FinDEVr APIntelligence

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr APIntelligence

Developer news

  • New study by Axway and APIdays—”Banking APIs: The State of the Market”—features API-centric technologies used by leading banks and FSOs.

The latest from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 presenters

  • Intuit partners with Fundbox to provide invoice financing for SMEs.
  • Marx Noctor of Arxan Technologies explains the importance of protecting apps “down to the source code” in CBR Online.
  • Markit and CLS unveil new streamlined process for cross-currency swaps settlement.
  • TradeStreaming podcast interviews Xignite’s Stephane Dubois on providing stock-market data to the fintech industry.
  • American Banker takes a look at American Express and its preparations for a “boom in mobile payments.”
  • JPMorgan announces partnership with OnDeck Capital.

Alumni updates

  • CO-OP Financial Services to help credit unions deploy MasterPass from MasterCard.
  • Tradier reaches milestone: 100 financial services firms are now directly integrated with Tradier’s brokerage platform.

Stay up to date on news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter today!

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Financial Guard, Global Debt Registry, ING Direct, Intuit, MasterCard, Misys, Nostrum Group, Q2, Q2ebanking, Social Money

On Finovate.com

  • “Fintech Developers, Lock in Presale Savings for the Very First FinDEVr in NYC”
  • “Q2 Acquires Social Money in $10 Million Deal”
  • Check out the latest developer news in this week’s edition of “FinDEVr APIntelligence”

Around the web

  • Employee Benefit News features Financial Guard in a discussion on the rise of robo-advisers.
  • Misys unveils its next-generation capital markets trading platform in the cloud, Misys FusionCapital.
  • CO-OP Financial Services to help credit unions deploy MasterPass from MasterCard.
  • ING expands its host card emulation (HCE) mobile payment service to all of its customers in the Netherlands. Join ING in London for FinovateEurope 2016.
  • Intuit partners with Fundbox to provide invoice financing for SMEs.
  • Technical.ly Delaware profiles Global Debt Registry.
  • Nostrum Group urges personalization in digital lending in new report on digital finance. See Nostrum at FinovateEurope 2016 in February.

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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Zopa Partners with Equifax, Boosting its Risk-profiling Capabilities

Zopa Partners with Equifax, Boosting its Risk-profiling Capabilities
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Equifax, Zopa

ZopaZopa_homepage_Dec2015

Zopa teamed up with credit reporting agency and fellow Finovate alum Equifax to improve the way Zopa determines the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. According to Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana:

Equifax has extensive experience of the P2P sector. Its in-depth understanding of our business needs, coupled with the strength of its data, plays a vital role in ensuring we offer the best customer experience possible.

Of all the innovative methods for risk profiling—from big data to social media—the information available from credit reference agencies like Equifax remains as critical for online lenders as it is for offline lenders. And while Zopa and Equifax have been working together since 2005, Janardana says that the new agreement gives Zopa “deeper insights into customer behavior” and should result in a better-performing loan portfolio for Zopa, along with better rates for many customers.

Zopa_TV_Ad

Craig Tebbutt, head of alternative lending at Equifax, praised Zopa’s role in helping drive P2P lending in the United Kingdom. Tebbutt suggested that 2016 would be a “key year” for Zopa, pointing to the rise in institutional funding and the arrival of the Innovative Finance Individual Savings Accounts (IFISA) in early April. Investors will be able to set up IFISA accounts through P2P lenders like Zopa and earn tax-free interest from lending portions of their savings to SMEs on the platform.

Facts and stats from Zopa:

  • Over £1 billion lent to U.K. customers
  • More than 50,000 active lenders
  • More than 150,000 borrowers
  • Most loans exceed £7,000
  • Staff of 150

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Making its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011 in New York, Equifax demonstrated Equifax Complete, its interactive score-estimator and score-monitoring solution.

Join hundreds of fintech fans in London in February for FinovateEurope 2016. Our two-day conference returns to Old Billingsgate Market Hall on February 9 & 10. Visit our registration page today and save your spot.

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Prosper’s BillGuard Unlocks Premium Features for All Users

Prosper’s BillGuard Unlocks Premium Features for All Users
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BillGuard, Prosper

BillGuardHomepage

Fresh on the heels of being acquired by Prosper in October, the expense-management and fraud-tracking application BillGuard made some of its most popular premium features available for free, including:

  • Unlimited card monitoring (previously limited to one credit or debit card)
  • Free tracking of TransUnion credit scores

Prior to today’s announcement, BillGuard offered three versions: freemium, BillGuard Pro, and BillGuard Ultimate. The company is paring down to two services by retiring its Pro service. All Pro users will be upgraded to Ultimate at no additional cost.

In today’s announcement, Prosper also hinted at its future plans for BillGuard:

In the months ahead, we will be releasing our initial BillGuard-Prosper product integrations which will take BillGuard to a whole new level of financial control and well-being. We can’t wait to share it with you.

San Francisco-based BillGuard, which launched in 2011, has helped its 1.4 million users flag more than $70 million in unauthorized charges.

BillGuard last presented at FinovateSpring 2012 where it debuted BillGuard FI. Prosper presented at FinovateSpring 2009 as well as the inaugural Finovate in 2007.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Bento for Business, BillGuard, DocuSign, Equifax, eWise, Expensify, EyeVerify, InComm, Insuritas, Jack Henry, Ledger, ProfitStars, Prosper, Spotcap, Tradier, TransferTo, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • “Prosper’s BillGuard Unlocks Premium Features for All Users.
  • “Zopa Partners with Equifax, Boosting its Risk-profiling Capabilities”

Around the web

  • Ledger launches developer edition of hardware wallet.
  • Jack Henry’s ProfitStars now has 20+ institutions that have implemented Gladiator Hosted Network Solutions.
  • RTN FCU to power its insurance agency with Insuritas.
  • InComm plans Atlanta expansion, will add 200 employees.
  • TransferTo joins with Continental Money to bring remittance services to Kenya.
  • Bankless Times features Bento for Business and its solution for helping small businesses control employee spending.
  • Marx Noctor of Arxan explains the importance of protecting apps “down to the source code” in CBR Online.
  • Business2Community features Expensify and DocuSign in its list of nine apps to help you run your business on the go. See DocuSign at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.
  • Adelaide Now profiles small-business lender Spotcap. Join Spotcap in London for FinovateEurope 2016.
  • Mobile ID World looks at the reception to EyeVerify’s mobile app.
  • Tradier reaches milestone: 100 financial services firms are now directly integrated with Tradier’s brokerage platform.

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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Fintech Fundings: 12 Companies Raised $150 Million Week Ending 29 Nov 2015

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

money_tree_newIt was a quiet week over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but it still surpassed the $100-million mark, thanks entirely to U.K.-based Atom Bank’s $128 million raise. BBVA was lead investor, contributing $68 million for a 30% stake in the not-yet-launched mobile bank.

In total, 12 fintech companies raised $152 million, although 5 of the 12 did not release the amount raised. Finovate alum Lighter Capital had the second-biggest round this week, raising $9 million in equity and announcing a loan-funding commitment of $100 million, a sum not included in fundraising totals.

So far this year, venture funding in the fintech sector has totaled $17.8 billion, or about $24 billion including WorldPay, First Data and Square IPOs.

Here are the deals by size from 21 Nov through 27 Nov 2015:

Atom Bank
Digital bank
Latest round: $128 million; $230 million valuation
Total raised: $128 million
HQ: Durham, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, bank, BBVA (lead investor), mobile, challenger
Source: Crunchbase

Lighter Capital
Alt-lender focused on startups
Latest round: $9 million
Total raised: $15 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: SMB, underwriting, revenue-based financing, commercial lending, loans, credit
Source: Finovate

Growth Street
Alt-lender for small businesses
Latest round: $7.6 million
Total raised: $7.6 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: SMB, lending, short-term financing, commercial lending, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Anywhere to Go Co
Insurance claims platform (Claim Di)
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
HQ: Bangkok, Thailand
Tags: Enterprise, B2B2C, insurance, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Lenda (formerly GoRefi)
Mortgage lending platform
Latest round: $2 million Seed
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, mortgage, home buying, refinance, lead gen, price discovery
Source: Crunchbase

Early Salary
Alt-lending platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $1.5 million
HQ: Pune, India
Tags: Consumer, lending, underwriting, young adults, credit scoring
Source: Crunchbase

NextBank Project
Bitcoin-based bank
Latest round: $1.4 million; $35 million valuation
Total raised: $2.1 million
HQ: Port-valais, Vanuatu
Tags: Bitcoin, banking, payments, consumer, SMB, cryptocurrency
Source: Crunchbase

Akredo
Lending portal
Latest round: $635,000
Total raised: $820,000
HQ: Warsaw, Poland
Tags: Consumer, lending, lead gen, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

DealMarket
Deal management platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Tags: SMB, equity, investing
Source: FT Partners

Homie
Peer-to-peer real estate platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Salt Lake City, Utah
Tags: Consumer, home buying, discovery, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Kount Money
Marketplace lender
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bengaluru, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, person-to-person, lending, P2P, peer-to-peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Point
Home-equity exchange
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, home equity, mortgage, lending, credit, investing
Source: Techcrunch

Savedo
Savings and timed-deposit portal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Tags: Consumer, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, banking
Source: Crunchbase

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Dwolla Helps Seamless Deploy its Mobile Wallet in the U.S.

Dwolla Helps Seamless Deploy its Mobile Wallet in the U.S.
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dwolla

Dwolla_homepage_Nov2015

Dwolla will power P2P money transfers on the SEQR platform designed by Swedish payment processor, Seamless. The service will launch in North America in the first quarter of 2016.

Seamless CEO Peter Fredell said that the agreement with Dwolla is part of a larger effort to expand within the United States. “Money transfers between private individuals is a very popular service in the U.S.,” Fredell said. “With Dwolla, we can quickly offer SEQR’s U.S. customers a peer-to-peer service which is something our customers in Europe already make great use of.” He added that the deal will also help Seamless offer P2P services in the States before its own money-transmitter licenses are approved.

Dwolla_stage_FS2015

Pictured left to right and demonstrating FiSync at Finovate Spring 2015: Chad Ballard, director, mobility and new digital business technology for BBVA Compass; Jordan Lampe, Dwolla director of communications and policy affairs. SEQR is a mobile wallet service that uses QR codes and NFC to enable payments in-store, online, and in-app. The technology is used by more than 5,000 merchants in 11 countries in Europe and the United States and won the “Mobile Money Deployment in Europe” award at the Mobile Money and Digital Payments Summit in Dubai in 2013. Swedish payment-processor Seamless was founded in 2001 and handles more than 3 billion transactions a year through 575,000 active sales outlets in 35 countries.

Last month, Dwolla partnered with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, bringing its real-time payments technology to the clearing process and replacing both ACH and wire transfers. In September, Dwolla launched its white-label service, and this spring, began providing real-time transfer services for fellow Finovate alum, BBVA.

Founded in May 2008 and headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, Dwolla demonstrated FiSync at FinovateSpring 2015. The company has raised more than $32 million in funding. Ben Milne is CEO.

Looking to make a fintech connection of your own in Europe? Join us 9/10 February 2016 in London for our first conference of the year, FinovateEurope 2016.

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Lighter Capital Closes $9 Million Series B Funding Round, Raises $100 Million to Lend to Tech Startups

Lighter Capital Closes $9 Million Series B Funding Round, Raises $100 Million to Lend to Tech Startups
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Lighter Capital

Lightercaphomepage

Lighter Capital made a two-fold funding announcement last week. First, the Seattle-based company closed $9 million in Series B funding. Investors include:

  • Voyager Capital
  • Summit Capital
  • Individual investors, including Lighter Capital’s Chairman, Jeff Seely

Lighter Capital plans to use the funds to advance its platform and double its 23-person team. Today’s $9 million installment, combined with the company’s $6 million Series A round, brings its total funding to $15 million.

In addition to this, Lighter Capital raised $100 million to furnish 500 tech startups with capital. The funds, which come from Community Investment Management, will help Lighter Capital increase its investment cap from $1 million to $2 million.

Lighter Capital was founded in 2010. This year, it has increased investment funding to an average of six businesses per month. In total, the company has provided funds to 75 small businesses, including Finovate alum, Cloud Lending.

BJ Lackland is CEO of Lighter Capital, which debuted its Revenue Loan at FinovateSpring 2011 and last demoed at FinovateFall 2013.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Arroweye Solutions, BehavioSec, Bento for Business, BioCatch, Comarch, Dealstruck, Dwolla, FIS, Kantox, Klarna, Lendio, Lighter Capital, Markit, Open Bank Project, TESOBE, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • “Lighter Capital closes $9 Million Series B Funding Round, Raises $100 Million to Lend to Tech Startups”
  • “Dwolla Helps Seamless Deploy its Mobile Wallet in the United States”

Around the web

  • PYMNTS records 2015 payment-trend insights from multiple Finovate and FinDEVr alums.
  • Arroweye featured in Credit Union Journal.
  • Kantox brings free and automatic SWIFT messages to its clients.
  • Dealstruck and Lendio release eBook.
  • The Growing Business Awards names Zopa the Growing Business of the Year in the small business category.
  • American Banker highlights how Tesobe’s Open Bank Project is working toward an API-based banking model.
  • Markit and CLS unveil new streamlined process for cross-currency-swaps settlement.
  • Let’s Talk Payments looks at Klarna and its unconventional approach to authentication.
  • FIS closes SunGard acquisition.
  • BioCatch adds Gadi Maier and Howard Edelstein to its board of directors.
  • Comarch implements Field Service Management solution for receivables management specialist, the KRUK Group.

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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More than $1 Billion Raised by Alums in Q3 2015

More than $1 Billion Raised by Alums in Q3 2015
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

sackofmoneyFinovate alums raised about $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2015.

The fundraising in Q3 of this year is more than 5x last year’s Q3 tally of $194 million, and 6x the 2013 total of $171 million. The number of deals was up as well: 40 last quarter compared to 17 in Q3 a year ago, and 23 in Q3 2013.

There were also four acquisitions:

Top 1o Fundings in Q3:

  • Twilio: $130 million
  • Kabbage: $120 million
  • Behalf: $119 million
  • Kreditech: $92 million
  • Fenergo: $75 million
  • ShopKeep: $60 million
  • BankBazaar: $60 million
  • Radius: $50 million
  • Payoneer: $50 million
  • RealtyMogul: $35 million

Total: $1.07 billion raised by 40 alums

July: $748 million raised by 16 alums

August: $153 million raised by 12 alums

September: $173 million raised by 12 alums

If you are an alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2015, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We are eager to share your good news! Funding received prior to becoming a Finovate alumnus is not included in our research.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CardFlight, CenturyLink, Deluxe, Entrust Datacard, Fidor Bank, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Kashoo, Markit, Personal Capital, Prudena, Stocktwits, Xero

FinDEVr2016-NY-(Stacked)V2

Building a new financial technology? Check out our coverage from our developer conference in San Francisco this fall, and mark your calendars for our spring developer event in New York, March 29 and 30, FinDEVr 2016.

Developer news:

  • BankNXT interviews Stefan Weiss, head of APIs at Fidor Bank, on the APIs, regulation, and expansion.
  • American Banker quotes Simon Redfern, founder of the Open Bank Project, in a look at the drive for open bank APIs in the United Kingdom.

The latest from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 presenters:

  • Kashoo launches period-locking feature to lock data within prescribed timeframes.
  • CenturyLink and Cogent enter into interconnection agreement.
  • Deluxe Corporation celebrates its 100th birthday by ringing the opening bell at the NYSE.
  • Entrust Datacard’s Kurt Ishaug named 2015 CFO of the Year by Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.
  • The TRADE names Markit to its Hall of Fame.
  • Personal Capital lowers investment minimum from $100,000 to $25,000.

Alumni updates:

  • PRUDENA launches online marketplace for stock market research.
  • StockTwits offers brokerage functionality powered by Robinhood.
  • CardFlight announces EMV approval and certifications via TSYS for mPOS solution.

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

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Narrative Science, On Deck Capital, ThetaRay, TickSmith

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s edition of FinDEVr APIntelligence, featuring news from Fidor Bank, the Open Bank Project and more.
  • “Finovate Alums Raise More Than $1 Billion in Q3 2015″

Around the web

  • TickSmith wins FIA Innovator Award for its TickVault Platform.
  • Inc. talks with Stuart Frankel, CEO and co-founder of Narrative Science.
  • Colorado Biz lists OnDeck as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in 2015.”
  • Zacks features six Finovate alums in its roundup of “7 FinTech Startups You Need to Know About.”

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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