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Gusto, Formerly ZenPayroll, Closes on $50 Million Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 21, 2015
Categories: Gusto, ZenPayroll

Payroll and benefits provider, Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll), recently closed on $50 million. Specific investors were not disclosed, but the company states that both new and existing investors were involved.

According to Gusto, these funds are part of the Google Capital-led $60 million series B round announced in April. Gusto CEO Joshua Reeves explains, “We decided to take in more capital because we wanted to give investors a chance to increase their position. They’ve been incredibly supportive and helpful.”

Gusto filed with the SEC on 4 December, and closed the round in a week and a half. According to a VentureBeat article, Reeves disclosed that the new installment values Gusto “hundreds of millions of dollars higher” than the company’s $560 million valuation reported in April.

Gusto was founded as ZenPayroll in 2011 with a mission to make payroll delightful. In September, the company changed its name to Gusto and expanded its focus to include health benefits and workers compensation. The move positions Gusto to compete directly with Zenefits, which, having recently expanded into payroll services, describes itself as an “all-in-one HR platform.”

Gusto unveiled its payroll-processing platform at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on December 21, 2015
Categories: Betterment, Braintree, CRIF, FutureAdvisor, Gusto, Kabbage, PayPal, Personal Capital, Prosper, Top Image Systems, TradeKing, Twilio, Wealthfront, Xero, Yoyo, ZenPayroll

On Finovate.com

“Gusto, Formerly ZenPayroll, Closes on $50 Million Funding”

“U.K.-Based Yoyo Rolls Out Mobile Wallet in U.S.”

Around the web

B2B commerce technology company Handshake teams up with Xero.

Braintree launches new extension of its v.zero SDK in partnership with Magento Commerce.

CRIF Credit Solutions unveils new, fully responsive website geared toward international audiences.

Business Insider names Kabbage, Twilio, and Prosper as 3 of 42 startups that grew to be worth billions in 2015.

Top Image Systems to deploy eFLOW Digital Mailroom at GED Bulgaria.

NerdWallet’s five financial tips from robo-adviser CEOs feature insights from leaders of Betterment, Wealthfront, TradeKing Advisors, FutureAdvisor, and Personal Capital.

Nine months after launching, One Touch from PayPal reaches 10 million users in 23 countries.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Ripple Technology Drives Invoice Trading Platform

By David Penn Posted on December 18, 2015
Categories: Ripple, Standard Chartered Bank

Remember this spring when Ripple’s $28 million series A round overshadowed same-day news of the company’s expansion to Asia?

This week we learned that distributed-ledger technology from Ripple is driving a blockchain-based invoice trading platform built by Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank, and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Ripple CEO Chris Larsen demonstrated the Ripple protocol at FinovateSpring 2013.

“This custom solution was the result of a collaborative effort by many industry players with a wealth of experience in trade finance,” Chris Larsen, Ripple CEO said. “It is also on the forefront of the trending use of distributed financial technologies in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The platform, currently in proof-of-concept stage, converts invoices into digital assets on a distributed ledger. Parties involved get cryptographic identities, which enables the invoice information to be shared by banks (for example, to avoid duplicate financing) without revealing identifiable information.

This last issue is significant enough for FIs. But other potential applications of distributed-ledger technology like Ripple are already being considered. Talking with GTReview, Standard Chartered’s Gautam Jain, global head of digitization and client access for transaction banking, says the technology can also be extended to other trade instruments, such as bills of lading. “We believe that the assembly of all the various documentation and processing stages involved in a trade transaction can happen on a distributed ledger,” Jain told GTR. He added that he thinks the platform, which took six months to develop, can be commercialized in 2016.

Founded as Open Coin in 2012 and rebranded as Ripple in October, the company demonstrated the Ripple network at FinovateSpring 2013. Ripple is headquartered in San Francisco.

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Moven to Forgo Username & Password for 80% of Mobile Account Interactions

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 18, 2015
Categories: Moven

Mobile-first bank Moven is going the way of Citigroup, Bank of the West, and JP Morgan Chase by not requiring a password for low-risk banking interactions. An American Banker post cited that instead of passwords, Moven will authenticate using secure keystores to store a device-authentication token.

The New York-based neobank says that customers will not need to enter their username and password to conduct 80% of their account activities, such as:

View balances
View transactions
Categorize transactions
View spending insights

Moven will still require traditional login credentials for higher risk interactions, such as bill pay or transferring money to an external bank account. The change will roll out for Android users in the next few weeks and will be available on iOS in early January.

The company’s hope is that, by making it easier to access their account, consumers will be more willing to log in and use Moven’s PFM tools. Moven CTO Bob Savino says, “Even a fingerprint may be considered too much friction for checking one’s financial health, and we really are looking to inspire behavioral change via engagement.”

Moven debuted its Financial Health platform at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

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Take Two: Toshl Launches Version 2.0 for iOS and Web

By David Penn Posted on December 18, 2015
Categories: Toshl

Toshl Finance is calling version 2.0 of its popular personal finance management app a “major upgrade” as well as a “rethink and rebuild” of its previous offerings.

The company says the new features of the upgrade are too numerous to mention. But Toshl is highlighting enhancements like the ability to manage multiple financial accounts, new data visualizations, and a better system of organizing categories, tags, and accounts.

Talking about the changes in a post at the Toshl blog, the company notes that the majority of enhancements came from suggestions from Toshl users. And while the company recognizes that some users will be happier with the changes than others, Toshl plans a full suite of tutorials to help users get acquainted with Toshl 2.0.

From left: Toshl Finance CTO Miha Hribar and CEO Matic Bitenc demonstrated their platform at FinovateEurope 2014.

“We are thrilled to have the new apps finally released,” the company announced on its blog. “This is a new solid foundation we can build on to bring improvements at a much greater speed and quality than before.” Currently available only on iOS and the web, Toshl plans to provide Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10 versions of the platform in the first half of 2016.

Download Toshl Finance 2.0 for iOS.

Toshl was listed in Benzinga’s list of top 10 PFM apps for teens and young adults in July, and in June was highlighted in Money Under 30’s look at top personal finance apps. Liverpool Echo added Toshl Finance to its list of “must-have apps” for busy moms in January.

Founded in April 2012, Toshl Finance has offices in both Kranj, Slovenia, and Mountain View, California. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014, winning Best of Show honors. Matic Bitenc is CEO.

Join us in London 9/10 February 2016 for FinovateEurope 2016! Stop by our registration page today and pick up your tickets to our first fintech event of the new year.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on December 18, 2015
Categories: Azimo, Bento for Business, Braintree, Caaapital, Dwolla, Fastacash, FIS, Green Dot, Karmic Labs, Moven, PayPal, Prosper, Ripple, Silanis Technology, Toshl, TransferWise, Twilio

On Finovate.com

“Take Two: Toshl Launches Version 2.0 for iOS and Web”

“Ripple Technology Drives Invoice Trading Platform”

“Moven to Forgo Username, Password for 80% of Mobile Account Interactions”

Around the web

FIS launches new fintech accelerator in collaboration with Arkansas-based Venture Center.

Prosper Marketplace taps Kunal Kaul as its new EVP of Operations.

Newsfactor Business Report looks at prepaid debit cards for businesses offered by Green Dot, Karmic Labs, and Bento for Business.

eSignLive from Silanis Technology named a leader in digital transaction management by Aragon Research.

Azimo and TransferWise featured in The Telegraph as safe ways to give money during the holidays.

The Asset highlights Fastacash in a review of how fintech is changing finance in Asia.

Twilio Video now available to everyone in public beta.

PayPal’s Braintree now powers Facebook payments.

Dwolla introduces Dwolla.js javascript library that allows platforms to verify bank accounts and transfer funds without storing sensitive information.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Ledger

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek, Ledger

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

Ledger Blue is a personal handheld device that secures payments and smart contracts for bitcoin and blockchain-based applications.

Features:

Secure: based on banking standards with a trusted screen—what you see is what you sign
Open: API to build custom applications for industry needs
Ubiquitous: BLE/NFC/USB connectivity

Why it’s great
A bank-grade security device built on open standards to secure critical assets and transactional flow for fintechs and financial institutions.

Presenter: Eric Larcheveque, CEO
Serial entrepreneur since 1996, Larcheveque has founded several companies in Europe. Respected member of the bitcoin community, he launched La Maison du Bitcoin, a French Bitcoin center, before founding Ledger.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: meetinvest AG

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek, meetinvest AG

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

meetinvest AG will present its expert-based and algorithm-driven, single-stock robo-adviser as a white-label solution that targets the mass affluent and retail investors worldwide.

Features:

A role-model approach towards stock investing
Successful recipes of 30+ top stock-investment experts (Buffett, Templeton, etc.)
Algorithmic-driven portfolio management

Why it’s great
Any investor can now be empowered to invest like a pro by using a toolkit that employs proven expert recipes with state-of-the-art portfolio management techniques.

Presenter: Michel Jacquemai, CIO and Co-founder
Jacquemai has 22 years of experience in asset management, primarily in equities and hedge funds. He co-founded meetinvest to combine his know-how with the best expert strategies available worldwide.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Debuts: DAVO Automates Sales Tax

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: DAVO Technologies, Finovate Debuts

DAVO debuted DAVO Sales Tax at FinovateFall 2015 in New York. The system works on retailers’ behalf by daily impounding sales tax from the merchant’s point-of-sale system. The Maine-based company then automatically files and pays their monthly taxes. This helps retailers whose struggles with cash management often mean trouble in paying sales taxes owed to the state government at the end of the month.

Company facts:

Founded 2011
Launched with First Data as channel partner in February 2015
$2.2 million in funding
6 employees
231 merchants on platform

To get started, merchants download DAVO from their point-of-sale provider’s app store. Here’s DAVO in Clover’s app market:

The application process is simple. Since 95% of the fields are prefilled from data sourced from the merchant’s point-of-sale records, the merchant needs only to enter their banking information.

DAVO uses the merchant’s API code to track daily sales and sales tax. The company uses ACH rails to daily impound the sales tax due. This removes the temptation for the merchant to use their sales tax revenue for operating expenses. DAVO also helps merchants who owe back taxes by establishing a back-payment plan.

Using the impounded funds and information from the POS, DAVO files and pays the retailer’s tax return on a monthly basis and supplies the records needed for them to file their annual report.

The merchant portal offers insight into daily sales, sales tax, and item-return data. To complement this dashboard, DAVO sends an email summarizing the total amount of sales tax to be debited from the retailer’s account.

The company also offers DAVO FranchisePay, a service that automatically collects and remits royalties and advertising fees from franchisees.

What’s next

DAVO’s ultimate goal is to shift its business model, offering the sales-tax solution for free to small merchants, and charging state governments instead to white-label the platform.

DAVO is a graduate of the Six Thirty fintech accelerator. The company’s CEO Owen Brown, COO Terry Sutton, and Chairman David Joseph debuted DAVO Sales Tax at FinovateFall 2015:

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Scalable Capital

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek, Scalable Capital

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

Scalable Capital is a digital investment manager that creates personalized, globally diversified portfolios. Scalable is dynamically optimized with a primary focus on cutting-edge risk management.

Features:

Personalized, globally diversified portfolios
A unique, dynamic risk-management technology
No hidden fees, and a total cost of 0.75% p.a.

Why it’s great
Scalable Capital is not just using technology to solve a distribution problem. It gives private investors access to investment technology previously reserved for institutional investors.

Presenters

Erik Podzuweit, Founder and Co-CEO
Podzuweit combines extensive capital market experience with online expertise. An ex-Goldman Sachs banker, he was also co-CEO at Westwing Germany.
LinkedIn

Adam French, Founder and U.K. Managing Director
French spent the last eight years working at Goldman Sachs in London as an executive director of commodities trading and in derivatives trading.
LinkedIn

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PaySwag Helps Cloud Lending Solutions Go Mobile

By David Penn Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: Cloud Lending, PaySwag

Debt repayment app PaySwag will integrate its mobile technology with Cloud Lending’s lending platform courtesy of a partnership announced today. The white-label solution enables Cloud Lending customers to view, pay, and refinance their loans by mobile device. Customers also will have access to the full suite of PaySwag rewards, credit education and gamification features.

“We are thrilled to introduce PaySwag with Cloud Lending,” PaySwag CTO Mark Miller said. “When progressive companies come together, we can disrupt traditional business models.”

PaySwag’s white-label mobile app combines rewards, education, and feedback engines to make the debt repayment process easier for both borrowers and creditors. By rewarding on-time repayments and providing education, PaySwag helps the underbanked and those with poor credit histories overcome common hurdles to improving their credit standing.

The relationship between the companies goes back to 2014. PaySwag was developed by auto lender and servicer Car Loans Inc., which saw a way to provide credit services—mobile access, flexible repayment plans and cash payment alternatives—to subprime borrowers. The company, which had been using the Cloud Lending Solutions platform to manage loans, saw a 50% decrease in “seriously delinquent loans” when the two platforms were integrated.

“Through the synergy between our companies, we’ve greatly reduced our default rates,” Car Loans Director of Operations Barbara Mearse said. “(We) are confident other Cloud Lending clients will leverage this technology to do the same.”

Founded in November 2012 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Cloud Lending Solutions provides SaaS applications to help financial services companies manage loan portfolios. Native to Salesforce, the company provides solutions for microfinance, traditional, equipment, and online lending, as well as commercial and consumer finance. Cloud Lending Solutions demoed CL Exchange at FinovateSpring 2015, and raised $8 million in funding in September, taking its total capital to more than $10 million. Snehal Fulzele is CEO.

Customer Engagement Technologies introduced PaySwag at FinovateFall 2015. The company is based in Reno, Nevada, and was founded in October 2014. Max Haynes is CEO.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Nexmo

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 17, 2015
Categories: FinovateEurope 2016, FinovateEurope 2016 Sneak Peek, Nexmo

A look at the companies demoing live to 1,500 fintech professionals. Get your tickets to join us in London!

Nexmo is a global cloud communications platform with APIs and SDKs for SMS, voice and mobile verification. Nexmo Verify SDK enables phone verification for password replacement, 2FA, and more.

Features:

Securely verify and authenticate users to prevent SIM swap
Send unlimited push verifications with subscription pricing
Minimize design and development resources with preintegrated verification workflow

Why it’s great
Mitigate fraud and bypass common security challenges like SIM swapping by using phone number verification and unique device identifiers to increase security, significantly decrease fraud and protect users.

Presenter: Parth Awasthi, Product Lead
Awasthi is a product lead for Nexmo. Prior to Nexmo, Parth spent over a decade leading technology teams building communication and productivity software for the cloud at Microsoft.
LinkedIn

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