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Fintech Fundings: 21 Companies Raise $260 Million Week Ending 12 Feb

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 15, 2016
Categories: Funding

Despite turmoil in global equity markets, the fintech sector continued its 3-year bull market with 21 companies raising $259.1 million, for a $12 billion annual run rate. The total included at $46 million in debt. And demonstrating the global nature of financial services, only three deals were out of California (Xignite, Renew Financial, and Vast).

Three Finovate alums raised new cash:

Xignite pulled in $20.5 million to grow its massive 1-billion-calls-per-day API services business.
Qapital raised $3.5 million to expand its mobile personal finance & savings app.
SwipeStox added an undisclosed amount in conjunction with its FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show debut.

Six weeks into the new year, fintech companies have raised $4.5 billion in equity and debt worldwide, 2.5 times the $1.9 billion in the same period last year. And the number of deals is up 70% (146 compared to 86 in 2015).

Here are the fintech deals by size from 6 Feb to 12 Feb 2016:

Renew Financial
Financing for renewable energy and conservation projects
Latest round: $70 million Series D
Total raised: $102.2 million
HQ: Oakland, California
Tags: Consumer, SMB, loans, credit, lending, underwriting, personal finance management, energy consumption management
Source: Crunchbase

Maestro Health
Employee benefits and health insurance services
Latest round: $53 million
Total raised: $53 million
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Employers, benefits, HR, payments, healthcare, insurance, health savings accounts
Source: Crunchbase

WorldRemit
Worldwide remittances
Latest round: $45 million Debt
Total raised: $147.7 million (includes $45 million debt)
HQ: London, England, U.K.
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, remittances, P2P transfers, person-to-person
Source: Crunchbase

Riskified
Underwrites and guarantees high-risk credit card transactions
Latest round: $25 million Series B
Total raised: $30.7 million
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Tags: SMB, merchants, underwriting, credit/debit cards, acquiring, fraud, security, risk management
Source: Crunchbase

Xignite
APIs powering financial services
Latest round: $20.5 million Series C
Total raised: $36.2 million
HQ: San Mateo, California
Tags: Enterprise, SMB, API, developers, integration, back-end, investing, wealth management, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Payleven
Mobile point of sale
Latest round: $10 million Series D
Total raised: $25.2 million
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: SMB, payments, mPOS, acquiring, merchants, credit/debit cards
Source: Crunchbase

SwervePay
Healthcare and automobile payment solutions
Latest round: $10 million Series B
Total raised: $11.6 million
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, mobile, insurance, healthcare, automobile dealers, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

RKSV
Online stock brokerage
Latest round: $4 million Series A
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, investing, trading, stocks, equity
Source: Crunchbase

Qapital
Digital banking app
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total raised: $5.3 million
HQ: New York City; Stockholm, Sweden
Tags: Consumer, systematic savings, deposit, PFM, personal finance management, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Stash
Digital investment advisor
Latest round: $3 million Seed
Total raised: $4.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, investing, trading, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Qvinci
Accounting add-on for financial reporting
Latest round: $2.4 million
Total raised: $5.8 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: SMB,Quickbooks, accounting, financial management
Source: Crunchbase

Shopbox
Point-of-sale technology for food businesses
Latest round: $2.2 million
Total raised: $2.2 million
HQ: Copenhagen, Denmark
Tags: SMB, POS, payments, credit/debit cards, restaurant merchants, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

Trussle
Online mortgage advisor
Latest round: $1.6 million
Total raised: $1.6 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, mortgage, refi, lead gen, price comparison
Source: FT Partners

Agreement Express
Automates client onboarding in financial services
Latest round: $1 million Debt
Total raised: $1 million Debt
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Tags: B2B, consumer, compliance, sales, onboarding, UX, Silicon Valley Bank (lender)
Source: Crunchbase

Vast
Home and auto purchase decision-making tools
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, B2B, lending, mortgages, auto loans, home purchasing, real estate, automobile buying
Source: Crunchbase

Homie
P2P marketplace for home selling
Latest round: $700,000
Total raised: $700,000
HQ: Salt Lake, Utah
Tags: Consumer, mortgage, home purchase, real estate, peer-to-peer
Source: FT Partners

OFF3R
Crowd-funding aggregator
Latest round: $690,000 Seed
Total raised: $690,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, SMB, investing, peer-to-peer, equity, loans, lending
Source: Crunchbase

SurBTC
Chilean bitcoin exchange
Latest round: $300,000 Seed
Total raised: $300,000
HQ: Santiago, Chile
Tags: Consumer, payments, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, blockchain, virtual currency
Source: FT Partners

Capzest
Digital lender
Latest round: $200,000
Total raised: $200,000
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, SMB, loans, credit, lending, underwriting
Source: FT Partners

SwipeStox (Naga Group AG)
Social investing application
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Tags: Consumer, investing, mobile, trading, social, Hauck & Aufhäuser (investor), Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners

Turtlemint
Insurance price-comparison site
Latest round: Not disclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, insurance, lead gen, discovery, price comparison, automobile, health, motorcycle
Source: Crunchbase

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FinovateEurope 2016: Tweets By the Thames

By David Penn Posted on February 12, 2016
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

Following our conferences via Twitter is a great way for both those attending the show live as well as those following the action remotely to share their insights and opinions.

And browsing through the online conversation afterwards provides a wonderful reminder of what shocked and awed our audiences the most at this year’s event.

So, courtesy of Twitter and #Finovate, here is a small sample of FinovateEurope 2016’s more memorable observations and fintech-savvy tweets:

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i-exceed Teams Up with Mindtree to Bring Mobile Tech to BFSI Sector

By David Penn Posted on February 12, 2016
Categories: i-exceed

Via a new partnership with Mindtree, Bangalore-based i-exceed technology solutions looks to bring mobility solutions to the BFSI (banking, financial services, insurance) sector.

Quoted in ETCIO.com, i-exceed’s Managing Director Joseph John said the agreement showed the increased traction Appzillon was gaining in the marketplace. “With our long-standing experience in the banking sector, coupled with Appzillon’s technical prowess, Mindtree can enhance their mobility edge in record time,” John said.

From left: i-exceed’s Kapil Gupta, technology solutions director, and Sudhir Babu, VP of technology, demonstrated Appzillon at FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore.

A mobile app-development platform, Appzillon has reduced app develop-and-deploy times by as much as 60%. The technology helps developers manage the security and integration challenges of building for enterprise back-end systems, including the ability to deploy predesigned B2B, B2C, and B2E banking apps. The latter is a particular point of emphasis for i-exceed, whose aim is to bring to market faster, via the new partnership, “strategic, prebuilt solutions for the banking industry.”

i-exceed released version 3.1 of its mobile app development platform last summer. Its features include enhanced security via a new user interface along with new style editors and additional default themes. In September, i-exceed announced deployment of its Appzillon Origination System (AOS) at one of the oldest public sector banks in India. This followed the company’s new partnership with Kris FinSoftware to help promote the greater mobility in the Philippines.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bangalore, India, i-exceed demonstrated Appzillon at FinovateAsia 2013.

Join i-exceed as it makes its FinDEVr debut next month in New York City. Our developers conference is 29/30 March and tickets are available now. Visit our FinDEVr New York 2016 page for more information.

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East Coast Credit Fund Puts $250 Million to Work on Patch of Land Platform

By David Penn Posted on February 12, 2016
Categories: Patch of Land

An East Coast credit fund will invest $250 million across the Patch of Land platform. The investment comes in the form of an agreement to buy loans in a “forward flow arrangement,” and represents the credit fund’s first move into the P2P marketplace lending space.

CEO and Co-founder of Patch of Land Jason Fritton said the partnership will enable his company to “fill loans on a programmatic basis, creating a higher level of validation for the entire industry.”

Pictured (left to right): Patch of Land’s AdaPia d’Errico (CMO) and Brian Fritton (CTO and co-founder) demonstrating the company’s platform at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.

Fritton added that individual accredited investors – more than 95% of Patch of Land’s loan funding to date – will continue to be a priority. “We will continue to deliver quality product for the portfolios of large institutional players and the thousands of accredited investors who invest in our loans every day.”

In the two years since its launch, Patch of Land has funded more than 200 projects with an average blended rate of return of 12%. Patch of Land has returned more than $20 million in principal and interest to investors, who have suffered no loss of principal. The company’s platform offers proprietary risk scoring and pricing models which, in the words of Patch of Land EVP of business development, Jillian Jaccard, “appeal not only to institutional buyers, but also the company’s individual investors.”

Patch of Land added commercial real estate to its platform in August 2015, and last spring announced a $23 million Series A round led by SF Capital Group. The company was featured in Forbes magazine in the summer of 2015 in a column on top fintech trends, and was named by Entrepreneur magazine as “1 of 100 brilliant companies to watch” in 2015.

Founded in February 2013 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Patch of Land demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2014.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on February 12, 2016
Categories: BizEquity, FIS, Lending Club, Mitek, Patch of Land, Swipestox, Wallaby Financial

On Finovate.com

East Coast Credit Fund Puts $250 Million to Work on Patch of Land Platform.

i-exceed Teams Up with Mindtree to Bring Mobile Tech to BFSI Sector.

FinovateEurope 2016: Tweets by the Thames.

Around the web

Popular Community Bank and Oriental Bank to deploy Cardless Cash, a mobile banking technology from FIS.

Mitek to combine its Mobile Verify solution with fraud prevention and risk management technology from IdentityMind Global.

Lending Club reports second quarterly profit since going public in December 2014.

BizEquity launches ‘Smarter Prospecting’ feature for its Advisor Office platform.

Wallaby’s Chrome 2.0 provides access to credit card advice in the browser.

Swipestox partners with German bank Hauck & Aufhäuser to offer its users foreign currency and securities trading.

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 Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on February 11, 2016
Categories: DriveWealth, eToro, Fastacash, Kapitall, LOYAL3, Malauzai Software, Motif Investing, Prairie Cloudware

Around the web:

Fastacash to boost global growth via new partnership with mobile wallet provider, Cellum.

Let’s Talk Payments profiles LOYAL3, Motif Investing, Kapitall, DriveWealth, and eToro in a look at millennials and investing.

ATM Marketplace quotes Robb Gaynor of Malauzai Software on the importance of app design in the mobile UX, and Prairie Cloudware’s Michael Carter on the debate over branded mobile wallets and banking apps.

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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FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced

By David Penn Posted on February 10, 2016
Categories: Best of Show, Capitali.se, DriveWealth, EyeVerify, FinovateEurope 2016, IDscan Biometrics, Swipestox, Valuto

With winter winds whipping up white caps on the typically mild-mannered Thames, another FinovateEurope is officially in the books.

We could not be more grateful to all those who demonstrated their latest fintech innovations live on stage in front of our record-setting audience here at Old Billingsgate Market Hall. After two days of demos, our attendees have weighed in on which technologies will earn the coveted title of Best of Show.

So with no further ado, let’s take a look at what our 1,500+ fintech fans feel are the innovations that are getting us that much closer to a world of better engagement, friction-free and secure payments and e-commerce, and broader financial opportunities for all.

Here are the Best of Show winners of FinovateEurope 2016 (in alphabetic order):

Capitali.se for its technology that uses natural language to enable trade automation, turning investment ideas into auto-managed investment portfolios.

DriveWealth for its cloud-based/API technologies that enable real-time, fractional share investing and trading in U.S. equities for mass retail investors around the world.

EyeVerify for its biometric authentication, Eyeprint ID technology that turns an ordinary selfie into a key that protects your digital life.

IDscan Biometrics for its market-leading, digital, onboarding suite with a powerful, state-of-the-art facial recognition algorithm.

SwipeStox for its mobile social trading app that allows anyone to trade forex, market indicies, and CFDs by copying single trades.

Valuto for its multi-currency account powered by an open API that enables seamless integration with SaaS accounting, e-invoicing, B2B marketplace, and e-commerce platforms.

FinovateEurope 2016 was a blast, and we hope you enjoyed the conference as much as we enjoyed hosting it. As always, a thousand thanks to everyone who attended, sponsored, partnered with, and demonstrated their latest fintech innovations at FinovateEurope 2016. We’ll see you next year!

Notes on methodology:

1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballot were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from FinovateEurope 2015 are here. Best of Show winners from FinovateSpring 2015 are here. Best of Show winners from FinovateFall 2015 are here.

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Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016: Day 2

By David Penn Posted on February 10, 2016
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

Are you ready for day two of FinovateEurope 2016?

Our first conference of the year began Tuesday with 40 demonstrations of the latest in fintech innovation. Day two begins Wednesday morning with registration opening at 8:00 AM and the first demo starting at 8:45 AM.

Here is the lineup for Wednesday. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2016.

Demo session 5: 8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Demo session 6: 10:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

Demo session 7: 1:00 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2016.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on February 10, 2016
Categories: Betterment, Expensify, Markit, Nutmeg, VISA, Wealthfront

On Finovate.com:

Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016, Day Two.

FinovateEurope 2016 Best of Show Winners Announced.

Around the web:

Betterment and Wealthfront featured in Bloomberg column on the disruptive power of roboadvisors.

Reduced costs for Nutmeg yield lower fees for investors using the platform.

Markit acquires systems-integration technology from JP Morgan.

VISA launches Consumer Transaction Controls for card-issuing FIs.

PYMNTS.com takes a look at Expensify and its expansion into Europe.

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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Xignite Raises $20 Million in New Partnership with Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation

By David Penn Posted on February 9, 2016
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Xignite

Go east, young provider of cloud-based market data solutions.

A $20.5 million Series C investment led by Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation has boosted Xignite’s total funding to more than $37 million, and signaled the company’s intention to expand into the Asian market.

Pointing to the “hyper-growth” in Asia and calling the region “the world’s largest fintech frontier,” QUICK president and CEO Noboru Yoshioka said the partnership between his company and Xignite will yield a “unique opportunity to capture growth in this market.” Xignite CEO and founder Stephane Dubois, whose company is demonstrating its latest technologies at FinovateEurope this week, referred to both the flexibility and the openness of his company’s solution as key to providing financial services customers with the data they need.

Pictured: Stephane Dubois, Xignite CEO and founder, demonstrated Xignite Cloud Streaming at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

“Financial institutions can no longer afford to operate rigid and proprietary data infrastructures,” Dubois said in a statement. “These legacy institutions must innovate and simultaneously cut costs if they want to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.”

Also participating in the funding round were Altos Ventures, Startup Capital Ventures, and StarVest Partners.

The investment will enable Xignite to increase its sales, marketing, and production capacities in order to keep up with the company’s growth. As part of the deal, QUICK managing director, Atsuyuki Nakajima will join Xignite’s board of directors. QUICK Corporation is a part of the Nikkei Group, and is the largest financial information provider in Japan.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Xignite demonstrated its Cloud Streaming technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company’s solution is scalable, based on open standards, and has “zero footprint” for clients. Helping power some of fintech’s most innovative companies, e.g., Betterment and Currency Cloud, Xignite has more than 1,000 customers in fields ranging from investing and trading to wealth management. Xignite grew its bookings by more than 50% in 2015, serving more than 455 billion API calls.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on February 9, 2016
Categories: Ayasdi, Azimo, Context Relevant, Digital Insight, Fiserv, WorkFusion, Xero, Xignite

On Finovate.com:

Xignite Raises $20 Million in New Partnership with Tokyo’s QUICK Corporation.

Around the web:

Tandem, a British banking startup launched by Azimo co-founder Ricky Knox, selects the Agility platform from Fiserv.

Barclays and Xero forge strategic partnership.

Indiana’s Old National Bank completes online and mobile-banking transition to Digital Insight.

Let’s Talk Payments features Ayasdi, Context Relevant, and WorkFusion in a roundup of startups helping companies innovate with artificial intelligence.

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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Welcome to FinovateEurope 2016: Day 1

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 9, 2016
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016

FinovateEurope is finally here, and if you’ll be sitting in the audience today, you’re part of the largest FinovateEurope audience in history!

The first demo session kicks off at 8:45, so grab a cup of coffee and find a seat in the auditorium.

Here are a few key things to remember:

Wifi network is FinovateEurope 2016 (no password required)
We’ll be live-tweeting throughout the event. Follow @Finovate and tag your tweets #Finovate.
Download our event app (search Finovate in the Bizzabo app) to connect with other attendees, view information about the presenters, and more.
Lunch is at noon. Buffet tables are downstairs. If you’re looking for a quick option, grab a boxed lunch on the mezzanine level.

Here is the demo lineup for today:

Demo session 1: 8:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

Demo session 2: 10:45 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

Demo session 3: 1:00 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.

Demo session 4: 2:50 p.m. – 4:10 p.m.

Stay tuned to Twitter for more live coverage. We’ll see you all tomorrow at 8:45 a.m. when the first demo session begins.

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