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Meet Vouch: The First Social Network for Credit

By David Penn Posted on May 12, 2015
Categories: FinovateSpring 2015, Vouch

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2015.

And we’re off! The first demo of the day comes courtesy of Vouch, launching its “social network for credit” platform:

Friends and family members trust you with money, so Vouch does, too. Get started by visiting the Vouch website, or downloading the mobile app for iOS or Android. Borrowers apply for loans and ask friends, family, and other personal connections to “vouch” for them by answering a short survey. Vouchers are encouraged to back a portion of the loan to help further reduce the price to borrowers. “Vouches” are used alongside standard financial data to gain a more complete picture of creditworthiness, bringing down the price of loans for borrowers. The more vouches a borrower receives, the lower their rate.

Presenter: Yee Lee, CEO and co-founder

Product Launch: March 2015

Metrics: Funding, $3M (Seed round)
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C)

HQ: San Francisco, California
Founded: December 2013
Website: vouch.com

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FinovateSpring 2015: Fintech Showdown in San Jose

By David Penn Posted on May 11, 2015
Categories: FinovateSpring 2015

Halfway through rehearsal day on Monday, we learned that the attendance for FinovateSpring 2015 was nearing the 1,400 mark. And the best news about that is that we’re still happy to save a spot for you and yours, just visit our registration page before it’s too late.

Since rehearsal day is the perfect time to make sure everything is just right when the lights go up Tuesday morning, here are a few tips and reminders to help you make the most of your Finovate experience, wherever you may be enjoying it.

Bizzabo You!

Finovate events are known for many things, and high-caliber networking is one of them. So we are again turning to the social networking app, Bizzabo, to help attendees make the most of their time at the show. Bizzabo makes it easy for attendees to reach out and network with each other before, during, and after the show. It is also a great way to learn more about the presenting companies, the event’s sponsors and partners, and the event itself.

Registered attendees can download the Bizzabo app (iOS here, Android here). You can also access Bizzabo via your desktop at this link. If you’re new to Bizzabo, you can sign up using your LinkedIn credentials or set up an account using the same email address you used when registering for Finovate, as well as a password.

After you’ve downloaded the app, search for “Finovate” then select “Join” and you’re set.

If you have any difficulties signing in, please email us at [email protected].

Tweet Me!

If you can’t make it to San Jose this week for FinovateSpring 2015, don’t despair! Our live Twitter feed is the next best thing to being here.

Find us on Twitter at the handle @Finovate, and be sure to mark your tweets #Finovate. You’ll join an intelligent, occasionally irreverent, community of savvy fintech fans whose insights, observations, and clever remarks will ensure you don’t miss a moment of the show.

Remember you can always get more information about FinovateSpring 2015 at our event page. We have the two-day event schedule, list of presenters, sponsors, partners, and more.

We hope to see you this week at the conference! If you have any questions, check out our FAQ page or send us an email at [email protected].

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on May 11, 2015
Categories: ACI Worldwide, AlphaClone, Bright Funds, Fastacash, itBit, Kreditech, Lending Club, Motif Investing, Prosper, Silanis Technology, Toshl, Zopa

On Finovate.com

FinovateSpring 2015: It’s time for a Fintech Showdown in San Jose

Around the web

Forbes column on a “$30 trillion customer service experience” features insights from Motif Investing CEO Hardeep Walia.

Wells Fargo funding authorizes ApproveIt Web Server from Silanis Technology as part of their approved e-signature solutions program.

Sun Sentinel article highlights Toshl Finance in a discussion on the eight things you should know before going to college.

Column on RIAs and the active ETF market quotes AlphaClone CEO Mazin Jadallah.

Bright Funds establishes six disaster-response funds to support Nepal disaster relief.

The Economist features Lending Club, Prosper, Zopa, and Kreditech in its look at P2P lending and “financial democracy.”

Axis Bank launches Ping Pay, a multisocial payment app, in partnership with Fastcash.

PYMNTS.com considers what itBit’s New York banking license and $25M funding means for the broader bitcoin community. See itBit at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose this week.

ACI Worldwide signs Letter of Commitment to support U.K. Faster Payments Scheme’s New Access Model.

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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FinovateSpring 2015: We’re On the Way to San Jose

By David Penn Posted on May 10, 2015
Categories: FinovateSpring 2015

Spring has sprung! And with it, the return of FinovateSpring to the Bay Area for our second event in San Jose!

This year we will miss the throngs of San Jose Sharks fans marching down the street, packing the pubs, and enjoying the performance of their beloved NHL playoff contender. But we are looking forward to the throngs of financial technology fans who have already saved their spots at what is shaping up to be the biggest FinovateSpring to date.

So, whether you will be joining us here in San Jose, or following us online via Twitter feed (@Finovate) or our Live Blog here at Finovate.com, here’s everything you need to know to be ready when the lights go up on the Finovate stage Tuesday morning.

Schedule
Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 12 May. The first demo begins at 8:55 a.m. The final demo of Day One begins at 4:02 p.m.

On Wednesday, registration begins at 8:00 a.m. The first demo will start at 8:55 a.m. The final demo of Day Two begins at 2:28 p.m., with the Best of Show award ceremony at 4:15 p.m.

There’s still time to be a part of our record-breaking audience. Visit our registration page and pick up your ticket today.

Venue
FinovateSpring returns to the City National Civic, near the campus of San Jose State University. Here’s the address for those of you joining us in person:

135 West San Carlos Street
San Jose, California 95113

Presenters
Over the course of two days, FinovateSpring 2015 will feature 72 companies demonstrating the latest in fintech innovation live on stage. Take a peek at our presenters below, and learn more about them at our presenters page, as well as in our Sneak Peek preview series.

We hope to see you in San Jose! For more information, visit our FAQ page or email us at [email protected].

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itBit Raises $25 Million, Earns New York State Trust Charter Ahead of Finovate Debut

By David Penn Posted on May 8, 2015
Categories: Funding, itBit

Days away from its debut at FinovateSpring in San Jose, itBit has earned an investment of $25 million from new and existing investors. Participating in the round were Liberty City Venture, RRE Ventures, and individual investor, Jay W. Jordan II, as well as James Pallotta, chairman of Raptor Capital Management.

The round takes itBit’s total funding to more than $30 million. The company said in a statement that the capital will be used for both increasing investment in future products and services, as well as hiring talent in a wide variety of areas from engineering and operations to marketing and customer service.

The investment comes as itBit announces that it has won approval as a New York State trust company. This makes itBit the only federal and New York state compliant, U.S.-chartered and managed bitcoin exchange.

Charles Cascarilla, itBit co-founder and CEO, explained that the approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) will allow itBit to “serve as a custodian for our clients’ assets” and take advantage of the large pool of bitcoin traders in the U.S. Accounts will be dollar-denominated and FDIC-insured.

“Our mission at itBit has always been to create a trusted, institutional-grade exchange. Regulatory compliance is an important pillar of that mission,” Cascarilla said.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, itBit provides a platform for both institutional and retail traders and investors to buy and sell bitcoin. The company recently announced major additions to its board of directors: former FDIC chair Sheila Bair, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, and former FASB Chair Robert H.Herz.

Join itBit in San Jose for FinovateSpring 2015 next week. Seats are going quickly as we head for another record-breaking attendance at our annual spring event. Visit our registration page and save your spot today.

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FinTech Unicorn List: 36 Companies + 34 More Closing In

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 8, 2015
Categories: Funding, Metrics & Market Research, Unicorns

Update: An update of this post was published in July 2015.

———

It’s been a year since we published the first fintech unicorn list. It includes companies (and exits) in the financial sector (either direct services or software) founded since 2000 and worth at least $1 billion (actually we are using $900 million as the floor).

This year, the list has more than tripled to 36 companies, up 25 from the 11 last year. It’s partly a reflection of increased transparency into global valuations. For example, China has four alt-lenders on the list compared to zero last year. But mostly it’s a dramatic increase in private company valuations, especially in the lending sector.

In addition, we’ve listed 34 “semi-unicorns” (narwhals?) with estimated values of $500 million to $800 million. In total, there are 70 companies with a total estimated value of about $100 billion (~ 2 Ubers).

Here is the sector breakdown:

Sector	Unicorns	Semi-Unicorns	Total
Lending	11	11	22
Payments	11	6	17
Investing	1	5	6
Real estate	2	3	5
Insurance	3	1	4
Accounting	2	0	2
Credit reports	2	0	2
Security	1	1	2
Bitcoin	1	2	3
Other	2	5	7
Total	36	34	70

Some caveats:
1. For private companies (28 of the 36 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 have recently raised large rounds, but have not made public statements about valuation. We estimated most of those at $500 million, but these 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.

—————-

The Fintech Unicorn List

Company	Sector	Finovate Alum?	Value ($Bil)	Value Source
1. Lufax	Lending	No	10.0	WSJ (4/15)
2. LendingClub	Lending	Yes	6.5	Public
3. Square	Payments	No	6.0	Oct 2014 round
4. Zillow	Real estate	No	5.4	Public
5. Zenefits	Insurance	No	4.5	May 2015 round
6. Stripe	Payments	No	3.5	Dec 2014 round
7. Powa Technologies	Payments	Yes	2.7	Nov 2014 round
8. Klarna	Payments	Yes	2.5	Mar 2014 round
9. Xero	Accounting	Yes	2.4	Public
10. CommonBond	Lending	No	2.0	Funderbeam
10. CreditKarma (note 1)	Credit Reports	Yes	2.0	Funderbeam
10. Oscar	Insurance	No	2.0	Funderbeam
10. One97	Payments	No	2.0	Feb 2015 round
14. Prosper	Lending	Yes	1.9	April 2015 round
15. Dataminr	Analytics	No	1.6	Funderbeam
16. Zuora	Payments	No	1.5	Funderbeam
16. FinancialForce	Accounting	No	1.5	Funderbeam
16. LifeLock	Credit Reports	No	1.5	Public
16. Adyen	Payments	No	1.5	Dec 2014 round
20. iZettle	Payments	No	1.4	Funderbeam
21. SoFI	Lending	No	1.3	Feb 2015 round
21. Housing.com	Real estate	No	1.3	Funderbeam
21. Qufenqi	Lending	No	1.3	Funderbeam
21. Revel Systems	Payments	No	1.3	Funderbeam
25. On Deck	Lending	Yes	1.2	Public
26. FundingCircle	Lending	No	1.0	CB Insights
26. Jimubox	Lending	No	1.0	Funderbeam
26. Kofax	Doc mgmt	Yes	1.0	Acquired (Lexmark)
26. TransferWise	Payments	Yes	1.0	CB Insights
26. Trusteer	Security	No	1.0	Acquired (IBM)
26. Mozido	Payments	No	1.0	Finovate est
32. Avant	Lending	No	0.9	Forbes (4/15)
32. IEX Group	Investing	No	0.9	Funderbeam
32. RenRenDai	Lending	No	0.9	Funderbeam
32. Coinbase	Bitcoin	Yes	0.9	Funderbeam
32. ClimateCorp	Insurance	No	0.9	Acquired (Monsanto)

Semi-unicorns
Wonga	Lending	Yes	0.8	Finovate est
Wealthfront	Investing	Yes	0.8	Funderbeam
Rong360	Lending	No	0.8	Funderbeam
Betterment	Investing	Yes	0.8	Funderbeam
Braintree	Payments	Yes	0.8	Acquired (PayPal)
Q2	Banking	Yes	0.8	Public
WorldRemit	Payments	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
Taulia	Payments	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
Radius	Marketing	Yes	0.7	Funderbeam
Oportun (Progreso Financiero)	Lending	Yes	0.7	Finovate est
Circle Internet Finance	Bitcoin	No	0.6	Funderbeam
AnJuke	Real estate	No	0.6	Funderbeam
Kabbage	Lending	Yes	0.6	Funderbeam
EzBob	Lending	Yes	0.6	Funderbeam
FangDD	Real estate	No	0.6	Funderbeam
VivaReal	Real estate	No	0.5	Funderbeam
Motif Investing	Investing	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Snowball Finance	Investing	No	0.5	Funderbeam
PolicyBazaar	Insurance	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Credorax	Payments	No	0.5	Funderbeam
Cardlytics	Marketing	Yes	0.5	Funderbeam
Zopa	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
CAN Capital	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Receivables Exchange	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Affirm	Lending	No	0.5	Finovate est
Ayadsi	Analytics	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
21 Inc	Bitcoin	No	0.5	Finovate est
Bill.com	Payments	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
FreeCharge	Payments	No	0.5	Finovate est
U51	Lending	No	0.5	Finovate est
Financial Software Systems	Risk Mgmt	No	0.5	Finovate est
Strategic Funding Source	Lending	Yes	0.5	Finovate est
Ping Identity	Security	Yes	0.5	Finovate est

Personal Capital Investing Yes 0.5 Finovate est

————

Source: Compiled by Finovate, 8 May 2015

Notes:
1. Update (24 June 2015): Credit Karma now valued at $3.5 billion (source: Finovate)

Picture credit

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on May 8, 2015
Categories: Betterment, CAN Capital, Check Point, FutureAdvisor, itBit, LearnVest, Lending Club, MiiCard, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, Prosper, Seergate, SigFig, Wallaby Financial, Wealthfront, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

itBit Raises $25 Million, Earns New York State Trust Charter Ahead of Finovate Debut Next Week in San Jose

Around the web

The Fiscal Times features Wealthfront, Betterment, Personal Capital, FutureAdvisor, SigFig, and Motif Investing in a column on the rise of the robo-adviser.

FierceFinanceIT highlights Lending Club and Prosper in its look at growing investment in P2P lenders by Wall Street.

Version 3.5 of Wallaby Financial’s new Android app provides ambient alerts to help consumers save on gasoline.

MiiCard CEO James Varga quoted in a column on Edinburgh’s tech pioneers.

CAN Capital reaches milestone of $5 billion in working capital facilitated through its platform.

Report on fintech in The Economist references Lending Club among key disruptors.

Nokia partners with Checkpoint for telco cloud security.

MyECheck completes acquisition and integration of Seergate.

Yodlee adds LearnVest acquirer, Northwestern Mutual, as client.

Javelin Strategy & Research lists 4 trends to watch at Finovate next week. Come see them unfold live at FinovateSpring 12/13 May.

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: 14 Companies Raise $975 Million Week Ending May 8

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 7, 2015
Categories: Funding

money_tree It’s another unicorn week in fintech, although “only” $750 million of the nearly $1 billion in new funding was equity. Affirm’s $275 million round was rumored to include about $200 million in debt to fund its alt-lending efforts.

But that wasn’t even the biggest deal this week. Zenefits, founded by serial entrepreneur and multiple Finovate Best of Show winner Parker Conrad (SigFig, Wikinvest), took in $500 million for its health insurance disruptor. The $4.5 billion valuation puts it at the top of the worldwide fintech private-company valuation-list. Assuming it hasn’t slipped, Square still holds claim to #1 with a $6 billion valuation (October 2014).

Two demoing companies at next week’s FinovateSpring (register here) received money this week:

ItBit ($25 million) a NYC-based global bitcoin exchange
Trizic ($3 million) a new wealth-management-platform provider

In total, 14 companies raised $974 million and change (includes about $200 million of debt). Here are the deals from 2 May through 7 May ranked by size:

Zenefits
Human resources and benefits platform
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $500 million Series C (at $4.5 billion valuation)
Total raised: $583.6 million
Tags: Health insurance, SMB, payroll, 401k, benefits
Source: Crunchbase

Affirm
Alt-lending at the point-of-sale
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $275 million (including an undisclosed amount of debt, about $200 million according to TechCrunch)
Total raised: $320 million (including debt)
Tags: Indirect lending, underwriting, point-of-sale financing, SMB, payments
Source: Crunchbase

Real Matters
Real estate risk management (aka Solidifi and iv3CUS)
HQ: Markham, Ontario, Canada
Latest round: $60 million Private Equity
Total raised: $127.1 million (includes $5 million debt)
Tags: Risk management, property valuation, real estate, residential, commercial, enterprise software
Source: Crunchbase

RobinHood
Simple mobile trading service
HQ: Redwood City, California
Latest round: $50 million Series B
Total raised: $66 million
Tags: Investing, stocks, trading, mobile
Source: Crunchbase

ItBit
Global bitcoin exchange
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $25 million
Total raised: $28.3 million
Tags: Bitcoin, crypto-currency, Singapore (market), FinovateSpring 2015 presenter
Source: TechCrunch

Artivest
Curated investing
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $15 million
Tags: Investing, hedge funds, private equity
Source: Crunchbase

Fintellix (formerly iCreate)
Business analytics and risk management for banks
HQ: Bengaluru, India
Latest round: $15 million
Total raised: $27.4 million
Tags: Enterprise, BI, risk management, compliance
Source: FT Partners

Digit
Automated savings/investing platform for beginners
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $11.3 million Series A
Total raised: $13.8 million
Tags: Investing, savings
Source: Crunchbase

Zanbato
Private placement tools
HQ: Mountain View, California
Latest round: $8 million Series B
Total raised: $12.1 million
Tags: Investing, institutional investors, alt-investing
Source: FT Partners

VersaPay
Merchant payment processing and electronic invoicing
HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Latest round: $4.8 million Post-IPO equity
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Payments, acquiring, SMB, merchants, invoicing
Source: Crunchbase

Third Financial Software
Wealth management software
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $3.8 million
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Tercero (brand), investing, portfolio management
Source: FT Partners

Trizic
Wealth management platform
HQ: San Francisco, California
Latest round: $3 million Seed
Total raised: $3 million
Tags: Investing, wealth management, FinovateSpring presenter
Source: Finovate

Omise
Digital payment provider in Southeast Asia
HQ: Bangkok, Thailand
Latest round: $2.6 million Series A
Total raised: $2.9 million
Tags: API, payments, mobile, 500 Startups (investor)
Source: TechCrunch

TradeLab
Indian provider of software for trading platforms
HQ: Bangaluru, India
Latest round: $390,000
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Banking software
Source: FT Partners

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on May 7, 2015
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Digital Insight, Lending Club, TransferWise

Around the web

itBit wins New York State Trust Company charter. See itBit at FinovateSpring 2015 next week.

PC Magazine features Arxan Technologies in a column on security and the “internet of things.”

London Evening Standard highlights TransferWise in its tribute to the young unicorns of London’s Silicon Circles.

PYMNTS.com looks at Lending Club and sees good things for the P2P marketplace.

NuMARK Credit Union deploys digital banking solutions powered by Digital Insight.

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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FinovateSpring 2015: Fintech Across America & Beyond

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 6, 2015
Categories: FinovateSpring 2015

With FinovateSpring just over the horizon, we took a look at where the 72 presenting companies will be traveling from before they arrive in San Jose on 12/13 May.

We’ll be hosting companies from 23 states and six countries.

It turns out that 17 of the companies are already based in Silicon Valley and will not need to travel far to get to the City National Civic Center on Tuesday morning. The company with the longest travel distance is Persistent Systems, which is headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India.

No matter what your commute to Finovate’s eighth event in the Silicon Valley looks like, you should be getting excited to come check out what’s new in fintech.

Still don’t have your ticket? Pick one up soon.

You can check out more information about the presenting companies on the FinovateSpring event page or browse our Sneak Peek blog series.

FinovateSpring 2015 is sponsored by The Bancorp, CapitalSource, City National Bank, Envestnet, Financial Technology Partners, Hudson Cook LLP, KPMG, Kyriba, Life.SREDA, and Zions DirectTV.

FinovateSpring 2015 is partners with Aite Group, American Banker’s Association (ABA), Bank Innovators Council, Bankers Hub, BayPay Forum, bob’s guide, Breaking Banks, California Bankers Association, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, ebankingnews, Filene Research Institute, fin-tech.org, HotWire, Javelin Strategy & Research, Mercator Advisory Group, The Paypers, SME Finance Forum, and Western Independent Bankers.

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Delivering High-touch Service without Breaking the Bank

By Jim Bruene Posted on May 6, 2015
Categories: Branch Banking, Service

There continues to be a healthy debate about the future of bank branches. Usually the focus is on whether bank customers of the future will go to physical branches for help. The answer to that depends not only on consumer preferences—clearly a large segment desires a branch option— but also on costs to deliver on those preferences.

The bigger question: To what extent do consumers want to interact with humans to optimize their financial experiences? And if human interaction is still needed/desired/preferred, how can it be most effectively delivered accounting for cost, effectiveness, customer satisfaction, revenue generation, and so on.

We’ve looked at technology solutions—chat, call backs, IVR, etc.—over the years. But one area we haven’t explored here is the idea of delivering the human help at the customer’s location instead of at the bank’s. I got to thinking about it after hearing an interview with Ron Johnson at today’s Collision conference. Johnson, the mastermind of Apple’s retail stores, and former JCPenney CEO, just launched Enjoy, which adds a human component to the buying process for higher-end electronics (screenshot below, news coverage).

Like Best Buy’s Geek Squad, when you buy something online at Enjoy, one of its employees actually delivers and sets up your new equipment (currently only in San Francisco and NYC) at no extra cost over retail prices. When pressed on how they could make money doing this, Johnson said they were taking all the overhead expense of a brick-and-mortar location and instead investing it into talented employees who can deliver a better experience at the customer’s location—or at a nearby coffee shop.

Banks can do the same thing. If someone wants to open an account and doesn’t want to, or can’t, do it online, the bank can dispatch someone to take care of it at a location chosen by the customer. Already a typical model for many financial professionals—e.g., mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, business bankers, stock brokers, financial planners, etc.—the key to making it work is to simultaneously downsize physical brand costs; otherwise, mobile bankers are just an added expense.

You can see this idea playing out in Poland, where small-biz focused Idea Bank has deployed four high-tech electric BMW i3 cars (see inset above) to collect deposits from small business customers via an ATM built into the side (see demo here). As with Uber, visits from the roving depositories are scheduled via smartphone app. Security-wise, I’m not sure this is the best way to handle cash, but I do like the idea of mobilized bankers.

Bottom line: Branch or no branch, many customers still need occasional hand-holding. It will be interesting to see how that plays out with a smartphone-wielding customer base.

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Trizic Raises $3 Million in Seed Funding from Operative Capital

By David Penn Posted on May 6, 2015
Categories: Trizic

Less than a week away from its Finovate debut in San Jose, wealth-advisory technology innovator, Trizic has closed a $3 million seed funding round with Operative Capital.

Operative Capital initially invested $1 million in Trizic, and this week increased its investment by another $2 million. The funding will help the company roll out Trizic Accelerator, its digital wealth-advisory platform for broker-dealers and asset managers, as well as FIs and wealth-management firms.

Speaking for Operative Capital, founding partner Drew Sievers highlighted Trizic’s potential for disruption in the wealth-advisory digital space and the fact that, as a technology company, Trizic does not compete with its customers. Sievers is the former CEO and founder of mFoundry, (a Finovate alum).

“Well-known, direct-to-investor sites offering their solution to financial firms, asset managers, and RIAs have a direct conflict: Trizic isn’t a competitive threat to the wealth-management providers that are implementing Trizic Accelerator,” says Sievers.

Available as a white-label offering, Trizic Accelerator helps wealth-management professionals onboard and manage both new and existing clients, and automates up to 80% of back-office functions. Wealth managers can create model portfolios and execute trades. The platform’s algorithms ensure that processes are “tax-aware” and meet regulatory and fiduciary requirements. Clients can have different degrees of access to the platform on the front end based on their own technological and financial sophistication.

Founded in 2012, Trizic is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Brad Matthews is founder and CEO. See the company’s technology live on stage at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

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