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FinovateFall 2015: Ladies and Gentlemen, Launch Your Applications!

By David Penn Posted on April 6, 2015
Categories: FinovateFall 2015

Spring may have sprung, but for many here on the Finovate team, the fall season is already on our minds.

Why? Because the application-window for companies looking to demo their latest fintech innovations at FinovateFall 2015 in New York is now open! And that’s a big deal for fintech players of all shapes and sizes. For example:

Startups ready to show new technology in front of an audience of banking executives, press and industry analysts, fellow fintech firms and venture capitalists.
Industry veterans eager to show the world that they’ve still got more than a few innovations to showcase.
International firms looking to launch, or make serious inroads, into North America.
Direct-to-consumer financial firms with a digital value-proposition new to the industry.

If this describes you and your technology, then FinovateFall 2015 may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

FinovateFall 2015 returns to the New York Hilton Midtown for two days of technological innovation and intense networking. The conference will be held on 16/17 Sept 2015, featuring our signature 7-minute live demos focused on the “special sauce” of true innovation in fields ranging from authentication and digital investing to mobile payments and P2P lending.

Watch last year’s presenters in the FinovateFall archives. For a refresher on last year’s Best of Show winners, read our FinovateFall 2014 Best of Show review.

For attendees: Be a part of the live audience at FinovateFall 2015. Register today and take advantage of special pre-sales savings!

For presenters: Demo your technology on stage at FinovateFall 2015 before an audience of nearly 1,500 financial professionals. Email us at [email protected] for information on how to apply. The application window for FinovateFall 2015 opens today and applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

Other questions? Send us an email at [email protected] or contact Finovate Event Director, Greg Palmer, 1-800-418-0980.

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Finovate Debuts: LockByMobile Lets Cardholders Lock Out Fraud

By David Penn Posted on April 6, 2015
Categories: LockByMobile, Smart e-Money

The concept behind LockByMobile is simple: use mobile devices to give cardholders an added level of security against credit and ATM card breaches. For Smart e-Money, the company behind LockByMobile, the strategy was to leverage and deploy the award-winning technology it had already patented and deployed in another context.

“What if you could be one step ahead of fraud?” said Smart e-Money VP of Innovation Angelito Villanueva from the Finovate stage in February. “What if you could add a hard lock that only your customers could lock and unlock, just with a swipe of their finger using their smart phone?”

“Wish it could be done? Well, this solution already exists, and we call it LockByMobile.”

LockByMobile stats:

Founded in 2000
Headquartered in Manila, Philippines
Operates as a subsidiary of Smart Communications
Serves more than 72 million subscribers
Has more than 200 employees

The story

The key technology that makes LockByMobile work has been around since 2007 when it was first developed by Smart e-Money as a security tool for its prepaid wallets. The technology won an award in 2009 for “Best Mobile Security Feature” at GSMA in Barcelona, Spain, but it is the enhancement and deployment of the technology as a way to make cardholders more secure that brought the company to London for FinovateEurope 2015.

To get started with LockByMobile, users download the app, register, and then sign in with their mobile number and a PIN. Users will be able to see their various card accounts on file with the participating issuing banks. Locking and unlocking cards is as easy as a swipe of a finger, and a bright-red highlighting makes it easy for users to see at a glance which of their cards are locked and which are not.

If a transaction is attempted on a locked card, the cardholder will get an SMS notification to their mobile device. And real-time functionality means that even in the case of an accidental locking, there is no friction or inconvenience when it comes to unlocking the card on the spot.

There are a variety of ways LockByMobile is helpful to cardholders. Consumers who lose their cards or have their cards stolen can use the mobile app to lock their cards to prevent use. But LockByMobile points out, even though cards are only used once or twice a day on average, “your card is potentially exposed to fraud all the time.” In other words, even with your card “safely” in your pocket or purse, locking the card using LockByMobile’s technology provides valuable anti-fraud protection.

In addition, the platform’s spending controls can be used to manage supplemental cards given to children or be used by caregivers helping seniors avoid financial exploitation. LockByMobile allows transactions to be limited by channel, amount, location, type of merchant, and type of currency.

The future

LockByMobile caught the attention of more than one observer at FinovateEurope 2015. Let’s Talk Payments praised the company as an added layer of security for ATM and credit-card users. Data monitor’s profile of LockByMobile’s Finovate debut led to a 4 out of 5 rating, including high marks for being a potentially “game-changing” opportunity for banks.

Going forward, the company plans to launch LockByMobile in “several financial institutions across different countries” in 2015, as well as build relationships with a number of potential partners.

“We are constantly improving our offer and enhancing the platform with new functionalities,” said Villanueva from the Finovate stage. Added Guillaume Danielou: “We are currently developing a version for Corporate Cards where the business owner can control the limits and usage for his employees’ business cards, as well as benefiting from the Lock/Unlock feature to protect the cards against fraud.”

Watch LockByMobile’s live demo at FinovateEurope 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on April 6, 2015
Categories: Global Debt Registry, GMC Software Technology, LockByMobile, Pirean, Ripple, TrueAccord, Trulioo, Uncategorized, ZenPayroll

On Finovate.com

Finovate Debuts: LockByMobile Lets Cardholders Lock Out Fraud

ZenPayroll Raises $60 Million in Round Led by Google Capital

FinovateFall 2015: Ladies and Gentlemen, Launch Your Applications!

Finovate Debuts: Pirean’s “Access: One” Keeps Access Management Simple

Around the web

Feature on automation in debt collection highlights Global Debt Registry and True Accord. See True Accord at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

Ripple adds dropdown customizations to its price charts.

Huffington Post: Trulioo, Making Trust Online an Option.

Callcredit Information Group partners with Trulioo. Check out Trulioo at FinovateSpring 2015.

GMC Software Technology Named SIIA Software CODiE Award Finalist.

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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CAN Capital Locks in $650 Million Credit Facility

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: CAN Capital, Small Business

Alternative small business loan provider CAN Capital announced this week that it secured a $650 million credit facility from twelve banks. Seven are first-time participants:

Wells Fargo Capital Finance
Morgan Stanley
Barclays
UBS
J.P. Morgan
SunTrust Bank
First Tennessee Bank

Five existing banks recommitted funds:

Fifth Third Bank*
Regions Bank*
AloStar Bank of Commerce*
CapitalSource (a division of Pacific Western Bank)
Amalgamated Bank

*increased commitments

CAN Capital provides loans and merchant cash-advances to small- and medium-sized businesses. Since launching in 1998, the company has extended a total of 150,000 finance transactions to small businesses, providing access to $5 billion.

The New York-based company is best known for its Daily Remittance Platform. The underwriting technology evaluates business risk based on recent performance, which generally enables it to approve financing for more businesses.

CAN Capital debuted its Mobile Funder on the FinovateFall 2013 stage in New York.

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EZBOB Raises £3 Million in Private Equity Investment

By David Penn Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: EZBOB

U.K.-based SME lender EZBOB has raised £3 million in new capital courtesy of a private equity investment.

The investment takes the company’s total capital to more than £16 million (more than $23 million USD), including a £7 million debt-financing round in February 2014.

EZBOB made headlines this spring with its partnership with online Chinese marketplace Alibaba. A loan guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) in March enabled EZBOB to increase its loan volumes by up to £40 million over the next two years. EZBOB acquired Everline, Wonga’s small business financing unit, in February.

A two-time Finovate alum, EZBOB last appeared on the Finovate stage as part of FinovateEurope 2014 conference. The company was founded in November 2011 by Tomer Guriel, CEO, and Sharone Perlstein, business development, and is headquartered in London.

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PayPal Pays $280 Million for Paydiant

By David Penn Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: Paydiant, PayPal

Mobile payments innovator Paydiant has been acquired by PayPal in a deal believed to be worth $280 million. The acquisition, announced in March, closed today.

A specialist in white-label, cloud-based mobile payment, cardless ATM access, and offer-redemption and -loyalty solutions, Paydiant gives merchants, FIs, and processors the ability to provide and run their own mobile solutions under their own brands.

Welcoming Paydiant to the PayPal family in the company blog, PayPal President and CEO Designee Dan Schulman highlighted the role Paydiant played in helping businesses like Capital One and Subway launch mobile payments and rewards programs. Schulman also reminded readers that Paydiant provides the white-label, mobile platform for MCX’s CurrentC mobile wallet, which is supported by many of the largest retailers in the world, including CVS, Exxon, and Walmart.

According to Schulman, the goal of the acquisition is to offer merchants the opportunity to build their own branded wallets. He explained that this “will accelerate mobile-in-store payments … and drive consumer engagement through loyalty, offers, and the prioritization of preferred payment types, such as store-branded credit cards and gift cards.”

Paydiant was founded in 2010 by Chris Gardner and Kevin Laracey. Headquartered in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2013 in a joint demonstration with FIS.

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Finovate Debuts: Telenor Banka’s Synergy of Telco and Banking Brings Financial Innovation to Serbia

By David Penn Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: Telenor banka, Uncategorized

Telenor has leveraged its success as a telecommunications company to build the first fully online and mobile-direct bank in Serbia, Telenor Banka. For its Finovate debut, the company teamed up with Asseco SEE to demonstrate its Automated Online Handset Loan powered by ASEB Multichannel Solution.

The solution enables customers to easily apply for a loan to purchase a new mobile device. Using a combination of banking and telecommunications transaction data, offers are customized, relevant, and likelier to be used.

Telenor Banka facts:

Opened in September 2014
Has 130 employees
Part of the Telenor Group with 186 million mobile subscriptions in 13 markets

The story

The “Tele” in Telenor stands for Telco, which is a large part of what Telenor Banka brings to the table. The bank was founded in 1996 as ALCO bank, but changed its name and ownership to Telenor Banka in 2014, when it became a member of Telenor Group. The goal was to provide the citizens of Serbia with modern and innovative mobile and online financial services through Telenor Banka.

At left: Martin Navratil, chairman of the executive committee for Telenor banka, presented at FinovateEurope 2015.

The presented innovation platform enables Telenor Banka’s customers in Serbia to get customized offers by two industries in one place— telecommunications and banking. The demo version of the solution is an example of a fully automated and personalized online offer of purchase loans for smart devices, personalized to the customers’ needs in real time.

While the company anticipates adding other service providers to this centralized dashboard, the current technology already offers customers conveniences such as a bill pay solution called “Bills on Click”; P2P payments to a phone number or email; and, launched in Dec 2014, the interest-free loans for purchasing smart devices from Telenor.

And in partnering with Asseco SEE, Telenor Banka has extended this service a step further with its Automated Handset Online Loan. The access to banking and telecommunications data alerts the platform that a bank customer may be in the market for a new smartphone. Moreover, the platform can extend a loan to the bank customer that not only offers rates and terms that are compatible with the customer’s financial situation, but also personalized telecommunications services and products that would make the most sense given the customer’s history.

Moving back and forth between the Telco and the banking functions of the platform is seamless for both the customer on the front end and the bank on the back end. Credit scoring, AML and KYC all take place on the platform, and relevant agreements and contracts from both the telecom and the bank are generated immediately for the consumer.

The future

Telenor Banka followed up its Finovate debut with a major milestone: the company celebrated its 50,000th account opened, making Telenor Banka one of the fastest-growing banks in the CEE region. According to Martin Navratil, chairman of the executive board and managing director, Telenor Banka is “focused on providing easy-to-use financial services and shifting from traditional banking to innovative, customer-oriented mobile solutions.” The technology demonstrated in February is scheduled to be available in the second half of 2015.

Seven months after its launch, the company has enjoyed growth of more than 50% a month, and sees its future very much focused on continuing to serve the Serbian market. “We will probably see examples of other services expanding to a smartphone user-interface as well,” Navratil said. “The more players joining the arena, the faster the market will develop and move forward.”

Read our Finovate Debut feature of Telenor Banka’s FinovateEurope 2015 partner, Asseco SEE.

See Telenor banka’s live demonstration from FinovateEurope 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: Asseco, ayondo, BioCatch, blooom, CAN Capital, Dream Payments, EZBOB, PayPal, Rippleshot, Striata, Tradier, TransferWise

On Finovate

Dream Payments Raises $6 Million in Funding for mPOS Technology

Finovate Debuts: Asseco SEE Brings Real-Time Big Data to Processing to Multichannel Banking

EZBOB Raises 3 Million in Private Equity Investment

Finovate Debuts: Telenor Banka’s Synergy of Telco and Banking Brings Financial Innovation to Serbia

CAN Capital Locks in $650 Million Credit Facility

Finovate alums land almost 50% ($63 million) of the $133 million total headed to the fintech sector this week

Around the web

Striata acquires Mass Transmit for undisclosed amount.

PayPal closes acquisition of Paydiant.

Blooom participates in InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum.

ayondo wins “Best Social Trading Program” honors at ADVFN International Financial Awards 2015.

Francepertise reviews TransferWise.

BioCatch and RippleShot earn 2015 METAwards from the Merchant Risk Council.

Tradier sees 35 million+ API calls in March. That’s 47k transactions per hour.

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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Dream Payments Raises $6 Million in Funding for mPOS Technology

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 3, 2015
Categories: Dream Payments

Toronto-based Dream Payments pulled in its first round of funding late last month. The $6 million comes from Canada’s early stage fintech venture capital and private equity firms, as well as institutional investors Blue Sky Capital, Real Ventures, and Rouge River Capital.

With Dream Payments, merchants use the Dream mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) terminal that works with iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. It can also integrate with a retailer’s traditional POS terminal. The startup aims to help merchants adapt to new payment acceptance methods, such as EMV and Apple Pay, and accommodates magstripe debit and credit card payments.

In addition to the payments capability, the company offers merchants a dashboard with sales and inventory metrics, customer insights, and business analytics. The solution is available for both merchants and merchant acquirers.

Dream Payments CEO, Brent Ho-Young stated that the startup will use the funding to launch the business and roll out its solutions to merchants across North America.

The startup also announced it will open its SDK to third-party developers.

Dream Payments will be demoing live on the FinovateSpring stage in San Jose on 12/13 May 2015. The early bird ticket deadline is this Friday, so be sure to pick up your ticket before then.

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Multifactor Authentication Specialist Toopher Acquired by Salesforce

By David Penn Posted on April 2, 2015
Categories: Toopher, Uncategorized

(Left to right): Toopher co-founders CTO Evan Grim and CEO Josh Alexander demonstrated their multifactor authentication technology at FinovateFall 2014.

When word hit the Finovate office that Austin, Texas-based, multifactor authentication specialist Toopher had agreed to be acquired by Salesforce, we all had the same question in mind:

Will Salesforce get the drone too?

What’s certain is that the purchase of Toopher will give the cloud-computing innovator a powerful solution to offer customers looking for multifactor authentication.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Including $200k in debt financing raised in March, Toopher’s total is $3 million.

According to the Austin Business Journal, Toopher’s seven workers will remain in Austin as employees of Salesforce. The Journal also notes that conversations between Toopher and Salesforce began a year ago, with “acquisition discussions” starting in 2015. The company has discontinued selling its own products as it makes the transition (although Toopher’s”pre-acquisition” developer portal remains open).

Writing at the Toopher blog, CEO Josh Alexander explains the move in his typically colorful fashion:

We here at Toopher have a standard question we ask new Toopherarians: ‘If you could have a superpower, what would you choose?’ Even with the normal, attractive archetypes, the most common response from a Toopherarian is to be able to provide even greater levels of security without affecting the user experience.

And with the Salesforce acquisition, Toopher now considers itself appropriately “superpowered.”

Toopher was founded in September 2011 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company demoed its technology at both FinovateFall 2014 and FinovateFall 2013.

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Fintech Fundings: 13 Companies Raise $120 Million Week Ending April 3, 2015

By Jim Bruene Posted on April 2, 2015
Categories: Funding

The first quarter ended with a flourish of funding as 13 companies raised new funds ranging from $810,000 to $60 million. The total intake was $123 million, of which about half was the $60 million in debt raised by FinovateSpring15 presenter Yapstone. In addition, two Finovate crowd favorites were acquired this week: Toopher by SalesForce and ReadyForZero by Avant.

All told, about $770 million poured into the sector in March, a heady $9 billion run-rate (see previous weekly funding reports).

Here are the deals from 28 March through 2 April 2015 ranked by deal size:

Yapstone
Online and mobile payments
HQ: Walnut Creek, California
Latest round: $60 million (debt)
Total raised: $113.4 million ($53.4 million equity, $60 million debt)
Tags: Payments, mobile, Comerica Bank (investor/lender), FinovateSpring 2015 presenter
Source: Finovate

RateSetter
Consumer marketplace lender
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $45 million
Tags: P2P, peer-to-peer lending, credit, underwriting, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Companisto
German equity crowdfunding platform for startups
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $13 million
Tags: Crowdfunding, investing, SMB, startups
Source: Crunchbase

MyCheck
Automatic payment system catering to restaurant customers
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $11.1 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, SMB, restaurants
Source: Crunchbase

PeerNova
Blockchain technology
HQ: San Jose, California
Latest round: $5 million
Total raised: $19 million (includes unspecified amount of debt)
Tags: Bitcoin, virtual currency, cryptocurrencies, Overstock.com (investor)
Source: FT Partners

EZBOB
Online small business lender
HQ: London, United Kingdom
Latest round: $4.5 million
Total raised: $26 million
Tags: Loans, credit, SMB, underwriting, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Lendix
French marketplace lender for business loans
HQ: Paris, France
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total raised: $3.5 million
Tags: SMB, peer-to-peer lending, underwriting, credit, investing
Source: FT Partners

Bitt
Caribbean cryptocurrency exchange
HQ: Christ Church, Barbados
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $1.5 million
Tags: Bitcoin, blockchain, virtual currency
Source: Crunchbase

Scutify
Social network for investors
HQ: New York City, New York
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $2.5 million
Tags: Investing, information, traders, advice
Source: Crunchbase

Ittavi
Automates child-care payments with its SupportPay service
HQ: Santa Clara, California
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $2.6 million
Tags: Payments, automation, billpay, legal
Source: FT Partners

Gem
Bitcoin API provider
HQ: Venice, California
Latest round: $1.3 million
Total raised: $3.6 million
Tags: Cryptocurrency, developers, bitcoin
Source: Coinbase

PayNova
Swedish online payments provider
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Latest round: $810,000
Total raised: $810,000
Tags: Payments, mobile, online
Source: FT Partners

PPDai
Chinese-consumer marketplace-lender
HQ: Shanghai, China
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: At least $70 million
Tags: Loans, consumer, lending, underwriting, P2P, peer-to-peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

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Finovate Debuts: Asseco SEE Brings Real-time Big Data Processing to Multichannel Banking

By David Penn Posted on April 2, 2015
Categories: Asseco, Uncategorized

In some parts of the world, telecommunications companies have aggressively worked to disrupt financial services. This is very much the case in Central and Southern Europe where companies like Telenor Banka and Asseco SEE have teamed up to address relatively low adoption rates of online and mobile banking, despite the region’s high levels of connectivity.

Along with Telenor Banka, Asseco SEE made its Finovate debut in February 2015 (read Our Finovate Debut post on Telenor Banka here), unveiling their Automated Online Handset loan offer and technology solutions that made it possible. Asseco SEE is the largest provider of proprietary software solutions in the SEE (South Eastern European) region and offers end-to-end solutions that include core banking, multichannel (including ATM), and a fully native mobile app.

Asseco SEE facts:

Founded in 2007
Headquartered in Warsaw, Poland
Asseco SEE has more than 1,400 employees
Piotr Jelenski is President of the Management Board

The story

Asseco’s business lines include production of software solutions for banking, telecommunications and government, complete payment solutions (ATM and PoS implementation and services), as well as system integration.

Asseco SEE’s partnership with Telenor Banka provides a complete end-to-end solution for banking, and also a mature and flexible system that helps identify the right offers at the right time.

In addition, Asseco SEE provides a fully automated process to support the development of new products.

(Left to right): Asseco Group President of the Management Board, Piotr Jelenski, and Telenor banka Chairman of the Executive Committee, Martin Navratil

The solution, in large part, was Asseco’s ASEBA Multichannel Hub. The hub includes services for a variety of channels (web, mobile, ATM, branch, call center, etc.), as well as fundamental business operations that can be integrated with external legacy back-end systems. Thanks to this ability of integrating with external systems, Telenor Bank achieves the kind of “synergy” between telecom and the bank that makes the latter’s service unique: a customized loan offer created from data derived from two different companies.

The future

Asseco SEE is confident that the SEE region will experience the digital transformation of banks that is taking place elsewhere in Europe and around the world. Moreover, the company is confident that it will play a major role in making this happen, saying it has the experience, know-how, and full potential to help banks and other FIs make the transition.

The ASEBA Multichannel Hub is an example of this know-how. By creating an integrated e-banking solution, Asseco SEE has made it possible for banking services to be distributed over alternative channels, e.g., mobile. This provides new opportunities for financial institutions to better engage current customers and attract new ones with more personalized services.

Read our Finovate Debut feature of Asseco SEE’s FinovateEurope 2015 partner, Telenor Banka.

See the live demonstration with Asseco SEE and Telenor Banka from FinovateEurope 2015.

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