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Coinbase, Motif Investing Earn Spots on Fast Company’s Most Innovative List

By David Penn Posted on February 23, 2016
Categories: Coinbase, Motif Investing

With Coinbase and Motif Investing both winning a place on Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies of 2016, it looks like bitcoin and innovations in investing remain two of fintech’s hottest trends.

Fast Company Editor Robert Safian said, “This year’s package – which includes top ten lists in 27 sectors – emphasizes the breadth of companies with progressive, agile business models, cultures of creativity, and ability to adapt in today’s fast-paced world.” Fast Company added that 2016 also marked the first year the magazine used machine intelligence – in this case, technology from a San Francisco company called Quid – to “help inform the list.” The list will be published in the March 2016 issue of the magazine.

Fast Company’s “Most Innovative” roster for 2016 headlines with familiar brands and businesses like BuzzFeed, Facebook, and CVS Health (“for becoming a one-stop health stop”). Coinbase and Motif Investing are among ten companies earning recognition in Fast Company’s Finance category: Coinbase “for making bitcoin user-friendly” and Motif Investing “for expanding its theme-based trading.”

The news comes as Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong made headlines in the debate over how to scale bitcoin. Armstrong favors an approach that would immediately double capacity, as opposed to other proposals that would increase capacity by as much as 4x over a longer period of time.

Last month, Coinbase announced that the 30Shift Card, a bitcoin Visa debit card launched in partnership with Shift Payments in November, had processed more than $1 million in bitcoin and had signed up more than 10,000 cardholders. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2014.

A two-time Best of Show award-winner, Motif Investing demonstrated its Advisor Platform at FinovateSpring 2014. Last month, Motif debuted its recurring transfers feature, and in October, the company partnered with JP Morgan to give investors on the Motif platform access to shares in JP Morgan-managed initial public offerings.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Motif Investing CEO is Hardeep Walia, who is also a co-founder.

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Blackhawk Network Names Talbott Roche New CEO

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 23, 2016
Categories: Blackhawk Network

Prepaid card and digital commerce company Blackhawk Network has named a new CEO. The company’s Board of Directors appointed Talbott Roche, pictured at right, who succeeds William Tauscher as the company’s chief executive.

Tauscher, who served as CEO since 2010, will continue to serve as chairman on the company’s board of directors. Regarding the transition, Tauscher states, “It has long been my intention for Talbott to one day lead the company as president and CEO, and I have supreme confidence in her abilities and leadership to carry this great organization forward.”

Roche has served as SVP of Blackhawk for five years and will continue to serve as the company’s president. She is a graduate of Stanford University.

Blackhawk went public in 2013 and has since completed nine acquisitions. The company employs 2,500 people in 24 countries.

Tomas Campos and Sheila Andres presented GoWallet at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.

At FinovateFall 2012, Blackhawk debuted GoWallet, a direct-to-consumer mobile app that helps users manage all of their prepaid cards in a single place. The app also enables customers to purchase and personalize gift cards, and offers access to special coupons and offers.

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Dream Payments Unveils Mobile Merchant Platform for Banks and Acquirers

By David Penn Posted on February 23, 2016
Categories: Dream Payments

The mobile merchant services platform from Toronto-based fintech startup Dream Payments is now available to banks and merchant acquirers. The platform gives Dream Payments the ability to provide businesses with a host of services that range from mPoS apps and merchant onboarding to payment processing and business analytics.

“With Dream, banks and acquirers can finally attract and provide mobile payment services to businesses through a cloud-based, cost-effective, and flexible platform,” Dream Payments CEO Brent Ho-Young said.

Pictured (left to right): VP for Business Development Christian Ali and COO Anant Tailor demonstrated their Dream Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) solution at FinovateSpring 2015.

Dream Payments launched its mPoS service for merchants last year. With this move, the company shows its cloud-based platform as an option for banks and acquirers to help their customers transition from legacy systems to EMV and mPoS technology.

The company this week presented its technology at the Mobile World Congress Conference in Barcelona, Spain. The platform includes:

white-label, pre-built, iOS and Android apps for payments, receipts, product catalogs, and real-time analytics
support for EMV contact and contactless mobile payment terminals
retail distribution and remote activation capability
third party SDK

Founded in 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dream Payments demonstrated its mPOS solution at FinovateSpring 2015. The company, which raised $6 million in funding last spring, launched Canada’s first retail EMV mPOS terminal that accepts Interac debit card payments in October. Read our summer 2015 profile of Dream Payments.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on February 23, 2016
Categories: Blackhawk Network, Bluefin Payment Systems, Cachet Financial Solutions, Check, Coinbase, Dream Payments, Fiserv, Guardian Analytics, Insuritas, iSignthis, Klarna, Motif Investing, PayPal, Pindrop Security, Qapital, Roostify, SecondMarket

On Finovate.com

Guardian Analytics Appoints New CEO.

Dream Payments Unveils Mobile Merchant Platform for Banks and Acquirers.

Blackhawk Network Names Talbott Roche New CEO.

Coinbase and Motif Investing Earn Spots on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2016 List.

Around the web

Fiserv named to Fortune magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies in 2016.

Pindrop launches its comprehensive call center fraud-prevention platform, IVR Anti-Fraud.

Sussex County FCU picks Insuritas to deploy new insurance agency solution.

iSignthis‘ paydentity KYC service is suitable for use by businesses in the regulated sector of the Isle of Man, a global financial hub.

Inc. profiles Sweden’s Klarna and its plans for U.S. expansion.

Co-founded by former Check CMO Daniel Kjellen, MovoCash announces $700,000 seed investment.

Ingo Money partners with PayPal, adds instant check-splitting.

Roostify to integrate with zipLogix to facilitate communication between lenders and realtors.

American Banker features SecondMarket.

Qapital launches on Android.

Bluefin Payment Systems and Worldnet partner for PCI-validated P2PE on Worldnet’s payment platform.

Cachet appoints new Chief Financial Officer Bryan Meier.

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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Guardian Analytics Appoints New CEO

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: Guardian Analytics

Banking fraud prevention company Guardian Analytics appointed a new president and CEO today.

Laurent Pacalin will take the place of Terry Austin who had been with the company since 2009.

Pacalin, who holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is an expert in analytics, financial crime and e-Commerce. He most recently worked as Group VP of Oracle Sales Cloud. Prior to that, Pacalin served as CMO of FICO.

Additionally Pacalin is co-founder of Clean Tech Open, an accelerator for clean tech startups helping to reduce climate change.

Guardian Analytics board member Skip Glass notes a bright future with Pacalin as chief executive:

“Laurent’s leadership skills and ability to scale high-growth organizations combined with a customer-centric approach and passion for innovation will have an immediate impact on the company’s success.”

Guardian Analytics is based in Mountain View, Calif., and was founded in 2005. The company demoed its FraudXCHANGE solution at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.

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Last Call for FinovateSpring 2016 Demo Applications!

By Erika Sanchez Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateSpring 2016

Got a new fintech innovation you’re looking to showcase? The final application deadline to demo at FinovateSpring 2016 is coming up this Friday, February 26. After our successful (and largest) show in London, the Finovate team has recovered from jet lag and is excitedly looking toward San Jose for our upcoming conference on May 10 & 11.

Last year, FinovateSpring welcomed a record crowd of nearly 1,400 financial institution executives, venture capitalists, members of the press, industry analysts, and fintech entrepreneurs who witnessed 70+ new fintech innovations via our signature demo-only format.

This year, based on the early interest, we expect the event to grow significantly and to feature even more impressive innovations than last year.

If your company is interested in debuting your latest and greatest at the premier event for fintech innovation, please email us at [email protected] for more details on applying by this week’s deadline.

And if you’re interested in attending FinovateSpring to watch the future of fintech unfold live on stage, tickets are on sale for the event at the very early-bird price through next Friday, March 4.

We’ll see you in Silicon Valley this May (or New York next month for FinDEVr 2016)!

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

FinovateSpring 2016 is partnered with Acuity Market Intelligence, Aite Group, Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, Bankless Times, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, 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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PayPal Unveils Carrier Partnerships & NFC Payment Capability

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: PayPal

Last week, PayPal upgraded its mobile app with a cleaner user interface, quick PIN login and other enhanced features. Today, the San Jose-based company announced further updates, powered by partnerships that will offer it access to Vodafone’s 454 million users and America Movil’s 286 million subscribers.

The payment company’s partnership with Vodafone enables European-based Vodafone wallet users to make NFC payments at brick-and-mortar POS locations. The combined solution is powered by partnerships with Raphaels Bank and Carta Worldwide.

This marks the first NFC payment availability for PayPal users, who can connect their PayPal account to their Vodafone wallet and pay using Visa or MasterCard credit and debit cards, as well as prepaid cards. To promote the new offering, Vodafone is rewarding users up to 1GB of bonus data each time they use PayPal to recharge their Prepaid Combo plan online.

VentureBeat cites Anuj Nayar, PayPal’s global head of product communications, who highlights the mutual benefit of the partnership, stating, “From PayPal’s point of view, Vodafone gets access to our integrated platform — in app, online, in-store, and can offer our services to their customers. PayPal will gain access to millions of users.”

Vodafone wallet, launched in 2013, is available in Germany, Spain, the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands. The PayPal integration is now available to users in Spain and will launch in the four remaining countries later this year.

Additionally, PayPal announced similar partnerships with Mexico-based Telcel and Brazil-based Claro (both America Movil subsidiaries). Starting this spring, the telcoms’ users will have the option to use their PayPal accounts to manage and make everyday purchases on their mobile devices.

These partnerships are a part of PayPal’s new brand campaign titled New Money, in which the company aims to showcase how it is, “enabling a faster, simpler and more inclusive way for people to manage and move money, whether online, in-app, in store or in new contexts.”

At the end of 2015, PayPal counted 179 million active users. Dan Schulman is CEO.

Next month FinDEVr New York 2016 will feature a presentation from PayPal’s Braintree (along with 50+ other fintech companies) that will showcase new trends and tools for developers. Check it out and register today.

Braintree last presented at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 and at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Jose.

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CopSonic and Natixis Team Up to Launch Ultrasound Payment Solution, SwipeSonic

By David Penn Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: CopSonic

One of the biggest stories at FinovateEurope last month was the popularity of voice as a technical tool. Whether in service of greater security or lesser friction in e-commerce—or both—companies are busy leveraging sound and voice to improve the user experience in fintech.

SwipeSonic, a new ultrasound payment technology developed by Finovate alum CopSonic and partner Natixis Payment Solutions, is the latest entry into the field.

Banking Technology quoted CopSonic’s Emmanuel Ruiz explaining why sound is a valuable tool for transmitting information. “Sound is the easiest and most effective technology for near field communication,” Ruiz said. “Unlike the QR code, the user does not have to point the device, and unlike Bluetooth, no pairing is required and all telephones worldwide are compatible.”

From left: CEO Emmanuel Ruiz, head of innovation, and Brian Roeten, senior project manager, demonstrated the CopSonic platform at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

SwipeSonic provides ultrasound-based encryption that is inaudible to the human ear to secure online transactions. Customers choose their bank card option during their online purchase, and use their bank’s mobile app to see details of the transaction before confirming the purchase with a PIN. The merchant then sends the customer confirmation that the transaction has been successfully completed.

CopSonic says that online payments are completed in 20 seconds using SwipeSonic, compared to two minutes or more with other methods. With SwipeSonic, consumers do not need to have credit card information on hand or wait for confirmation codes to be exchanged. Bank information is not shared with the online merchant, and deploying SwipeSonic requires only minimal changes to the online merchant’s payments page.

CopSonic and Natixis added that Groupe BPCE, the second largest bank in France, has expressed interest in the technology, which is being presented at the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Montauban 82000, France, CopSonic (as Pixeliris) demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2014.

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Best of Show Winner DriveWealth Inks New Partnership with Stoxs

By David Penn Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: DriveWealth

Fresh off its Best of Show winning performance at FinovateEurope, DriveWealth has signed a new partnership that will make it possible for Australian investors to get access to American stocks

DriveWealth’s partner is Stoxs, a financial technology company based in Silverwater, New South Wales, whose investing platform is geared toward new and millennial Australian investors.

Speaking about the partnership, DriveWealth’s CEO and founder Robert Cortright referenced the millennial focus of Stoxs. “As wealth is transferred to the millennial generation, it is increasingly important to offer investing tools and solutions that cater to the digital, mobile lifestyle,” he said. Cortright emphasized the importance of both mobility and affordability when it came to bringing access to popular, widely traded U.S. stocks to millennial investors.

Pictured: Michael Fitzgerald, head of corporate strategy for DriveWealth, demoing his company’s Brokerage-as-a-Service platform at FinovateSpring 2015.

Kheang Ly, Stoxs founder and CEO, spoke to this point in his statement about the partnership with DriveWealth. “Investors use Facebook every day, go to the gym in their favorite pair of Nike sneakers, drink coffee at Starbucks and pay for things with PayPal,” he explained, “so individuals everywhere should have access to invest in these iconic brands.”

DriveWealth is a full stack, Brokerage-as-a-Service platform that leverages apps like Passport and Atlas, as well as APIs, to enable investors overseas to trade and invest in U.S. stocks. The company provides everything from customer onboarding to account funding to customers in more than 135 countries around the world. DriveWealth’s partners are able to offer their customers equities-trading for as little as $2.99 per trade ($4.95 in China) in popular American stocks like Nike and Starbucks.

Read more about DriveWealth in their Finovate Debuts feature from last fall. Developers can learn more about the company’s APIs at its developer page.

DriveWealth was recently featured by Let’s Talk Payments in a look at millennials and investing. In January, the company partnered with StockRadar to give Chinese investors access to U.S. stocks. And late last year, DriveWealth added Carlo Macchi as Director of Global Accounts.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey, DriveWealth demonstrated real-time fractional trading with its Passport 2.0 solution at FinovateEurope 2016 last month.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 22, 2016
Categories: CopSonic, Corezoid, Currency Cloud, Dashlane, DriveWealth, Entersekt, Fiserv, GMC Software Technology, Kasasa, LockByMobile, PayPal, Xero

On Finovate.com

“Best of Show Winner DriveWealth Inks New Partnership with Stoxs”

“CopSonic and Natixis Team Up to Launch UltraSound Payment Solution, SwipeSonic”

“PayPal Unveils Carrier Partnerships, NFC Payment Capability”

Around the web

LockByMobile is working with Visa APIs to enhance consumer transaction controls.

Kasasa launches new auto loan direct marketing program, Kasasa Fuel.

Bobsguide highlights alum Currency Cloud.

GMC Software teams up with SundaySky to improve customer experiences via video.

Fiserv announces that 25 credit unions have committed to CUnify, its account processing platform.

Corezoid is among the first Ukranian startups to participate at Startup Grind (in Ukranian).

Xero teams up with Google, bringing gmail and Google Apps for Work to its platform.

Dashlane web engineer Thomas Guillory explains why his company is building its next web app using React.js.

FirstBank to deploy Transakt, a multi-factor authentication technology from Entersekt.

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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United Capital Acquires FlexScore

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 19, 2016
Categories: FlexScore, Mergers & Acquisitions

FlexScore, a platform that gamifies financial planning, was purchased by California-based advisory firm United Capital this week. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

United Capital, which holds $15 billion in assets under management, plans to use FlexScore as a tool to help its advisers engage clients.

The FlexScore platform assesses and scores the user’s financial health and assigns action steps (as seen below) to improve their score. The goal is to reach a top score of 1000, which signifies financial independence.

United Capital CEO Joe Duran commented to Investment News that FlexScore fits the “missing piece” from the company’s digital suite for clients and advisers. Additionally, Duran stated, “The right intersection is not technology alone, or people alone, but when you have an interactive engaging experience that is powered by people.”

In the future, Duran plans to implement the scoring tool within retirement plans to stimulate engagement. The company is in talks with potential partners for this use case.

United Capital began its relationship with FlexScore in 2014 when it purchased FlexScore’s parent company, Valley Wealth, in a deal that excluded FlexScore.

FlexScore co-founders Jason Gordo and Jeff Burrow launched the startup at FinovateSpring 2013. Since then the San Francisco-based company has raised $4.7 million and created a mobile version of the app (launched at FinovateFall 2014 in New York).

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Credit Karma Launches New Mobile App Design

By David Penn Posted on February 19, 2016
Categories: Credit Karma

Maybe it’s the change in seasons. Just days after Paypal announced it would redesign its iOS and Android mobile apps, Credit Karma reports a new design for its mobile app.

Calling the redesign a “major reimagining,” Jonathan Chao, mobile product manager for Credit Karma, noted that user behavior strongly influenced the new look and feel of the app. “It has some of our most direct, specific and proactive product features to date, and we’re excited that we can finally show it off to our members,” Chao said.

What do members get with the redesign? Credit score information – letting users know of any changes in their score and likely reasons for the change – will now be available directly from the home screen. Also from the home screen, members can run credit simulations (courtesy of Transunion) to see how factors like reducing their overall credit card debt can positively affect their credit score.

The new app also includes opt-in credit monitoring via push notification, and lets members compare and shop for new credit cards or loans from Credit Karma’s new credit card and loan marketplace.

Credit Karma’s new app is available on iOS and Android.

Credit Karma’s new app redesign isn’t the only news the company is making in 2016. In January, Credit Karma announced the acquisition of Snowball, a debt-repayment app. The company also reported in January that it had surpassed 50 million users managing $3 trillion in debt.

Founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco, Credit Karma demonstrated its Debt Manager solution at FinovateSpring 2009. The company has raised more than $368 million in funding, giving the company a valuation of $3.5 billion. In December, Credit Karma won a spot on Fast Company’s 2015 Silicon Valley’s “Nice” list, and in November, Credit Karma celebrated giving out its billionth free credit score.

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