Save $200 When You Register for FinovateSpring By This Friday!

Save $200 When You Register for FinovateSpring By This Friday!
By Erika Sanchez Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateSpring 2016

Demo

This Friday is the final day of Very Early-Bird ticket sales for FinovateSpring 2016. To take advantage of these early discounts and save $200 off the regular price, be sure to register before the end of the week.

Our spring conference returns to San Jose on May 10 & 11 for two days of live fintech demonstrations and high-caliber networking. The show will take place at City National Civic. Find out more about the venue and local hotels on the event’s website.

Based on the strong ticket sales we’ve seen, we expect this year’s event to blow past last year’s record-setting audience of nearly 1,400. Plus, with the impressive applications we’ve received from companies eager to present, this show promises to be one you won’t want to miss (stay tuned in the coming weeks for the presenter announcement!). If you’d like a refresher of what you can expect to see on stage, check out last year’s demo videos in our video archives.

And remember, tickets are fully refundable through March 25, so there’s no risk in securing these savings and your spot today.  We hope to see you in Silicon Valley this May!

FinovateSpring 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, Association for Financial Technology, Hudson Cook, and Leverage PR.

FinovateSpring 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market Intelligence, Aite Group, American Bankers Association, Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, Bankless Times, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, Breaking Banks, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, The Cointelegraph, Digital Currency Council, EbankingNews, Filene Research Institute, IDC Financial Insights, Javelin, Korea FinTech Forum, Mercator Advisory Group, Payments & Cards Network, The Paypers, PitchBook, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

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Cloud Lending Solutions Launches Asset Leasing Product

Cloud Lending Solutions Launches Asset Leasing Product
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cloud Lending

CloudLendingHomepage

California-based Cloud Lending Solutions today added to its six lending-management products by launching CL Lease which integrates into lessors’ own leasing platforms to provide an automated view of the full life of the lease on a single record.

Cloud Lending highlights four main benefits of the new tool:

  • Set up payment schedules or other monthly charges
  • Automate billing and flexibly recalculate changes
  • Manage a lease after contract maturity
  • Work with delinquent accounts to improve collections

CL Lease is available on Salesforce’s marketplace, Force.com. It can either be integrated into an existing origination platform, or work with Cloud Lending’s in-house platforms, CL Originate and CL Collections.

At FinovateSpring 2015, Cloud Lending’s co-founder and CEO Snehal Fulzele debuted CL Exchange, a platform where online loan marketplaces and lenders exchange loan applications to find the best match for their portfolio.

In a presentation at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, the company’s CTO & Co-founder, Darpan Saini gave a presentation on how banks can take advantage of Cloud Lending’s multiple offerings.

FinDEVr New York 2016 is coming up on March 29 & 30. Register today to save your seat.

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Finagraph Picks Up Investment from Moody’s

Finagraph Picks Up Investment from Moody’s
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBC Easy, Finagraph, Funding, Fundings

Finagraph_homepage_Mar2016

The small business intelligence and analytics platform Finagraph has earned an investment from Moody’s, giving the rating service and research firm a minority stake in the Seattle-area company.

According to Mark Almeida, President of Moody’s Analytics, the investment is based on the company’s desire to help FIs that lend to SMEs. Almeida explained:

“Finagraph’s technology and insight into small business financials enable us to accelerate our efforts to transform the way lenders interact with small businesses, helping bankers make better, faster lending decisions for the growing SME market.”

Finagraph_BBCEasy_stage_FS2013

CEO James Walter (left) and VP of Sales Corey Ross demonstrated their platform at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco (a.k.a. BBC Easy).

Known as BBC Easy when it demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2013, Finagraph provides business owners with tools that help them see trends in working capital, find hidden cash, and monitor risk indicators such as declining cash or a rising expenses vs revenues ratio.

Finagraph’s Financial Dashboard plays well with accounting systems such as Xero and QuickBooks and, as of mid-February, is now available for free. Finagraph also offers financial skills training through its Finagraph Academy, and courtesy of its new relationship with Moody’s, Finagraph will provide business credit scores based on Moody’s Analytics Risk Quality or MARQ.

Finagraph was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The amount of Moody’s investment was not disclosed. The company will gain a seat on Finagraph’s board of directors are part of the deal.

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BizEquity, Malauzai Take Top Honors at Bank Director’s FinXTech Awards

BizEquity, Malauzai Take Top Honors at Bank Director’s FinXTech Awards
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BizEquity, Ignite Sales, Malauzai Software, StrategyCorps, Zopa

FinXTech_homepage_Mar2016

In fintech, to innovate is human. But to implement is divine.

That’s the takeaway from the FinXTech Awards, which recognized five fintech innovators not just for the technology they’ve created, but for the partnerships with banks to put their technology in the hands of customers.

Two of the five award winners at this year’s event are Finovate alums. BizEquity earned recognition for its work with Metro Bank, and Malauzai Software won its award through its work with Somerset Trust Company.

BizEquity“Part of our mission from the start has been to collaborate with financial services partners to strengthen their offering and facilitate their expansion,” BizEquity CEO Michael Carter said. “Increasingly we are seeing partnerships between banks and fintech companies as both realize the mutual benefit of such collaborations, we are excited to be at the forefront of this development.”

Malauzai logoMalauzai CPO Robb Gaynor similarly praised the benefits of bank/fintech partnerships: “We’re proud to work with innovative partners such as Somerset Trust, as these collaborative efforts between banks and fintech companies deliver numerous benefits to the overall industry.”

Additionally, three Finovate alums earned recognition as finalists.

  • Ignite Sales with Central Bancompany
  • StrategyCorps with First Financial Bank
  • Zopa with Metro Bank (U.K.)

The FinXTech Awards are sponsored by Bank Director, an information resource for directors and officers at FIs. The Awards were part of Bank Director’s annual FinTech Day held at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square on March 1.

Biz Equity demoed its BizEquity One U.K. solution at FinovateEurope 2015. Malauzai’s most recent Finovate appearance was at FinovateSpring 2015 where the company presented its Virtual Banking Experience technology.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Checkbook.io, Fidor Bank, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Mambu, Markit, On Deck Capital, Spreedly

FinDEVrNY16-V2(wdate)We’re taking our FinDEVr developer showcase to New York on March 29 & 30, 2016. Register today.

Developer news

  • Emirates NBD Group and the Open Bank Project launch a global competition for fintech startups.

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters:a

  • Markit to deploy smart automation technology from WorkFusion.
  • Nerdwallet profiles robo-advisor Betterment.

Alumni updates

  • Spreedly secures $3 million financing round.

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: BizEquity, Cloud Lending, Fenergo, Finagraph, Luxoft, Malauzai Software, Misys, Pindrop Security, Revolut, SafetyPay, Sparkroom, Top Image Systems

On Finovate.com

  • “BizEquity, Malauzai Take Top Honors at Bank Director’s FinXTech Awards”
  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • “Finagraph Picks Up Investment from Moody’s”
  • “Cloud Lending Solutions Launches Asset Leasing Product”

Around the web

  • Vietnam’s Techcombank to support treasury, capital markets operations with FusionCapital from Misys.
  • Top Image Systems partners with TerraQuest to bring content processing to British government agency.
  • American Banker uses data from Pindrop Security to examine call center fraud.
  • Sparkroom wins Gold LeadsCouncil LEADER Award for Most Valuable Tech, and the Silver Award for Best Marketing Agency in Education.
  • Luxoft integrates P2P payment technology to enable IoT Solutions in Rinspeed’s Autonomous Driving Car.
  • Air Europa adds SafetyPay as a payment method.

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: 31 Companies Raise $560 Million Week Ending Feb 26

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_keyAnyone saying funding to the fintech sector is slowing, isn’t looking at the same data we are. For the eighth straight week, more than 20 fintech companies raised new rounds.

Two months into the new year, the total raised is $5.3 billion, more than double the $2.4 billion invested during the same period last year. And more telling, the number of deals is up 82% (198 vs. 109 in 2015).

The 31 companies funded this week set a new weekly record surpassing the old mark set 4 weeks ago. A total of $557 million was raised with $400 million headed to a single company, health insurance newcomer Oscar. The overall total included $28 million in debt.

Four Finovate and FinDEVr alums raised new cash:

Here are the fintech deals by size from 20 Feb to 26 Feb 2016:

Oscar
Health insurance provider
Latest round: $400 million Private Equity
Total raised: $727.5 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumer, employers, human resources, employee benefits, healthcare, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

Namely
HR, benefits, and payroll platform
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $107.8 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, human resources, employees, benefits, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

MoneyMe
Australian alt-lender to consumers
Latest round: $21.7 million Debt
Total raised: $22.4 million (including $21.7 million debt)
HQ: Australia
Tags: Consumer, loans, lending, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Signifyd
Fraud protection for e-commerce
Latest round: $20 million Series B
Total raised: $31 million
HQ: San Jose, California
Tags: Enterprise, security, fraud protection, risk management, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

AppCard
Loyalty card platform
Latest round: $20 million Series B
Total raised: $26.5 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, loyalty, rewards, payments, point of sale, merchants, POS
Source: Crunchbase

RealtyShares
Online marketplace for real estate investing
Latest round: $20 million Series B
Total raised: $31.9 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, investing, real estate, wealth management
Source: Crunchbase

Borrowell
Alt-lender for Canadian consumers
Latest round: $6.4 million Debt
Total raised: $11.8 million (including $6.4 million debt)
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Consumer, lending, loans, underwriting, Equitable Bank (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

Real
Digital real estate broker
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $7.5 million
HQ: Houston, Texas
Tags: Consumer, agents, home selling, brokers, CRM, real estate
Source: Crunchbase

Juspay
Mobile & online payments in India
Latest round: $5.8 million
Total raised: $5.8 million
HQ: Kormangala, India
Tags: SMB, payments, mobile, POS, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

CREXi
Commercial real estate platform
Latest round: $4.3 million Seed
Total raised: $4.3 million
HQ: Venice, California
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, commercial real estate, CRM, deal flow, mortgage
Source: FT Partners

Captain401
401(k) platform for small businesses
Latest round: $3.5 million Seed
Total raised: $3.6 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, retirement planning, 401(k), savings, investing, deposits, Y Combinator
Source: Crunchbase

Vanare
Wealth management platform for advisors
Latest round: $3.5 million Series
Total raised: $6.85 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Advisors, B2B2C, investing, wealth management, CRM, trading
Source: Crunchbase

Spreedly
Credit card vault to work with multiple payment gateways
Latest round: $3 million Series
Total raised: $5.5 million
HQ: Durham, North Carolina
Tags: SMB, merchants, developers, credit/debit cards, payments, API, security, ecommerce, Finovate alum, FinDEVr alum
Source: Finovate

FinLocker
Loan application & document sharing service
Latest round: $2.25 million
Total raised: $2.25 million
HQ: Missouri City, Missouri
Tags: Enterprise, B2B2C, lending, loan applications, document processing, originations, mortgages
Source: Crunchbase

Mintos
P2p lending marketplace
Latest round: $2.2 million Seed
Total raised: $2.2 million
HQ: Riga, Latvia
Tags: Consumer, SMB, lending, loans, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Hepster
Digital insurance distributer
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Cape Town, South Africa
Tags: SMB, merchants, point of sale, POS, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

Finomial
Funds management platform
Latest round: $1.64 million
Total raised: $5.05 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Enterprise, mutual funds, alternative investments, CRM, investor relations
Source: Crunchbase

Ribbet.me
Blockchain-based rewards platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $1.5 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumer, SMB, blockchain, bitcoin, rewards, smart contracts
Source: Crunchbase

Kwanji
Money transfer price comparisons 
Latest round: $700,000 Equity crowdfunding
Total raised: $1.9 million
HQ: London, England, U.K.
Tags: SMB, payments, investing, remittances, FX, discovery, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

MOVO (MovoCash)
Mobile banking & payments platform
Latest round: $700,000
Total raised: $700,000
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, B2B2C, mobile, P2P payments, person-to-person
Source: FT Partners

Kard
Credit card rewards optimization 
Latest round: $600,000 Seed
Total raised: $600,000
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumer, loyalty, payments, rewards, PFM, personal finance, credit/debit cards, spending
Source: Crunchbase

OpenGamma
Improving capital efficiency for derivatives trading
Latest round: $500,000 Debt
Total raised: $23.2 million (includes $2.75 million debt)
HQ: London, England, U.K.
Tags: Enterprise, risk management, trading, investing, compliance
Source: Crunchbase

Obsidian Solutions
Investment management portal
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $516,000
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Enterprise, advisors, investment management, CRM, investor relations
Source: Crunchbase

Trusted Knight
Data security for financial institutions
Latest round: Undisclosed Series B
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Annapolis, Maryland
Tags: Enterprise, security, fraud protection, risk management, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Finagraph
Financial data and BI for small businesses
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Mercer Island, Washington
Tags: SMB, business intelligence, analytics, data analysis, accounting, Moody’s (investor), Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

DevCharge
Facilitating payments to machines
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Brno, Czech Republic
Tags: SMB, IoT, developers, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Finance Buddha
Loan-comparison site
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, SMB, price comparison, loans
Source: FT Partners

Jurnal.id
Online accounting service
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Jakarta, Indonesia
Tags: SMB, accounting, bookkeeping, billing, invoicing, receivables, payables
Source: Crunchbase

LoanZen
Receivables financing for small business
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: SMB, lending, commercial loans, factoring, receivables financing, trade finance, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Peloton
Rich media and communications provider to financial institutions
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: $2 million (prior to latest round)
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Enterprise, document management, marketing, communications, media, R.R. Donnelley (investor)
Source: FT Partners

PinClick
Indian real estate platform
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, real estate, property search, mortgage, lead gen
Source: Crunchbase

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ThreatMetrix Launches Digital Identity Graph

ThreatMetrix Launches Digital Identity Graph
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ThreatMetrix

ThreatMetrixHomepage

This week, cybercrime-prevention company ThreatMetrix launched Digital Identity Graph, a new tool to help businesses positively identify their customers.

The Digital Identity Graph maps associations among people, devices, phone numbers, account credentials, home addresses, and businesses they associate with. The resulting map defines digital, global relationships without compromising privacy. On top of the Digital Identity Graph, the company layers machine learning and behavioral analytics across 2 billion monthly transactions serving 4,000 customers around the globe.

The resulting graph enables ThreatMetrix to skip traditional authentication requirements, many of which include static information that fraudsters already have access to. The Digital Identity Graph not only places information in context, but also can identify a cyber attack in real time.

The data set required for the Digital Identity Graph is massive, and the San Francisco-based company is referring to the new tool as a “data science and engineering achievement with multiple, far-reaching applications.” CMO Armen Najarian states that “establishing authentication in today’s global and digital economy is incredibly complex…. our achievements mapping the Digital Identity Graph will pave the way for broad industry adoption and aid in solving unique authentication challenges confronting the public and private sectors.”

ThreatMetrix launched Fraud Prevention 2.0 at FinovateSpring 2009.

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Xignite Wins “Best Cloud Solution” Honors at Wall Street Letter Institutional Trading Awards

Xignite Wins “Best Cloud Solution” Honors at Wall Street Letter Institutional Trading Awards
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Xignite

Xignite_homepage_Mar2016

With its Market Data Cloud platform, Xignite has won the “Best Cloud Solution” award for 2016 from The Wall Street Letter.

“This award is an example of how the fintech industry is pushing financial services to innovate, and we look forward to being a part in facilitating the amazing transformations to come,” said Stephane Dubois, Xignite CEO and founder.

Xignite_stage_FEU2016

Xignite founder and CEO Stephane Dubois demonstrated Xignite CloudAlerts at FinvoateEurope 2016 in London.

Also picking up honors at the Wall Street Letter Awards were fellow Finovate alums, Thomson Reuters which won the “Best Trading Technology, Client Service” category, and NICE Actimize which took top honors in the “Most Innovative Use of Technology” group. Read the full list of this year’s winners.

Xignite’s Market Data Cloud platform provides cloud-based, financial market data APIs that power some of the most innovative companies in fintech, from Betterment and StockTwits to Motif Investing and Yodlee. The company was the only fintech firm to win an award at this year’s event (the sixth for the Wall Street Letter awards). The award reflects innovation in the “the evolving marketplace and the demand for fast, reliable and cost-effective technology.”

Dubois echoed this point, emphasizing that Xignite’s focus was on “providing access to simple, fast and cheap cloud-based market-data APIs to help companies invent new and revolutionary applications and businesses.”

Xignite made headlines last month when the company announced raising $20 million in a Series C investment led by Japan’s QUICK Corporation. Back in November, Xignite surpassed 50 billion API calls in a single month, confirming its status as a leader in providing cloud-based market data. A member of the first Forbes Fintech 50, Xignite launched its #FintechRevolution API Ecosystem last fall, partnering with more than 20 other technology companies and accelerators to help developers get better access to APIs and other developer’s tools.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Xignite demonstrated its CloudAlerts technology at FinovateEurope 2016.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BillGuard, Check Point, Coinbase, Credit Karma, Ethoca, Insuritas, Markit, ThreatMetrix, WorkFusion

On Finovate.com

  • “ThreatMetrix Launches Digital Identity Graph”

On FinDEVr.com

Around the web

  • Markit to deploy smart automation technology from WorkFusion.
  • Ethoca teams up with Pegasystems to help fight ecommerce fraud.
  • Michigan First Credit Union ($764 million in assets) picks Insuritas to open and run turnkey insurance solution.
  • Finance Magnates shines on Credit Karma and BillGuard in its Fintech Spotlight.
  • Check Point launches Check Point R80 to help consolidate the security environment.
  • Coinbase now lets users buy bitcoin instantly with a debit card.

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 Debuts: Ledger’s Blue Smartcard Mitigates Phishing, Malware Attacks

Finovate Debuts: Ledger’s Blue Smartcard Mitigates Phishing, Malware Attacks
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, FinovateEurope 2016, Ledger

LedgerHomepage

Bitcoin is inherently difficult to protect and is not guarded from fraud, as many traditional accounts are. To navigate this issue, Ledger has designed hardware to help users preserve ownership of their digital blockchain assets.

The company began as the House of Bitcoin, a physical retail location in Paris where people exchange digital currency in person, learn about bitcoin, and share ideas with other startups (see below). Ledger was born from a merger of three different companies which had gathered at the space to collaborate.

The company’s flagship hardware product Ledger Nano helps individuals protect their bitcoins and make payments safely.

LaMaisonDuBitcoin

At FinovateEurope 2016, the company launched the Ledger Blue Smartcard (pictured below), an enterprise solution featuring a touch screen to serve as a second factor to validate transaction information before completing a settlement on the blockchain. The device mitigates phishing and malware attacks, which can occur due to inherently insecure computers, smartphones, or human negligence. ledger-blue

Ledger CEO and founder Eric Larchevêque says, “It is a hardware wallet, but we prefer to call it a personal security device because it can do a lot.” The device not only serves as a second factor for bitcoin transactions and interbank settlements, but also secures the movement of any assets held on the blockchain, including P2P stock trading, workflow certification for insurance management, and even process documentation for pharmaceutical clinical trials.

“It’s not about currency,” Larchevêque emphasizes, “but about what you can do with the blockchain.”

LedgerVidIMG

CEO Eric Larchevêque demoed Ledger Blue at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

Ledger Blue facts:

  • Employees: 16
  • Funding: €2.5M seed round in 2015
  • 10,000 units sold of first device, Ledger Nano
  • Customers across 100 countries
  • HQ: Paris, France
  • Founded: January 2015

EricLarchevêqueProfileIMGEric Larchevêque demonstrated Ledger’s Blue Smartcard on stage at FinovateEurope in London (above). Larchevêque studied as an engineer of macro electronics at the ESIEE Paris, a French graduate school of engineering. Since 1996 he has been an entrepreneur and has founded, sold, and crashed about a dozen companies.

Finovate: What problem does Ledger solve?
Larchevêque: Ledger secures the last meter of the enterprise infrastructure by designing a new generation of hardware security devices enforcing strong authentication, data integrity and compliance. Use cases range from critical workflow security to trusted hardware for blockchain-based applications.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?
Larchevêque: Enterprises, banks, fintechs, insurers, asset managers, blockchain startups … Any company requiring a high level of compliance and security in their process. We are present on the European and North American market.

Finovate: How does Ledger solve the problem better?
Larchevêque: Ledger has a strong expertise in embedded hardware security and built its reputation on the blockchain market by designing a popular security solution sold in more than 100 countries.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.
Larchevêque: In compliance, necessity of proof lies with the company under scrutiny. Ledger designed a blockchain-based immutable audit trail giving full traceability of any process. Each step is permanently recorded in the blockchain through the signature of personal, secure hardware keys. As the audit trail is fully enforced through a decentralized system, this solution brings the highest possible trust level and prevents any possibility of tampering.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Larchevêque: Ledger’s core engineers come from highly regarded hardware and security companies such as Oberthur, Gemalto or STMicroelectronics. Ledger is a full-stack company, with a rare expertise on secure elements (smart cards), and developed its own secure embedded operating system.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Ledger that we can look forward to over the next few months?
Larchevêque: Ledger will soon release a suite of FIDO-certified hardware dongles for strong authentication (with USB, NFC and BLE capabilities). It’ll allow enterprises to bring access security to the highest level for both laptop and mobile web apps and native applications.

Finovate: Where do you see Ledger a year or two from now?
Larchevêque: Ledger will be a global leader in trusted hardware for cybersecurity and blockchain-based applications.

Check out Ledger’s live demo video from FinovateEurope 2016:

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Hedgeable Helps Investors Add Venture Capital Exposure with New Fund

Hedgeable Helps Investors Add Venture Capital Exposure with New Fund
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Hedgeable

Hedgeable_homepage_Feb2016

Thanks to the new venture fund from Finovate Best of Show winner, Hedgeable, the company’s accredited clients will be able to put money to work in the same venture capital markets typically available only to the wealthiest investors.

Writing at the Hedgeable blog, company co-founder and “Master Sensei” Michael Kane called the company’s first venture fund, Hedgeable Venture Fund I, “another piece to the puzzle in our quest to democratize the private wealth market.”

“The ultra-wealthy have been able to invest in venture funds like Andreessen Horowitz or Union Square Ventures for years,” Kane wrote. “The result has been lower portfolio risk, and larger portfolio growth.”

Hedgeable_stage_FF2015

Hedgeable Co-founder and “Master Sensei” Michael Kane demonstrated the NEXT platform at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

With Hedgeable’s new venture fund, accredited clients will be able to invest as little as $1 in hundreds of privately held firms. The fund is managed by Hedgeable, which dramatically reduces or even eliminates the need for investors to do their own due diligence. There is no additional management fee and venture fund investments are factored into client’s total asset allocation, along with other alternative investments such as real estate, gold, and bitcoin. Investors must be accredited as Hedgeable clients in order to participate in the fund.

In his blog post, Kane showed how even a 3% exposure to venture capital since 1989 would have significantly outperformed a portfolio invested 100% in the S&P 500. Hedgeable says it will provide its accredited clients with similar exposure by “leveraging funds and syndicates” from equity crowdfunding platforms such as AngelList and CircleUp to “attempt to replicate that index level of venture exposure.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York City, Hedgeable demonstrated its NEXT platform for RIAs, banks, credit unions, and more at FinovateFall 2015. In addition to being a Best of Show winning Finovate alum, Hedgeable was a member of Yodlee Ynext’s fall 2015 incubator class.

 

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