MOX Pay from Malauzai is First with RDC as Payment Option

MOX Pay from Malauzai is First with RDC as Payment Option
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Malauzai, Malauzai Software

Malauzai_MoxPay_homepage_June2016

With MOX Pay from Malauzai Software, community banks and credit unions will be able to offer their business customers apps that will enable them to accept payments via remote deposit capture (RDC). First to market an RDC-based payment solution, Malauzai sees it as a natural extension of RDC technology, and, in the words of Chief Product Officer Robb Gaynor, an easy way for “local merchants to go mobile.”

“If banks and credit unions don’t proactively serve these technology needs, local businesses will look elsewhere, such as lesser-quality online app builders,” Gaynor said. “This will cause financial institutions to miss a valuable opportunity to extend their relationships with small business customers.”

Malauzai_stage_FS2016

The Malauzai team pictured (left to right): CTO Danny Piangerelli; VP Craig Agulnek, product management; CPO Robb Gaynor demonstrated MOX Pay powered by Visual App Builder at FinovateSpring 2016.

Part of Malauzai’s Retail+ for Small Business Banking platform and demonstrated live at FinovateSpring in May, MOX Pay enables financial institutions to build mobile wallet apps for their business clients. Consumers can use the RDC technology in the apps to make payments by taking a photograph of a check, which also helps reduce the processing costs and potential mishandling of paper documents. Speaking of the hardware-free payment solution, Redding Bank of Commerce SVP and CIO Blake Pelletier said, “Consumers already understand RDC, so it’s an intuitive progression for them to use this functionality to make payments. Malauzai allows us to bring a service to the business community that currently no other financial institution in our area can provide.” Pelletier’s bank was one of the first to adopt the technology.

Founded in 2009 and based in Austin, Texas, Malauzai Software demonstrated MOX Pay at FinovateSpring 2016. The company announced a partnership with fellow Finovate alum Geezeo in April to add PFM tools to Malauzai’s SmartApps, as well as a deployment of the technology with six of Malauzai’s clients. Earning recognition from the FinXTech for its work with Somerset Trust Company in March, Malauzai has raised $24 million in funding, with its most recent raise an $11 million venture round in July 2015. The company includes Wellington Management and Live Oak Banking Company among its investors.

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Finovate Debuts: IBM’s Wealth Management Solution Gives Advisors an Edge

Finovate Debuts: IBM’s Wealth Management Solution Gives Advisors an Edge
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, IBM

Computer technology giant IBM launched in 1911 as Computer-Tabulating-Recording-Company (CTR) and was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.

At FinovateSpring 2016, the company’s presenter Rob Stanich, global wealth management offering manager, began the demo saying, “We come to you from a tech startup based in New York… it’s called IBM; maybe you’ve heard of us.” He jokingly adds, “It took us only 100 years to get here.”

Stanich then explains that they’re doing something new within IBM called Client Insight for Wealth Management powered by IBM Watson, a solution to help advisers segment clients, predict life events and identify product and portfolio recommendations. While IBM has been working in the wealth management industry for some time, this is the company’s first API-based predictive analytics solution for the wealth-management industry.

FADashboardFinancial adviser dashboard

Company facts:

  • Headquartered in Armonk, New York
  • 300,000 employees
  • 2015 revenue of $81.7 billion
IBMPresentersAlex Baghdjian, senior offering associate, financial markets & wealth management, and Rob Stanich, global wealth management offering manager, presented at FinovateSpring 2016.

IBMPresenter1We chatted with Rob Stanich, IBM global wealth management offering manager, about the new offering:

Finovate: What problem does Client Insight for Wealth Management powered by IBM Watson solve?

Stanich: Client Insight for Wealth Management powered by IBM Watson is an industry-leading, cognitive- and predictive analytics-based solution for wealth management firms, fund providers, and self-directed investment firms of all sizes trying to gain or maintain a technology edge. Unlike any other platform in the industry, CIWM delivers data preparation with an established data schema, integrated, pre-built advanced analytical models, and APIs to deliver insights to any wealth management dashboard. 
Our current offering has the some of the following capabilities:

  • Segmenting and micro-segmenting by behavior to better understand client
  • Predicting life and financial events to personalize offers, deliver alerts, and provide better service to drive loyalty
  • Predicting client attrition to protect revenue and wallet share
  • Understanding client-product propensities to better address client need’s and expand client relationships
  • Tailoring news and alerts to streamline financial adviser prep before client meetings
ClientProfileClient Profile screen

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Stanich: We currently service financial advisers and branch managers at large warehouses, self-directed brokerage firms, and mutual fund wholesalers. We are also going to be reaching the Registered Independent Adviser market through some soon-to-be announced partnerships.

BranchManagerThe Branch Manager dashboard

Finovate: How does Client Insight for Wealth Management powered by IBM Watson better solve the problem?

Stanich: We found that there really is this dearth of cognitive and analytics capabilities in wealth management. A lot of our clients want to get started, but have so many other issues affecting them—from new regulations to run the firm’s initiatives–that they haven’t been able to heavily invest in providing their financial advisers with advanced cognitive and analytics solutions. We’re here to solve that problem by providing a pre-built solution that can be stood up within a 12 week timeframe and immediately provide real capabilities and a real ROI.

And they’re not just buying the current capabilities of Client Insight for Wealth Management, but will benefit from IBM’s continuing investment in our roadmap, which will over time expand to cover such topics as prospecting, account aggregation, and adviser-succession planning. Not to mention that our solution will be applying some exciting new and advanced deep-learning techniques from IBM Research as well as integrations to other IBM application families within our Commerce and Watson divisions.

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

Stanich: Our favorite implementations are the ones where we see the client planning to use the solution to assist financial advisers in fully servicing their client’s financial needs. For example, we find a lot of large banks who have clients’ mortgages and checking accounts wanting to also provide [their] financial planning through a financial adviser. If we can have a client’s needs better serviced all in one place–from financial planning, lending, to credit card needs–then it’s a deeper relationship between a client and firm and an overall better client experience.

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

Stanich: I’ve worked on Wall Street and in technology for 20 years now and have witnessed a lot of the major changes we now consider business-as-usual, from the rise of the self-directed brokerage firms in the 1990s to the current rise of the robo-advisers. Nonetheless, I’m a big believer that we’ll never lose financial advisers entirely. They’ll be more like the expert users of some of the same technology coming into the self-directed business today. We’ll augment these professionals to be “smarter” in the same way technology is revolutionizing medicine today, yet we still need doctors to exercise judgement. Change is always disruptive and causes a lot of hand-wringing, but I think we all see the transition happening around us already.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Client Insight for Wealth Management powered by IBM Watson that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Stanich: We have some big partnerships that we’ll be announcing soon and some really great functionality on the docket to be released. We’ve already started getting feedback from clients, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Mainly, we’ll be focusing on the account-aggregation space, financial planning, and prospecting. Our solution is only going to keep getting better and better.

Finovate: Where do you see IBM’s Client Insight for Wealth Management a year or two from now?

Stanich: The vision for Client Insight for Wealth Management is to enable an adviser to service more clients with the same or better level of personalization as servicing their existing book of business, and improve the overall quality of that book. For self-directed firms, the vision is to deliver a more personalized level of service digitally, by arming them with some of the same advanced predictive and cognitive analytics becoming prevalent in other industries.

Finovate: What kind of metrics or facts about IBM’s Client Insight for Wealth Management can we share with our readers?

Stanich: It is the wealth management industry’s first pre-built, cognitive and analytics solution. We also have similar industry-specific offerings in banking, insurance, trade surveillance, and regulatory compliance.

Rob Stanich, global eealth management offering manager, and Alex Baghdjian, senior offering associate, financial markets & wealth management, presenting at FinovateSpring 2016:

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Splitit Launches Shopify Plugin

Splitit Launches Shopify Plugin
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: PayItSimple, SplitIt

SplititHomepage

Splitit (formerly PayItSimple), a startup that lets consumers pay for a large ticket over time, has partnered with Shopify to offer merchants access to its payments-plan technology via plugin.

The plugin, now available on Shopify’s app store, allows merchants using Shopify to integrate Splitit into their checkout process. The Splitit tool—enabling Visa and MasterCard cardholders to split purchases into interest-free, monthly payments by leveraging the customer’s existing credit—offers access to Shopify’s 275,000 merchants in 150 countries.

This announcement comes after the New York-based company’s integration with ecommerce platforms WooCommerce and Magento. According to the company, merchants using Splitit on these platforms have seen an average increase of 20% on overall sales within the first two months of implementation.

Founded in 2013, Splitit launched as PayItSimple at FinovateFall 2014. Earlier this month, the company made inroads into the medical billing industry by teaming up with DOCPAY to set up interest-free medical payment plans for patients.

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CrowdFlower Closes on a $10 Million Round Led by Microsoft

CrowdFlower Closes on a $10 Million Round Led by Microsoft
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CrowdFlower, Funding

CrowdFlowerHomepage

Data collection and cleaning platform CrowdFlower closed on $10 million in funding led by Microsoft Ventures. Also participating in the Series D round are Canvas Ventures and Trinity Ventures.

CrowdFlower’s funding now totals $38 million. The company will use the funds to speed adoption of CrowdFlower AI. 

The company gave a Best of Show-winning presentation at FinovateFall 2014 where it demonstrated how its on-demand workforce cleans and labels financial transaction data. Banks upload their data, define their task, and launch their job. CrowdFlower’s taskforce steps in to do what a computer can’t. The crowdsourced workforce completes micro-jobs to fill in holes in incorrect or incomplete data. The company leverages this effort in its recently launched CrowdFlower AI that combines human intelligence with machine learning to create what the company calls, Human-in-the-Loop, a product that uses active learning to make machine learning more viable.lukas_biewald

In a blog post, company CEO and founder Lukas Biewald (pictured right) says, “There are always places where algorithms struggle … . We’ve made it easy to automatically identify where machine learning is struggling and send them back to CrowdFlower jobs for humans to label.”

Founded in 2009, the San Francisco-based company’s customers include LinkedIn, Intuit, Flickr, and eBay.

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Token Facilitates PSD2 Compliance with New Payment Network

Token Facilitates PSD2 Compliance with New Payment Network
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Token

TokenHomepage

Palo Alto-based Token launched a new payment rail to help banks comply with Europe’s Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2), a framework that provides the legal foundation for a European Union-wide, single market for payments.

The new network, which is based on programmable tokenization technology, integrates with a bank’s core APIs, policies and procedures. Token helps banks monetize their APIs by offering access to third parties while limiting disintermediation and security risks associated with opening its APIs.

Token CEO Steve Kirsch created the company to “meet the needs of payments in the digital age.” Kirsch noted that a bank’s “over-reliance on out-dated networks and third-party service providers is not only commercially counterproductive, [but] also a security nightmare.”

transactionflowToken uses smart tokens, a digital representation of money, to secure the transaction flow and keep banks in control of the entire process. Here’s how it works:

  1. When the user makes a purchase, the merchant requests a token. The user’s bank processes the request through its Token Layer, confirms the user’s credentials, and approves the purchase.
  2. The user receives and digitally signs to accept the token on their mobile device. The bank receives and confirms the user’s signature.
  3. The approved token is sent to the merchant.
  4. The merchant sends the bank the Token ID and payment request.
  5. The transaction settlement occurs instantly through Token if both banks are Token-enabled. Otherwise, it goes through the bank’s legacy rails.

Token was founded in 2015 by CEO Steve Kirsch. The company debuted at FinovateSpring 2015 (video below) and also appeared at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 where the company’s VP of Development Bill York gave a presentation titled, The Future of Payments is Now.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Betterment, CrowdFlower, Dashlane, Fiserv, Flybits, IBM, Insuritas, Kabbage, Kony, Malauzai, Malauzai Software, NICE Systems, Ripple, SplitIt, Token, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “Token Facilitates PSD2 Compliance with New Payment Network”
  • “CrowdFlower Closes on a $10 Million Round Led by Microsoft”
  • “Finovate Debuts: IBM’s Wealth Management Solution Gives Advisers an Edge”
  • “MOX Pay from Malauzai is First to Unveil RDC as Payment Option”

On FinDEVr

  • “Flybits Earns Gartner Cool Vendor Recognition in its Platform-as-a-Service 2016 Report”

Around the web

  • TechCrunch: Dashlane launches a password-management tool for the enterprise.
  • AppsTechNews chats with Kony CTO Bill Bodin on the pace of enterprise app change.
  • “Kabbage Named a CNBC Top Disruptor”
  • Benzinga profiles Betterment CEO Jon Stein.
  • Me/CU to deploy account-processing platform and digital banking suite from Fiserv.
  • Insuritas to power insurance solution for Patelco CU.
  • NICE Actimize teams up with Mphasis to provide anti-fraud, enterprise risk, and compliance solutions.
  • Volate Technologies launches solution for “plug and play” integration with Ripple.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with U.K.-based Raphaels Bank to provide access to the Faster Payments Scheme.

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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Fintech Fundings: 30 Companies Raise $390 Million Week Ending May 13

Fintech Fundings: 30 Companies Raise $390 Million Week Ending May 13
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money 500 eurosTotal fundings in second quarter hit $8 billion as 30 more companies raised $390 million the second week of May. Nearly half of that ($188 million) was debt earmarked for Avant’s U.K. subsidiary.

The deals were widely dispersed around the world, with only 4 of the 30 headquartered in California. London beat that this week with 5, followed by 3 in NYC, and 2 each from Chicago, Florida and Germany.

The total number of deals YTD stands at 494, nearly double last year’s 266. Total dollars raised YTD is now $14.7 billion, more than twice the $6.7 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

Notable raises included Finovate alum Tagit which brought in nearly $9 million to supercharge its mobile application development platform.

——-

Fintech deals by size from 7 May to 13 May, 2016:

Avant (AvantCredit U.K.)
Consumer alt-lender
Latest round: $188 million Debt (for AvantCredit U.K.)
Total raised: $1.92 billion ($654 million Equity, $1.26 billion Debt)
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, lending
Source: Crunchbase

Bridge2Solutions
Incentive & rewards systems for financial institutions
Latest round: $35 million Series A
Total raised: $35 million
HQ: Daytona Beach, Florida
Tags: Consumer, enterprise, rewards, payments gamification, employees, human resources, loyalty, retention
Source: Crunchbase

Capital Float
Working capital financing
Latest round: $25 million Series B
Total raised: $41 million
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: SMB, lending, financing, commercial loans, invoice financing, factoring
Source: Crunchbase

Wincor Nixdorf (AEVI subsidiary)
Payments technology
Latest round: $23 million Post-IPO Equity
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Germany
Tags: Enterprise, cashless payments
Source: FT Partners

orderbird
iPad POS system for the hospitality industry
Latest round: $22.8 million Series C
Total raised: $37 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, merchants, acquiring, security, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

Simplee
Healthcare finance platform 
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $37.8 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: SMB, patient finance, billing, payments, insurance, credit, underwriting, B2B2C
Source: Crunchbase

AutoFi
Auto financing platform
Latest round: $17 million
Total raised: $17 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: B2B2C, SMB, consumer, lending, auto loan, vehicle credit, underwriting, secured, captive financing, lead gen
Source: FT Partners

EuroCCP
Equities clearing  
Latest round: $16 million (from Euronext)
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: B2B, enterprise, trading software, investing services, back office
Source: FT Partners

Tagit
Mobile financial applications
Latest round: $8.75 million
Total raised: $8.75 million
HQ: Singapore
Tags: Enterprise, banking, mobile application development, developers, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

TechBureau
Blockchain technology 
Latest round: $6.2 million
Total raised: $6.2 million
HQ: Osaka, Japan
Tags: SMB, blockchain, distributed database, payments, crypto-currency, bitcoin
Source: FT Partners

WealthBar
Online financial adviser
Latest round: $5.5 million
Total raised: $5.5 million
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tags: Consumer, investing, robo-adviser, ETF, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

Healthcare Interactive
Healthcare & insurance technology
Latest round: $3.4 million Series A
Total raised: $11.8 million
HQ: Glenwood, Maryland
Tags: Enterprise, healthcare, payments, insurance
Source: FT Partners

Tandem
Digital bank
Latest round: $3.4 million Equity Crowdfunding ($95 million valuation)
Total raised: $34.8 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, banking, payments, deposits, loans, debit card
Source: Crunchbase

AppZen
Expense report automation 
Latest round: $2.9 million
Total raised: $3.0 million
HQ: Sunnyvale, California
Tags: SMB, accounting, bookkeeping, expense reporting, compliance, fraud protection
Source: Crunchbase

Sure
Mobile on-demand insurance 
Latest round: $2.6 million Seed
Total raised: $2.6 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, travel insurance, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Inkassogram
Debt collection platform 
Latest round: $2.45 million
Total raised: $2.45 million
HQ: Sweden
Tags: SMB, accounting, payroll, bookkeeping, billing, payments, invoicing
Source: Crunchbase

Fluent
Blockchain B2B network 
Latest round: $1.65 million Seed
Total raised: $2.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, payments, blockchain, crypto-currency, bitcoin, payments
Source: Crunchbase

AccessPay
Online payments & cash management for small businesses
Latest round: $1.45 million Debt
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, payments, accounting, treasury management, commercial banking
Source: Crunchbase

FattMerchant
Payment processor
Latest round: $1.4 million
Total raised: $2.25 million
HQ: Orlando, Florida
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, merchants, acquiring, security, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

StoreHub
Mobile point-of-sale solution
Latest round: $850,000 Seed
Total raised: $850,000
HQ: Petaling, Malaysia
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, merchants, acquiring, credit/debit cards, mobile, POS
Source: Crunchbase

Bridge Financial Technology
Back-office platform for financial advisers 
Latest round: $722,000
Total raised: $722,000
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Advisors, B2B2C, investing, trading, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

Selequity
Online commercial real estate investing platform 
Latest round: $590,000 Seed
Total raised: $590,000
HQ: St. Louis, Missouri
Tags: SMB, investors, commercial mortgage, P2P lending, credit, underwriting, real estate
Source: Crunchbase

Cushion
Financial & time management service for freelancers
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: Brooklyn, New York
Tags: SMB, accounting, payroll, bookkeeping, billing, payments, invoicing, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

Olivia
AI-powered financial assistant 
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $500,000
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, personal finance, mobile, artificial intelligence, customer service, chatbot
Source: Crunchbase

Shares.com
Asset crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $300,000 Angel
Total raised: $300,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, collectibiles, investing, asset-based lending, artwork
Source: Crunchbase

PaySur
Bitcoin exchange 
Latest round: $275,000
Total raised: $275,000
HQ: Leon, Mexico
Tags: Consumer, payments, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, blockchain, remittances
Source: Crunchbase

DebitShield
Online debit card security
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, security, payments, direct debit, online billpay
Source: Crunchbase

FairCent
Marketplace lender
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: $4.25 million (before the Series A)
HQ: Haryana, India
Tags: Consumer, lending, P2P, person-to-person, credit, lending, investing
Source: Crunchbase

iBondis
Marketplace lender to small businesses
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unkown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, P2P lending, crowdfunding, commercial loans, person-to-person, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Savesta
Stealth personal finance 
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bellevue, Washington
Tags: Consumer, personal finance, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

—–
Image licensed from Shutterstock

 

 

 

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Quantopian Adds Chief Investment, Compliance Officers Ahead of Opening Fund to Public

Quantopian Adds Chief Investment, Compliance Officers Ahead of Opening Fund to Public
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Quantopian

Quantopian_homepage_June2016

Two small steps for Quantopian. One giant leap toward opening its hedge fund to outside investors.

Quantopian_DerekMeisnerQuantopian announced on Friday that Derek Meisner (right) had joined the company as general counsel and chief compliance officer to help build what Quantopian CEO John Fawcett called a “compliance and operational infrastructure” as the company prepares to take its hedge fund to the public. Meisner called it a “rare opportunity” and arrives at the company after serving as chief counsel and CCO for Boston-area alternative investors, RA Capital Management and Regiment Capital Advisors. Previously, Meisner spent four years as a branch chief for the SECs Division of Enforcement. He holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan and earned his law degree from the American University, Washington College of Law.

Quantopian_stage_FS2013

Pictured (left to right): Co-founders: CEO John Fawcett and CTO Jean Bredeche demonstrated Quantopian Live Trading at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.

The executive onboarding continued this week as Quantopian added Jonathan Larkin (circle right) as its first chief investment officer. Quantopian_JonathanLarkinLarkin comes to Quantopian after serving at Hudson Bay Capital Management as a portfolio manager, and at BlueCrest Capital Management as global co-head of equities. He also has a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In an interview with Financial Times, Larkin compared startups like Quantopian to hedge funds in their early days and said he plans to bring growth-accelerating “institutional experience” to the company.

A platform for quantitatively oriented investors and traders who build and share trading algorithms, Quantopian announced a hedge fund it had launched back in October 2014 will be opened to outside investors. The hedge fund trades are based on algorithms created by Quantopian members and part of Larkin’s job will be to help choose which algorithms are used in the fund.

Founded in June 2011 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Quantopian demonstrated its Live Trading platform at FinovateSpring 2013. The company has raised $23.8 million in funding, most recently a $15 million Series B in October 2014. Quantopian, which went live in Australia in March, was named to the inaugural Forbes Fintech 50 in December of last year, along with 19 fellow Finovate alums.

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Ripple’s New Partnership Lets Banks Test Blockchain and Ripple Integration

Ripple’s New Partnership Lets Banks Test Blockchain and Ripple Integration
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ripple

RippleHomepage

Distributed open source payment network Ripple has extended its partnership with Expertus Payment Platform to offer banks a way to explore use of the blockchain and Ripple’s distributed ledger for real-time payments.

The two companies originally partnered in April to provide a real-time payments product that offers lower costs, fee transparency, and better liquidity management. The combined solution has the capability to process all payment types 24 hours a day/seven days a week and is designed to support exponential growth. According to Expertus president Jacques Leblanc, “Several banks have already joined the program and have realized the benefits of blockchain.”

The testing service promises minimal process disruption and makes integration easy by plugging into a bank’s existing infrastructure. Steve Mollenkamp, head of channel sales at Ripple, says the newly launched pilot program “will contribute to the growth of the Ripple network, enabling even more financial institutions to improve their cross-border payments.”

Ripple launched in 2012 to offer banks a way to transact directly with each other without the need for a central authority. This lowers operational costs, enhances transparency, and paves the way for real-time transactions. The San Franciso-based company launched the Ripple Network at FinovateSpring 2013.

Last month, Deloitte announced a full integration with the Ripple protocol and Santander became the first U.K. bank to do blockchain-based international payments using Ripple.

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Seven Alums Make the Fortune 500 List

Seven Alums Make the Fortune 500 List
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CenturyLink, Fiserv, MasterCard, NCR Corporation, PayPal, Qualcomm, VISA

Fortune500Homescreen

Fortune Magazine released its famed list of 500 companies, a ranking of top U.S.-based companies by revenue. This year, seven Finovate and FinDEVr alums made the cut. Here are a few quick facts about these seven companies:

  • Almost half ranked in the upper half of the list
  • Combined revenues of the alums make up almost $88 million
  • Companies represent 170,000 employees
  • This is the first time on the list for both PayPal and Fiserv

Qualcomm (Firethorn)

  • Rank: #110 (up from #113 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $25.3 million
  • 17th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 33,000 employees
  • Headquartered in San Diego, California
  • Ranked #448 on Fortune’s Global 500 list
  • FinovateFall 2009 demo

CenturyLink

Visa

  • Rank: #204 (up from #238 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $13.9 million
  • 8th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 11,300 employees
  • Headquartered in Foster City, California
  • Ranked #47 on Fortune’s list of World’s Most Admired Companies
  • FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 demo

MasterCard

  • Rank: #294 (up from #308 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $9.7 million
  • 8th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 11,300 employees
  • Headquartered in Purchase, New York
  • Ranked #11 on Fortune’s list of Change the World
  • FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 demo

PayPal

NCR

Fiserv

*This was PayPal’s first year as a stand-alone company. The company’s CEO Daniel Schulman explains what the honor means to the company in a short video.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blend, DoubleNet Pay, Fiserv, Kasasa, Onovative, OutsideIQ, PayActiv, Quantopian, Ripple, Temenos, UpGuard, WealthForge, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • “Ripple’s New Partnership Lets Banks Test Blockchain and Ripple Integration”
  • “Quantopian Adds Chief Investment, Compliance Officers Ahead of Opening Fund to Public”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “UpGuard Brings Better Vulnerability Detection to ServiceNow”

Around the web

  • Kasasa partners with AudioEye to offer accessibility for community banks.
  • Zopa customers have borrowed $72 million+ this year for home improvement, a 54% increase in home improvement loans compared to the same period last year.
  • Ripple launches blockchain pilot program in partnership with Expertus.
  • Banking Technology reports that Temenos is nearing a core banking software deal with Iran’s Ayandeh Bank (Future Bank).
  • Fiserv earns a spot in Newsweek’s 2016 Green Ranking, which evaluates corporate environmental performance.
  • Google’s Economic Impact report profiles Onovative.
  • HousingWire reports: Mason-McDuffie Mortgage announces partnership with tech company Blend.
  • B2B Nation HR interviews PayActiv CEO Safwan Shah.
  • Infoworld feature on AI shares insights from OutsideIQ CEO Dan Adamson.
  • DigSouth highlights DoubleNet Pay and WealthForge in its look at fintech startups from the American South.

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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San Francisco Times Recognizes Credit Karma as Best Fintech Company

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Credit Karma

CreditKarma_homepage_Feb2016

The San Francisco Business Times last week announced winners of its Tech and Innovation Awards honoring the Bay Area’s most innovative and enterprising technology companies. Finovate alum Credit Karma was named Best Financial Technology Company, one of 25 winners.

Credit Karma was selected from an applicant pool of more than 300 companies in 11 categories who were judged based on their growth, differentiation from competitors, and how well they are revolutionizing their space.

Shortly after the awards announcement the SF Business Times published a piece about Credit Karma’s success. The article boasts that the San Francisco-based company is the third highest-valued venture-backed U.S. financial company, and has achieved this status with a business model that gives away a service for free.

In the piece, the SF Business Times notes a few key stats:

  • $3.5 billion valuation
  • Counts 50 million users in the U.S. (that’s 1 in 4 American adults)
  • $368.5 million in funding
  • 400 employees (up from 27 five years ago)
  • Founded in 2009

Credit Karma debuted its Debt Manager at FinovateSpring 2009, and has since come a long way. In addition to providing free credit scores that pull data from Equifax and TransUnion, the company helps consumers manage their financial health. The site hosts tools, such as a credit-score simulator, a debt-repayment calculator, and home affordability information, that empower users to make good decisions about their finances.

Credit Karma makes money by partnering with lenders and credit card companies to pitch tailored product suggestions based on a consumer’s financial health. Partner sites include Payoff and Upstart for loans and Chase and Barclayard for credit card offers.

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