Blog - Page 732 of 1215

Fintech Fundings: 24 Companies Raise $1.3 Billion Week Ending 2 Oct 2015

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 1, 2015
Categories: Fundings

Fintech circles were abuzz this week as four massive fundings pushing several companies higher up the billion-dollar valuation ladder (yep, I can avoid the U-word if I really try).

SoFi’s $1 billion received wide coverage this week, but we’d already covered it a month ago, so it’s not included in this week’s total. But even without that massive inflow earmarked for U.S. student loans, the worldwide fintech total surpassed one billion ($1.265 billion to be precise) thanks to Paytm, $675 million; Avant, $325 million; and 22 others. And every known round, not including Blooom’s grant, was seven figures or more.

Finovate alum fundings included: Kreditech, $92 million; Cloud Lending, $8 million; InForcePRO, $4 million; MX, $4 million from CheckFree founder Pete Kight; Blooom, $50,000 grant; and Elevest, an alum-by-proxy given its co-founder’s (Charlie Kroll’s) CV as founder of charter alum Andera, as well as an acquirer of many Best of Show wins by oFLows.

So far this year, we’ve tracked $14.5 billion flowing to fintech companies worldwide including a whopping $6.3 billion this past quarter.

Funding rounds by size from 26 Sep to 1 Oct 2015:

Paytm
mCommerce and bill payment platform
HQ: Noida, India
Latest round: $675 million; $4 billion valuation
Total raised: $875 million
Tags: Mobile, commerce, payments, shopping, billpay, Alibaba (investor)
Source: Crunchbase, VentureBeat

Avant
Consumer alt-lender
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Latest round: $325 million; $1+ billion valuation
Total raised: $1.73 billion, includes $1.05 billion in debt
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, lending, underwriting, near-prime
Source: Crunchbase

Kreditech
Consumer alt-lender
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Latest round: $92 million Series C
Total raised: $355 million; $140 million equity, $215 million debt
Tags: Credit scoring, lending, underwriting, lending, loans, consumer, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Elevate
Consumer alt-lender
HQ: Texas City, Texas
Latest round: $70 million debt
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Consumer, credit, underwriting, installment loans, line of credit
Source: Crunchbase

PushPay
Mobile payments platform
HQ: Auckland, New Zealand
Latest round: $18.7 million
Total raised: $35.5 million
Tags: Payments, consumer, acquiring, merchants, processing, SMB
Source: FT Partners

Ellevest
Investing platform for women
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $10 million
Tags: Investing, asset management, wealth management, Charlie Kroll (co-founder and Finovate alum)
Source: Finovate

Credible
Alt-student lender
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: $12.7 million
Tags: Consumer, credit, lending, loans, students, youth, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Zameen
Pakiston real estate hub
HQ: Lahore, Pakistan
Latest round: $9 million Series A
Total raised: $9 million
Tags: Mortgage, home buying, properties
Source: Crunchbase

Cloud Lending Solutions
Enterprise lending platform
HQ: San Mateo, California
Latest round: $8 million Series A
Total raised: $10.25 million
Tags: Lending, enterprise, loans, credit, Finovate/FinDEVr alum
Source: Finovate

Qualpay
Payment processor
HQ: San Mateo, California
Latest round: $8 million Series A
Total raised: $8 million
Tags: Payments, merchants, SMB, acquiring, credit/debit cards
Source: FT Partners

QuanTemplate
Reinsurance platform
HQ: Gibraltar
Latest round: $7.6 million
Total raised: $9.8 million
Tags: Insurance, enterprise
Source: Crunchbase

Chillr
Mobile person-to-person payments
HQ: Cochin, India
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $6.5 million
Tags: Consumer, mobile payments, P2P
Source: Crunchbase

MMKT Exchange
Middle market loan-syndication platform
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $5.9 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Commercial lending, loans, secondary market, enterprise
Source: FT Partners

Coinplug
Bitcoin services
HQ: South Korea
Latest round: $5 million Series B
Total raised: $8.3 million
Tags: Virtual currency, cryptocurrency, blockchain, bitcoin
Source: Coindesk

InForcePRO
Insurance policy-holder analytics
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $4 million Series A
Total raised: $6.55 million
Tags: Insurance, enterprise, metrics, big data, analytics, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

MX (formerly MoneyDesktop)
Digital banking platform
HQ: Utah
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $54 million
Tags: Digital banking, mobile banking, B2B2C, consumer, Pete Kight (investor), Finovate/FinDEVr alum,
Meet them 6/7 Oct at FinDEVr San Francisco
Source: Finovate

AboutLife
Retirement planning
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $3 million Series A
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Wealth management, investing, financial planning, consumer, PFM
Source: Crunchbase

Orb (formerly Coinpass)
Digital payments platform
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Latest round: $2.3 million
Total raised: $2.8 million
Tags: Blockchain, payments, bitcoin, cryptocurrency, digital currency
Source: Crunchbase

Safe Cash Payment Technologies
Blockchain-based payments
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $1.2 million Seed
Total raised: $1.2 million
Tags: Payments, bitcoin, blockchain, consumer, Naveen Jain (investor)
Source: Coindesk

Blooom
401(k) management
HQ: Kansas City, Kansas
Latest round: $50,000 Grant
Total raised: $300,000
Tags: Retirement planning, consumer, 401(k), investing, LaunchKC Accelerator, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Adyen
International payments platform
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Latest round: Undisclosed; $2.3 billion valuation
Total raised: $266+ million
Tags: Payments, SMB, enterprise, remittances, payment processing
Source: Crunchbase

DwellExchange
Crowdfunding home-equity loans
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Lending, P2P loans, mortgage, real estate, consumer
Source: Crunchbase

WorldCover
P2P platform providing insurance for the unbanked
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Underbanked, insurance, investing, peer-to-peer
Source: Crunchbase

Transaction Mobility International
White-label payment processing
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A; $33 million valuation
Total raised: $550,000+
Tags: Payments, mobile, acquiring, merchants, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

—–

Graphic licensed from 123rf.com

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco: A Bounty for Builders

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2015
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

With attendance numbers already well above last year’s inaugural event, we are having a hard time containing our excitement about FinDEVr 2015 next week in San Francisco.

The only thing better than a record number of attendees joining us 6/7 October is the breadth of their experience and backgrounds: engineers to evangelists, developers to data scientists, and CEOs, CSOs, CTOs, and more. And check below for the list of the impressive companies attending.

If you are a part of fintech’s growing community of technologists and builders, then FinDEVr 2015 is the place to be.

FinDEVr returns to the Mission Bay Conference Center on the campus of the University of California, San Francisco, 6/7 October. With 64 companies presenting their latest APIs, SDKs, and other tools for developers, FinDEVr 2015 is the must-attend event for builders this fall. Tickets are on sale now. See you there!

FinDEVr 2015 is sponsored by The Bancorp, Credit Karma, MX, and Yodlee Interactive.

FinDEVr 2015 is partnered with Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, Bitcoin Magazine, bobsguide, Byte Academy, California Bankers Association, Celent, The Cointelegraph, Hotwire, Let’s Talk Payments, Mercator Advisory Group, SF Fintech, and Women Who Code.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

InForcePRO Rakes in $4 Million Following Finovate Debut

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2015
Categories: Funding, Fundings, InforcePRO

In a round led by LiveOak Venture Partners, insurance technology specialist InforcePRO has closed a $4 million venture capital round.

The investment takes InforcePRO’s total capital to more than $5 million. The company says the new funding will help with expansion both in the United States as well as internationally. InforcePro co-founder Cameron Jacox anticipated growth of 400% over the next two years, saying that such growth would enable the company to “help more than 600 million global policyholders.”

InforcePRO co-founder Karan Kanodia demonstrated his technology’s real-time policy analysis at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City.

Fellow co-founder Karan Kanodia said that InforcePRO’s strategy to “put policyholders first” was a “tectonic shift for an industry which was traditionally built on a ‘gotcha’ mindset.” InforcePRO differentiates itself by providing “post-sale software solutions” that give insurance distributors new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, as well as improving overall customer engagement. The technology makes it easy for insurance professionals to run instant policy reviews, enabling them to identify potential sale or service opportunities on insurance policies that are as many as three decades old.

Venu Shamapant, general partner at Live Oak Venture Partners, included InforcePRO among the companies it has invested in that are “focused on solving long-overlooked problems resulting in disruption of large and established industries.”

“LiveOak’s investment will help InforcePRO capitalize on the global demand for their solutions, and accelerate the company’s pace of product innovation,” said Shamapant.

Founded in November 2013 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, InforcePRO made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City. The company has more than 25 employees and its platform monitors more than 2 million life insurance policies.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2015
Categories: CardFlight, FamZoo, Hyperwallet, InforcePRO, Jumio, On Deck Capital, Twilio, Venmo, Walletron

On Finovate.com

“FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco: A Bounty for Builders“

“InforcePRO Rakes in $4 Million Following Finovate Debut”

Around the web

Jumio brings its ID verification technology to Loot, a prepaid card and money-management app.

Let’s Talk Payments looks at the Venmo-powered Ledge, a mobile P2P lending app.

CardFlight mPOS solutions certified by First Data to accept EMV chip card payments.

Re/code profiles Twilio as part of its new “Lunches with Unicorns” series. Join Twilio’s Authy at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco next week.

Pymnts features Walletron.

Fortune Magazine lists OnDeck on its list of 100 Best workplaces for millennials.

Hyperwallet’s founder, Lisa Shields, wins EY Canada’s Entrepreneur Of The Year award.

FamZoo wins The People’s Choice Award at FinCon15.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Success in Financial Services Starts with Trust

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Credit/Debit Cards, Security

There is a reason why startups have captured approximately 0% of bank deposits a full two decades into the internet era. TRUST. Anyone hoping to get consumers to transfer thousands of dollars their way, must first win the trust battle. That means a killer combination of brand name, convenience, service, transparency, performance guarantees or measurable price/performance advantage.

I’m not saying you need to max out on all those variables, that’s not sustainable cost-wise. But you need to get to minimum levels on all and excel in one or two.

This isn’t news to anyone who’s been involved in the financial services space for more than a few months. But I was reminded of how newcomers are their own worst enemy sometimes when I got the following message from Coin today.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am a huge fan of the space (Dynamics is the pioneer in advanced cards, taking home yet another Best of Show award at Finovate two weeks ago, and we watched Stratos unveil their card at FinovateSpring). And I can understand that there will be delays when 400,000 people preorder your new hardware when you were expecting a tenth of that. But if you want me to entrust my cards to you, be forthcoming in all your communications.

Apparently, I’ll be getting my Coin in October, the last of the original 2013 preorders to ship (Coin’s website says new orders will begin shipping in November). The good news after the long wait is that I’m getting the next-gen EMV version, an important improvement over what I paid $50 for 22 months ago.

But I don’t think the company is doing itself any favors with the disingenuous FAQ on the email:

Q. Why am I receiving Coin 2.0 if I never received Coin 1.0?
(My translation: Why has it taken almost two years to get this thing?)

A. Your first generation Coin was scheduled to arrive next month. But as we just announced, Coin 2.0, we have given you a free upgrade!
(My translation: It took so long to manufacture this thing, the world moved to a new standard, so we had to ship you the new one even though it cost us a bunch more to make.)

Bottom line: Coin has had a tough two years dealing with unprecedented demand (as far as new fintech is concerned) and not uncommon hardware delays. Now, they need to get back on track by telling their mostly patient customers the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

—————

Email from Coin to the last of its preorder customers (30 Sep 2015)

Photo credit: Flickr

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

MX Lands $4 Million from CheckFree Founder Pete Kight

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Funding, MX

Just days away from its presentation at the FinDEVr developer conference next week, MX received a $4 million investment from CheckFree founder, Pete Kight.

Following this investment, Kight (pictured right) will join MX’s board of directors and will serve as an adviser to the company’s CEO, Ryan Caldwell.

Today’s investment brings the Utah-based company’s total raised to $54 million. In April of this year, USAA led MX’s most recent round, totaling $30 million. Prior to that, in November of 2014, it pulled in $20 million in seed funding.

MX, formerly known as MoneyDesktop, offers data aggregation, data cleansing, auto-categorization, classification, money management, custom APIs, data analytics, and marketing to help more than 550 financial institutions serve up a better user experience.

MX is one of 64 companies that will present its latest tools and APIs to a crowd of developers at FinDEVr in San Francisco next week. Brandon Dewitt, CTO of MX, will lead a presentation titled, How You Build Something Is More Important Than What You’re Building. Tickets for FinDEVr are available through early next week.

The company, founded in 2010, last demoed at FinovateFall 2014 in New York. Check out the video below.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Cloud Lending Solutions Raises $8 Million in Series A

By David Penn Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Cloud Lending

Cloud Lending Solutions has landed $8 million in new funding. The series A round was led by SF Capital Group, who will send its president, Neil Wolfson, to the company’s board of directors.

Also participating in the round were Cota Capital, Long Light Capital, Green Visor, and Epic Ventures. Combined with $2.25 million raised by Cloud Lending Solutions during a pre-series A round last year, the company’s total capital stands at more than $10 million.

Cloud Lending Solutions CEO Snehal Fulzele demonstrated CL Exchange at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose, California.

In a statement, Cloud Lending Solutions CEO Snehal Fulzele said the new funding would help the company expand to new markets such as commercial real estate and SMB lending. “(These) are trillion-dollar industries ripe for disruption,” Fulzele said. Read more of his thoughts on the investment, and Cloud Lending Solutions’ place in the industry, in his Wednesday blog post, “An $8 Million Stake in an $800 Billion Market.”

Cloud Lending Solutions provides end-to-end lending solutions that are native to Salesforce. Able to bring its customers to market in as little as 90 days, Cloud Lending Solutions has more than 75 customers in 20-plus countries. This includes fellow Finovate alums such as Dealstruck, whose CEO Ethan Senturia referred to Cloud Lending Solutions as the “technology partner to make our vision a reality.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Cloud Lending Solutions demonstrated its CL Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Aerospike, American Express, Authy, Avalara, Braintree, Fidor Bank, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Hyperwallet, Interxion, MX, On Deck Capital, PayPal, Personal Capital, Thomson Reuters, Twilio, Xero

Are you building new financial technology? Be sure to register soon for the only event exclusive for fintech developers, FinDEVr 2015, 6/7 October (just a few days away!) in San Francisco.

Developer news

“Thomson Reuters considers how APIs are changing the fintech narrative”

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr 2015 presenters

FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 Presenters All Mapped Out.

PayPal unveils its chip-card reader in the U.S.

Hyperwallet counts down to next week’s FinDEVr developer conference.

Munich-based Fidor Bank Launches in the U.K.

OnDeck partners with Association for Enterprise Opportunity to facilitate up to $10 million in small-business loans.

Forbes features Aerospike.

Aerospike releases version 3.6 of its NoSQL operational database.

TechCrunch: Klarna adds American Express as a partner.

Emerging Payments Awards selects Hyperwallet as a finalist for the Best Corporate/Government Payments Program award for 2015.

Braintree and PayPal reflect on their two-year anniversary.

CNET features Personal Capital in a look at investment in robo-advisers.

Kaspersky’s blog mentions Twilio’s Authy as a way to protect your ID on a smartphone.

Avalara announces the availability of a benefits program exclusively for U.S. QuickBooks ProAdvisors® and their clients.

Celent advises banks to be more like Fidor Bank in order to remain relevant.

The Neutral Internet Exchange NL-ix will use Interxion Cloud Connect to connect to Microsoft Azure as a part of its new cloud connectivity services.

MX Lands $4 Million from CheckFree Founder Pete Kight.

Alumni updates

Xero surpasses milestone of 100,000 subscribers in the U.K.

Stay up to date on daily developments by following FinDEVr on Twitter.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Rippleshot Earns Spot in SixThirty Accelerator’s Incoming Cohort

By David Penn Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Rippleshot

Chicago-based cybersecurity specialist Rippleshot will join the Fall 2015 cohort of the SixThirty accelerator program.

For its participation in the accelerator, Rippleshot will pick up a negotiated equity investment of up to $100,000, as well as training, mentoring, and networking with professionals from financial services companies from across the country. The program runs from 14 September through 11 December, and is based in downtown St. Louis. This will be Rippleshot’s second time through the SixThirty program.

SixThirty Managing Partner Atul Kamra said that they had received a record number of applications for the fall cohort. “The application pool was truly global and, of the 150-plus startups that applied, a third were from outside the U.S.”

Also participating in the fall 2015 cohort are:

Bandura
Brigade Society
Ensygnia
Fluent
Investment POD

Founded in June 2013, Rippleshot demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014 in New York City. Canh Tran is CEO and co-founder. The company has won accolades for its technology that helps detect card-payment fraud, earning finalist spots at the BBVA Open Talent Competition in August, and the MRC METAwards in March 2015.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Demo Videos from FinovateFall Now Available

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: FinovateFall 2015

If you had a case of “Fintech FOMO” last week because you were stuck in the office while everyone else was at FinovateFall, today is your day!

We’re releasing all demo videos from this year’s event in our video archives. Feel free to watch them 7 minutes at a time or binge watch all 70. Either way, you’ll find a variety of new technology.

To get started, check out the eight Best of Show winners:

Blockstack.io

Dyme

https://finovate.wistia.com/medias/gzco94t0yr

Thanks once again to those who braved the Finovate stage, and for all who attended—we couldn’t do this without you. We’ll see you at FinovateFall 2016!

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 30, 2015
Categories: Algomi, Bitbond, Cloud Lending, eWise, Feedzai, iSignthis, Lendio, Matchi, Misys, MX, Rippleshot, Xero

On Finovate.com

“Demo Videos from FinovateFall Now Available“

“Rippleshot Earns Spot in SixThirty Accelerator’s Incoming Cohort”

“Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence”

“Cloud Lending Solutions Raises $8 Million in Series A”

“MX Lands $4 Million from CheckFree Founder Pete Kight”

Around the web

iSignthis to provide KYC services to Coinify, Europe’s leading bitcoin-payment service provider.

Feedzai’s algorithms poised to analyze $800 million in purchases in real time each day.

Bitbond launches bitcoin affiliate program to allow users to earn money online simply by placing a link.

Matchi launches first innovation challenge for insurance company.

Lendio funds more than 500 small businesses in one month.

Xero surpasses milestone of 100,000 subscribers in the United Kingdom.

Algomi announces expansion, opening new office in New York.

Misys wins Customer Focus Award, named “National Champion for the U.K.” by the European Business Awards.

Let’s Talk Payments profiles PFM and account-aggregation solution provider, eWise.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 Presenters All Mapped Out

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 29, 2015
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 is less than a week away, and we’re excited to host 64 companies as they spend 20 minutes onstage showing off their latest tools, APIs, and platforms.

While 21 of the presenters are based in the Bay Area, companies are heading in from all across the globe; in fact, Japan-based BankGuard faces the longest commute to the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, where the event will be held.

With more than 600 builders expected to show up 6/7 October, the presenters are ready to bring their best to the stage. For more information on the presentations, check out the schedule. To be a part of the action, pick up your ticket here.

If you have any questions, check out the FAQ section of the FinDEVr homepage, or contact [email protected].

FinDEVr is sponsored by Yodlee Interactive, MX, Credit Karma, and The Bancorp. Our event partners are the Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, California Bankers Association, Celent, The CoinTelegraph, Mercator Advisory Group, and SF Fintech.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook