Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “New Investment for Dealstruck Boosts Lending Capital to More Than $100 Million”
  • “Hypori Introduces Seamless App Mode in Latest ACE Product Suite Release”; see Hypori live in New York at FinovateFall 2015.

Around the web

  • DoubleNetPay co-founder and CEO weighs in on retirement planning in Employee Benefit News.
  • Bank Innovation: CurrencyTransfer is preparing for a “major funding round.”
  • TransferWise announces support for Apple Pay.
  • PayPal unveils six new features for its invoicing service.
  • ThetaRay opens up its first office in the U.S. See ThetaRay at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.
  • Expensify introduces new travel-and-expense platform with new integrations and partnerships.
  • TransferTo and PayPal partner to enable mobile top-up in Canada.

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.

Five Alums Earn Finalist Spots in Global Banking Innovation Awards 2015

Five Alums Earn Finalist Spots in Global Banking Innovation Awards 2015

BAI_homepage_July2015

Five Finovate alums, including three innovative bank partners, have made it to the finals of the BAI Global Banking Innovation Awards 2015.

Lending Club, Moven, and PayItSimple will compete for top honors in the “Most Innovative Non-Bank Financial Services Organization Award.”

Fidor Bank AG, headquartered in Germany, earned finalist honors in four categories. Fidor demoed its FidorPay Account at FinovateEurope 2011:

  • Product and service Innovation
  • Innovation in payments
  • Disruptive innovation in banking
  • Most innovative bank of the year

Poland’s Idea Bank made it to the finals in one category, Innovation in Payments. Idea Bank joined Efigence on the stage for FinvoateEurope 2014 and presented their transaction system for SMEs.

The winners and finalists will be recognized during the BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, 13-15 October 2015 in Las Vegas.

A total of 39 finalists were selected out of more than 250 nominees. This year’s event featured three new categories: Innovation in Payments; Most Innovative Community-based Banking Organization; and Most Innovative Non-bank Organization. According to BAI president and CEO Debbie Blanucci, the goal was to recognize the full breadth of innovation in the financial services space.

“The new changes in this year’s program will enable us to further recognize innovation and originality throughout our industry,” Blanucci said, “including community financial institutions and new non-bank entrants that provide direct-to-consumer banking products and services.”

2015 marks the fifth year of the The BAI – Infosys Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards, sponsored by Bank Administration Institute and BAI Center and Infosys.

Fintech Fundings: 22 Companies Raise $450 Million Week Ending July 24

Fintech Fundings: 22 Companies Raise $450 Million Week Ending July 24

money_bucketsWhile the week got off to a slow start, the money arrived in buckets the past 48 hours. Counting the $250 million in new debt to alt-small-biz lender LiftForward, the weekly total was $454 million. But the more widely tracked equity total was still a sizable $204 million across 20 companies including three Finovate alums: Apprenda which raised an impressive $24 million; DealStruck with $10 million to fuel its small-biz lending; and Revolut bringing in $2.3 million for its mobile P2P payment service.

The biggest equity round ($50 million) went to Remedy Partners, a Connecticut-based health tech company. While not a pure fintech play, we included it here because its primary customers are the big insurers, including the U.S. government. The second biggest round was also in the insurance arena, as Sweden’s BIMA (aka Milvik) raised $38 million for its micro-insurance products in emerging markets.

Here are the deals from 18 July through 24 July 2015, ranked by size:

Remedy Partners
Bundled care and payment programs for health insurers
HQ: Darien, Connecticut
Latest round: $50 million Series B
Total raised: $86.2 million
Tags: Insurance, health care, payments, accounts receivable, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

BIMA (Milvik)
Mobile insurance provider in emerging markets
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Latest round: $38.4 million Series C
Total raised: $60.4 million
Tags: Insurance, mobile, underbanked, pay-as-you-go, microinsurance
Source: Crunchbase

Mswipe
Mobile point-of-sale solution for feature phones
HQ: Mumbai, India
Latest round: $25 million Series C
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: mPOS, acquiring, credit and debit cards, payments, merchants, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Apprenda
Platform-as-a-service provider
HQ: Troy, New York
Latest round: $24 million
Total raised: $55 million
Tags: Enterprise, development platform, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

CircleBack Lending
Consumer lending P2P marketplace
HQ: Boca Raton, Florida
Latest round: $17.5 million Series A
Total raised: $22 million
Tags: Lending, credit, consumer, loans, investing, person-to-person
Source: Crunchbase

DealStruck
Marketplace lender for small biz
HQ: Carlsbad, California
Latest round: $10 million Series B
Total raised: $69.5 million ($19.5 million equity; $50 million debt)
Tags: Lending, underwriting, loans, SMB, P2P, peer-to-peer, investing, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Innovati
Payment-acceptance technology
HQ: Bangalore, India
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $6.6 million
Tags: Payments, merchants, POS, point-of-sale, acquiring, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

DataFox
Discover and track companies for investing, sales
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $6.8 million
Tags: Investing, sales, business development
Source: Crunchbase

Procurify
Corporate-purchasing management
HQ: Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $5.2 million
Tags: Purchasing, expense management, expense reports, accounts payable, accounting
Source: Crunchbase

Bitx
Bitcoin wallet and payments
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $4 million
Total raised: $4.8 million
Tags: Digital wallet, bitcoin, blockchain, mobile, payments, South Africa (market)
Source: FT Partners

Limelight Health
Sales tools for insurance agents
HQ: California City, California
Latest round: $3 million Series A
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Healthcare, insurance, brokers, sales, quotes
Source: Crunchbase

Mint Payments
Mobile point-of-sale system
HQ: Sydney, Australia
Latest round: $2.9 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: mPOS, SMB, payments, cards, acquiring, merchants
Source: FT Partners

Investorist
Investing and selling platform for raw land property
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Latest round: $2.5 million Seed
Total raised: $2.5 million
Tags: Real estate, investing, off-the-plan property, B2B, SMB, enterprise
Source: Crunchbase

Revolut
P2P mobile payments and remittances
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $2.3 million Seed
Total raised: $2.8 million
Tags: Payments, fx, remittance, mobile, prepaid debit card, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

MoneyMover
Remittance provider
HQ: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: $1.6 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, fx, SMB, funds transfer
Source: FT Partners

Fortress Risk Management
Enterprise risk-management services for financial institutions
HQ: South Glastonbury, Connecticut
Latest round: $1 million
Total raised: $5.1 million
Tags: Security, enterprise, business intelligence, compliance, ERM, fraud protection
Source: Crunchbase

Factom
Using the blockchain for managing records
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $1 million Series A
Total raised: $1.1 million
Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency
Source: Crunchbase

Self Lender
Credit-building service
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $500,000 Seed
Total raised: $2.6 million
Tags: Lending, loans, consumer, credit score, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Bankers Toolbox
Risk and compliance management for financial institutions
HQ: North Hollywood, California
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Compliance
Source: FT Partners

Cermati
Indonesian consumer financial services hub
HQ: Jakarta, Indonesia
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Consumer, lead generation, advertising, deposits, credit
Source: Crunchbase

——-

Debt only

LiftForward
Alt-lender to small- and mid-sized businesses
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $250 million Debt
Total raised: $261.3 million ($2.3 million equity, $259 million debt)
Tags: Lending, credit, SMB
Source: Crunchbase

Argos Risk
Credit risk management tools for small businesses
HQ: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Latest round: $200,000 Debt
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: SMB, accounts receivables, trade finance, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

———

Photos licensed from 123RF.com

Capriza Chosen by Flextronics, Marvell, NTT, Symantec to Boost Workflow Efficiency

Capriza Chosen by Flextronics, Marvell, NTT, Symantec to Boost Workflow Efficiency

Capriza_homepage_Jul2015

A quartet of tech veterans have selected Capriza to help simplify essential workflows in SAP, Oracle, and Sharepoint, as well as in their custom-built systems. Semiconductor-producer Marvell and security specialist Symantec will use the Capriza platform to streamline and manage Oracle processes. Supply-chain provider Flextronics, and Japanese telecom-subsidiary NTT, will use the platform to improve SAP processes. Workflows for timesheet entries and approvals are among the main areas of focus.

Myckel Haghnazari, an IT director at Flextronics called Capriza “one of the most innovative products” he’d seen in 15 years of working in technology. Haghnazari sees the platform as critical to helping “transform some of our core front-office applications into personal, responsive mobile apps.”

As Mayank Mehta, Capriza VP for product, explained in an article earlier this month in IT Business Edge, solutions are available to help enterprises develop mobile apps from their existing application code. The problem, according to Mehta and Capriza, is that many of these solutions fail to “capture and extend” the workflow the legacy application is in. Capriza’s solution is that rather than have developers write new code or build APIs, instead use a virtual browser tool in the cloud that captures the application’s business logic and workflow automatically and that generates a smaller, micro mobile application to suit the specific need.

https://vimeo.com/110044914

Capriza calls its approach “zero coding, zero APIs, zero upgrades.”

One of Gartner’s Cool Vendors for 2014, Capriza was named one of 1o mobile startups to watch at the beginning of the year by Network World. Its technology has been deployed by T-Mobile, Brocade, VMWare, TiVo and more.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Capriza will make its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York in September. The company has raised more than $50 million in funding, and includes among its investors Andreessen Horowitz, Harmony Ventures, and Tenaya Capital. Yuval Scarlet is CEO.

To see Capriza live at our upcoming fall event, click here to register today. Early bird savings are still available.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Five Alums Earn Finalist Spots in Global Banking Innovation Awards 2015″
  • “Capriza Chosen by Flextronics, Marvell, NTT, Symantec to Boost Workflow Efficiency”

Around the web

  • FusionInvest from Misys wins “Best buy-side pricing and market display” at Systems in the City Awards.
  • Avalara and ePages partner to provide cross-border transaction tax-compliance solution. See Avalara at FinDEVr 2015 in October.
  • Der Finanzprodukt Blog profiles social payments innovator, Fastacash.
  • Dublin Globe asks if Fenergo is the “best kept secret in Irish tech.”
  • Bitcoin Magazine takes a look at how Blockstack uses the blockchain to provide clearing and settlement services for banks. Join Blockstack at FinovateFall 2015 in New York City in September.
  • Taulia and Tradeshift earn spots on CIO Review’s 20 Most Promising Procurement Solution Providers for 2015.

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.

Fintech Unicorn List Q2 2015: An Estimated 46 Have Arrived + 38 On Their Tails

Fintech Unicorn List Q2 2015: An Estimated 46 Have Arrived + 38 On Their Tails

fortune_unicornWe published our first fintech unicorn list in April 2014 with a mere 11 companies. Just 15 months later, that number is up four-fold to 46. And it’s 11 more than our update two months ago (13 new unicorns less 2 falling out). Time will tell whether these valuation bets are temporary insanity from private investors or the beginning of a long cycle of re-imagining financial services. We’ll get back to you on that.

Please note: Our list includes financial technology companies (either direct services or software) founded since 2000 and valued at $900 million or more. Unlike other lists, we include exits (3 companies); public companies (5); real estate plays (2); and a few Finovate alums (3) that are not pure-play fintech, but do have substantial operations in that vertical. Without those additions, there would be 35 pure-play private fintech unicorns, or 29 if you used a strict $1 billion floor. See more caveats as the end of the post.

In addition to the 46 full-fledged unicorns, we’ve added 37 narwhals or semi-unicorns each with an estimated value of $500 million to $800 million. In total, there are 83 companies with a combined value of $121 billion, about 1/3 the most-valued bank on the planet.

Here is the breakdown by fintech sector:

Sector Unicorns Semi-U Total
Lending 14 10 24
Payments 15 7 22
Real estate 2 5 7
Insurance 4 1 5
Investing 1 4 5
Accounting 3 0 3
Security/Risk 1 2 3
Bitcoin/Block 1 2 3
Credit reports 1 1 2
Digital banking 1 1 2
Other 3 4 7
Total 46 37 83

 

And the full list (*new arrivals; **previous unicorns):

Company Sector Finovate Alum? Value ($Bil) Value Source
Lufax Lending No 9.6 WSJ June 2015
Zhong An Online* Insurance No 8.0 WSJ June 2015
Square Payments No 6.0 WSJ June 2015
LendingClub Lending Yes 5.6 Public
Zillow Real estate No 4.8 Public
Zenefits Insurance No 4.5 May 2015 round
CreditKarma Credit Yes 3.5 WSJ June 2015
Stripe Payments No 3.5 Dec 2014 round
Powa Technologies Payments Yes 2.7 Nov 2014 round
Klarna Payments Yes 2.5 Mar 2014 round
Xero Accounting Yes 2.4 Public
CommonBond Lending No <1.0 Valuation less than $1 bil per company (8/21/15)
One97 Payments No 2.0 Feb 2015 round
Prosper Lending Yes 1.9 Apr 2015 round
Affirm* Lending No 1.8 Funderbeam
Biz2Credit Lending No 1.7 Funderbeam
Dataminr* Analytics Yes 1.6 Funderbeam
Lakala* Payments No 1.6 CB Insights
Adyen Payments No 1.5 Dec 2014 round
FinancialForce.com Accounting No 1.5 Funderbeam
Oscar Insurance No 1.5 WSJ June 2015
Wonga* Lending Yes 1.5 Funderbeam
Zuora Payments No 1.5 Funderbeam
iZettle Payments No 1.4 Funderbeam
Housing.com Real estate No 1.3 Funderbeam
Qufenqi Lending No 1.3 Funderbeam
Revel Systems Payments No 1.3 Funderbeam
Social Finance (SoFI) Lending No 1.3 Feb 2015 round
Jimubox Lending No 1.1 Funderbeam
Q2* Banking Yes 1.1 Public
Coupa Software* Accounting No 1.0 CB Insights
Fenergo* Onboarding Yes 1.0 Funderbeam
FundingCircle Lending No 1.0 WSJ June 2015
Kofax Doc mgmt Yes 1.0 Acquired (Lexmark)
Mozido Payments No 1.0 Finovate est
TransferWise Payments Yes 1.0 CB Insights
Trusteer Security No 1.0 Acquired (IBM)
Vanco Payments* Payments No 1.0 Funderbeam
Avant Lending Yes 0.9 Forbes (4/15)
ClimateCorp Insurance No 0.9 Acquired (Monsanto)
Coinbase Bitcoin Yes 0.9 Funderbeam
Dynamics* Payments Yes 0.9 Funderbeam
IEX Group Investing No 0.9 Funderbeam
LendingHome* Lending No 0.9 Funderbeam
On Deck Lending Yes 0.9 Public
RenRenDai

Xoom

Lending

Payments

No

No

0.9

0.9

Funderbeam

Acquired (PayPal)

Total Unicorns 98.1

Near Unicorns

21 Inc Bitcoin No 0.8 Funderbeam
BankBazaar* Banking Yes 0.8 Funderbeam
Betterment Investing Yes 0.8 Funderbeam
Braintree Payments Yes 0.8 Acquired (PayPal)
LifeLock** Credit No 0.8 Public
Rong360 Lending No 0.8 Funderbeam
Wealthfront Investing Yes 0.8 Funderbeam
Accurate Group Real estate No 0.7 Funderbeam
App Annie** Mobile Yes 0.7 Funderbeam
Auction.com* Real estate No 0.7 Funderbeam
Ayadsi Analytics Yes 0.7 Funderbeam
Oportun (Progreso Fin) Lending Yes 0.7 Finovate est
Taulia Payments Yes 0.7 Funderbeam
WorldRemit Payments Yes 0.7 Funderbeam
AnJuke Real estate No 0.6 Funderbeam
Circle Internet Finance Bitcoin No 0.6 Funderbeam
EzBob Lending Yes 0.6 Funderbeam
FangDD Real estate No 0.6 Funderbeam
Kabbage Lending Yes 0.6 Funderbeam
Bill.com Payments Yes 0.5 Finovate est
CAN Capital Lending Yes 0.5 Finovate est
Cardlytics Marketing Yes 0.5 Funderbeam
Credorax Payments No 0.5 Funderbeam
Financial Software Systems Risk Mgmt No 0.5 Finovate est
FreeCharge Payments No 0.5 Finovate est
Kreditech Lending Yes 0.5 Finovate est
Motif Investing Investing Yes 0.5 Funderbeam
Ping Identity Security Yes 0.5 Finovate est
PolicyBazaar Insurance Yes 0.5 Funderbeam
Radius Marketing Yes 0.5 Finovate est
Receivables Exchange Lending Yes 0.5 Finovate est
Snowball Finance Investing No 0.5 Funderbeam
Strategic Funding Source Lending Yes 0.5 Finovate est
U51 Lending No 0.5 Finovate est
Wepay Payments Yes 0.5 Funderbeam
VivaReal Real estate No 0.5 Funderbeam
Zopa
Shopkeep
Lending
Mobile POS
Yes
Yes
0.5
0.5
Finovate est
Finovate est
Total Semi-U 23
Grand Total 121

*New companies and/or new unicorns
**Falling from unicorn list (note: Lifelock was a unicorn until yesterday’s stock drop)
Updates:
July 24: Added Xoom to Unicorn list based on acquisition price paid by PayPal
July 28: Added Shopkeep POS to Near Unicorn list based on $60 million Series D funding and total of $97 million raised
Aug 21: CommonBond emailed to say that the Funderbeam valuation ($2.0 billion) is incorrect and they are currently valued at less than $1 billion (but declined to disclose current valuation).

More caveats:

1. For private companies (41 of the 47 unicorns), values are hugely dependent on the terms of the deal (read this), so they are not comparable to public company valuations.
2. About half the unicorn valuations are derived from public statements by the companies or investors during recent rounds or acquisitions. However, half are estimated by analysts/algorithms from tracking firms, especially Funderbeam, an Estonian startup that’s relatively new on the scene. So there is a lot of room for error in these valuations.
3. For the “near-unicorn” list we’ve added a number of companies that recently raised large rounds, but have not made public statements about valuation. We estimated most of those at $500 million, but those are simply educated guesses.
4. We are using a broad definition of fintech including real estate. Also, we’ve included a few Finovate alums that are not pure-play fintech, but that have a significant financial services business.

Santander UK Launches Cash Kitty PFM App Developed with Kalixa, Monitise

Santander UK Launches Cash Kitty PFM App Developed with Kalixa, Monitise

Kalixa_logo

Move over millennials: Santander UK has unveiled a new money management app called KiTTi, designed to bring twenty-somethings into the world of social savings.

monitise-logoDesigned in partnership with Finovate alums, Kalixa Payments (FinovateEurope 2013) and Monitise (FinovateFall 2007), KiTTi lets up to 100 friends create collective “pots of money.” The “Cash Kitty” can be funded via a KiTTi prepaid contactless MasterCard up to £4,000, and the account can be monitored with a downloadable app available on both iOS and Android.

See Santander UK’s video introduction to Kitti below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqs9fLxUHFw

The service is available to any U.K. bank customer over the age of 18. Friends can be invited to join from within the app or by text message. More than one KiTTi account can be managed by a single KiTTi card, and KiTTi can be used for payments in both the UK and overseas. A fee of 35p is applied to each KiTTi transaction.

Sam Nixon, head of KiTTi at Santander, called the app unique to the United Kingdom and “perfect for the WhatsApp generation.”

KiTTi was designed by Monitise Create, the company’s “design and innovation” studio. Alistair Crane, chief sales officer at Monitise, called it a “major step forward in social banking and payments.” Crane says the relationship between Monitise and Santander will offer still more: “We are progressing a number of home-screen, ‘human-first’ innovations which will ultimately transform the way consumers interact with their money,” he said.

Payment functionality for KiTTi comes courtesy of Kalixa, which includes both the mobile wallet and the prepaid contactless card, as well as handling customer services, KYC, and AML systems. Jonathan Bennett, chief commercial officer for Kalixa, put KiTTi “at the crest of the wave” that is replacing cash with “simple, inclusive, sustainable services made possible by mobile.”

Kalixa was founded in 2007 and has offices in the United Kingdom and Austria. Edward Chandler is CEO. London-based Monitise was founded in 2003. Alastair Lukies is founder and CEO.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVr2015LogoV2DateAre you building new financial technology? Be sure to register soon for the only event exclusively for fintech developers, FinDEVr 2015, on 6/7 October in San Francisco.

Industry news

  • Let’s Talk Payments highlights 29 APIs to consider before building any fintech product; many are FinDEVr alums.
  • New Y Combinator program for “very, very early stage startups” announced by YC Fellowship; deadline of 27 July 2015.

The latest from upcoming FinDEVr 2015 presenters

  • Lend Academy podcast features Kathryn Petralia, Kabbage co-founder.
  • Irish Tech News interviews Neil Costigan, BehavioSec CEO.
  • PYMNTS looks at OnDeck’s record-breaking quarter.
  • Red Herring names Kabbage a Top 100 Private Company.
  • Spreedly surpasses $1 billion in annual payment volume.
  • The Mifos Initiative joins The Open Source Initiative, a global nonprofit that promotes and protects open source software, development and communities.
  • Personal Capital featured in a Bloomberg Business column on options for new investors.
  • Business Insider looks at “transformative” fintech leadership within companies such as Braintree, Coinbase, PayPal, SamsungPay (with Loop), and Venmo.
  • GROWMARK selects Avalara AvaTax Excise and Returns Excise Enterprise.

Alumni updates

  • InComm partners with Gemalto to offer a secure prepaid mobile NFC payment option.
  • Trulioo appoints former Experian GM as president.
  • Bankless Times features Cloud Lending Solutions.

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

Finovate Debuts: Onovative’s CoreIQ Brings Automated Marketing Technology to Banks

Finovate Debuts: Onovative’s CoreIQ Brings Automated Marketing Technology to Banks

Onovative_homepage_June2015

CoreIQ is a marketing automation system developed by Onovative that speeds onboarding and broadens cross-selling opportunities for community banks and credit unions. The platform leverages the data in the banks’s core banking system to automatically distribute marketing content in a variety of formats, from email and SMS to phone calls and postcards.

“We are a hybrid between CRM and marketing automation,” Onovative CEO Michael Browning explained in a conversation during FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose earlier this year. “We bring data from all their systems and keep it behind their firewall, then use APIs to reach out to Trulioo and other companies for other functions (like Facebook ads).”

Onovative_FS2015_stage

From left: Onovative co-founders, CEO Michael Browning and CTO Clay Turner, demonstrated CoreIQ at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Onovative sees its technology as a challenge to the Salesforces of the World, and similar platforms. One observer at FinovateSpring 2015 referred to Onovative as “Mailchimp for Banks and Credit Unions.” On that point, Browning admitted that “as a company, we love taking on bigger companies. It’s part of the fun of being a startup.”

Company facts:

  • Founded in June 2013
  • Headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana
  • Six employees
  • Raised $400,000 in capital
  • Michael Browning is CEO and co-founder

How it works

Onovative’s CoreIQ is designed to give community banks and credit unions the same high-caliber marketing tools to better engage their customers that larger financial institutions have access to. Among the key differentiators is the way Onovative handles a client’s sensitive customer data. “We centralize the data. Companies don’t have to upload to the cloud,” Browning explained. “We use APIs to access it, but we keep the data where it belongs.”

Onovative_CoreIQ_dashboard

From the main CoreIQ dashboard (above), a marketing team has insight into every client in the bank or credit union. Marketers can use the dashboard’s Account Listing Report to build customized lists for a variety of outreach campaigns—e.g., “Select personal checking account customers with balances of more than $1,000″—or to build a campaign based on the customers of a single branch, a region, current status, account type and much more.

Onovative_CoreIQ_Account_Listing

Client data can be analyzed through one of CoreIQ’s visualizations or presented in a simple list form (see below) for ready use in a campaign. Campaigns can be developed to operate through a variety of channels—from email and SMS to postcards and outbound telephone calls—and the platform provides a number of predesigned templates. These templates help not only marketers to save time, but also make it easier for community banks and credit unions to remain compliant since the message is consistent.

“In just a few seconds I can go from a list of people to a campaign,” Browning said. “And because all of this data is kept behind the firewall in CoreIQ, I’m able to see all the way through to conversions, as well.”

Onovative_CoreIQ_Account_List

CoreIQ also provides an Actionable Report Campaign tab (below) that gives marketers insight into how much their campaigns will cost, how the cost of the campaign will impact the budget, and other important campaign information and criteria. The user can also see how the actual text or SMS or email will look when it is delivered.

Onovative_CoreIQ_Campaign

Part of helping community banks and credit unions engage their customers with the same efficiency and sophistication as larger institutions includes things like providing a wide variety of templates and artwork to accompany marketing messages. Templates for email, postcard, SMS, and other message channels are available for banks and credit unions to choose from.

Importantly, as Browning pointed out in his FinovateSpring demo of the platform, CoreIQ’s template library can also include elements that have an API-component, as well. “So we have things in the pipeline like the Facebook-ad network and other display networks,” Browning said.

Onovative_CoreIQ_Onboarding_Templates

Campaigns can be easily tagged for reference and analysis, separating “offers” from “courtesy followups” and “debt collections.” Campaigns can also be linked with specific offers such as business checking or auto loans. The “Communication Template” features both an “approved by compliance” toggle button, as well as a signature space for any revisions to the template to be noted and approved.

And because the reality of multichannel communications means that not every customer is available on every channel, CoreIQ has a feature that allows any email or electronic campaign to be issued in print format if the platform detects that no electronic channel is available for a given customer. For example, the system could be configured to send a direct-mail postcard whenever it encounters a customer with no available email address.

The future

Onovative’s to-do list is long, but all items carry a central theme: Make the necessary connections to bring more data to the hands of FIs seeking deeper engagement with customers. Browning says Onovative is partnering with “people that already have a lot of consumer data and connecting it with what banks already have.” At Finovate, those partners were largely the technology folks, the payment processors and core systems providers. “We want to hook their data into our system,” Browning explained. “Reaching out via SMS, email, print, Facebook ads, Google display ads, issuing gift cards via API, integrating behavioral data from other networks … it’s all important,” he said.

Onovative_CoreIQ_Mapping-Conversions

At a starting price of $900 a month for the complete CoreIQ suite, Onovative offers FIs the ability to try the platform for a few months before making a commitment, and insists there are no long-term contracts. Browning added, “We put price right out in front. People love the fact that price is transparent.” The company recently celebrated its partnership with Massachusetts-based Avidia Bank ($1 billion in assets), and in June 2015 was featured in a Credit Union Times article on onboarding strategies for small and medium FIs.

“The most important thing a credit union can do is to understand its members as much as possible as soon as possible,” Browning said in the CU Times feature. “Cross-selling is important, but you won’t know what to cross-sell until you fully understand their situation.”

And with CoreIQ, Browning is betting that the ability for community banks and credit unions to reach that kind of full understanding will become a lot easier.


Check out the FinovateSpring 2015 demo video for Onovative below.

 

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Santander UK Launches Cash Kitty PFM App Developed with Kalixa, Monitise”

Around the web

  • Lend Academy podcast features Kathryn Petralia, Kabbage co-founder. Come see Kabbage at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.
  • GMC Software releases GMC Inspire R10 customer communications management software.
  • DevNetwork profiles WePay at the API World 2015 conference.
  • DriveWealth joins with World Merit to promote the first Financial Literacy Challenge.
  • Sonavation unveils technology that puts fingerprint sensors under Gorilla Glass.
  • Top Image Systems inks deal with Bahrainian Xerox distributor, Business International all.
  • Dallas Business Journal interviews Chris Camillo, TickerTags founder.
  • Prosper begins debt-sale recovery strategy; charged-off loans will be packaged together for a debt sale.
  • AlwaysOn selects Taulia as an AlwaysOn Global 250 winner.
  • Beehive Startups takes a peek at MX’s culture. Check out MX’s presentation for developers at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco.
  • GROWMARK selects Avalara AvaTax Excise & Returns Excise Enterprise. Avalara will present at FinDEVr 2015, 6/7 October.
  • Forbes column on top fintech trends highlights MaxMyInterest, Prosper, Lending Club, Betterment, Vanguard, CUneXus, Patch of Land, and DarcMatter.

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.

A First Look at What’s Coming to the FinDEVr Stage this October

A First Look at What’s Coming to the FinDEVr Stage this October

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At the upcoming FinDEVr, 60 leading fintech companies will present their developer-friendly APIs, SDKs, and other solutions to an audience of financial builders and their technical colleagues. It’s the one place to gather tips and techniques from a wide cross-section of fintech players in just two days, all at an affordable price. For a personal touch, all presenters will be available at tables outside the auditorium to answer your detailed questions.

The event will take place 6/7 October at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco (check out our event brochure). Tickets are available at our Very Early Bird rate so pick up yours today.

Here’s a preview of what you’ll experience at the event. About half the presentations are listed below; the remaining 27 will be discussed in a few weeks.


Advisor Software will provide an overview of its wealth management cloud platform—an end-to-end suite of APIs, apps and widgets that power digital investment advice and financial planning applications.

Why it’s a must-see
It has nearly 120 APIs that will power the next generation of digital wealth management applications. Developers can tap into its APIs to build a new robo-advisor, develop investment proposal tools for financial advisers, create financial planning and portfolio construction applications, and more.

Apex Clearing will explain its cutting-edge financial services platform and how online brokerage firms and fintech groups can grow their businesses by leveraging our technology.

Why it’s a must-see
Apex will demonstrate the speed and simplicity through which customers can open accounts, fund them, and place trades. Specifically, the presentation will focus on Apex’s API behavior, and how it facilitates customer acquisition.

Avalara will detail the Weird and Wacky World of Sales Tax. Did you know that sales-tax in the U.S. is handled unlike any other place on the planet? There are over 12,000 taxing jurisdictions covering millions of tax-rule combinations. This makes it very hard for businesses to ensure they’re compliant to avoid the wrath of the law.

Why it’s a must-see
This presentation will highlight the complexity, showcase some of the bizarre taxing cases, and demonstrate how this difficult problem can be solved through a robust technology stack. Developers will learn how they can resolve their customers’ pain-points with a simple-to-use REST API.

Backbase will talk about its Digital Banking Platform and its Open Banking Marketplace. Fueled by a strong, open API strategy, Backbase’s platform gives FI’s the ultimate freedom and flexibility to work with any core and third-party vendor, to create a best-of-breed digital banking offering for their clients.

Why it’s a must-see

  • For banks: FIs can get an open platform that is truly able to deliver a superior customer experience, while at the same time offering full control to manage and maintain; they’re not locked into any vendor.
  • For fintech companies: Fintechs have the option to work with many banks, via the Open Banking Marketplace, to get their services available in a robust platform.

Bankguard provides a revolutionary 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) solution which addresses weaknesses of current technologies that makes it susceptible to Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks. This patented solution also effectively reduces the deployment and maintenance overheads typically associated with 2FA technology solutions offered in the market.

Why it’s a must-see
This solution was widely reviewed and given accolades by industry watchers, media, and academics in Japan. Japanese banks and corporations have shown interest in adopting this technology to either replace or complement their current security solutions.

The Beast Apps has an SDK that when combined with AWS can be used to build, test, and deploy complex pre-trade, trade or post-trade financial applications in the cloud, and within minutes. The application can be accessed in real time by anybody anywhere in the world using any desktop, browser, phone or tablet. Collaboration on the app is fully audit-trailed, for all users on all devices.

Why it’s a must-see
They are delivering battle-tested, robust, reliable, and fault-tolerant technology in real time. They make streaming, interactive, and sharable apps to run on desktops, browsers and mobile devices.

BehavioSec transforms behavior into a transparent layer of security by monitoring in real-time the way users interact with their devices. Behaviosec’s technology recognizes if a conflicting user is operating a device by monitoring the environment, rhythms, and interaction patterns that are unique to each user.

Why it’s a must-see
BehavioSec’s technology is proven to work well in several different verticals and use-cases. For developers, our SDK’s open up a whole world of possibilities to not only minimize fraud but also remove annoying friction such as False Rejects.

Blockcypher will explain how bitcoin and block chains enable programmable money. From simple scripts to complex contracts, code can automate the transfer of value, making it traceable, distributed and cryptographically secure. Dedicated block chains and smart contracts can automate trading with fast settlement as well as encode complex derivatives.

Why it’s a must-see
This session will put you on the right track and create a spark for you to build the next big finance thing if you want to:

  • Learn how block chains can fundamentally impact finance and Wall Street
  • Learn to rebuild a bank in two days without keeping funds in custody
  • Get a sneak-peek at what block chains and peer-to-peer distributed consensus can do

Clarify will demonstrate its API which turns media into actionable data. It auto-detects language, makes audio and video searchable, allows you to extract keywords, determine the topics, and a variety of other things. It allows you to have systems to make decisions based on the information you gather.

Why it’s a must-see
Too often we collect data-like presentations, support calls, etc. and rarely do anything with the results. Clarify.io gives you the ability to extract actionable information from your audio and video to make better decisions, confirm and validate compliance, and understand your media.

Currency Cloud will give builders at FinDEVr an inside look at its technology that fully automates international payments. It will showcase its tools that make it easy for you to integrate with its API and allow you to access its platform.

Why it’s a must-see
Currency Cloud knows that developers want to see how things work. So it will show you not only the tools it has built, but also the code behind them and how they fit together. Currency Cloud will show you how it built its interactive developer center from RAML specs, shortcuts for integrating with the API, and will give you a tour of its open-source SDK’s.

Deluxe‘s eChecks have modernized the oldest non-cash payment instrument, the check. The company will explain how you can easily leverage eChecks in your application to send and/or receive hundreds to thousands of dollars in payments at a time without paying transaction fees.

Why it’s a must-see
Financial institutions process 20 billion paper checks worth $30 trillion every year in the U.S. alone. Deluxe will show you how its eChecks combine paper checks’ most powerful payment and security features, into cutting-edge technology that’s delivered electronically. Deluxe will show you the why and how to use eChecks in your app.

Emailage will demonstrate the best techniques for any company to integrate the Emailage Rest API, giving instant access to information on more than 4 billion email addresses worldwide. Its panel will demonstrate how its API integration allows for the most seamless consumption of Emailage fraud-risk assessment.

Why it’s a must-see
The Emailage Rest API allows for frictionless fraud scoring, enabling businesses to establish customized settings based on risk levels. The Rest API allows for automated scoring and involves only front-line representatives who review transactions deemed as “suspicious,” instead of manually scoring and reviewing all transaction score types.

EVO Snap* will help you discover how to quickly add secure EMV global transaction-processing to your mPOS applications with the EVO Snap* Commerce Driver.

Why it’s a must-see
October represents a major EMV liability shift for POS transactions. This means retailers need to be prepared to accept EMV transactions. With the EVO Snap* Commerce Driver—a precertified, plug-and-pay SDK—developers can instantly enable EMV-compliant transactions and get solutions to market quickly and securely.

Fidor Bank introduced community banking five years ago. It embraced Bitcoin and Ripple two years ago. Now it is the first bank to offer open RESTful APIs with OAuth2.0, which gives direct access to its services and customer base. Stefan Weiß, Head of APIs, will talk about the vision, the current implementation status, challenges and solutions.

Why it’s a must-see
Most FinTechs still need banks because of regulation and processing. Fidor Bank provides both regulative support and strong technology. The presentation will show the ease and beauty of Fidor’s APIs. They will share important learnings from one year of developing and providing APIs in a high-risk environment.

Finicity, a fintech aggregator with 14 years of experience and 16,000+ developed data sources, will demonstrate real-time data-delivery via the new TxPUSH API. The instant availability of financial transaction and account data unlocks fintech innovation and improves security.

Why it’s a must-see
The TxPUSH standard pushes transactions as they happen, enabling real-time data delivery and improved security via OAuth. With TxPUSH, account holders will no longer have to “pull” or download transactions from multiple financial institutions. Transactions will be “pushed” in real time to Financial Event Hubs or directly to subscriber apps.

Forte will showcase its new platform that empowers developers with the resources to build the next generation of payment-enabled solutions. Spanning the widest spectrum of capabilities in the marketplace, Forte’s payment solutions provide the flexibility to power even the most unique business needs across any channel.

Why it’s a must-see
You’ll learn about interesting and unique capabilities that developers can leverage to build solutions for traditional and emerging business models such as marketplaces and the new shared economy.

Hyperwallet is the leading outbound payment provider to the independent worker and freelancer economy. It will showcase its REST API that allows technology companies to access turnkey global payout options while maintaining control of the user experience, making it easy for your users around the world to be paid.

Why it’s a must-see
You’ll leave this session understanding the importance of a payout platform vs. a payout method. You will see how building into Hyperwallet’s outbound payments technology will quickly, easily and securely unlock a new world of payout flexibility for independent workers on your platform.

Interxion, Sayua and Vontobel will present a European fintech success story. They will start with the co-located foundation infrastructure necessary to meet European demands, and progress to Sayula’s open-development-framework platform and added open-source components that allow Vontobel to meet the needs for a shared structured-derivatives valuation platform.

Why it’s a must-see
You will learn about the constraints applying to data and infrastructure for European financial services. You will also discover why major Banks value solutions which allow non-IT users to seamlessly snap together data sources, analytical libraries, and models to create new models by adding their business logic with an intuitive Excel interface.

Kofax, a Lexmark company, will present Kofax Insight, a process-intelligent and -aware platform that empowers data consumers to understand process fidelity, regression, deviation and other action-metrics in context to their business challenges. It will focus on mortgage borrower onboarding—SLAs; process exceptions; and artifact life-cycle.

Why it’s a must-see
Kofax will showcase how Kofax Insight can ingest data from a mobile device, ingest the content from the document, leverage a signature device, invoke a third-party data call and fetch data from a native system of record with no code, no third-party tools—all of which you’ll see live.

Kontomatik’s presentation will be about the current issues in banking and how Banking API can help this sector further progress. It will also explain possible integration system (OnPremise, SaaS, client-side). A legal aspect (especially PSD II) will be touched upon during this presentation.

Why it’s a must-see
In general, Kontomatik’s presentation will explain the whole set of benefits that could be derived from the integration of banking API. Various integration options and their pros and cons will also be explained.

Linqto enables customer video, audio and text communication in digital banking applications with a hosted video-communication service. Learn how to leverage the Linqto Application Programming Components to build a video communication piece into your web and mobile solutions.

Why it’s a must-see
According to Accenture’s 2014 Consumer Digital Banking Survey, 56% of millennials are interested in video-chatting with a bank representative by accessing a link on their bank’s website, mobile or tablet application. Build one-to-one and many-to-many video communication into your banking apps with the Linqto APCs.

Lleida.net’s Connectaclick is a customized solution for electronic contracting. Customers can get the deal done immediately, without delays, reaching the balance between legal certainty and conversion by using registered SMS or registered email. Lleida.net, as a telecom operator, acts as a trusted third party.

Why it’s a must-see
Being a tailor-made solution, Connectaclick combines registered SMS/email; email addresses/phone numbers verification; and ID validation. As a customer-data-validation service, the solution becomes more competitive and prevents fraud. Connectaclick lets you close deals anywhere, anytime.

Mitek will give you a behind-the-scenes look at its patented image-capture and computer vision technology powering its Mobile Deposit and Photo Fill products used by nearly 50 million users. It will also touch on its unique MiSnap auto-capture SDK.

Why it’s a must-see
Come check out Mitek’s advanced image-capture and computer-vision technologies. Once available only to financial services, Mitek technologies are now open to developers across all industries via the Mitek developer program. Learn how to make removing friction in your customer experience as easy as snapping a picture.

Personal Capital will show the inner workings of a truly data-driven retirement planner based on user’s aggregated data, enhanced by machine learning. It will also demonstrate how each personalized evergreen plan is refreshed as the market or user’s spending or saving behaviors change. All of this is visualized through a UI that makes sophisticated algorithms and complex data intuitive and actionable.

Why it’s a must-see
It employs machine-learning techniques to better forecast growth of a user’s portfolio and estimate her retirement spending. It uses AWS infrastructure to supercharge its data-driven retirement planner. Personal Capital’s connected ecosystem allows a user and her dedicated advisers to collaborate on the same data and retirement plan.

Praesidio will challenge why logs are unused when they are a great source of information about your application. Learn how, why, and when to collect your software’s logs for security, monitoring, and testing. Be an IT Hero: Perform analytics, find anomalies, stop hackers, measure performance, and more.

Why it’s a must-see
Modern software systems are distributed and complex. Logs are a downright awesome way to manage, monitor, and predict future behavior. Collecting logs is essential for modern cybersecurity and digital forensics; in this presentation, you will learn everything you need to know.

ScriptRock provides complete visibility into the configuration state of any IT environment. Any stakeholder from admin to DevOps to CIO can use this information to quickly ensure consistency and compliance, identify misconfigurations, and painlessly scan an entire infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities.

Why it’s a must-see
In an era where IT security and stability are critical in finserv, having visibility and validating what you’ve got are key to success. Previously, this task was laborious, tedious, difficult, and sometimes impossible. ScriptRock has built a platform which handles all of it with ease, allowing you to deploy faster and safer than ever before.

SnoopWall will explain the year of mCrime (mobile crime) and how all banking apps are easily eavesdropped by ‘trusted apps’ that are actually malware allowed on iTunes, Google Play and Microsoft App store. It will present a live demo of this ‘breaking into my own bank account’ on mobile using a malicious Flashlight App. Then, you’ll learn about AppSHIELD SDK.

Why it’s a must-see
AppSHIELD SDK is the only solution to this problem that works. It will show how IBM TRUSTEER SDK and INAUTH SDK and ARXAN are easily circumvented by cyber criminals to steal consumer PII. If you see AppSHIELD SDK in action (in 95+ financial institutions), you’ll want it in your banking app to protect your consumers and your brand.

Spreedly APIs minimize the complexity, cost, and risk of PCI compliance and payment integration. With “The Uberization of Mobile,” customers want discovery, purchase, and delivery all handled within an app. It’s no longer necessary to redirect end-users to affiliate sites to complete a purchase with Spreedly’s universal vault product.

Why it’s a must-see
Tokenizing with one gateway removes the burden of PCI compliance but locks that card into a single gateway. Building your own PCI-compliant vault is a huge undertaking. A card tokenized with Spreedly can be used multiple times against different gateways or API endpoints.

Thinking Capital will ask the question, “To Build or Not to Build?” This Q&A session with Thinking Capital’s CTO Pat Forgione and CSO Anthony Lipschitz will delve into how a leading fintech organization uses SAS software to create a proprietary platform that facilitates underwriting, decision making, compliance and more.

Why it’s a must-see
This presentation will highlight how fintech developers can use technology to create unique competencies in finance, and help them make the decision of building, outsourcing or customizing tech solutions.

Token will explain how developers can integrate fast, secure and low-cost payments with their applications.

Why it’s a must-see
If you are an app developer and are looking to add payments to your app, and you put great emphasis on fast access to funds, unbreakable security and exceptional customer experience, then you must attend the Token presentation.

Wallaby’s Wallet-as-a-Service and CardBase APIs enable any developer to bring rich, contextual information about credit cards and their attributes to life in their apps. You can see images, understand rewards, fees, features, and more. Integrate the APIs to provide smart-payment recommends in any checkout or financial process.

Why it’s a must-see
Wallaby has the nation’s leading credit-card-information database with more than 2,700 credit cards profiled and classified in an intelligent, structured manner across more than 100 attributes. Simply put, there is no other way to get this data and bring your user’s wallet to life in your app.

Xignite will be joined on stage by two of its clients—a leading robo-advisor and an online brokerage that provides low-cost trades. Attend this presentation to learn how these leading fintech companies easily integrated Xignite market data APIs into their web, mobile and wearable devices, and get a sneak-peek at their platform infrastructure.

Why it’s a must-see
Come see why Xignite was named one of the ten coolest brands in banking, and why leading fintech companies, like Personal Capital, Motif Investing and Robinhood, use Xignite real-time and reference market data to power their websites and mobile apps.

Yodlee Rapid Development Kit (RDK) is the easiest and fastest way to build financial innovation with Yodlee and third-party developed micro-components and services. Connect and engage your customers on any digital channel with Yodlee’s most powerful financial data and Yodlee RDK.

Why it’s a must-see
Yodlee RDK helps fintech developers with a faster development lifecycle by taking advantage of reusable micro components that can be easily integrated into their app on any digital channel. Using standard web technologies—like HTML, JavaScript, CSS and web components—it can seamlessly integrate within any technology stack.

Now that your interest is piqued, pick up your ticket to FinDEVr 2015, and we’ll see you in San Francisco on 6/7 October. Questions? Download our brochure (PDF); check out the FinDEVr homepage; or email SanFran@FinDEVr.com.


FinDEVr is sponsored by Yodlee and is partners with BankersHub, The BayPay Forum, bobsguide, California Bankers Association, Celent, CoinTelegraph, Mercator Advisory Group, and SF Fintech.

Platform-as-a-Service Specialist Apprenda Raises $24 Million

Platform-as-a-Service Specialist Apprenda Raises $24 Million

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In a round led by Safeguard Scientifics, enterprise PaaS provider Apprenda raised $24 million. The Series D takes the company’s total funding to $56 million. Also participating in the round were New Enterprise Associates and Ignition Partners.

Apprenda plans to put the new capital to work adding staff to its engineering, product, client services, and sales teams. Up to half of the 50 new employees are expected to be developers. Apprenda currently employs 90 workers in its offices in Troy, New York, and Manhattan.

The company will also use the new resources to “deepen support for WebSphere and other IBM technologies” as well as focus on security-related integrations, in its goal to be the “world’s most compatible PaaS system.”

“We care about not only the net new application(s) that developers are building today,” Apprenda CEO Sinclair Schuller said, “but also the thousands of apps in these companies that are already there. We want to take all existing IP you have and help you run in a cloud-like way.”

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Apprenda CEO and co-founder Sinclair Schuller presented his PaaS platform at FinovateFall 2013 in New York.

Apprenda is a development platform that enables building .NET and Java applications inside financial services and banking. As explained by Schuller during his FinovateFall appearance, the technology “stitches together the servers inside a data center into one unified cloud that banks and financial services can use in the context of their own private cloud solutions.” The platform provides a foundational software layer and application run-time environment that allows developers to focus on building new innovations rather than on negotiating and solving IT issues.

Last month, Apprenda announced that it was supported by VMware vCloud Air. The company released version 6 of its platform in April, featuring support for Docker containers, IBM WebSphere Application Server, and authentication protocols.

Apprenda demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2013 in New York. The company was founded in June 2005 and is headquartered in Troy, New York.