Finovate Blog

It is no exaggeration to say that when it comes to providing consumers and FIs with unprecedented insight into consumer spending, Slice truly takes it to another level.

And that level is Level 3: the item level data of what is actually purchased rather than what is called Level 1 data that simply tells you where you spent money. The difference between Level 1 data and Level 3 data, explained Karen Chu, Slice’s Director of Business Development, is the difference between knowing that you spent $200 at Macy’s on something last month, and knowing that you bought a cashmere sweater, two shirts, and a few pair of socks.

Traditionally, FIs only have access to Level 1 data. But the growing use of electronic receipts both online and offline has enabled technology companies like Slice to leverage the data in these e-receipts to give consumers new tools to manage their financial life, and to provide FIs with new ways to engage and market to their customers.

Pictured: Harpinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of Slice, demonstrated the Slice Platform API at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

“We have built an absolutely world-class extraction-and-categorization technology,” said Slice co-founder and CEO Harpinder Singh from the FinovateSpring stage. “We extract information from electronic receipts, categorize it, and make it available via a white label API.”

Company facts:

• Founded in 2010
• Headquartered in Palo Alto, California
• More than 2 million users

How it works

Slice works by scanning the data in e-receipts in your email inbox, and extracting the level-3 or item-level information. The technology works with the vast majority of email types, according to Singh, and the applications of the data range from package tracking to building more exacting PFM apps to helping FIs better target and customize offers and rewards.

Scanning item-level detail makes budgeting more accurate for the consumer, and can provide more flexibility in setting spending controls. The item-level detail also includes warranty information and can be used to alert the purchaser in the event of a product recall or even a subsequent price drop.

Combining credit-card information with the item-level detail from Slice can also be used as an anti-fraud tool. Slice can alert the consumer, for example, when a card charge does not have an accompanying electronic receipt. Small businesses can take advantage of the technology to track expenses and tax deductions for employees.

A perfect example of the technology at work was Citibank’s trial-use of Slice’s prototype—an app called Citiscape—as part of the Citi Mobile Challenge last year (Slice was a finalist). Citiscape combined the transactions Citi sees on credit cards with the e-receipts Slice sends to the e-mail inbox. “We know what you actually bought at Amazon,” Chu said. “Not just ‘Travel,’ but where. Not just ‘Baby Products’, but which ones.”

“Data enrichment enables a lot of wonderful things,” Singh concluded from the Finovate stage this spring. “People are more engaged with your apps. They are spending more time looking at their purchases and tracking what they bought. And with the item-level information you can today monetize these users much better than the banks can.”

The future

Slice came to Finovate to make offers/deals with companies, as well as meet with bank-data aggregators and companies looking to provide personalized experiences. “Finovate provides a wide playing field,” Chu said. “Not just traditional financial service companies, but up and comers, as well. There’s a breadth and depth.”

For Slice, this includes talking with everyone from the Yodlees of the world to the Plaids (both Finovate and FinDEVr alums). The variety of use cases for the technology gives both established banks and startups different opportunities to leverage Slice’s item-level data.

“We built the API for various spaces,” said Chu. “Fintech, commerce—we don’t want to be siloed. We are agnostic as to what partners have.”

Try Slice on iOS here. Or Slice for Android users here.

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Check out the FinovateSpring 2015 demo video for Slice below.