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FinDEVr 2015: Getting Back to the Business of Building

By David Penn Posted on October 5, 2015
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

From software architects and engineers to CTOs and CEOs, builders from around the country—and from more than a few far-flung corners of the world, as well—are getting ready for the premier event for fintech developers: FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco.

The two-day conference begins Tuesday, 6 October, and continues through Wednesday. We have 64 innovative fintech companies specializing in a range of tools, APIs, SDKs, and other resources to help builders and developers take their innovations to the next level.

And whether it’s adding new payment functionality, faster and more efficient ways to access critical data, better and more sophisticated fraud detection and prevention, or even tips on leveraging the blockchain, if developers need it, there’s a good chance the builders of FinDEVr 2015 have got it.

We’re less than 24 hours away from the opening presentation, but there’s still time to pick up your ticket and save your spot. Stop by our registration desk at the venue or get your ticket online, and join us.

Here are a few need-to-knows for the conference.

The venue:

UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center
1675 Owen Street, Suite 251
San Francisco, CA 94143-3008

The agenda (both Tuesday and Wednesday):

Registration: 8:00 a.m.
First Morning Session Presentation: 8:45 a.m.
Lunch: 12:00 Noon
First Afternoon Session Presentation: 12:45 p.m.
Networking (with open bar and appetizers): 4:45 p.m.

Live blog and Twitter

During the conference, check out the Finovate/FinDEVr Live Blog for summaries, presenter names and contact info, and more.
Follow us on Twitter! @FinDEVr, and remember to tag your tweets #FinDEVr.

Questions? Send us an email at [email protected]. Until then, we’ll see you at the show!

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on October 5, 2015
Categories: blooom, CR2, Digital Insight, Digital Retail Apps, Evo Snap*, Feedzai, Lending Club, Markit, Xero

Around the web

MoneyRates column on robo-advisers features Chris Costello, Blooom CEO.

Finance Magnates spotlights Nuno Sebastio of Feedzai on EMV in the U.S.

Digital Retail Apps to showcase SelfPay at the Visa Innovation Center at One Market in San Francisco.

Alt-Fi News interviews Renaud Laplanche, CEO and founder of Lending Club.

Prosper passes $5 billion in loans originated on its platform.

German development bank, KfW to deploy EDM technology from Markit. Join Markit in San Francisco for FinDEVr 2015.

CR2 and Ameriabank partner to bring BankWorld omnichannel banking platform to Armenia.

Digital Insight adds automated account-switching solution, ClickSWITCH.

EVO Payments, parent of EVO Snap*, inks U.K. market reseller-partnership deal with Handepay. See EVO Snap* at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.

Xero chosen as business ‘Platform of the Year’ at Internet Marketing Association’s IMPACT15 Conference.

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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FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco: Builders by the Bay

By David Penn Posted on October 4, 2015
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

Twas the Sunday before FinDEVr 2015, but for those of us who were here at the inaugural FinDEVr event last year, it almost feels as if we never left.

Sure, the deep red of the Oracle OpenWorld conference a year ago has been replaced by the bright orange of San Francisco Giants fans lining the streets for the final few games of the baseball season. But everything we love about our trips to the Bay Area, including its reputation as a great place for technology folks to get together and talk shop, is exactly as we remember it.

Speaking of technology folks getting together, FinDEVr 2015 starts this week and tickets are still on sale. Stop by our registration page today and save your spot for 6/7 October for the premier event for fintech developers, software architects, CTOs, and builders of all kinds.

To help you get ready for the two-day event, here are a few last-minute answers to a few frequently asked, last-minute questions:

Where?

FinDEVr 2015 returns to the campus of the University of California, San Francisco. Both days of the show will be held in the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center:

1675 Owens Street, Suite 251
San Francisco, CA 94143-3008

For those who are driving to the event, here are some helpful tips on parking.

When?

The conference starts at 8:00 a.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Registration opens at 8, and a light breakfast will be available until 8:45 a.m. The first presentations begin at 8:45 a.m. and continue until Noon. Lunch runs until 12:45 p.m., with a second set of presentations lasting until 4:45 p.m. The networking periods on both days one and two feature an open bar and appetizers and run from 4:45 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.

Take a look at our FinDEVr 2015 page for a detailed view of the agenda.

What? who? and how?

To help you make the most of our dual-track presentation format, be sure to follow our live blog at Finovate.com/blog. We’ll have summaries of the presentations, key takeaways, photographs, and bios on all presenters. And a few weeks after the show, the Finovate blog is where you will find videos of all the companies that demonstrated at the conference.

And don’t forget Twitter! Our Twitter feed @FinDEVr is a great way to stay on top of everything that’s going on leading up to, during, and after the conference. Whether you want to join in a conversation, or just make a few observations of your own, be sure to hashtag your tweets #FinDEVr.

Any last-minute questions? Send us an email at [email protected] and one of our staff will be glad to help!

See you in San Francisco!

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Feature Friday: “Combine Usernames” from Capital One

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 2, 2015
Categories: Capital One, Mobile Banking, UX

Capital One just updated its Wallet iPhone app to include gift cards. That seemed like a good candidate for this week’s Feature Friday.

Cards: @capitalone iOS update enables gift cards in mobile wallet. Interested to see how it pulled that off? pic.twitter.com/TuGE8yXOZk

— Jim Bruene (@netbanker) October 2, 2015

But on the way to checking out the gift card feature, I ran into another new Capital One feature I love. It’s called Combine Usernames and it does just that. The option appeared automatically on the first screen when I first logged into the latest issuer’s standard mobile banking app (not the newer Wallet app) (see inset). The card giant noticed I had two usernames registered and offered to automatically combine them. It’s not something I’ve run into before, and it’s super convenient for those of us who can’t keep their digital life in sync. After selecting Combine Usernames near the bottom of the main screen, you are directed to a new screen with instructions to swipe to combine. I swiped and it worked immediately, although the page warned it could take up to 72 hours. I wasn’t sure what was lurking under my other username, but it turns out it was my old ING Direct (now Capital One 360) account. Now, everything’s visible on the app, and I’m in sync at Capital One. ———– I’ll cover the gift card function after I test it at Starbucks. Enjoy your weekend.

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FinDEVr Preview: Crysp

By David Penn Posted on October 2, 2015
Categories: Crysp, FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 Preview, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

FinDEVr Previews highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms and integrations at the second annual FinDEVr, 6/7 October 2015.

Crysp will present a way to leverage sensor data and other context to invisibly authenticate users.

Why it’s a must-see
Crysp will be introducing a product built for developers of mobile and web apps to strengthen or replace passwords in their authentication flow, as well as to streamline password resets.

Check out all our Previews for FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on October 2, 2015
Categories: American Express, Coinbase, D3 Banking, Klarna

Around the web

Klarna Checkout to accept American Express starting in October. See American Express at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco next week.

Coinbase provides support for 3D Secure credit and debit cards, enabling instant bitcoin payments in a total of 26 countries.

Silicon Prairie News interviews Mike Carter, D3 Banking CMO, on millennials and the “future of banking.”

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: 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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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