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 Oct 2015 in San Francisco.

FinDEVr2015-SF-Logo-StackedwdateThe latest from FinDEVr 2015 presenters:

  • Wallaby totals 2,700 credit cards and 500 banks in Cardbase database.
  • Avalara adds SuiteRetail to its list of certified solution partners.
  • GeekWire considers Avalara’s success, including its corporate lounge at the U.S. Open.
  • Financial Times lists Personal Capital in its Top 300 RIA List.
  • Personal Capital CEO Bill Harris, former PayPal CEO, discusses how PayPal fits into mobile payments.
  • Personal Capital launches Retirement Calculator that pulls data directly from your account to give you a reality check about saving.
  • Xignite Inside: Market Data Provider Powers Apple Watch Apps for Finovate Alums.

Alumni updates:

  • Tradier integrates with OneOption to advance options-trading platform.
  • Finovate talks payment API security with John Canfield, VP of risk for WePay.
  • Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work place On Deck Capital on list of 100 best places to work for millennials.
  • Finance Magnates features Tradier in its Fintech Spotlight.
  • Payments Source features BehavioSec’s biometric security solution (paywall).
  • InComm partners with U.K.-based Sainsbury’s to help consumers save on the cost of fuel at Sainsbury’s petrol stations after buying gift cards.

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

Currency Cloud Cooks Up $18 Million in New Funding Round

Currency Cloud Cooks Up $18 Million in New Funding Round

CurrencyCloudHomepage

Cross-border payments as a service company Currency Cloud closed an $18 million Series C funding round this week, bringing its total funding to $36 million.

Strategic contributors to the round include SAP’s independent venture arm, Sapphire Ventures, along with the Rakuten FinTech Fund. The U.K.-based company will leverage the SAP relationship to offer cross-border money remittance services to SAP’s business customers. Currency Cloud will work with Japan-based Rakuten to help guide its expansion into Asia next year.

Existing investors also contributed to the round:

  • XAnge Private Equity
  • Notion Capital
  • Atlas Venture
  • Anthemis Group

The company will use the funds to invest in R&D, product enhancements, and to support international expansion. Last year Currency Cloud expanded to the U.S. and opened an office in New York.

Currency Cloud, which launched in 2012, has seen 100% year-over-year revenue growth over the past two years. Adding to its success, this year Currency Cloud received an eMoney license from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This permits it to execute payment transactions and issue electronic money.

Michael Laven, Currency Cloud CEO, divulged additional metrics in an interview with TechCrunch:

Laven says that by the end of 2015, the company will be processing $1 billion per month in transactions. Those transactions, meanwhile, tend to be for around $15,000 to $20,000, with “many” extending to $1 million.

At FinovateSpring 2015, Currency Cloud launched Payment Engine, an API that Finovate alums such as Transferwise, Azimo, Kantox, Fidor Bank, and CurrencyTransfer use to power their services. Check out its launch video below:

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Currency Cloud Cooks Up $18 Million in New Funding Round
  • FutureAdvisor Grows 10x to $600+ Million Under Management
  • Xignite Inside: Market Data Provider Powers Apple Watch Apps for Finovate Alums
  • Prairie Cloudware Announces New Round of Investment

Around the web:

  • Insuritas to power insurance-agency solution to First Federal Savings Bank of Wyoming.
  • American Banker mentions how Qapital and Moven recently updated their software to make saving easier.
  • Digital Transactions recognizes Payzur from Acculynk as a P2P payments leader.
  • Misys wins Best Trade Finance Tech Solutions Company at the Trade Finance Awards for Excellence.
  • Fortune profiles Blooom President Greg Smith, former Goldman Sachs banker.
  • Personal Capital CEO Bill Harris, former PayPal CEO, discusses how PayPal fits into mobile payments.
  • InComm partners with U.K.-based Sainsbury’s to help consumers save on the cost of fuel at Sainsbury’s petrol stations after buying gift cards.
  • Jo Ann Barefoot podcast interviews Lending Club founder and CEO, Renaud Laplanche.

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.

New $175 Million Investment Earns Credit Karma a $3.5 Billion Valuation

New $175 Million Investment Earns Credit Karma a $3.5 Billion Valuation

CreditKarma_homepage_June2015

An investment of $175 million has boosted Credit Karma’s total capital to $368.5 million and given the company a valuation of $3.5 billion.

Participating in the Series D round were Tiger Global Management, Valinor Management, and Viking Global Investors. Credit Karma said the new funding will help them add new features to the platform.

“Today, no one tells you when your credit rating goes up or when a lower interest rate is available for your loan,” says Ken Lin, Credit Karma CEO and founder. “We’ll soon be able to let people know when they have an opportunity to save money, and if they’ll be approved, with new levels of certainty.”

Lin says he plans to leverage the data insights from the company’s more than 40 million members to “deliver top-quality insights for everyone looking to improve their personal finances.”

The funding announcement also included a preview of what Credit Karma has in store for the platform. This new functionality includes the ability to consolidate student loans with just a few clicks; comparison-shop for customized insurance quotes; find the best credit card for their spending and savings profile, and more. “Our members will be able to apply for something without filling out endless forms,” says Nikhyl Singhal, Credit Karma’s chief product officer. The goal is to ensure that customers don’t have to provide any more personal information than is absolutely necessary, while at the same time providing access to a broad variety of potential lenders.

It was less than a year ago that Credit Karma announced a valuation of $1 billion, and a little over a year since the company began providing free weekly credit reports to its members. This spring, Credit Karma launched its Thin File customer experience, which helps members with little or no credit history review their own situation to learn how to build a good credit history and see which credit products (cards and loans) would be most appropriate for their needs.

Credit Karma last demoed as part of FinovateSpring 2009. Named to Inc.’s “20 Financial Startups You Need to Know” in May, Credit Karma was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco. It is now the second-most-valuable Finovate alum, trailing only Lending Club (LC), trading at a $6.2 billion valuation today.

Lake Trust Credit Union Launches Larky-powered Mobile Rewards App

Lake Trust Credit Union Launches Larky-powered Mobile Rewards App

Larky_homepage_June 2015

A new mobile rewards program, “Lake Trust GO,” will soon be available to the more than 170,000 members of the Lake Trust Credit Union courtesy of a new partnership between the credit union and Larky.

“Our Larky-powered rewards program will produce tangible savings for members and create stronger and longer-lasting relationships that improve the health of our community-based credit union,” said Danielle Brehmer, Lake Trust Credit Union’s SVP for brand, strategy and culture. She believes the solution will grow Lake Trust’s commercial and retail membership as well as increase wallet share and interchange revenue.

Larky co-founder Andrew Bank called Lake Trust CU “innovative” and one of Michigan’s leading credit unions. Lake Trust Credit Union has more than $1.6 billion in assets and serves customers in a 35-county area in Michigan. Lake Trust CU was established in 2010 as Detroit Edson Credit Union (est. 1944) and NuUnion Credit Union agreed to merge to form what is now Michigan’s fourth largest credit union.

Larky_FF2014_stage

From left: Co-founders Greg Hammerman and Andrew Bank demonstrated the Larky platform at FinovateFall 2014.

Larky helps financial institutions, healthcare insurers, and membership organizations engage their customers and members by providing location-based discounts via “client-branded” online and web platforms. The solution supports local businesses, and Larky says that increased wallet share and better retention rates are among the benefits for banks. Lake Trust CU customers enrolled in the free GO local rewards program will receive discounts when paying with their Lake Trust credit or debit cards at the more than 220 local merchants around Ann Arbor, Brighton, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Howell, and Lansing. The standalone app is available on both iOS and Android.

The Lake Trust CU deployment follows news earlier this month that the Kentucky Bankers Association had selected Larky to provide mobile rewards programs for its member banks. The technology is also being used by Coast Hills FCU ($839 million in assets); Christian Financial Credit Union ($325 million in assets); and Chelsea State Bank ($290 million in assets); as well as by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Larky was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded by Andrew Bank and Gregg Hammerman, the company has raised more than $2 million in funding.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Mobile Fees: BillGuard Goes Freemium with Integrated Credit Monitoring
  • New $175 Million Investment Earns Credit Karma a $3.5 Billion Valuation
  • Lake Trust Credit Union Launches Larky-powered Mobile Rewards App

Around the web

  • The Financial Times looks at progress from robo-advisor services Nutmeg and Money on Toast.
  • FCI Federal Credit Union deploys CruiseNet core processing system from Jack Henry’s Symitar division.
  • UPS Capital, the financial services business division for United Parcel Service, to offer loans to its small business customers via Kabbage.
  • Motif launches new website for improved user experience.
  • Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work name On Deck Capital 1 of 100 best places to work for millennials.
  • CU Management features Onovative in a discussion on innovations in new member onboarding.

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.

Mobile Fees: BillGuard Goes Freemium with Integrated Credit Monitoring

Mobile Fees: BillGuard Goes Freemium with Integrated Credit Monitoring

 

billguard choices

We are always on the lookout for digital fee-income opportunities. And if I got a nickel for every one of them I’ve ever found … I’d have about a buck at this point. Fees in U.S. online banking are rarer than the (not-so) mythical fintech unicorn. And mobile banking fees are pretty much non-existent outside a few remote deposit fees (see previous post).

billguard_main_newBut last week BillGuard demonstrated a promising new avenue for incremental fee income: Integrated mobile identity-theft alerts, resolution and insurance (see inset). Actual credit report access is not included, but BillGuard says that it is coming soon. The service is mobile only, and the company currently has no plans to add it to the desktop version.

The credit and fraud monitoring is powered by CSIdentity (CSID), an Austin-based firm that says it powers 80% of the retail identity-theft-protection industry. The company, founded in 2006, has raised $36 million in equity (mostly in 2010) and $6 million in debt.

What it costs
The service is value-priced, at $2.99/mo for the single bureau Pro version or $6.99/mo for the 3-bureau Ultimate. In comparison, most ID-protection services are in the $15 to $20/mo range (Experian charges $15.95/mo for a private-labeled version called ProtectMyID with BillGuard). Founder Yaron Samid says BillGuard provides essentially the same third-party monitoring as the $30/mo offering from Lifelock for one-fourth the cost. And with BillGuard, users get credit/debit card transaction monitoring (powered by Yodlee) for free.

BillGuard premium benefits:

  • Credit bureau monitoring (3 bureaus in Ultimate service, 1 in Pro service)
  • Identity restoration services (via call center help)
  • 24/7 call center support
  • Lost wallet recovery
  • Social Security Number fraud alerts (Ultimate service only)
  • Black market alerts (Ultimate only)
  • $1 million insurance (Ultimate only)

Cardholders are already looking to their smartphones to stay informed of problems in real-time (case in point, BofA just integrated fraud alerts into its mobile app). So it makes sense to deliver extra protections services in-app. Although there is stiff competition from free ad-supported versions such as Credit Karma, we believe integrated protection services are a logical fee-based upgrade for mobile banking customers.

——–

Screenshots

BillGuard iOS app homescreen includes a pitch for its premium ID protection (17 June 2015)

billguard_home

An actual fraud alert I received after signup for BillGuard Ultimate (19 June 2015)
Note: It was from a breach in November 2013. I assume I received the alert this week since I was a new customer.

billguard_fraudalert_adobe

Personal Capital Launches Retirement Planner to Give You a Reality Check

Personal Capital Launches Retirement Planner to Give You a Reality Check

PersonalCapitalHomepage

Odds are, you’ve used some type of retirement calculator in the past to ensure you’re contributing enough of your current paycheck to your future self.

Today, Personal Capital launched a detailed, automated version of what it’s calling the Personal Capital Retirement Calculator.

The tool draws data from a user’s existing Personal Capital account, then asks questions about children and their education, Social Security expectations, and planned retirement lifestyle. Next, it generates 5,000 Monte Carlo simulations to predict your median net worth at retirement age and the 10% worst outcomes.

Although looking at the worst case scenario can be a bit sobering, the tool offers practical application by showing a range of expected results from different savings amounts. It also has the flexibility to edit retirement age, spending, and savings, as well as additional income changes, such as downsizing or receiving a pension.

The tool is available as a free feature for new and existing account holders.

Personal Capital showed off its data aggregation capabilities at FinDEVr 2014 in San Francisco.

http://finovate.wistia.com/medias/f94fu66zy9?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

Interested in seeing more presentations like Personal Capital’s? Tickets are now on sale for FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco. Pick up yours today.

Signifyd Raises $7 Million in Series A Investment

Signifyd Raises $7 Million in Series A Investment

Signifyd_homepage_2015

E-commerce, anti-fraud platform Signifyd has raised $7 million in Series A financing from a squad of all-star investors including Allegis Capital, IA Ventures, Lucas Venture Group, QED Investors, and Tekton Venture, Finovate confirmed today.

The investment takes Signifyd’s total capital to more than $11 million.

Signifyd’s technology—referred to as “fraudsurance” by company CEO and co-founder Rajesh Ramanand—automates the process of verifying identity, leveraging the social graph to see if people making online transactions are who they say they are. In the past, this process has involved sending customer agents to as many as a dozen different locations, from Google and LinkedIn to IP lookup websites and open-source services like White Pages. Courtesy of Signifyd and its Social Graph, a process that could take an individual as much as a half hour or more now takes “milliseconds.”

“We pull together all the data needed to screen a transaction and look at the identities involved holistically,” said Ramanand in the wake of his company’s previous funding round. “With Signifyd, you get a one-stop solution, from automated scoring to manual review, even if you do not have any prior internal history on the customer.”

Signifyd_FS2013_stage

Signifyd CEO and co-founder Rajesh Ramanand demonstrated Guaranteed Payments at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.

Signifyd estimates that the average e-commerce retailer loses more than 3% a year to fraud, when chargebacks, incorrectly declined orders, and security costs are taken into account. The fact that retailers have to be aware of an ever-widenening array of potential threats and to make sure that any safeguards against them are well integrated (i.e., work with each other and the merchant’s payment processes), spells huge opportunity for anti-fraud specialists like Signifyd.

The company said that it has reduced the amount of time spent manually reviewing transactions by as much as 60%, while simultaneously increasing catch rates. The result has been not only improvements in chargeback detection, but also fewer overall declines because of the company’s ability to leverage and use social profile data. Signify believes this is unique among anti-fraud solutions.

Founded in 2011 in Palo Alto, California, Signifyd made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco. CEO and co-founder Ramanand demonstrated the company’s Guaranteed Payments solution. That same year, Signifyd won the Merchant Risk Council award for Most Innovative Startup.

Finovate Debuts: Shoeboxed’s Features Help Banks Dig Into Level 3 Data

Finovate Debuts: Shoeboxed’s Features Help Banks Dig Into Level 3 Data

ShoeBoxedhomepage

Remember the magic you felt when you first saw your credit card transactions automatically categorized on Mint? Did your heart drop when you realized it only tracked merchants, not products? A granular view of purchases at the product level is known as level 3 data, and it’s valuable for both banks and consumers.

Shoeboxed has been providing level 3 data since launching in 2007. Its platform stores customers’ paper receipts, automatically aggregates their email receipts, and offers multiple services to help users track their finances and make better purchasing decisions.

At FinovateSpring 2015, Shoeboxed launched a packaged offering for banks to provide their customers. By better understanding the exact products consumers are purchasing, banks can serve their customers in a more tailored way.

Company facts:

  • Based in Durham, North Carolina
  • Founded in 2007
  • User base of one million

User experience
Bank clients deliver Shoeboxed seamlessly within their mobile app. At first, Shoeboxed displays the list of the customer’s transactions as they normally would see them (see screenshot below).

For a richer view of their transactions, customers take two steps:

1) Link email account to automatically sync email receipts such as airline tickets or Amazon purchases.

After syncing to email, Shoeboxed aggregates email receipts, matches them with the credit card transaction, and provides details about each purchase. To see more information about a transaction, the app supplies a copy of the original receipt, an itemized list of purchases, and the category of the transaction, all within the banking app.

ShoeboxedAccountEmaillink

2) Upload photos of paper receipts

For paper receipts, users take pictures from within the mobile banking app. In the background, Shoeboxed automatically matches the SKU of items on the receipts to the corresponding transactions.

Fraud alerts

In potential fraud cases, where the amount listed on the receipt differs from the amount of the final transaction, Shoeboxed highlights the purchase in yellow to alert the user.

ShoeBoxedTransactions

In this case, the posted transaction amount for Beyu Caffe exceeds the amount on the receipt by $5. Here, an employee may have changed the tip after the customer signed the receipt.

ShoeboxedFraud1

Other Shoeboxed benefits include:

1) Price drop alerts
2) Product recall alerts
3) Product return reminders

For banks
Shoeboxed believes that receipt-capture will soon become a standard, must-have banking feature, similar to mobile remote deposit. The company is currently targeting the top 20 U.S. banks, helping them customize the product to their specific needs through an SDK that can be integrated in as fast as two to three months. It also offers a guided, turnkey solution.

Shoeboxed’s white-labeled solution enables banks to offer their customers a granular view of what they’re purchasing. Banks can leverage this level 3 data to enhance their advertising, rewards, and create more tailored offerings to end-customers.

Shoeboxed also offers the service directly to consumers and small businesses. Check out the company’s launch video of its Receipt Capture for Banks at FinovateSpring 2015.

Social Money Teams Up with Sallie Mae to Provide Goal-based Savings Accounts

Social Money Teams Up with Sallie Mae to Provide Goal-based Savings Accounts

SocialMoney_homepage_June2015

Having established itself as a goal-saving solution for millennials with its SmartyPig solution, Social Money is now gearing up for the next generation with its new partnership with educational lender, Sallie Mae.

Sallie Mae will use Social Money’s CorePro technology to build savings accounts for educational expenses such as tuition and books. The accounts are part of Sallie Mae’s Upromise program and will be rolled out this summer.

The partnership “validates a lot of trends” said Social Money co-founder Jon Gaskell in a telephone conversation after the deal was announced. First, it demonstrates the value of its new technology organizations can use to make goal-based savings accounts easy to set up, administer and, importantly, be cost-effective.

SocialMoney_FS2012_stage

(Left to right): Social Money co-founders Scott McCormack, president, and Mike Ferrari demonstrated their GoalSetter solution at FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco.

Second, Social Money’s relationship with Sallie Mae shows banks there may be more value in their “low-balance” clientele than they think. “Sallie Mae would have to pay a lot of money to bank these accounts,” Gaskell said. “CorePro makes it easy to provide an account to customers and not affect the business model.”

Social Money co-founder and President Scott McCormack agreed. A banker by trade, McCormack spoke about the challenges of serving low-balance segments such as students and the underbanked. Often the only way to offset the costs is through higher fees, he said, which is not what low balance segments want or will pay for.

“CorePro eliminates that issue,” McCormack said. “We provide a core processing solution to the bank at a cost-effective entry point so (the bank) can provide a value-added user experience.”

CorePro-main+image

“We help (banks) profitably bank customers they can’t reach,” said Gaskell. “Many of them don’t have the best feelings about banks, or about needing them. We provide a bridge to the next generation of bank customer.”

The Upromise program from Sallie Mae helps students and their families save money for education expenses via a rewards program that provides cash back for school when shopping with any one of Upromise’s more than 850 retail partners. Upromise also provides a MasterCard credit card with a cash-back-for-college plan, and a high-yielding savings account. Even though Upromise has been in operation for 13 years, Sallie Mae’s Charles Rocha, executive vice president, welcomes the new relationship with Social Money.

“We are consistently looking for new ways to enhance our customer experience and provide products and services to help our customers effectively save, plan, and responsibly pay for college,” Rocha said. “Social Money’s platform will provide a simple, straightforward, and consumer-friendly system for our new college savings account.”

Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, Social Money was founded in 2008 as SmartyPig, and rebranded as Social Money ahead of its appearance at FinvoateSpring 2012. CorePro was officially launched in 2013. The technology has been deployed by FIs like The Bancorp and Lincoln Savings Bank, as well as payment processors such as The Members Group. Qapital, another Finovate alum, has leveraged Social Money’s savings account and core processing power to build its own PFM app.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Social Money Teams Up with Sallie Mae to Provide Goal-based Savings Accounts
  • Finovate Debuts: Shoeboxed’s Features Help Banks Dig Into Level 3 Data
  • Personal Capital Launches Retirement Planner to Give You a Reality Check

Around the web

  • Trustly creates double-digit increase in conversion rate after launching with Logitravel, now constitutes 40%+ of all transactions.
  • PYMNTS interviews Vishal Patel, senior marketing leader at Tradeshift on how the company makes the supply chain run smoothly.
  • Personal Capital launches retirement-planning tool.
  • Finance Magnates features Tradier in today’s Fintech Spotlight.
  • NICE Actimize, a division of NICE Systems, launches its Customer Due Diligence suite.
  • Mobile Syrup features FinanceIt, “the money lender for the smartphone age.”
  • InvestorIntel for Investors highlights Lending Club, Prosper, and FundAmerica in its look at startups in the crowdfunding industry.
  • Upstart Business Journal talks about how Malauzai Software is enabling “wearable banking.”
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Jingit CEO Kate Bolster.
  • BuzFeed lists TradeHero among its “13 apps that’ll teach you something new every day.”
  • Business Insider examines how LoopPay could help Samsung take the “early lead” in mobile payments.
  • PaymentsSource quotes Prairie Cloudware CRO Doug Parr in a column on Apple Pay adoption (sub req).
  • Payments Source features BehavioSec’s biometric security solution (paywall).
  • Emitac Enterprise Solutions partners with Kony to speed the delivery of enterprise mobile apps.
  • Cartera Commerce launches Splender, a new eCommerce and cash-back shopping website.

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.