Emailage Receives Strategic Investment from Wipro

Emailage Receives Strategic Investment from Wipro
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Emailage, wipro

EmailageHomepage2016

Arizona-based Emailage announced this week it has received an investment from Wipro Ventures, Wipro’s investment arm. The $4.8 million round is an extension of its Series A round originally made in November 2014. Wipro, the India-based information technology giant, becomes the eighth investor in Emailage.

In addition to the funding, the two companies have formed a partnership through which Wipro will offer Emailage’s email-address risk-evaluation solution to its customer network. Emailage debuted the browser extension for its risk-evaluation tool at FinovateSpring 2015. In October of 2015 the company partnered with Feedzai to bolster its fraud-prevention solution.

Founded in 1945, Wipro last demoed at FinovateEurope 2015, where it debuted Wipro ngGenie™ myAdvisor.

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CurrencyFair Raises €8 Million; Names New CMO

CurrencyFair Raises €8 Million; Names New CMO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CurrencyFair, Funding, Fundings

CurrencyFair_homepage_Mar2016

P2P currency exchange CurrencyFair raised €8 million ($8.9 million USD) in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures. That brings the company’s total financing to more than €20 million ($22.3 million USD).

Also participating in the round were Proxy Ventures and Frontline Ventures.  CurrencyFair CEO Brett Meyers said, “Working with them will help us further develop our brand and the industry as something people and businesses can trust to save them money.” Meyers added that P2P currency exchange needed a “more mature voice” and that the new round of funding represented a “validation of the brilliant product and marketplace we have built.”

CurrencyFair_stage_FEU2013

Pictured: CurrencyFair co-founder and CEO Brett Meyers demonstrating his company’s iPhone app at FinovateEurope 2013.

In addition to the funding, CurrencyFair announced the hiring of former Unibet Chief Marketing Officer, Nils Andén, as its new CMO. As CMO of one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe, Andén is credited for the commercial strategy that helped Unibet’s market cap grow from £300 million to £2 billion from 2010 to 2015.

Speaking about the similarities he sees between the P2P currency exchange market today and the online gambling industry when it was in its infancy a decade ago, Andén credited “the extortionate rates of the banks” as helping some of CurrencyFair’s rivals “make a lot of noise at the moment.” However, like Meyers, he said the industry is ready for a “more mature approach” as customers become more comfortable with P2P currency exchanges as an alternative to the banks.

“Style gets you noticed, but substance gets you remembered,” Andén said.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, CurrencyFair demonstrated its iPhone app at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. CurrencyFair won Best of Show for its presentation at FinovateAsia 2012.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Accusoft, Aerospike, Avalara, Braintree, Entrust Datacard, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Finicity, Green Key Technologies, Intuit, Intuit Developer Group, Markit, NYMBUS, On Deck Capital, Payoneer, PayPal, SnoopWall, Symbiont, VIX Verify

FinDEVrNY16-V2(wdate)Our FinDEVr New York developer showcase is next week on March 29 & 30. Register today and we’ll see you in New York!

Developer news

  • TechCrunch reports: Almost everyone is doing the API economy wrong.

On FinDEVr.com

  • “Financial Information Services Provider Markit Merges with IHS”
  • “Symbiont and Ipreo Team Up to Accelerate the Loan Settlement Process”

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters:

  • Xignite to provide free market data for FinTech Sandbox demo participants. Join Xignite in New York for FinDEVr next week.
  • Markit to supply FinTech Sandbox with fixed income pricing and reference data.
  • PayPal to enable money transfers to Cuba via its Xoom acquisition.
  • 3dcart merchants gain access to end-to-end payment processing courtesy of Braintree.
  • OnDeck partners with Innovate Finance to debut Transatlantic Policy Working Group.
  • Markit unveils new tax utility service.
  • Intuit Developer Group Drops Financial Data APIs; Partners with Finicity to Ease Transition.

Alumni updates:

  • Let’s Talk Payments lists SnoopWall and Entrust in its roundup of the hottest mobile security companies.
  • Avalara teams up with WooCommerce to help online merchants manage sales taxes.

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

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Braintree, CurrencyFair, Emailage, Markit, PayPal, wipro, Xignite

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • “Emailage Receives Strategic Investment from Wipro”
  • “CurrencyFair Raises €8 Million; Names New CMO”

Around the web

  • Xignite to provide free market data for FinTech Sandbox demo participants. Join Xignite in New York for FinDEVr next week.
  • 3dcart merchants gain access to end-to-end payment processing courtesy of Braintree. See Braintree’s presentation at FinDEVr New York.
  • PayPal to enable money transfers to Cuba via its Xoom acquisition.
  • Markit to supply FinTech Sandbox with fixed-income pricing and reference data.

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: 36 Companies Raise $480 Million Week Ending March 18

Fintech Fundings: 36 Companies Raise $480 Million Week Ending March 18
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

ideas_moneyAt Finovate, we are all about the next new thing. That’s why we love compiling the weekly funding report. Money (usually) flows to the best ideas (or at least the best execution). And if that holds true, 2016 is going to be a banner year as total deals are running double the pace of 2015—285 vs. 139 last year.

Last week, a record 36 companies raised $207 million in equity and $273 million in debt for a total of $480 million. The $6.0 billion total raised YTD is double the $3 billion at this point last year.

It was another busy week for Finovate alums with six raising new funds:

Here are the fintech deals by size from 12 March to 18 March 2016:

Future Finance
Alt-lender to students
Latest round: $170 million ($27 million Equity, $143 million Debt)
Total raised: $170 million (includes $143 million debt)
HQ: Dublin, Ireland
Tags: Consumers, lending, student loans, credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Wheels Financial (aka LoanMart)
Alt-lender focused on lending against existing automobile titles
Latest round: $100 million Debt
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Encino, California
Tags: Consumers, finance company, vehicle lending, credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Connecture
Health insurance distribution platform
Latest round: $52 million (post-IPO equity)
Total raised: $75+ million
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Tags: SMB, financial institutions, insurance, healthcare, sales, service, policy management
Source: Crunchbase

Cumulus Funding
Personal loans repaid by share of income
Latest round: $31 million ($6 mil Equity, $25 mil Debt)
Total raised: $31.85 million including $25 million debt
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Consumers, loans, lending, underwriting, secured, income share agreement (ISA)
Source: Pymnts

Momo
eWallet & mobile payments
Latest round: $28 million Series B
Total raised: $33.75 million
HQ: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tags: Consumer, SMB, Goldman Sachs (investor), Standard Chartered (investor), payments, p2p transfers, money movement, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

LendInvest
P2P real estate lending marketplace
Latest round: $24.4 million Series B
Total raised: $58.6 million
HQ: London, England, U.K.
Tags: Consumers, lending, peer-to-peer, mortgage, crowdfunding, investing, underwriting, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Next Insurance
Insurance products for small businesses
Latest round: $13 million Seed
Total raised: $13 million
HQ: California
Tags: SMB, insurance, Finovate alum (founders)
Source: Crunchbase

Afluenta
Peer-to-peer lending marketplace
Latest round: $8 million Series B
Total raised: $10.8 million
HQ: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tags: Consumers, lending, credit, P2P, crowdfunding, investing, underwriting, loans
Source: Crunchbase

Floqast
Accounting software
Latest round: $6.5 million Series A
Total raised: $7.85 million
HQ: Los Angeles, California
Tags: SMB, B2B, accounting, financial management, account reconciliation, bookkeeping
Source: Crunchbase

Pave
Alt-lender targeting millennials 
Latest round: $5.6 million Series A
Total raised: $305.6 million (unknown mix of Debt/Equity)
HQ: California
Tags: Consumers, youth market, lending, loans, credit, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase, WSJ

P2Binvestor
Crowdfunded credit lines for small businesses
Latest round: $5 million Debt
Total raised: $6.4 million
HQ: Denver, Colorado
Tags: SMB, lending, P2P, peer-to-peer, underwriting, credit, investing, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Instarem
International remittances
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $5 million
HQ: Gold Coast, Australia
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, P2p funds transfers, remittances, fx, currencies
Source: Crunchbase

StreetShares
Crowdfunding small business loans
Latest round: $4.5 million
Total raised: $8.2 million
HQ: Reston, Virginia
Tags: SMB, lending, investing, underwriting, commercial loans, P2P, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

ChartIQ
Stock market charting tools
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $4.85 million
HQ: Charlottesville, Virginia
Tags: Consumers, advisors, financial institutions, data, analytics, investing, trading
Source: Crunchbase

SmartAsset
Personal finance information and advice
Latest round: $3.83 million
Total raised: $10.53 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumer, personal financial information, lead gen, home buying, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

CrowdStreet
Commercial real estate crowdfunding
Latest round: $3.5 million Series A
Total raised: $4.85 million
HQ: Portland, Oregon
Tags: Consumer, SMB, lending, P2P, peer-to-peer, REIT, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Qumram
Compliance tools for digital interactions
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.5 million
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Tags: Compliance, online banking, session recording, transcribing, archives
Source: Finovate

Avyst
Independent insurance agent distribution platform
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.5 million
HQ: Aurora, Colorado
Tags: SMB, insurance agents, sales, marketing, distribution, service, quotes
Source: FT Partners

IFMR Holdings
Indian financial inclusion platform
Latest round: $1.9 million
Total raised: $26.9 million
HQ: Taramani, India
Tags: Consumers, underbanked, unbanked
Source: Crunchbase

Finomial
Investor servicing platform
Latest round: $1.78 million
Total raised: $5.19 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, investing, advisors, trading, alternative investments, funds, investor relations, compliance, marketing
Source: Crunchbase

Zlien
Lien rights management
Latest round: $1.3 million
Total raised: $3.5 million
HQ: New Oreans, Louisiana
Tags: SMB, lending, compliance, security, construction loan, home improvement, mortgage
Source: FT Partners

Tradesocio
Community platform for investors
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.2 million
HQ: Nicosia, Cyprus
Tags: Advisers, investing, social, marketing, sales, trading
Source: Crunchbase

Creamfinance
Alt-lender to consumers
Latest round: $1.1 million
Total raised: $7.3 million
HQ: Warsaw, Poland
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, loans, credit
Source: Crunchbase

Expense Check
Smart financial search engine
Latest round: $750,000 Seed
Total raised: $750,000
HQ: Australia
Tags: SMB, B2B, data, analytics, financial management, accounting, suppliers, cost management, accounts payable, Xero (integration)
Source: Crunchbase, Financial Review

Ensygnia
Mobile payments & transactions
Latest round: $600,000
Total raised: $7.2 million
HQ: London, England, U.K.
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, acquiring, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

Blockai
Digital rights management platform on the blockchain
Latest round: $547,000 Seed
Total raised: $547,000
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, blockchain, cyrptocurrency, bitcoin
Source: Crunchbase

Cachet Financial Solutions
Remote deposit platform
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $24.3 million
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tags: Financial institutions, B2B2C, deposits, checking accounts, mobile banking, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Mobetize
Mobile payments platform for telecom companies
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $3.2 million
HQ: Reno, Nevada
Tags: Enterprise, payments, mobile, carrier billing
Source: FT Partners

Wealthy
Investing tools
Latest round: $240,000 Seed
Total raised: $240,000
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumers, tax-savings, investing, personal finance, financial planning
Source: Crunchbase

Cover
Insurance quotes via mobile camera
Latest round: $120,000
Total raised: $120,000
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Consumer, SMB, insurance, quotes, mobile, photo capture, Y Combinator (investor), YC W16
Source: YCombinator

WorldCover
P2P platform providing insurance for the unbanked
Latest round: $120,000
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City

Tags: Underbanked, insurance, investing, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer, Y Combinator (YC W16)
Source: YCombinator

Orderly Health
Healthcare transaction monitor 
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Denver, Colorado
Tags: Consumer, healthcare, spending, health insurance, personal finance management (PFM)
Source: Crunchbase

Ghaio Fintech
Personal finance portal
Latest round: $16,000
Total raised: $16,000
HQ: Brazil
Tags: Consumers, personal finance information, lead gen, advice
Source: Crunchbase

Emailage
Fraud solutions based on email addresses
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Phoenix, Arizona
Tags: Financial institutions, enterprises, security, fraud prevention, Wipro (strategic investor), Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

Dimont
Loan administration services for residential & commercial lenders
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Dallas, Texas
Tags: Lenders, loan administration, service, compliance, lending
Source: Crunchbase

TaxTim
Tax preparation technology
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Cape Town, South Africa
Tags: Consumers, tax prep, personal financial management
Source: Crunchbase

———-
Graphic licensed from 123rf.com

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CEO Interview: Aire.io’s Aneesh Varma

CEO Interview: Aire.io’s Aneesh Varma
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Aire, CEO Interview

AireHomepage2016

Aneesh

We recently caught up with Aneesh Varma, founder and CEO of Aire.io, for an interview. Varma launched the London-based company in 2014 to help thin-file customers qualify for essential financial products.

He graduated from Lehigh University as an engineer with a secondary degree in quantitative finance, and in 2014 was nominated as the European Commission’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Finovate: What is Aire doing that its competitors are not?

Varma: At Aire, we don’t focus on competitors. We instead are focused on building the best product based on our core principles of what we would like to see in the world.

One such core principle at Aire is to go beyond just the data, and understand the story of the applicant. Many companies these days get carried away by big data—throwing 20,000 data points at the problem. But in reality it can lead to situations such as Ben Bernanke not being able to re-mortgage when he changed jobs. The ‘data’ was changing jobs; the ‘story,’ however, was still that he had a strong income.

At Aire, our research has been focussed on leveraging artificial intelligence and the cognitive sciences to evaluate more meaningful and deeper data. Understanding the individuality of each applicant and not relying on population-based statistics.

All of our personal data comes directly from the user—via our virtual interview, done in an adaptive interface. It’s like having a human underwriter to interview every applicant, but automated, so we can run it at scale with real-time scoring.

This is really powerful, as the Aire process can score anyone without any dependency on external data. This is especially important as we expand into new geographies.

AireMultichannelAire’s multichannel application form

Finovate: What is the biggest challenge Aire faces in achieving its goal of offering fair access to finance?

Varma: The work we are doing at Aire is really personal to us. In many ways, we have ourselves been victims of the cracks in the current system of credit scores. We know what it means to be financially excluded. It’s really tough.

Our work is to onboard more lenders who share the same ethos as Aire about ensuring people aren’t getting marginalized just because they don’t fit into the standard boxes.

We know the Aire product works. Over the last few months, we have been able to observe empirical evidence data of our performance, and it is really phenomenal how we can boost acceptance up to 14% while still ensuring over 90% of candidates get through our process.

It’s a changing world. More and more of us are going to be self-employed, become freelancers and or migrate to other countries. We shouldn’t be left out.

Finovate: How do you engage with developers?

Varma: Ours is a startup with a purpose. We are solving a real problem—and, in fact, a really hard problem. There is no hype to our work. It is pure performance which is why we have to carefully leverage technology, research and human emotions to build a great product.

This attracts a very particular type of people who genuinely care about making an impact with their work. This really has become part of the DNA of our company.

For most of us in the team, this is our second or even third startup. And we constantly trying to optimize on everything we have done in the past. Most importantly, we focus on culture and hiring the right people.

We have a very rigorous hiring process over six stages. But once someone gets through that, we provide one of the most exciting work environments in London. You are surrounded by leading experts in each field and get to learn from them. And even teach them a few tricks! Perhaps a reason why we are attracting some great minds to join us on this journey (and a place on the European breakout list via Scott Sage).

Finovate: What’s on the horizon for Aire in 2016?

Varma: The biggest push now is to take our product to more people, in more markets. North America is next on the horizon, and we are launching there shortly. The emerging markets are also relevant, and we are starting to prepare the groundwork there.

Naturally, ongoing research is very important to improve our product. We continue to invest in research across the various fields that will enhance our offering for new markets, including fellowships with our partner universities. Ultimately, there are going to be multiple versions of how we end up delivering our scoring product to consumers.

And other than that, it’s about focussing on hiring great people. This problem we set out to solve requires not just engineers and scientists, but people across various disciplines. We have baked that into our culture as a company. So a major part of my role ends up looking at how to bring together various people to collaborate as we invent new dimensions to our product.

At FinovateEurope 2015, he debuted the Aire Credit API which enables lenders to use Aire to check credit for a thin-file client.

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StreetShares Raises $4.5 Million in Series A Led by Fenway Summer Ventures

StreetShares Raises $4.5 Million in Series A Led by Fenway Summer Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, StreetShares

StreetShares_homepage_Mar2016

The Series A round for online small business lender, StreetShares, is off to a strong start with lead investor Fenway Summer Ventures putting $4.5 million into the company. The funding news comes just days after StreetShares announced that it had earned Regulation A+ approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), enabling the company to use public investments to back loans to small businesses.

StreetShares’ total funding stands at more than $8 million. Also participating in the financing round, which remains open, are Endeavor Equity Holdings and Pivot Investments.

StreetShares_stage_FEU2015

Pictured (left to right): StreetShares co-founders Mickey Konson, COO, and Mark Rockefeller, CEO, demonstrating their platform at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.

StreetShares, a P2P lending platform, specializes in connecting investors and small business borrowers from within the same community. For StreetShares, the first community it engaged with its affinity group lending approach were small businesses run by veterans and their families. Loan terms range from 3- to 36-months on amounts from $2,000 to $100,000, and the company charges a one-time origination fee of 3.95% or 4.95% based on loan term, risk, and amount.

An Air Force veteran, StreetShares co-founder and CEO Mark Rockefeller was interviewed by American Legion magazine last fall. The company added former SEC commissioner Troy A. Paredes to its board of advisors in November; in October, StreetShares announced a partnership with online marketplace, FedBid.

Founded in July 2013 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, StreetShares demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aire, Akamai, Coinbase, Entrust Datacard, Markit, SnoopWall, StreetShares, Temenos

On Finovate.com

  • “StreetShares Raises $4.5 Million in Series A Led by Fenway Summer Ventures”
  • “CEO Interview: Aire.io’s Aneesh Varma”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “Financial Information Services Provider Markit Merges with IHS”

Around the web

  • USAA to enable Coinbase accounts alongside USAA accounts and services in late March; mobile app upgrade.
  • Temenos and TransUnion forge strategic partnership to bring CreditVision recovery model to credit unions and financial institutions.
  • Let’s Talk Payments lists Akamai Technologies, SnoopWall, and Entrust in its roundup of the hottest mobile security companies.

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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Qumram Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Website Recording to North America & U.K.

Qumram Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Website Recording to North America & U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Qumram

QumramHomepage

Digital recording and archiving software provider Qumram raised $2.5 million (CHF 2.4 million) in funding this week. The funds come from Ariel Lüdi (former CEO of hybris software); Peter Stalder (former CTO of finnova AG); and investment group Zirkonia.

A group of investors from investiere.ch also contributed, furnishing almost 30% of the funds. In a press release, investiere.ch says it invested because the demand for Qumram’s services is growing, the company holds a good reputation, and it has a strong management team.

Qumram CEO Patrick Barnert notes that the company will leverage the funding “to extend the great success in central Europe to the two core financial services markets in the U.K. and U.S., and to further drive innovation within our product suite like Qumram Employee Governance Solution, which was first presented at FinovateEurope in London.”

Barnert added that the upcoming regulations, like MiFID 2 and FFSA, are driving an especially significant need for Qumram in the financial services industry.

The Switzerland-based company enables financial institutions to record their client’s online sessions to gather information for compliance, and to collect usage data to enhance the user experience. At FinovateEurope 2016, the company unveiled Qumram for Employee Governance, a solution that allows banks to carry out compliant, omnichannel communications and transactions with their customers over social media.

QumramSessionRecordAbove, Qumram for Employee Governance used for LinkedIn messaging

Founded in 2011, Qumram has 30+ customers across Switzerland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The company was included in the FINTECH 100 list published by H2 Ventures and KPMG. Additionally, Qumram received accolades from Accenture’s Swiss Fintech Award, having been placed in the final top three.

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Intuit Developer Group Drops Financial Data APIs, Partners with Finicity to Ease Transition

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Finicity, Intuit, Intuit Developer Group, Plaid, Yodlee

IntuitDeveloperGroup_homepage_Mar2016

Intuit Developer Group has decided to discontinue its Financial Services APIs (CAD), which provide financial account aggregation services to a number of third parties. Writing at Intuit’s developer page, Head of Financial Data Services Emily Silberstein explained that the service “no longer fits with our core growth strategy.”

“As of today (March 15, 2016), no new direct financial data API (CAD) developers will be allowed to move into production,” she wrote. The API will be maintained until November 15 to accommodate developers currently in production. Silberstein added that Intuit was partnering with Finicity which “will provide a façade API interface that translates Intuit-structured API calls into Finicity-structured API calls.”

IntuitDeveloperGroup_stage_FinDEVr2015

Pictured: Intuit Developer Group’s Head of Financial Data Services, Emily Silberstein, during her presentation at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.

Over at Finicity, the company has already rolled out the welcome mat. Finicity assures newcomers that its APIs “have the same origins and Intuit’s” and that “our teams are doing all the hard work to make sure our new ‘Façade’ API is a true replica of Intuit’s API, so you don’t have to do another integration.” Developers can sign up to test drive the API at Finicity’s developer portal. The company is also offering two months of free service for developers who migrate to the Intuit façade API or Finicity’s API before July 15.

FinicityIntuit_migration

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose, Finicity was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. A provider of API services for account aggregation, cash-flow verification, and account-ownership verification, Finicity is the maker of the TxPUSH API for Fintech Apps, which makes it easier for developers to use the Finicity API platform to receive account and transaction data instantly.

Intuit Developer Group demonstrated its Transactions and Identification APIs at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco last fall. In January, the company tapped Vinay Pai to be head of the developer team, and in February, the Group celebrated the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Intuit Developer Network and the release of the first QuickBooks API.

The decision by Intuit Developer Group leaves Finicity, Envestnet | Yodlee, and FinDEVr alum, Plaid, as the remaining few major firms providing financial account-aggregation services in the United States. Yodlee, acquired by Envestnet last August, released a simplified, more intuitive RESTful API architecture in February. The Redwood City, California-based company presented its financial data platform and rapid development kit at FinDEVr 2015.

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Finovate Debuts: InvestGlass Built a Robo-advisor for Advisers

Finovate Debuts: InvestGlass Built a Robo-advisor for Advisers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, InvestGlass

InvestGlassHomepage

In his demo at FinovateEurope 2016, InvestGlass founder and CEO Alexandre Gaillard stated, “We believe that, if bankers don’t go digital, they won’t be bankers tomorrow.” He diplomatically followed with, “This is an invitation to keep you in business.” InvestGlass works like a robo-advisor for financial professionals by providing technology to help them find suitable investments for clients.

Gaillard began working on the idea for InvestGlass after the collapse of Bear Stearns when he noticed the power the media has on people’s financial decisions. By focusing on the client rather than the product, the platform generates the right financial information to engage the right clients to help optimize their portfolio.

Company facts:

  • Privately owned
  • 5 employees
  • Founded in 2014
  • Headquartered in Switzerland
InvestGlassDemoIMGCEO Alexandre Gaillard Presenting with CTO Sébastien Thevenaz at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

At FinovateEurope 2016, InvestGlass launched Leads, an artificial intelligence engine to help financial professionals save time by identifying which client to contact first, why they should call, and exactly what advice to provide based on trending financial products in their geographical area.

InvestGlass simplifies the process of balancing a client’s portfolio and provides templates to help create, tailor, and publish a PDF report to send to clients.

—-

GaillardProfileIn an interview with the company’s CEO, Alexandre Gaillard, we discussed the value that InvestGlass brings advisers. Gaillard is a French citizen and speaks English, French, and Mandarin. He is passionate about behavioral finance and has worked as a banker, adviser, and was once head of equity sales.

Finovate: What problem does InvestGlass solve?
Gaillard:

  • Account profitability
  • Client disintermediation
  • Real-time digital interactions
  • Appropriateness and suitability

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?
Gaillard: IFA, bankers, brokers, family offices, VC PE Sales

Finovate: How does InvestGlass solve the problem better?
Gaillard: Our subscription process is smooth as we are accessible from the internet SAAS and we onboard clients without paper. Once you’re onboard, we generate proactive lead and investment opportunities, and we publish tailored and white-labeled investment proposals. To subscribe from InvestGlass.com, you simply enter your credit card information to get a 14-day free trial. If you make money, then InvestGlass is a great deal.

InvestGlassPlatform

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.
Gaillard: Independent financial advisers flourishing in London and Zurich were looking for an out-of-the-box solution with CRM and market feeds. Integration took one week to connect with their custodian data. We have a simple promise: If they make more money in one week, then it’s a deal! InvestGlass offers a 14-day free trial for InvestGlass Professional starting at one license £550 per seat per month.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Gaillard: As an ex-head of equity sales, I knew that delivering the right financial information at the right time was the best way to increase return on asset. It was not about performance but relevancy. My objective is to empower financial professionals with an automated selling tool to make sure that they will increase the return on relevancy!

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from InvestGlass that we can look forward to over the next few months?
Gaillard: In the coming months, InvestGlass will focus on retail banks and on more alliances with SAAS solution and feeds providers. Since Finovate, at least three feed providers or SAAS companies are calling us per week. Our objective is simple: partner and onboard on InvestGlass—bridge!

Finovate: Where do you see InvestGlass a year or two from now?
Gaillard: Everywhere, mostly banks. FinovateEurope in London has been a fantastic steppingstone to attract prospects.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, eWise, Feedzai, Finicity, Fiserv, Intuit Developer Group, InvestGlass, Jumio, Kony, Markit, PayPal, Quantopian, Qumram, Ripple, StreetShares, Trustly, ZeroDB

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate Debuts: InvestGlass Built a Robo-Adviser for Advisers”
  • “Intuit Developer Group Drops Financial Data APIs; Partners with Finicity to Ease Transition”
  • “Qumram Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Website Recording to North America & U.K.”

Around the web

  • Ripple opens new office in London.
  • Markit and IHS announce $13 billion merger agreement.
  • Quantopian to launch in Australia.
  • Vibrant Credit Union converts to DNA account-processing platform from Fiserv.
  • Finextra interviews James Redfern, eWise’s global head of sales.
  • PayPal’s Dan Schulman travels to Cuba to see how it can work with the country’s small businesses.
  • Kony updates Kony Visualizer 7.0, releases free starter edition.
  • StreetShares announces SEC approval for Regulation A+ deal.
  • The Evening Show with Simon Rose interviews Trustly’s Chief Commercial Officer.
  • Blackhawk Network’s CEO Talbott Roche receives PYMNTS Innovator Award for “Women Driving Innovation in Payments.”
  • VICE’s Motherboard features ZeroDB. See them live at FinDEVr 2016 on March 29 and 30.
  • Jumio sells assets to Facebook co-founder and early backer, Eduardo Saverin.
  • The Paypers interviews Nuno Sebastiao of Feedzai.

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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