 2B Angels. Tuval Lava, CallVU’s president and chairman of the board, said the funds would help the company improve its technology and grow internationally. “The fact that such a distinguished group of leading international investors have made such a commitment to CallVU illustrates the potential they see in the field of mobile digital engagement in general and in CallVU in particular,” Lava said.

CallVU_stage_FS2016

Pictured (left to right): Amitai Ratzon, VP global sales, and Assaf Frenkel, VP, product & marketing, demonstrated the CallVU Mobile Digital Engagement platform at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

In partnering with NICE Systems, CallVU plans to develop a “joint go-to-market approach” that will help the company expand. The plan includes new offices around the world and hiring sales, product management, software development, and marketing talent. To this end, NICE Systems EVP for Corporate Development Eran Liron highlighted the multiple use-cases for CallVU’s technology. “CallVU Mobile Digital Engagement platform helps financial service organizations and telecom operators, as well as health, travel, and retail companies, advance their digital transformation and contact centers’ optimization strategies a step further,” Liron said.

Lead investor, Liberty Global Ventures, is the investment arm of global cable-giant Liberty Global. The fund invests in both early- and late-stage companies, typically committing $2 million to $20 million, and operates in 14 countries. Liberty Global Ventures’ portfolio features 29 startups (as of December 31, 2015) working in wireless HD video delivery, virtual video technology, and interactive commerce and merchandising, among other fields.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, CallVu demoed its Mobile Digital Engagement solution at FinovateSpring 2016. The company was named a Cool Vendor in CRM Customer Service and Support in Gartner’s 2016 report. CallVU was featured in our look at fintech in Israel last week. Ori Faran is CEO.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blockchain, Cloud Lending, Entersekt, Envestnet, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Mambu, Mobeam, PayPal, Twilio, VIX Verify, Yodlee

FinDEVrSV16-LogoV2(wdate)

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

On FinDEVr.com

  • “OakNorth, “The First Cloud-Based Bank in the U.K.” is Powered by Mambu”
  • “Mobeam Barcode Beaming Technology Gains Broader Integration with Samsung Pay”
  • “Up from Down Under: VIX Verify Chooses Atlanta’s Transaction Alley for Americas Headquarters”
  • “Speed of Lightning, Roar of Thunder: Blockchain Unveils Off-Chain Bitcoin Payments Network”

The latest from FinDEVr New York 2016 presenters

  • Version 6.0 of PayPal app discontinues support for Amazon Fire, Windows, and Blackberry phones.

Alumni updates

  • “Twilio Readies for $100 Million IPO”
  • Let’s Talk Payments takes a look at the post-acquisition relationship between Envestnet and Yodlee.
  • Neyber selects Cloud Lending Solutions for loan automation.

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

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BRIDGEi2i Closes Series A Funding Round

BRIDGEi2i Closes Series A Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BRIDGEi2i, Funding

Bridgei2iHomepage

Just a few days after celebrating its fifth birthday, BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions landed its first round of funding, pulling in an undisclosed amount of Series A growth capital from India-based Edelweiss Private Equity.

CEO Prithvijit Roy states the company will use the funds to, “accelerate the development of our machine-learning-based business applications along with significant expansion of our consulting teams across the United States and India.”

Pranav Parikh, head of private equity and VC funds at Edelweiss, says he is impressed with how BRIDGEi2i has “transform[ed] large enterprises through their impact-driven approach” since launching in 2011. Edelweiss now owns a minority stake in BRIDGEi2i and Parikh will join the Bangalore-based startup’s board of directors.

BRIDGEi2i was founded by former General Electric and Hewlett Packard executives who had a vision to offer data-driven insights to enterprises. Using big data, the company generates actionable insights about sales data and customer behavior to help manage risk and operations. The company’s customers include 10 of the Fortune 100, representing sectors in technology, manufacturing, financial services, insurance, and retail.

At FinovateAsia 2013, BRIDGEi2i launched Surveyi2i, a cloud-based platform to help easily view and analyze survey data. Surveyi2i offers quick insights into survey results without requiring help from a data scientist. Recently, BRIDGEi2i was featured in Dataquest for helping a Fortune 100 company save $300,000 on reporting costs. Late last year, the company was ranked 115 out of 500 AsiaPac businesses on the Deloitte Technology Fast500 for 2015.

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Big Blue Backs Mobile Banking in Rural China

Big Blue Backs Mobile Banking in Rural China
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: IBM

IBM_homepage_May2016

“We’re from IBM and we’re here to help” is something fintech followers will have to start getting used to.

The “tech startup from New York” as it called itself during its Finovate debut this spring is the choice of China’s Fujian Rural Credit (FJRC), which is enhancing its online and cloud-based banking offerings. FJRC will use IBM’s storage infrastructure solution, Spectrum Virtualize, to help deploy financial apps for the province’s more than 14 million agricultural workers and consumers.

IBM_stage_FS2016

Pictured: Rob Stanich, global wealth management offering manager, and Alex Baghdjian, senior offering associate, financial markets and wealth management, demonstrated IBM’s Client Insight for Wealth Management at FinovateSpring 2016.

The new technology will enable FJRC to offer better customer service via mobile service vehicles and to provide more direct service through convenient service outlets and mobile banking. FJRC currently provides both commercial and retail banking services by way of 67 rural credit unions; 1,800 outlets; and more than 11,000 micro-payment locations. Spectrum Virtualize works by managing all storage resources from one virtual location, which accelerates data transfer, remote mirroring, and automated application deployment.

IBM has been an increasingly visible part of the fintech world. Watson, its artificial intelligence technology, has been leveraged by fintech innovators such as fellow Finovate alums Novabase and TipRanks. And earlier this year, IBM announced opening IBM “Blockchain Garages” in Singapore, Tokyo, London, and New York City to encourage collaboration between IBM’s technologists and local developers. Blockchain services and advanced credit risk analysis, a.k.a. BigCredit, are two areas of focus for IBM’s research in China.

Founded in 1911 and based in Armonk, New York, IBM demonstrated its Client Insight for Wealth Management solution at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has 300,000 employees and produced revenues of more than $81 billion in 2015. Virginia M. “Ginni” Rometty is chairwoman, president, and CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Boku, BRIDGEi2i, CallVU, Check Point, Entersekt, IBM, Intelligent Environments, Jack Henry, Monitise, Ping Identity, Thomson Reuters, TradeKing, Tuition.io, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com

  • “Big Blue Backs Mobile Banking in Rural China”
  • “BRIDGEi2i Closes Series A Funding Round”
  • “NICE Funding! CallVU Raises $3 Million”
  • “Ping Identity Acquired by Vista Equity Partners”

Around the web

  • “Check Point Named Leader for Vision and Execution in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Firewalls”
  • Boku brings mobile carrier billing to U.K. sports and entertainment venues.
  • Thomson Reuters launches FX benchmark service.
  • Monitise no longer plans to sell its marketing content business Markco Media.
  • “Jack Henry & Associates and Inlet Partner to Bring Enhanced eBill Functionality to 4,000 Financial Institutions”
  • Wealthfront introduces its 529 College Savings Plan.
  • Intelligent Environments teams up with Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT).
  • Wall Street Journal features Tuition.io in a look at how employers are providing low-cost loans to employees.
  • Ally Financial announces completion of TradeKing acquisition.

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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Featurespace Falls on a Fresh $9 Million in Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Featurespace, Funding

FeaturespaceHomepage

Behavioral analytics company Featurespace has raised $9 million in funding in a round led by U.S.-based TTV Capital.

The venture round, which elevates Featurespace’s funding to $16.4 million, was augmented by support from existing investors Imperial Innovations Group; Nesta; Cambridge Angels; and Cambridge Capital Group. The U.K.-based company plans to use the round to further expand into the U.S. market after striking recent deals with TSYS and an unnamed U.S. bank.

TTV Capital’s Managing Partner Gardiner Garrard says the funding round “is the first time we’ve invested in a mainland U.K. company, and reflects our support of Featurespace’s transformative fraud-detection capabilities.”

At FinovateEurope 2016 Featurespace launched its ARIC Engine which monitors user behavior and leverages machine learning to determine suspicious, inconsistent transactions.

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PayNearMe Acquires Prism Money to Offer Bill Presentment for Enterprise Clients

PayNearMe Acquires Prism Money to Offer Bill Presentment for Enterprise Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: PayNearMe

PayNearMeHomepage2016

Digital cash payment service PayNearMe today announced it has acquired financial management and billpay app Prism Money. PayNearMe will leverage Prism Money’s billpay and ACH/card payment capabilities to offer enterprise clients a bill presentment API integration.

The California-based company’s founder and CEO Danny Shader says that Prism enables it to offer government agencies, banks, and businesses “a menu of bill presentment and payment capabilities” that can be customized for the end customer.

Prism

As a result of the partnership, Visa (FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 presenter) will offer the new bill-presentment capabilities to its enterprise customers and will add it to the Visa prepaid, consumer-reloadable cards. Tony Chang, VP of prepaid product at Visa, says Visa prepaid card providers “can now easily integrate bill presentment and same-day bill payment into their existing apps, making it easier than ever for Visa prepaid cardholders to pay bills immediately when they receive wages onto their prepaid cards.”

Founded in 2009, PayNearMe enables consumers to pay bills using cash at 17,000+ retail stores across the U.S. by scanning a barcode on their smartphone. Most recently, the company partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to allow underbanked consumers to pay their taxes in cash. It also struck a deal with Dallas Area Rapid Transit to facilitate bus fare purchases on its platform.

PayNearMe presented at FinovateSpring 2013 and at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014. The company will continue to expand its flagship cash-payment service by increasing its retail partnerships.

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Twilio Readies for $100 Million IPO

Twilio Readies for $100 Million IPO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Twilio

Twilio_homepage_May2016San Francisco-based, cloud-communication specialist Twilio is seeking to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. Twilio will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker, TWLO. Underwriting the offering are:

  • Goldman Sachs
  • J.P. Morgan
  • Allen & Company ,
  • Pacific Crest Securities
  • JMP Securities
  • William Blair
  • Canaccord Genuity

The impending fintech IPO has some wondering whether or not the news marks the end of a relatively quiet period for public offerings. Currently valued at more than $1 billion, Twilio has raised more than $230 million in funding to date. The pricing of the company’s shares has not been disclosed and the company is still not turning a profit. But with revenues of $166 million in 2015, more than 28,000 active customer accounts, and customers ranging from Uber and Coca-Cola to Home Depot and WhatsApp, Twilio hopes to impress investors with a range of solutions ranging from authentication technology to programmable voice, video, SMS, and wireless solutions.

Twilio_Authy_stage_FF2015

Pictured: Twilio VP and General Manager Marc Boroditsky demonstrated Authy OneTouch at FinovateFall 2015.

Twilio’s SEC filing reveals revenues of $166 million for 2015 and $59 million in the three months ending March 31, 2016. The quarterly gain represented a boost of 78% year-over-year, while the annual sales figure represented a gain of 88% over 2014. Net losses also increased, growing 32% from $26.7 million to $35.4 million.

“Our goal is for Twilio to be in the toolkit of every software developer in the world,” the prospectus reads. “As of March 31, 2016, over 900,000 developer accounts had been registered on our platform.” The prospectus also lists the company’s key elements of the Twilio’s growth strategy, which include continued investment in technology, expanded focus on the enterprise, growing their developer community, and “selectively pursue acquisitions and strategic investments.” Note that in February 2015, Twilio purchased Authy, its first major acquisition, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Twilio demonstrated its Authy OneTouch authentication solution at FinovateFall 2015. The company is also a FinDEVr alum, having presented “Authy 2FA in 20 Minutes” at FinDEVr 2015, San Francisco.

 

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Actiance Brings on Naresh Bansal as New CFO

Actiance Brings on Naresh Bansal as New CFO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance

ActianceHomepage

BansalCommunications compliance and analytics company Actiance has appointed Naresh Bansal as its new chief financial officer. Bansal is stepping in for Tim Conley, the company’s former CFO, who left to pursue a career as a consultant.

Bansal’s impressive pedigree includes 20 years of financial management for both public and private firms; 10 years of those leadership positions were within software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Bansal most recently served as VP of finance for Zscaler, a cloud-based security company.

In a press release, the company notes Bansal’s success in “building teams, creating processes, and taking companies through the IPO process.” Actiance CEO Kailash Ambwani says, “Naresh will play a critical role as we continue to map out strategies for long-term growth and augment our financial structure to support fiscal management, profitability, and success. His experience as an operational CFO for highly successful companies will be invaluable to us. More importantly, he knows SaaS inside and out, and has successfully scaled operations at companies in our exact growth stage.”

Since launching in 1998, the company has raised $43.6 million in three funding rounds. At FinovateFall 2012 Actiance debuted Socialite, a tool that helps banks stay compliant while using social media. Earlier this month, the company unveiled a cloud-based platform to help healthcare and pharmaceutical companies comply with security and privacy regulations.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Cachet Financial Solutions, CBW Bank, Envestnet, Ethoca, eToro, Featurespace, Lending Club, Mambu, Meniga, PayNearMe, Twilio, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • “Actiance Brings on Naresh Bansal as New CFO”
  • “Twilio Readies for $100 Million IPO”
  • “PayNearMe Acquires Prism Money to Offer Bill Presentment for Enterprise Clients”
  • “Featurespace Falls on a Fresh $9 Million in Funding”

On FinDEVr

  • “OakNorth, ‘The First Cloud-Based Bank in the U.K.’ is Powered by Mambu”

Around the web

  • Dataconomy interviews Georg Ludviksson, Meniga CEO and co-founder.
  • The WSJ: “Lending Club Talking With Citigroup About Loan Purchases”
  • Cachet Financial Solutions to power Mobile Deposit for LCNB National Bank.
  • American Banker highlights Suresh Ramamurthi, chairman and CTO of CBW Bank.
  • eToro appoints Joe Hall as its new managing director of business in the U.K.
  • Let’s Talk Payments takes a look at the post-acquisition relationship between Envestnet and Yodlee.
  • Ethoca teams up with the Online Payment Exchange (ONPEX) to stop ecommerce fraud using early warning alerts.

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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Finovate Alums Help Represent Fintech Innovation in Israel

Finovate Alums Help Represent Fintech Innovation in Israel
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, CallVU, Capitali.se, Earnix, NICE Systems, OurCrowd, Personetics, ThetaRay, TipRanks, Top Image Systems, VATBox, Versafe, Voitrax, Zooz

Israel_FlagPYMNTS.com published an interesting, metric-based post on the tech scene in Israel. The post emphasized that while the country has a well deserved reputation as a “cybersecurity hotspot,” it is also true that “Israel’s tech ambitions and prowess extend much further.”

The salient statistic for me: 430—the number of fintech startups headquartered in Israel—is highly impressive, considering only 90 fintech startups existed in 2009.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some recent Israel-based Finovate alums who are helping make the country one of the world’s key locations for fintech innovation.

Our 14 Israel-based Finovate alums have raised more than $164 million in funding. Two alums—NICE Systems and Top Image Systems—are publicly traded on the Nasdaq, and two more—Capitali.se and TipRanks—have won Best of Show awards.

TheFloor_Israelfintechhub

There’s no doubt the fintech in Israel is on the move. The country’s first fintech hub, The Floor, was launched in 2015, and as of March 2016 is now located at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Writing about why fintech innovation is thriving in Israel, VentureBeat’s Avi Zeevi of Carmel Ventures highlighted a few key features:

  • Mastery of relevant technologies such as real-time analytics, cybersecurity, and risk management
  • Legacy of success creating a “startup ecosystem (with) massive amounts of knowledge”
  • The country has learned from other key global financial centers
  • Global financial institutions have a presence and have been investing in Israel
  • Israeli FIs “have always been open to innovation”

“All of this had led to a dramatic rise in investments in Israel fintech companies,” Zeevi wrote. “By addressing the needs of both developed and emerging markets, Israeli fintech will only continue to grow.”

Are you an Israel-based Finovate or FinDEVr alum that we overlooked? Send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll update our roster.

 

 

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