Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Accusoft, Aerospike, Avalara, Coinbase, Green Key Technologies, Jumio, Larky, Ledger, Misys, NYMBUS, On Deck Capital, Payoneer, SuiteBox, Top Image Systems, VIX Verify, VoicePIN, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • “Ledger Launches Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System”
  • “Finovate Debuts: VoicePIN Offers an Easy Biometric Login Solution”
  • “Finovate Debuts: SuiteBox Introduces its Virtual Meeting Rooms for Financial Professionals”

On FinDEVr.com

  • Avalara teams up with WooCommerce to help online merchants manage sales taxes.

Around the web

  • OnDeck partners with Innovate Finance to debut Transatlantic Policy Working Group.
  • LandlordReferencing.co.uk to use Netverify from Jumio to comply with the U.K.’s new Right to Rent law.
  • The United Bank of Egypt upgrades to latest Misys core banking solutions as part of major modernization of retail, SME, and corporate businesses.
  • Top Image Systems launches next generation, automated accounts payable solution, eFLOW AP.
  • Zopa’s new lender products are live.
  • Golden West CU processes 15 new applications for insurance products in first 30 days of deploying Larky.
  • Coinbase introduces stop orders on Coinbase exchange.

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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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Craft Silicon, Financial Apps, FinDEVr APIntelligence, i-exceed, Kontomatik, Mitek, MX, Nexmo, PayPal, PokitDok, Quovo, ScientiaMobile, SimplyTapp, Stratumn, Streamdata.io, Thomson Reuters, Venmo, Xignite

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

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters:

  • In the U.K., PayPal Here SDK reveals first eight business partners.
  • Quartz asks, “Should Venmo Buy a Bank?”

Alumni updates

  • MX inks multi-year data-aggregation deal with USAA.
  • NAB Asset Servicing selects Thomson Reuters as its preferred data partner.
  • HuffPost Business features SimplyTapp and Kontomatik in its list of the five most useful APIs in the financial world.
  • Mitek elects CEO James B. DeBello as Chairman of the Board.

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

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Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO

Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dashlane

DashlaneHomepage2016

LapterPassword management platform Dashlane hired a new CFO, David Lapter (pictured). Lapter began his career at a strategy firm, then worked as an associate at Upfront Ventures. He has served the role of CFO for multiple companies, including Fab.com and Makerspace.

Last month, Dashlane partnered with Yubico to become the first password manager to support the FIDO Alliance’s Universal Second Factor for two-factor authentication.

Earlier this year, the New York-based company completely revamped its platform to offer a more organized and consistent look-and-feel across multiple channels. In addition to those updates, Dashlane added international support, making it available in seven languages.

Dashlane made its international debut at FinovateEurope 2013. Emmanuel Schalit is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, App Annie, Dashlane, Geezeo, Ignite Sales, Markit, MicroStrategy, Misys, Moven, Token

On Finovate.com

  • “Dashlane Brings on Former Fab.com CFO”
  • Check out this week’s “FinDEVr APIntelligence”

Around the web

  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Verifone to provide European food retailer Auchan Group with a pan-European card payments platform.
  • Misys earns 2016 Excellence Award for Transformational Client Engagement at the Global Summit on Customer Engagement.
  • PYMNTS.co takes a look at App Annie and its recent acquisition of AppScotch.
  • Geezeo announces partnership with King Fish Media.
  • MicroStrategy launches version 10.3 of its enterprise analytics platform, MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise.
  • Markit acquires credit default swap (CDS) pricing service from Fitch Solutions.
  • Money Summit interviews Mohamed Khalis, Moven’s head of product, data and marketing, in a discussion on UX.
  • Ignite Sales and Central Bancompany are recognized as award finalists at The Best of FinXTech Awards.

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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Telling Personal Stories via Bank Transaction History

Telling Personal Stories via Bank Transaction History
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Expensify, Personal Financial Management, Ready Receipts, Shoeboxed, Simple, Xpenditure

 

paper receipt pile

One of the initial aims of personal financial management (PFM) was making sense out of your spending. For a variety of reasons, most consumers view that as just too much work for too little in return. But, since the launch of Mint nine years ago, much progress has been made on that value equation. Thanks to mobile technologies and various APIs, tracking is easier as well as more data rich, resulting in output that is much more useful.

For example, Simple’s Safe to Spend predicts when you will run out of cash with virtually no user input. It’s a great benefit for numbers-oriented customers who already pay close attention to their balances. But what about the other 90% of the world? Can PFM services deliver value for those that will never appreciate an animated graphic of their 10-year moving average of Starbucks purchases?

I believe the answer is yes.

PFM services need to broaden their role and help customers track their “financial stories.” Think about it. Unless you are an obsessive Facebook/Instagram/Foursquare poster, where else can you look back and find out where you ate last year in San Diego, what souvenirs you brought back for the kids, and which car rental company you want to avoid next time?

All that info, and much more, is locked away in your credit/debit card transaction history. Just being able to search your transactions helps tremendously (thanks, Mint). But what if you had ready access to all the information on your receipt? Then you could see not only where you ate, but also which entree you loved (since you would have made a note on the receipt at the time).

Currently, integration with camera phones, such as that offered by Expensify, do this for highly motivated users, such as those with a large financial incentive to track their reimbursable expenses. But what about everyone else?

That’s where startups—such as Finovate alums Ready Receipts, Shoeboxed, Xpenditure, as well as dozens of PFM providers and mobile payment specialists—come into play. They are devoted to getting the transaction detail on receipts aggregated into a single, easily accessible source.

piper_home

We recently met another startup that seems to have good traction solving this problem (and happens to count Expensify as an investor), Washington D.C.-based Piper. Most of our conversation was off the record, but I love what they are doing, working with the POS players to reach critical mass in a difficult two-sided market—one in which retailers don’t want to spend money on enhanced receipts unless there are users, and users won’t bother unless they see a sizable number of receipts available.

Piper has also narrowed in on a business model that charges fees to the portion of the ecosystem that stands to gain the most from better receipt management; namely, the merchants, card issuers, and transaction acquirers who benefit massively from the 30% reduction in chargebacks that the system has proven in early tests.

I look forward to the time when Piper and the others have changed the PFM story.

——

Note: Y Combinator’s latest batch (W16), debuting this month, contains another receipt provider worth watching, FlexReceipts

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CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals

CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: cbanc Network

CbancHomepage2016

CBANC, a network for community bank and credit union professionals, added a group of new features to its platform this week. New elements include:

  • Leaderboard
    Recognizes members, based on others’ ratings, for their contributions.
  • Wire
    Works like a social media feed by allowing users to post information and photos, and to interact with other users by following their feeds.

cbancsocialfeed

  • Daily news
    Emails members relevant articles and industry news.

Newsfeed

The platform, which launched in 2009, enables users to collaborate with other industry professionals and share information on policies and procedures, vendor management and vendor product ratings. The Austin-based company’s CEO Bryan Koontz explains the platform:

We’ve taken the public, general-purpose model of LinkedIn and created a state-of-the-art, private and secure place for our members to connect with each other, share information, stay up-to-date on industry news and build their careers and professional reputations.

CBANC incents banks to share best practices and intellectual property and its member engagement has increased almost 4x year-over-year; additionally, the company has experienced a 30x year-over-year increase in document contributions since January 2015.

Later this year, the company plans to revamp its UX, add vendor solutions and member polling, enhance the Wire feature, and launch topics pages.

CBANC’s former President Myers Dupuy demonstrated the network at FinovateFall 2011 in New York.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: cbanc Network, Check, CustomerXPs, Feedzai, Insuritas, Micronotes, MX, Patch of Land, Payoneer, PayPal, Roostify, TransferWise

On Finovate.com

  • “CBANC Launches New Features to Further Engage Network of Professionals”

On FinDEVr.com

Around the web

  • MX inks multi-year data-aggregation deal with USAA.
  • Feedzai opens new offices in the U.K.; hires new head of international operations.
  • Payoneer buys Armor Payments.
  • Micronotes leverages AI and machine learning with new suite of cross-sell solutions for banks.
  • TransferWise teams up with Pay Gate to bring its money-transfer service to South Korea.
  • Insuritas to deploy turnkey insurance agency at Sun Community FCU ($358 million in assets).
  • Genworth Mortgage Insurance to use technology from Roostify to streamline home-buying process.
  • Former Check CEO Guy Goldstein’s Next Insurance announces $13 million seed-round led by Zeev Ventures, TLV Partners, and Ribbit Capital.
  • Patch of Land rolls out mid-term loans of two to five years.
  • In the U.K., PayPal Here SDK reveals first eight business partners.
  • CustomerXPs featured on Nasscom’s Indian Analytics Products Landscape.

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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FinovateSpring 2016 Presenters Revealed!

FinovateSpring 2016 Presenters Revealed!
By Erika Sanchez Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateSpring 2016

Legends Play

The official start of spring is quickly approaching which means it must be time to announce our presenting companies for FinovateSpring 2016!

Following our return from our London conference, we spent weeks reviewing application after application for FinovateSpring. The innovations in those applications ranged from blockchain technology and big-data solutions to the latest in biometric security, investment management, and payments.  And after hours of review and debate, we have curated a roster of both leading, established companies and hot, young startups that are sure to pique your curiosity on May 10 and 11. And to see more information and background on each presenter, stay tuned for our Sneak Peek series.

Without further ado, below is a list of the companies showcasing their latest and greatest in San Jose.

In addition to the companies listed above, we’ll be revealing a handful of stealth companies closer to the event.

With these innovative companies hitting the stage and eight hours of high-quality networking in just two days, this is an event you surely won’t want to miss. Register your ticket before Friday, April 1, and take advantage of the early-bird pricing!

FinovateSpring 2016 is sponsored by The Bancorp, Accenture, 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, Byte Academy, 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, Plug and Play, PitchBook, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

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Fintech Fundings: 22 Companies Raise $160 Million Week Ending March 11

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_tree_newLast week, 22 fintech companies raised a total of $159 million, of which at least $5 million was debt. It was the tenth week in a row with 20 or more fintech deals. By comparison, in 2015 we hit that mark 13 times during the entire year.

The year-to-date total raised is $5.5 billion, more than double the $2.7 billion invested during the same period last year. And more telling, the number of deals is up 90%—249 vs. 130 in 2015.

It was a busy week for Finovate alums with six raising fresh cash and one being acquired:

Here are the fintech deals by size from 5 March to 11 March 2016:

AlphaSense
Smart financial search engine
Latest round: $33 million
Total raised: $33 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, B2B, data, analytics, investing, underwriting, valuations, investment banking, trading
Source: Crunchbase

JustWorks
Payroll, benefits and compliance platform for employers
Latest round: $33 million Series C
Total raised: $53 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, payroll, HR, insurance, benefits, compliance, employees
Source: Crunchbase

EZBOB
Alt-lender for small businesses
Latest round: $28.8 million
Total raised: $83 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, lending, underwriting, credit, commercial loans, Bank Leumi (investor), Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Property Partner
Residential real estate crowdfunding
Latest round: $22.6 million
Total raised: $32.4 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumers, lending, mortgage, underwriting, investing, REIT, trading, P2P, peer to peer
Source: Crunchbase

TradeShift
Global trade platform
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $174 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, B2B, financing, underwriting, invoicing, payments, accounts receivables, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

D3 Banking
Personal and small business financial management
Latest round: $4.5 million Debt
Total raised: $16.2 million ($4.5 million is Debt)
HQ: Omaha, Nebraska
Tags: Consumers, SMB, personal financial management (PFM), banking, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

Selerity
Content-recommendation engine for financial institutions
Latest round: $4.2 million
Total raised: $12.2 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: Consumers, B2B2C, enterprise, investing, content management, infomation, Citibank (investor)
Source: VentureBeat

Chronicled
Blockchain-based asset tracking
Latest round: $3.43 million Seed
Total raised: $4.83 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumers, SMB, merchants, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, authentication, trading, collecting
Source: Crunchbase

The Floor
Fintech ideas platform
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Tags: SMB, VC, angel, investing, information exchange
Source: Crunchbase

CoverWallet
Insurance management for small businesses
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: New York City
Tags: SMB, insurance management, price comparison, lead gen, discovery, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

Onslip
Merchant POS system
Latest round: $1.3 million
Total raised: $1.3 million
HQ: Linkoping, Sweden
Tags: SMB, payments, debit/credit cards, merchants, acquiring, point-of-sale
Source: FT Partners

Smart Bill
Invoicing and inventory management for small businesses
Latest round: $1.1 million Seed
Total raised: $1.1 million
HQ: Sibiu, Romania
Tags: SMB, billing, invoicing, payments, accounts receivables, inventory management
Source: Crunchbase

DealFlow
Deal sourcing and marketing platform
Latest round: $1 million Convertible Note
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Jericho, New York
Tags: Advisers, SMB, investors, deals, equity, trading, discovery, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Ensygnia
Mobile payments
Latest round: $710,000 Series A
Total raised: $4.1 million
HQ: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumers, SMB, merchants, payments, mobile, credit/debit cards, acquiring
Source: FT Partners

SpeedETab
Mobile ordering and payments
Latest round: $650,000
Total raised: $650,000
HQ: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Tags: Consumers, SMB, merchants, payments, mobile, credit/debit cards, acquiring, hospitality
Source: Crunchbase

Anedot
Payment platform for nonprofits
Latest round: $510,000 Debt
Total raised: $1.25 million (including $510,000 debt)
HQ: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Tags: Consumers, SMB, fundraising, payments, credit/debit cards, merchants, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

StockViews
Stock market research platform
Latest round: $355,000 Seed
Total raised: $355,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumers, advisers, trading, investment, research, information, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

FlexReceipts
Smart receipt technology
Latest round: $120,000
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Orlando, Florida
Tags: SMB, payments, spending, personal finance, PFM, merchants, point of sale, POS, Y Combinator
Source: VentureBeat

International Payment Processing Network
Payment processor
Latest round: $100,000 Seed
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Boca Raton, Florida
Tags: SMB, payments, credit/debit cards, merchants, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

Bond Sheets
Links to bonds for sale
Latest round: $10,000
Total raised: $10,000
HQ: Houston, Texas
Tags: Consumers, debts, investing, bond, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Algomi
Bond information network
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Advisers, enterprise, fixed income investing, discovery, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

Finomena
Personal finance site in India
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bengaluru, India
Tags: Consumers, SMB, lending, underwriting, investing, credit
Source: Crunchbase

 

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Algomi Gains Investment from Former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer

Algomi Gains Investment from Former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Algomi, Funding, Fundings

Algomi_homepage_Mar2016

Tom Glocer, managing partner of Angelic Ventures and former CEO of Thomson Reuters (2008 through 2011), will work with fintech innovator Algomi as a strategic adviser. Glocer also made a significant investment in the company, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed.

“We’re empowering our customers by giving them more actionable intelligence on the data they already hold within their businesses,” Algomi CEO Stu Taylor explained. “Tom’s experience  with Thomson Reuters and his track record of working with other successful financial services businesses will be invaluable for us as we continue to develop our offering.”

Algomi_stage_FF2014

Pictured: Algomi CEO Stu Taylor demonstrated Algomi’s Honeycomb technology at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Algomi provides a social networking and market-intelligence platform for professionals working in the fixed-income bond markets. The company’s Honeycomb network connects fixed-income sales forces, traders, and customers with the goal of increasing both the number of trading and investing opportunities as well as the velocity of large transactions in what the company calls a “liquidity-constrained world.” Honeycomb uses custom algorithms to push the best deals and opportunities to fixed-income salespeople in real-time, providing a greater degree of transparency and the lowest level of market disruption when trading and investing in often-illiquid markets.

TomGlocer_AlgomiCalling the lack of liquidity as a major issue plaguing fixed-income investing, Glocer (right) says, “Algomi’s approach of creating a bank balance-sheet based on actual data, and virtualizing the assets in the market is fascinating, and I’m looking forward to working closely with them.”

The company’s current clients include Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Alliance Bernstein, JP Morgan, as well as hedge funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds. More than 160 buy-side firms, 15 banks, and hundreds of registered users around the world have signed on to be a part of Algomi’s Honeycomb network.

In addition to Glocer, Howard Edelstein will join Algomi’s Board of Directors. Edelstein had served the company as strategic adviser for the past two years, and is the current chairman of REDI Holdings.

“I’ve been working closely with Algomi for two years,” Edelstein said, “and believe the company delivers a second-to-none approach to a bank’s fixed-income, liquidity-sourcing needs.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, Algomi demonstrated Honeycomb, its buy-side graphic user interface, at FinovateFall 2014.

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Prosper Marketplace Teams Up with HomeAdvisor to Improve Access to Home Improvement Financing

Prosper Marketplace Teams Up with HomeAdvisor to Improve Access to Home Improvement Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Prosper

Prosper_homepage_Mar2016

A new partnership between Prosper Marketplace and HomeAdvisor will help homeowners get the home-improvement financing they need.

“Home-improvement projects are a great way to increase the value of a home,” Prosper Marketplace CEO Aaron Vermut said. “But not all homeowners have access to home-equity lines of credit as a financing option.” Vermut says that homeowners will be able to borrow money for home financing projects via HomeAdvisor at rates lower than those typically accompanying credit cards.

HomeAdvisor_homepage_Mar2016

Through the partnership, homeowners will be able to research the cost of home improvement projects via HomeAdvisor’s True Cost Guide, and then review monthly repayment estimates for Prosper’s fixed-term, fixed-rate loan product.

“Offering Prosper’s smart financing option strengthens HomeAdvisor’s commitment to helping homeowners achieve their home improvement goals,” said HomeAdvisor CEO Chris Terrill. A national, online marketplace for home services, HomeAdvisor helps connect homeowners with home repair, maintenance, and improvement resources. The service is free to access and has put more than 35 million homeowners in touch with its network of prescreened home service professionals. HomeAdvisor is headquartered in Golden, Colorado.

Prosper also made headlines last week with the launch of Prosper Daily, a rebranding of the BillGuard app the company acquired as part of its purchase of BillGuard last fall. Also this month, Prosper announced the appointment of its new CFO David Kimball, a former USAA executive. The company announced surpassing $4 billion in loan originations last July, and have since updated that total to more than $6 billion.

Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, Prosper demonstrated its technology at the very first Finovate conference in 2007.

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Dealflow Closes Million Dollar Convertible Note

Dealflow Closes Million Dollar Convertible Note
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dealflow, Funding, Fundings

Dealflow_homepage_Mar2016

Dealflow, the multi-asset, deal sourcing and marketing platform for institutional investors and their advisers, has closed a $1 million convertible debt offering.

In a blog post announcing the funding, Dealflow founder and CEO Steven Dresner credited Rule 506(c) for helping make the financing a reality. “It’s because of Rule 506(c)—and specifically the ability to advertise the deal—that I can present our investment opportunity to an active readership of about 11,000—with astonishingly high open rates, I might add!”

Dealflow_stage_FF2015

Pictured: Dealflow Founder and CEO Steven Dresner demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Dealflow’s technology helps buyers and sellers find deals among actively marketed private-placement opportunities. The company’s software enables investors to query Dealflow’s aggregated database, tracking deals using “recommendation-type” algorithms. The platform’s Signal technology leverages both user preferences and actual user history to provide more accurate and efficient results. Users can be alerted to changes in deals they are watching, forward deals to a colleague, read information about the management, watch video information, and so on.

During their Finovate appearance, Dealflow unveiled its Dealflow 2.0 technology including a new Dashboard feature that leverages Signal to aggregate the most relevant deals. For example, investors looking for potential fintech investments see a dashboard loaded with deals in that sector. At the same time, companies looking to raise capital are shown potential investors who have committed capital to similar projects.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York City, Dealflow introduced its platform at FinovateFall 2015. The company has a number of financial services firms sourcing opportunities on its platform including Cantor Fitzgerald, Societe Generale, RBS, and Goldman Sachs.

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