Digital Asset Holdings Acquires Blockchain-as-a-Service Innovator, Blockstack.io

Digital Asset Holdings Acquires Blockchain-as-a-Service Innovator, Blockstack.io
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blockstack.io

Blockstack_homepage_Oct2015

Best of Show winner Blockstack.io today announced an agreement to be acquired by Digital Asset Holdings. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Miron Cuperman, Blockstack CTO, called Digital Asset “the best platform” to deliver Blockstack’s blockchain-application-development tools as part of a comprehensive solution for customers. Digital Asset Holdings’ CEO Blythe Masters praised both Blockstack’s technology as well as its talent, calling Cuperman “a renowned pioneer in the blockchain world.”

“(Cuperman) adds tremendous technical expertise to our development team,” Masters said.

Blockstack_stage_FF2015

From left: Blockstack CEO Peter Shiau and CPO Lior Saar demonstrated Blockstack.io at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Blockstack provides financial institutions with a hosted platform to build blockchain-based applications using APIs and SDKs. Currently available in beta, Blockstack’s platform combines open source and proprietary technologies in a private blockchain for known participants to develop apps.

As part of the acquisition, Digital Asset Holdings and Blockstack will integrate their product offerings, giving clients a seamless integration experience. Peter Shiau, Blockstack CEO, added that Digital Asset Holding’s approach to technology is “very complementary” and that the leadership of the combined entity will have the necessary resources to scale the platform.

Founded in May 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, Blockstack made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York, and its FinDEVr debut at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaClone, AlphaPoint, Arxan Technologies, Blockstack, Blockstack.io, BrightScope, CurrencyFair, EyeVerify, Fastacash, IDology, Mint

On Finovate.com

  • “Digital Asset Holdings Acquires Blockchain-as-a-Service Innovator, Blockstack.io“

Around the web

  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews John Dancu, IDology CEO.
  • AlphaPoint unveils StreamCore to help banks take advantage of blockchain data.
  • Fastacash partners with Xpress Money to launch XOPO, enabling cross-border money-transfers via social networks and messaging channels.
  • Security solutions from Arxan Technologies now running on more than 500 million devices.
  • RIA Biz highlights MaxMyInterest in feature on the NAPFA Fall Conference.
  • ETFdb interviews CEO Maz Jadallah of AlphaClone.
  • Martin Beaulieu, former BlackRock managing director, joins BrightScope as adviser.
  • CurrencyFair expansion to bring 50 new jobs to Dublin, Ireland, over the next year.
  • Porch.com acquires Fountain, a startup launched by Mint founder, Aaron Patzer.
  • Chinese smartphone maker Nubia unveils phone with EyeVerify authentication technology.

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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Presentation Videos from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 Are Now Available

Presentation Videos from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 Are Now Available
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015

FinDEVr2015_stage_1

Just when you thought you might be stuck watching the GOP presidential debates tonight, we’re happy to announce that the presentation videos from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 are now ready for viewing.

All 63 videos are available for free watching, downloading, and sharing in our Video Archive. To view videos only from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015, filter the search for “FinDEVr” and “2015.”

FinDEVr2015_videos_filter

So tonight you can send The Donald, Dr. Carson, and the rest of the bunch to the TiVo, and instead settle in for an evening of presentations from some of the most innovative developers, CTOs, and software engineers in fintech.

Remember that FinDEVr will make its New York debut next spring. FinDEVr New York 2016 is scheduled for 29/30 March, at New World Stages in Manhattan. Register by this Friday and take advantage of Launch Ticket savings.

And if you are interested in presenting at FinDEVr 2016 New York, we’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at [email protected] for more information.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dwolla, FIS, Markit, Nomis Solutions

On Finovate.com

  • “Presentation Videos from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 Are Now Available“

Around the web

  • Markit launches its WSO Credit Manager, a credit and portfolio analysis solution.
  • Dwolla teams up with CME Group to bring on-demand payments to the clearing and settlement process.
  • FIS and The Clearing House partner to build a ubiquitous, real-time payment system.
  • Nomis Solutions and Zafin announce strategic partnership to provide integrated and seamless deposit pricing solution for retail banks.

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

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Bank to the Future

Bank to the Future
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

backtothefuture_DayI just returned from 10 enjoyable days with family and friends in three U.S. cities (1). I’m still amazed at how the smartphone has made traveling so much easier. Text messaging (especially with speech-to-text), Google maps, Yelp, Uber, Expedia, Alaska Airlines, Siri and more. If only the battery would hold out all day, it would be nearly perfect.

But one area that still lags is personal finance. Sure, you can get your bank balance or transfer cash on your phone 24/7, but I could do that in 1985 through an 800-number. Where’s the Back to the Future stuff?

It will be here sooner than you think.

Had the worldwide financial system not teetered on the brink less than seven years ago, we’d have all kinds of financial hover boards and self-lacing shoes. But there were a few other projects that had priority, like righting the ship.

But with that mostly behind us, we should see real progress in the next few years. Here are five Bank to the Future predictions for 2020 (or sooner). The basic technology for each is already available and has been on stage at Finovate and/or FinDEVr:

  1. Financial travel guard: Automatically alerts card issuers and banks to your exact location, which is fed into authorization algorithms to ensure approvals wherever you go. And tokenization masks your card numbers from dishonest or careless shopkeepers.
  2. Annotated spending storybook: Sure, you can look back at your pictures from four years ago to help remember the name of that ice cream shop you visited. But with spending location, annotations (including your photos or receipts) and extensions (such as Yelp integration), your “story” as told through transactions is readily accessible in a searchable database accessed with a few keystrokes or voice commands. Of course, there’s a map view, too.
  3. Family integration: Adding family members to your account should be like connecting on social media, not going through an FBI background check. We’ll need some support from the regulators, but we’ll get there eventually. And once connected, it should be easy to share funds, co-sign loans, manage savings and get everyone’s finances in sync like Dropbox, Evernote or iCloud (although that last one perhaps shouldn’t be the model).
  4. No. More. Passwords: Username/password authentication is a pesky holdover from the 1980s. Biometrics and device identification will rule very soon.
  5. Real-time insurance: Granted, this will take longer than five years, but the future will have on-demand insurance. Like calling on Uber, if you decide you want a little extra protection for your car, for your business, for the guests at your party, you just select the right button, turn the dial, and order it up. Pricing will be transparent and real-time. There may be “surge fare” premiums, but that’s part of the on-demand model.

Check back with me in 21 Oct 2020, and we’ll see if I did as well as the movie.

——-
(1) Which explains why my Back to the Future-themed post is running a week after the official 21 Oct date.

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Spreedly Raises $2.5 Million in New Funding

Spreedly Raises $2.5 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Spreedly

Spreedly_homepage_Oct2015

A few weeks ago, when we first read the rumors of new funding for Spreedly, we checked with the source, company CEO Justin Benson. He told us to stay tuned. “Bigger news is coming,” he said.

And so today, with word that the “Payments as a Platform” specialist has raised $2.5 million in new funding, we are happy to say that the bigger news has arrived.

“This new round brings our total raised capital to a little under $5 million,” Benson said in a blog post this afternoon. “We worked with our existing investors E-Merge and as part of this new round we’re thrilled that we were able to add a founder of Ogone to our list of investors,” he said.

Spreedly_stage_FinDEVr2015

Spreedly CTO Nathaniel Talbott speaking during his presentation “The Vault Grown Up” at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.

Benson emphasized the importance of this kind of traction as a motivator to help make it “through the early slog via critical validation.” He also explained how a strategy of targeting “greenfield” opportunities and early investments in the technology enabled Spreedly to get a “fully featured product” to market as quickly as they did. Benson said that the funding would allow the company to invest in sales, business development, and marketing talent “so we don’t remain the best kept secret in payments.”

Spreedly helps marketplaces and platforms accept a wider range of payment types while reducing cost, complexity, and compliance burden. Benson said the company now has nine developers on staff, a trio of “business folks”, and manages 300 marketplaces and platforms that are generating annualized processing volume of nearly $2 billion. Spreedly’s APIs are used by companies including Oxfam, SeatGeek, Tango, and Zomato.

Founded in January 2008 and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, 12-person Spreedly demonstrated its universal credit card, token technology at its FinDEVr 2015 debut in San Francisco.

Spreedly is also a Finovate alum. The company presented its Payment Method Distribution and Card-on-File updater at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: blooom, Cardlytics, MasterCard, Mitek, Spreedly, Top Image Systems, Vouch

On Finovate.com

  • “Spreedly Raises $2.5 Million in New Funding”

Around the web:

  • BNY Mellon to deploy iRemit, a cloud-based remittance solution from Top Image Systems.
  • Vouch Financial CEO Yee Lee weighs in on the future of banking.
  • Cardlytics partners with MasterCard to deliver card-linked services.
  • New York Magazine profiles Blooom President Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs banker.
  • Mitek adds facial recognition to its ID document-verification solution, Photo Verify.

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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Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $420 Million Week Ending 23 October

Fintech Fundings: 27 Companies Raise $420 Million Week Ending 23 October
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

Money_clickThere was a little of everything this week in what continues to be a strong month in funding (already over $1 billion). Worldwide, 28 companies raised about $420 million ($417 million not including funds from 4 undisclosed rounds).

Two blockbuster deals contributed over half the total: $170 million to German marketplace lender Auxmoney and $81 million to health insurance management platform Collective Health. And seven other rounds surpassed the $10-million mark. But there were also plenty of smaller seed bets this week, something we haven’t seen as much of recently. Ten companies raised $1.7 million or less. Finally, congratulations to Finovate alum Financit which grabbed an undisclosed, but we are guessing considerable, amount of capital from Goldman Sachs.

So far this year, $15.7 billion has been raised privately. In addition, $5.9 billion was invested through two blockbuster payment IPOs last week.

Here are the deals from 17 Oct to 24 Oct 2015, by size:

Auxmoney
P2P loan platform
Latest round: $170 million Series C
Total raised: $198 million
HQ: Dusseldorf, Germany
Tags: Consumer, lending, marketplace, peer-to-peer, loans, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Collective Health
Health insurance platform for businesses
Latest round: $81 million Series C
Total raised: $119 million
HQ: San Mateo, California
Tags: Enterprise, small biz, SMB, health insurance, management
Source: Crunchbase

Insureon
Insurance for small businesses
Latest round: $31.5 million
Total raised: $31.5 million
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Tags: SMB, insurance, lead gen, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

Poynt
Smart payment terminal
Latest round: $28 million Series B
Total raised: $28 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: SMB, small biz, merchants, acquiring, mPOS, point-of-sale, acquiring, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Citrus Payments
Web and mobile payment solutions for merchants
Latest round: $25 million
Total raised: $32.3 million
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, payments, billpay, billing, SMB, merchants, point-of-sale, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

iControl
Payment management
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Burtonsville, Maryland
Tags: Business, SMB, trading partner management, Goldman Sachs (investor)
Source: FT Partners

Wave Crest Group
Prepaid card platform
Latest round: $14 million
Total raised: $32.9 million
HQ: Gibraltar
Tags: Enterprise, B2B2C, debit cards, prepaid, mobile, payments processing
Source: Crunchbase

MoneyForward
Online personal financial management
Latest round: $13.3 million Series C
Total raised: $30.9 million
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, PFM, account aggregation, banking
Source: Crunchbase

Skills Fund
Lending to bootcamp students
Latest round: $11.5 million Seed
Total raised: $11.5 million
HQ: Austin, Texas
Tags: Consumer, student loans, accelerated learning, alt-lending
Source: Crunchbase

NerdWallet
Personal finance information portal
Latest round: $5 million Series A ($510 million valuation)
Total raised: $102 million (includes $33 million debt)
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Consumer, financial services, lead gen, price comparison
Source: Crunchbase

inMediata
Healthcare payment management
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $4 million
HQ: Charlotte, North Carolina
Tags: Health care, payments, B2B2C, small business, SMB
Source: FT Partners

PIN Payments
Payments for developers
Latest round: $3.1 million
Total raised: $3.1 million
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Tags: Consumer, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

WB21
Real-time global money-transfer system
Latest round: $2.27 million
Total raised: $2.94 million
HQ: Palo Alto, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, remittances,
Source: Crunchbase

Moneytree
Mobile transaction aggregation
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A (“in millions”)
Total raised: $1.6 million (prior to the Series A)
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Tags: Consumer, mobile, debit/credit cards, account aggregation, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

Pepper
Mobile payment and loyalty app
Latest round: $1.7 million
Total raised: $1.7 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, payments, mobile, rewards
Source: FT Partners

LoanBook Capital
Marketplace lending platform
Latest round: $1.25 million
Total raised: $2.4 million
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Tags: Consumer, P2P, lending, loans, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

SoftPay Mobile
Mobile point-of-sale
Latest round: $1 million Series A
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Hanoi, Vietnam
Tags: Consumer, payments, mPOS, acquiring, merchants, Life.SREDA (investor)
Source: Crunchbase

SlimTrader
Trading platform for African commerce
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: Seattle, Washington
Tags: Consumer, ecommerce, payments, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

Timelio
P2P receivables financing plaform
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised:$500,000
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Tags: SMB, small biz, receivables financing, invoice factoring, P2P, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase

BSAVE
Bitcoin investing
Latest round: $400,000
Total raised: $400,000
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Consumer, virtual currency, investing
Source: Crunchbase

HomeCanvasr
Off-market real estate listings
Latest round: $200,000 Seed
Total raised: $200,000
HQ: Brooklyn, New York
Tags: Consumer, home purchase, real estate, mortgage
Source: FT Partners

Equinvest
Online platform for equity investing
Latest round: $170,000
Total raised: $170,000
HQ: Rome, Italy
Tags: Consumer, startups, SMB, equity investing, angel investing, VC
Source: Crunchbase

FastSeva
Online telecom recharge and billpay
Latest round: $100,000
Total raised: $100,000
HQ: Surat, India
Tags: Consumer, mobile, telecommunications, billing, invoicing
Source: Crunchbase

Financit
In-store financing specialist
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $21.4 million
HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tags: Consumer, financing, B2B2C, indirect lending, loans, underwriting, in-store POS, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Abra
Bitcoin remittances
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: $14 million
HQ: Mountain View, California
Tags: Consumer, payments, cyrptocurrency, remittances, American Express (investor)
Source: FT Partners

LetsVenture
Fund-raising platform for startups
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, enterprise, investing, fund raising, equity, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Stockal
Automated personal trader
Latest round: Undisclosed Seed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bangalore, India
Tags: Consumer, mobile, investing, trading, analytics
Source: Crunchbase

—–
Image licensed from 123rf.com

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Finovate Alums Earn Top Honors at U.K. Emerging Payments Awards

Finovate Alums Earn Top Honors at U.K. Emerging Payments Awards
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clover Network, Currency Cloud, Ethoca, Hyperwallet, Kalixa, MasterCard, Revolut

Three Finovate/FinDEVr alums won top honors at the Emerging Payments Awards in London, United Kingdom, earlier this month.

HyperwalletLogoHyperwallet won in the “Best Corporate/Government Payments Programme” division with its Paylution Global Disbursements Program. In a statement, CEO Brent Warrington highlighted the scalability and flexibility of the Hyperwallet platform, and reported that more than five million independent workers are currently using the technology. Hyperwallet demonstrated its RESTful API and embedded payout widget at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco in October.

Revolut_logo_high-resIn partnership with Optimal Payments, Revolut won the “Best Emerging Payments Startup” category. Optimal Payments and Revolut teamed up back in July to launch a multi-currency MasterCard and mobile app that helps travelers take advantage of the best exchange rates available. Revolut made its Finovate debut this year at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.

Clover_logoClover Mobile won “Best Payment Technological Innovation” for its Future-Proof mPOS. Clover Mobile was launched in the fall of 2014, a year after Clover was acquired by First Data. Clover made its Finovate appearance at FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco.

The other four Finovate/FinDEVr alums that made it to the finals were:

The event’s overall Industry Contributor Award went to IrisGuard for its EyeBank Iris Recognition electronic payment platform. The platform has been deployed to help bring “sustainable financial inclusion” to those in the Syrian refugee program. As of June 2015, the program had enrolled more than 1.6 million refugees.

Now in its eighth year, the Emerging Payments Awards help recognize creative and business talent in the payments industry. The Awards are run by the Emerging Payments Association, which has also provided the Prepaid Awards since 2006. The Association said that this year’s Emerging Payments Awards was its largest event to date.

If you’re in the United Kingdom and love fintech, then make sure FinovateEurope 2016 is on your calendar. Our two-day conference returns to London, February 9 and 10, 2016.

 

 

 

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: blooom, Diebold, Prairie Cloudware, SimplyTapp, Trulioo, TSYS, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Alums earn top honors at U.K.’s Emerging Payments Awards.

Around the web

  • NPR’s Morning Edition features Greg Smith, president of Blooom, in a segment on robo-advisory.
  • Diebold and SimplyTapp team up to introduce a white-label mobile wallet.
  • Trulioo now provides real-time ID-verification coverage in India.
  • INTECH licenses Digital Payments Guardian from Prairie Cloudware.
  • Yodlee integrates with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud.
  • TSYS and Ingenico partner on new solution to simplify EMV certification.

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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Financeit Closes Undisclosed Amount of Funding from Goldman Sachs

Financeit Closes Undisclosed Amount of Funding from Goldman Sachs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinanceIt, Funding

FinancitHomepage1015

Canada-based Financeit, a company that offers cloud-based POS financing, closed an undisclosed amount of funding today.

Goldman Sachs led the round, and the amount furnished is undisclosed.

The company’s last round of funding, an installment of $13 million, was received in November 2013. This brought the company’s total amount raised to $21.5 million. Today’s undisclosed amount brings the company’s total funding somewhere north of that amount.

According to the press release, Financeit plans to use the funds to add to its merchant partner base of 4,000. Co-founder and CEO Michael Garrity states, “The minority investment made by Goldman Sachs gives us growth capital to put our leading-edge financing platform into the hands of more merchants.”

Last year, in partnership with FIS, Financeit launched in the United States. Check out the launch video here. In its four years of operation across the two countries, Financeit has received more than $1 billion in loan applications.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: DAVO Technologies, Expensify, FinanceIt

On Finovate.com

  • Financeit closes undisclosed amount of funding from Goldman Sachs.

Around the web

  • CEO CFO interviews feature DAVO Technologies’ CEO Owen Brown, co-founder.
  • FirstRound.com: Expensify’s CEO David Barrett talks about the tactics that doubled Expensify’s customer base in just six months.

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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