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TickerTags Launches in Beta

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 13, 2015
Categories: TickerTags

TickerTags, a startup that surfaces market trends before they become news, launched the beta version of its platform for investors last week.

TickerTags charts the number and sentiment of conversations around a brand and other key words to help investors anticipate a rise or fall in the company’s stock price. The TickerTag database holds 350,000 keywords and phrases associated with 8,000 publicly traded companies.

The platform lets users create up to 40 Private Tags, for example, Kate Spade + Love and Michael Kors + Love to help forecast the stock price activity of public handbag companies.

The Dallas-based company, which debuted the platform at FinovateSpring in May, plans to price subscriptions at $30 per month for 40 Private Tags. Right now, it’s letting users track up to 40 tags for free until the end of this year.

The company plans to launch sentiment analysis in a few months and will add trend data from Facebook by the end of this year.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 13, 2015
Categories: AcceptEmail, BankBazaar, BioCatch, CardFlight, Cardlytics, InComm, Lendio, TickerTags, TransferTo, TransferWise, Yodlee

On Finovate.com:

“TickerTags Launches in Beta”

Around the web

Pymnts features BioCatch.

Lendio launches new commercial real estate financing division.

AcceptEmail announces first major reseller agreement since opening U.S. headquarters.

Weinstein Company to use Cardlytics’ Box Office Purchase Data to engage with active moviegoers.

TransferTo enables Xoom customers to instantly send airtime credit online from the U.S. to international prepaid mobile phones.

Payment Alliance International to offer CardFlight’s EMV mPOS acceptance solutions to its market-partner distribution-network and merchant customers nationwide.

Yodlee’s write up of fintech innovation in Europe highlights TransferWise.

State Bank of India partners with BankBazaar to provide an online platform to home loan borrowers to apply for SBI Home Loans.

MetaBank partners with InComm to become an issuing bank for InComm’s prepaid card programs.

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.

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Fintech Fundings: $150 Million Raised by 15 Companies Week Ending 10 July

By Jim Bruene Posted on July 10, 2015
Categories: Uncategorized

This week, a wide variety of fintech companies raised money—from blockchain security (BitFury) to B2B payments (Karmic Labs). But once again the lending sector attracted the most cash, accounting for $95 million, or 64% of the $150 million total.

The biggest round of the week was a partial Series C totaling $44 million to Finovate alum Kreditech. Two other Finovate alums raised new rounds: $5 million to Karmic Labs and an undisclosed amount to Nearex.

In total, 15 companies raised $150 million, bringing the year-to-date total to $8.4 billion.

Here are the deals, by size, announced between 4 July and 10 July 2015:

KreditTech
Alt-lender and credit-scoring services
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Latest round: $44 million Series C
Total raised: $307 million ($215 million debt; $92 million equity)
Tags: Lending, loans, consumer, credit score, underwriting, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

LSQ Funding
Receivables financing
HQ: Maitland, Florida
Latest round: $40 million
Total raised: $140 million
Tags: Alt-lending, SMB, accounts receivables, underwriting
Source: FT Partners

BitFury
Blockchain and bitcoin security
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $20 million
Total raised: $60 million
Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, virtual currency, security
Source: Crunchbase

SlimPay
Online payments
HQ: Paris, France
Latest round: $16.6 million
Total raised: $16.6 million
Tags: Payments, direct debit, bank account, mobile payments, SMB, consumer
Source: Crunchbase

Lendingkart
Online financing for small business working capital
HQ: Ahmedabad, India
Latest round: $10 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: SMB, lending, underwriting
Source: Crunchbase

Karmic Labs
B2B payments infrastructure
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $7.7 million
Tags: Payments, SMB, enterprise, Dash (trade name), Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

FAMACO
Android-based NFC reader
HQ: Paris, France
Latest round: $4.4 million
Total raised: $5.4 million
Tags: Payments, loyalty, SMB, POS, point-of-sale, hardware, acquiring
Source: Crunchbase

BeneStream
Health insurance
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $4.3 million Series A
Total raised: $7.6 million
Tags: Healthcare, enterprise, self-insure
Source: FT Partners

OneMove
Real estate transaction platform
HQ: Regina, Canada
Latest round: $2.3 million
Total raised: $12.2 million
Tags: Home buying, mortgage, homeowners insurance
Source: FT Partners

Self Lender
Credit-building service
HQ: Austin, Texas
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $2.0 million
Tags: Lending, loans, consumer, credit score, underwriting, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase

Toast
Online remittances and P2P transfers
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: $750,000 Seed
Total raised: $750,000
Tags: Payments, person-to-person, international remittances, fx
Source: FT Partners

Fundible
Group buying platform
HQ: Cardiff, United Kingdom
Latest round: $170,000
Total raised: $170,000
Tags: Payments, social, purchase, merchants, SMB
Source: Pymnts.com

Nearex
Proximity payments
HQ: Singapore
Latest round: Undisclosed Series B
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Micropayments, POS, SMB, merchants, mobile payments, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

BrickVest
Real estate investing marketplace
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: $1+ million
Tags: Mortgage, real estate, investing
Source: Crunchbase

IndiaLends
Lending and borrowing marketplace
HQ: New Delhi, India
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Loans, credit, consumer, P2P, peer-to-peer, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

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Prosper’s Growth History: $4 Billion in Loan Originations Since Launch

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 10, 2015
Categories: Prosper

What’s the most efficient way to understand the growth of a company? Look at the data, of course!

P2P lending granddaddy, Prosper, recently published some facts and stats about its history, performance, and future plans. We dissected the key pieces:

Prosper launched in 2006, and six years later, in 2012, the company had closed $150 million in loans.

In 2014, Prosper closed $1.6 billion in loans, a record at that time, and brought in 3.5 times more loan volume than 2013.

In Q1 2015, Prosper closed its largest quarter so far with $912 million in loan originations on the platform—an increase of almost 12x over two years before.

This week, Prosper announced it has originated more than $4 billion in loans since its 2006 launch.

Graph source: Prosper blog (http://bit.ly/1JWswZO)

The industry is taking notice. So far this year, Prosper has been named one of Forbes Magazine’s Most Promising Companies of 2015, an AlwaysOn OnFinance Company of the Year, and was listed as a Global 250 Top Private Company.

In 2012, Prosper employed 85 people. The company now has 457+ employees and, in 2015 alone, has doubled the size of its engineering team.

Prosper debuted at the first Finovate event in 2007 in New York City. Check out the demo video below.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 10, 2015
Categories: Currency Cloud, Kreditech, Patch of Land, Prosper, Realty Mogul, Tradeshift

On Finovate.com

“Prosper’s Growth History: $4 Billion in Loan Originations Since Launch”

Around the web

American Banker covers Realty Mogul and Patch of Land (paywall).

PYMNTS looks at how Currency Cloud plans to use its recent round of funding. Come see their presentation at FinDEVr 2015.

Tradeshift partners with supply-chain management solutions company Quyntess, which has built three apps on Tradeshift’s open platform.

TechCrunch rumors Kreditech is three months out from closing a $110 million round with contribution from Peter Thiel.

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.

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Finovate Debuts: itBit’s Regulated Bitcoin Trading Platform

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 9, 2015
Categories: Finovate Debuts, itBit

While there are dozens of bitcoin trading platforms available to people looking to buy and sell bitcoin, itBit easily differentiates itself from the masses.

itBit’s founders set out to build a compliant exchange which is what sets the New York-based company apart from its numerous competitors. In fact, it is the only regulated bitcoin trading platform open to all U.S. customers.

Company facts:

32 employees
$30 million in funding
Headquartered in New York City
Thousands of users across the globe
Board members include Senator Bill Bradley; Sheila Bair, former FDIC chairman; and Robert Herz, former FASB chairman
Accommodates both retail and institutional traders

itBit Trust Company

itBit has a trust company that is licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The company selected New York state because the founders are based in NYC, and it is the most difficult state from which a license can be obtained. For this reason, the certification is recognized nationwide.

As a part of this license, itBit protects all of users’ fiat and bitcoin currencies. It also offers tax documentation and FDIC insurance for U.S. currency deposits.

Since itBit is regulated, it must pass yearly exams, complete capital requirements, and face oversight to ensure its bitcoins are secure. Additionally, the company must maintain a certain level of regulatory capital and is liable to repay users in the event any currency is lost or stolen.

Trading platform

itBit enables users to trade three fiat currencies against bitcoin (XBT), including Euros (EUR), Singapore dollars (SGD), and U.S. dollars (USD). itBit holds all client bitcoins in cold storage, i.e., stored offline.

The screenshot below shows the user’s wallet, which displays account balances across all currencies. The wallet also offers the option to deposit and withdraw from their account.

To make a deposit, the user selects the desired currency. For every deposit, itBit generates a unique address, corresponding to the user’s wallet, which ensures funds are routed directly into their itBit account. The wallet dashboard also offers a visualization of all historical deposits, withdrawals, and currency trades.

Make a trade

At the top of the trading platform, itBit highlights the best bid and ask in the market, as well as the 24-hour bitcoin trading-volume.

To buy bitcoin, the user enters their desired limit-order price and amount, which will be filled only if the price of bitcoin reaches the user’s specified limit-price. Once they click buy and confirm the trade, their account updates in real-time to reflect the purchase.

The order book displays all executed, cancelled, and live orders in the market to all users. This transparent view of trades enables users to conduct their own price analyses.

itBit operates on a maker-taker fee structure, meaning that it pays rebates to users who are making money on its platform via limit-order execution. The rebate section shows the user their available balance to use toward future trading fees.

itBit is available internationally to users from 67 countries. The startup has offices in New York City and Singapore. It is currently looking for bank partnerships.

Check out itBit’s full live demo from FinovateSpring 2015 below, or visit the Finovate video archives.

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Avalara Integrates Automated Sales Tax Solution with Stripe

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 9, 2015
Categories: Avalara

Earlier this week, sales-tax automation company Avalara announced it has integrated with payment acceptance company, Stripe.

The integration with Stripe’s subscription billing service and API will make Avalara’s sales-tax calculation and compliance services available to companies using Stripe. The integration with Avalara takes minutes, after which merchants can automatically calculate sales tax owed on every transaction. Additionally, Avalara will automate the tax return preparation, filing, and remittance processes.

Avalara is now one of five third-party sales-tax service-providers available to Stripe merchants.

Founded in 2004, Avalara works with businesses of all sizes to provide holistic tax compliance systems that work within their own financial, billing, ecommerce, or point-of-sale systems. The Washington-based company has a variety of specialized products, ranging from SKU-level tax solutions for retailers to compliance systems for vacation rental homeowners. Avalara integrates with many other ecommerce software providers, including Bigcommerce, Groupon, Recurly, and Zen Cart.

Avalara is one of the presenting companies at FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco on 6/7 October, so come and check out their presentation. Super Early-Bird tickets are on sale through 10 July, so pick up yours today and save.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 9, 2015
Categories: App Annie, Avalara, Cachet Financial Solutions, Coinbase, Insuritas, itBit, Nearex, Tradeshift, Vouch, Xero

On Finovate.com

“Nearex Closes Series B Funding”

“Avalara Integrates Automated Sales Tax Solution with Stripe”

“Finovate Debuts: itBit’s Regulated Bitcoin Trading Platform”

Around the web

American Banker article notes Vouch is bringing social connections back into lending in the 21st century.

Xero updates Tracked Inventory feature.

Cachet Financial Solutions partners with risk-management software company Advanced Fraud Solutions.

Kansas City Business Journal considers how Tradeshift is igniting renewed interest in its new partner, C2FO.

TechCrunch: “App Annie Integrates with Google Analytics, Launches Free In-App Analytics for Developers”

Insuritas to power multistate insurance agency solution for Enterprise Bank.

Coinbase makes it easier to create recurring buys and sells of bitcoin.

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.

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Nearex Closes Series B Funding

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 8, 2015
Categories: Funding, Nearex

Singapore-based Nearex, a proximity-transaction solutions company, received an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round today. This marks the second round of funding Nearex has received from a group of investors, led by Tata Capital Growth Fund LP. Existing investors also contributed to the new round, including Japan-based BEENOS Asia and Xinvesco.

The company, which specializes in contactless micro payments, debuted Xip at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose. Xip’s micropayments solution offers merchants a tiny mobile point-of-sale terminal, called a XipPOS, that communicates with the consumer’s Mobile Money account via a personalized NFC sticker, XipTAG, to initiate a contactless payment.

The hardware integrates with existing mobile wallets. Nearex’s target clients include financial institutions and other mobile money service providers.

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A Dash of Good Karma: Karmic Labs Raises $5 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 8, 2015
Categories: Funding, Karmic Labs

Was it good karma? San Francisco-based Karmic Labs, a company whose APIs offer payment and SaaS solutions to enterprises, pulled in $5 million in a Series A funding round today.

The funds come from Greycroft Partners, who led the round, with participation from Trusted Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Pipeline VC, Correlation Ventures and individual investor Iqram Magdon-Ismail. The new amount tops the company’s 2013 Seed round, in which it garnered $2.7 million from Draper Associates. Karmic Labs’ funding now totals $7.7 million.

The company debuted its Dash Prepaid MasterCard at FinovateSpring 2015 (watch the live demo below). Dash is a business-expense-management platform that supplies employees with MasterCard prepaid cards, and enables managers to view, approve and control employee spending via a mobile app. The all-in-one system facilitates budgeting and accounting by simplifying the expense-reporting process.

The company is working with FIS as a distribution partner for Dash and plans to use the $5 million to advance Dash and create product awareness.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 8, 2015
Categories: FinDEVr APIntelligence

Are you building new financial technology? Be sure to register now for the only event exclusively for fintech developers, FinDEVr 2015, 6/7 October in San Francisco. Super Early-Bird tickets are on sale through this Friday, 10 July.

Before diving into company news, check out American Banker’s thoughts on why U.S. banks are opening up APIs to outsiders. It’s worth the read.

The latest from FinDEVr 2015 presenters

“12 New FinDEVr 2015 Presenters Announced“

“PayPal’s Early Valuation Tops $44 Billion”

PYMNTS.com takes a look at PayPal CEO Dan Schulman’s conversation with the Financial Times.

My Bank Tracker reviews and compares offerings from Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and BillGuard.

Rise in tech investment in the U.K. credited to companies such as Currency Cloud in London’s fintech sector.

Alumni updates

Xero releases payroll availability for Nevada and Illinois.

Dwolla’s Jordan Lampe pens American Banker article that focuses on Open Bank Project’s use of open sourced APIs.

Monitise to emphasize API, on-site solutions in recent strategy shift.

Xero to offer foreign invoice payments via new partnership with Midpoint Holdings.

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 July 8, 2015
Categories: BillGuard, Cardlytics, Karmic Labs, ThreatMetrix, Xero

On Finovate.com

“12 New FinDEVr 2015 Presenters Announced“

“A Dash of Good Karma: Karmic Labs Raises $5 Million”

Around the web

Cardlytics wins 2 Silver Stevies at 2015 American Business Awards.

Xero adds payroll availability in Nevada and Illinois.

ThreatMetrix wins Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in three categories at Network Products Guide 2015 Hot Companies and Best Products Awards.

Wired U.K. features BillGuard.

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.

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