FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Currency Cloud, Expensify, Fidor Bank, FinDEVr APIntelligence, MX, PocketSmith, WorldPay, Xero

FinDEVr2015LogoV2DateAre you building new financial technology? Be sure to check out coverage from our recent developers conference in San Francisco. We’re taking the fintech developer tool showcase to New York, 29/30 March 2016. Stay tuned for details.

Developer news

The latest from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 presenters

  • Fidor Bank wins in two categories at BAI Retail Delivery’s Global Banking Innovation Awards.
  • WSJ features BehavioSec and Nymi in its piece, The Next Security Frontier: The Human Body.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at Currency Cloud and the latest update to its API, Payment Engine Two.
  • Worldpay’s IPO on London Stock Exchange is the U.K.’s largest IPO of the year, at a market cap of £4.8 billion ($7.3 billion).
  • Self Lender names MX one of three startups “absolutely crushing it” in fintech.
  • “Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform”

Alumni updates

  • PocketSmith launches in Xero Add-On Marketplace.
  • Expensify launches new integration features for Xero.
  • Nymi recruits CEO John Haggard; Karl Martin will now serve as CTO.

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

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Blackhawk Network, Fidor Bank, Hoyos Labs, Idea Bank, IDology, Insuritas, Lending Club, Markit, mBank, Meniga, Moven, Nymi, Payfone, Ping Identity, PocketSmith, Stockpile, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “American Banker’s “20 Fintech Companies to Watch” Features Eleven Finovate Alums”
  • “Kabbage’s Fresh $135 Million to Help Grow Karrot Consumer Lending Platform”
  • “Hoyos Labs Unveils 4F Smartphone Authentication Technology”

Around the web

  • IDology makes an equity investment Payfone.
  • Insuritas to install insurance agency solution for MAC FCU’s 14,000+ members.
  • PocketSmith launches in Xero Add-On Marketplace.
  • Fidor Bank wins in two categories, Lending Club and Idea Bank both come in first, at BAI Retail Delivery’s Global Banking Innovation Awards.
  • WSJ features BehavioSec and Nymi in article “The Next Security Frontier: The Human Body”
  • mBank launches biometrics in its mobile application dedicated to corporate customers.
  • PYMNTS profiles Moven in the wake of its recent $12 million fundraising.
  • Markit unveils cloud-based, Know Your Third Party (KY3P) service to make it easier to manage third-party risk-processes.
  • Blackhawk Network and Stockpile partner to make eGift cards for stock available at select retailers in the U.S.
  • Meniga receives a World Summit Award for best technological solution in e-business and commerce.
  • TechCrunch: “Ping Identity Opens Up About Its Financials As It Eyes 2017 IPO”

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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Marketing Minute: Optimizing Emails for the Small Screen

Marketing Minute: Optimizing Emails for the Small Screen
By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: BBVA, BBVA Compass, Capital One, Email Marketing, Email Samples, Simple

Recent email marketing research found that two-thirds of Americans regularly check email via smartphone and a significant number of total opens (as high as 70%) are now opened on a mobile device. Since most emails that look good on mobile look fine on a desktop (but NOT vice versa), you can pretty much disregard the desktop when creating a design template for your email alerts and marketing messages.

Here’s a few examples from my inbox during the past few weeks. Both Capital One and BBVA’s Simple use appropriate font size and a good mobile layout. Simple does an especially good job at grabbing attention with a small animation at the top of the message. In comparison, the BankDirect pitch is not well optimized for mobile, though it’s readable if you work at it. But it does nothing to grab your attention visually.

——–

Bank email samples (viewed on iPhone 6)

First: Business Savings account promo from Capital One
Easy to read opening line and big Open Now buttons on first screen and below the fold

Second: BankDirect to American AAdvantage mileage club members
Harder to read the small type, and call-to-action is below the fold

Third: Simple announces its 100%-no-fee policy change
Grabs attention with small animated graphic at top with big “Hi FirstName” visible on first screen. The remainder of message is in a font easily read on a mobile phone:

capitalone_email bankdirect_americanair_email simple_email2

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Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion

Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Moven

Moven_homepage_Oct2015

Mobile banking innovator Moven has picked up $12 million in new funding. The investment round was led by Route 66 Ventures, and takes Moven’s total capital to more than $24 million. Anthemis Group, Atlas Asset Management, NY Angels, and Raptor Group’s Jim Palotta also participated in the series B round.

The new capital will help Moven expand internationally, particularly into Canada and New Zealand. Moven announced a partnership with TD Canada last December, and has been working with New Zealand’s Westpac since August 2014.

Moven_stage_FS2015

Moven CEO and founder Brett King demonstrated Moven Financial Health Platform at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

In addition to deals with TD Canada and Westpac, Moven inked a deal with Accenture in May, in which the two would “jointly develop next-generation digital banking solutions.” The agreement also called for building solutions that will help banks worldwide adopt digital technology faster, more efficiently, and less expensively.

Winner of a Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2015 for its Financial Health Platform, Moven was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York City. The company launched its mobile-first bank to the public in March 2014, and has since partnered with MoneyDesktop (now MX), and taken its mobile technology to wearables via Motorola’s Moto 360 and Samsung Gear smartwatches. Moven’s CEO and founder Brett King is the host of Breaking Banks, a weekly radio program on disruption in banking.

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Emailage & Feedzai Partner to Combine Machine Learning with Email Risk Assessment

Emailage & Feedzai Partner to Combine Machine Learning with Email Risk Assessment
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Emailage, Feedzai

EmailageHomepageFeedzaiHomepage2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fraud-prevention companies Emailage and Feedzai have teamed up to create an even stronger edifice against would-be hackers.

In the agreement, both companies will leverage the other’s unique security layer to combine email risk-assessment with fraud scoring.

Emailage, which debuted at FinovateSpring 2015, offers a tool that assesses the risk associated with an email address. We covered the product, used for underwriting risk on everything from ecommerce transactions to P2P payments in our Finovate Debuts series in August.

Feedzai’s fraud-prevention solution analyzes data furnished by session clickstream, access frequency, malware signatures, social biometrics, and now email addresses. Its machine-learning software analyzes the data-sets to determine risk level. Feedzai made its European debut at FinovateEurope 2014.

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Stockpile Hauls in $15 Million in New Investment

Stockpile Hauls in $15 Million in New Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Stockpile

Stockpile_homepage_Oct2015

 

Stockpile, the company that provides gift cards for stock, has raised $15 million in funding. The major investment in Stockpile comes courtesy of Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, and individual investor, Ashton Kutcher, who praised Stockpile’s “drop-dead-easy user experience and affordability to all.”

Rajeev Batra, partner at Mayfield, was equally enthusiastic, referring to Stockpile’s combination of gift card technology and fractional share ownership as a “massive paradigm shift.”

“Stockpile is bringing the stock market to where you shop, bank, and do other things in your daily life,” Batra said. “You need a seasoned team to pull this off, and these guys know how to execute.”

Stockpile_stage_FS2014

Stockpile CEO Avi Lele and CCO Dan Schatt demonstrated Stockpile Gift Cards at FinovateSpring 2014.

Added Don Kingsborough, founder and former CEO of fellow Finovate alum Blackhawk Network, “Every retailer CEO I’ve spoken with thinks Stockpile is going to be the next, multibillion-dollar gift card category.”

Setting up a Stockpile Gift Card is as easy as choosing the stock (such as Tesla), deciding on a dollar amount to spend (any whole number between $1 and $1,000), and then purchasing the gift card with a credit card. The gift recipient then logs in to their Stockpile account using a special access code in order to get their stock. Stockpile Gift Cards are available at a variety of retailers including Lowe’s, Supervalu, and Wegman’s, as well as via iOS app. Gift cards include a “gifting fee” of $2.99 per card plus 3% of the face value of the card.

“Most people have never had an opportunity to own stock in their favorite companies because it’s too expensive and complicated to get started,” Stockpile CEO and founder Avi Lele explained in a statement. “For the first time ever, you’ll be able to walk into the supermarket and buy a gift card for, say, $25 of Apple stock right off the rack.”

Founded December 2010 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Stockpile made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

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A View From Backstage at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015

A View From Backstage at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2015, FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco

BackstageIMG

If you were at FinDEVr San Francisco last week, you experienced first-hand the high energy from 63 presenters and 500 attendees.

As MC, I watched the presentations from backstage and saw a different side of FinDEVr, one of nervous presenters and whispered, last-minute conversations.

You didn’t need to be backstage, however, to notice the trends that emerged at the event:

  • Building better financial services with APIs
  • Removing friction in payments
  • Leveraging data
  • Improving risk management

The 580 attendees—a crowd 40% larger than last year—had much to say about the showcase of APIs flashed around both auditoriums. Participation was high at the presenter networking stations, and many attendees published their thoughts online or through Twitter.

FinDEVr San Francisco in the press

Cripto Noticias
FinDEVr 2015, construyendo el futuro de la tecnología financiera (in Spanish)

GeekWire
Praesidio raises another $3.1M to help banks, credit unions with cybersecurity solution

Let’s Talk Payments
FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco Day 1

How Banks Are Joining Hands With FinTech Firms to Serve Customers

Interview With Konstantin Rabin, CMO of Kontomatik, Leading Provider of Banking API

Let’s Talk Payments at FinDEVr 2015: Day One Highlights

Let’s Talk Payments at FinDEVr 2015: Day Two Highlights

Money’s Edge
Coinalytics Unveils Blockchain Intelligence Tools at FinDEVr

Personal Capital Discusses Their Premier New (and Free!) Retirement Planning Tool

Nikvesti.com
ПриватБанк покажет мировым банкам в Сан-Франциско свою разработку Corezoid

PYMNTS
Hyperwallet’s new Freelance Payment API

 

FinDEVr San Francisco in the Twitterverse:

FlorianTweet

LokeuTweet

aboTweet

mxtweet

DavidTweet2A big thanks to everyone who blogged, tweeted, and attended to make this event a success.

We’ll see you at FinDEVr New York, 29/30 March 2016.

FinDEVr-NY-2016-Horz-V2

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud, Emailage, Feedzai, Malauzai Software, Misys, Moven, Ormsby Street, Stockpile, Trustly, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

  • “A View From Backstage at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015″
  • “Stockpile Hauls in $15 Million in New Investment”
  • “Emailage, Feedzai Partner to Combine Machine Learning with Email Risk Assessment”
  • “Moven Rounds Up $12 Million in Funding for International Expansion”

Around the web

  • Somerset Trust Company to deploy Retail+ for Small Business Banking solution from Malauzai Software.
  • Trustly expands into 21 new markets, now reaching 29 countries.
  • PYMNTS.com takes a look at Currency Cloud and the latest update to its API, Payment Engine Two.
  • Misys launches its dedicated-payment risk-management solution, FusionBanking Payment Insulator.
  • American Banker names 11 Finovate and FinDEVr alums in its list of 21 companies to watch.
  • Worldpay’s IPO on London Stock Exchange is the U.K.’s largest IPO of the year, at a market cap of £4.8 billion ($7.3 billion).
  • New enhancements to CreditHQ from Ormsby Street feature letter templates, new dashboard metrics.

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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Hip Pocket Introduces its New PFM Solution, Hip Money

Hip Pocket Introduces its New PFM Solution, Hip Money
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Hip Money, Hip Pocket

HipMoney_homepage_Oct2015

What do you put in a Hip Pocket?

Hip Money, of course!

Hip Money is the new PFM solution designed by the company that brought us Hip Pocket, the mortgage-rate-comparison calculator. We wrote a few weeks ago in our Finovate Debut conversation with Hip Pocket founder and CEO Mark Zmarzly that the company would be looking to expand into other related markets. With the introduction of Hip Money, that expansion has begun.

Hip Pocket debuted its new solution at the inaugural Fincon Fintech Startup Competition in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, picking up a runners-up award of $1,500 in cash. (Note that the first prize was a tie between two other Finovate alums: FamZoo and TickerTags!)

HipPocket_stage_FS2015

From left: Todd Cramer, head of digital experience/design, and CEO Mark Zmarzly, founder, presented Version 2.0 of Hip Pocket at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Hip Money is a personal finance-management app that seeks to complement human behavior in pursuit of higher savings rates rather than change it. According to reporting in Bank Innovation, Hip Money’s signature feature, Swipe to Save, enables users to set aside a certain amount for saving with a simple swipe when prompted. Savings goals can be personalized by target amount and date. According to Zmarzly, it works because it requires minimal user action and leaves “the math” to the app.

Those interested in Hip Money can leave their email address at the website in order to be notified when the app is ready. The solution will be available on a white-label basis, and can be included as part of a bank’s existing mobile app.

Hip Pocket, developer of Hip Money, was founded in June 2013 by Mark Zmarzly and is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

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FinDEVr Newcomer Praesidio Rakes in $3 Million Investment

FinDEVr Newcomer Praesidio Rakes in $3 Million Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Praesidio

Praesidio_homepage_Oct2015

If you were a cybersecurity startup making your first appearance at a FinDEVr event, what would you bring to your debut?

How about more than $3 million in new funding?

Seattle-based Praesidio now has total capital of more than $5 million, courtesy of a new investment of $3.1 million led by Praesidio Chairman Jeff Lunsford and Vice Chairman Harold Brewer. Also participating in the round were Citizens National Bank, Live Oak Bank, and Washington Trust, which are customers of Praesidio as well as investors.

IMG_1049

Praesidio Chief Technology Officer Sean Cassidy presented at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.

Praesidio’s solution provides banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions with the ability to turn security-related Big Data into actionable intelligence. The technology uses machine learning to aggregate information from all of the institution’s security tools into a single, real-time management and reporting platform. This helps bridge the gap between IT and management, giving decision-makers the ability to clearly monitor and respond to potential security events wherever they appear on the network.

Talking about the company’s technology, Live Oak Bank president Neil Underwood said that deployment of Praesidio’s platform turned his bank’s security response from “reactive to proactive.” The deployment saved the bank “tens of thousands in hard expenditures instantly, averting fraud that could have had massive systemic and enterprise impact, with losses in the millions,” Underwood said.

Founded in May 2014 by CEO Edgardo Nazario, Praesidio made its FinDEVr debut last week in San Francisco. The company has 21 employees.

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Updated: IBSSMail Brings Multifactor, Biometric Authentication to Email

Updated: IBSSMail Brings Multifactor, Biometric Authentication to Email
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Internet Biometric Security System

IBSSMail_homepage_Sept2015

Updated with New Code (see below)

Internet Biometric Security Systems (IBSS) is offering a 30-day free trial of its biometric email communication technology, IBSSMail. The service manages both legal and biometric identification of all email account holders, and uses multifactor authentication to ensure that only the intended recipient can read the email as well as any attachments.

IBSS President David Ackerman said, “We are extremely excited about this new base product, which is a significant advancement in e-mail technology privacy protection.”

To take advantage of the free trial, use the promo code: [email protected].

IBSSMail prevents unauthorized access to, and forwarding of, confidential and proprietary e-mail. The service’s multifactor authentication includes human-voice identity, facial recognition, real-time legal identification of all account holders, and other technologies. Email accounts can be set up and secured within minutes, and the service is easy to use. IBSSMail is also offering a feature specifically geared toward the financial services companies: biometric, point-to-point encryption with a click of a button, without any additional setup required.

The company announced that IBSSMail will soon feature new solutions for e-mail printing, conferencing, and multimedia communication, as well. Also in the “coming soon” category is IBSSMail’s patent-pending, real-time online biometric document-signature solution for loan applications, tax returns and other financial services documents. “Our biometric document-signature solution will include content document risk assessment for veracity, resulting in a reduction of human resource costs, and fraud deterrence,” Ackerman said.

Founded in May 2005 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Internet Biometric Security Systems demoed Genesis Enterprise Edition, its biometric identification management system, at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: App Annie, Avalara, Cachet Financial Solutions, Credit Karma, Currency Cloud, Expensify, Hip Money, Hip Pocket, MX, Praesidio, Ripple, Thomson Reuters, Twilio, Wealthfront, WorldPay, Xero

On Finovate.com

  • “Hip Pocket Introduces its New PFM Solution, Hip Money“
  • “FinDEVr Newcomer Praesidio Rakes in $3 Million Investment”

Around the web

  • Cachet Financial Solutions to deploy its Select Mobile Money platform with a global payment solutions provider seeking U.S. expansion.
  • Currency Cloud launches its Payment Engine Two API to enable faster payments and greater scalability.
  • D+H Global PayPlus teams up with Ripple, integrating its payment-services hub with Ripple’s distributed-ledger technology.
  • Thomson Reuters announces content update to its Checkpoint Catalyst FASB reporting solution.
  • Ahead of its impending IPO, Worldpay firms up IPO price range.
  • Self Lender names MX as one of three startups “absolutely crushing it” in fintech.
  • Wealthfront lists App Annie, Avalara, Credit Karma, and Twilio on its list of career-launching companies.
  • Expensify launches new integration features for Xero.

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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