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Betterment Raises a Fresh $60 Million in Round Led by Francisco Partners

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 20, 2015
Categories: Betterment, Funding

In what amounts to almost double its previous funding round, Betterment has pulled in $60 million in VC investment. The series D round was led by Francisco Partners, a technology-focused private equity firm. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures and Northwestern Mutual also contributed.

The new installment boosts Betterment’s total funds to $105 million and will be used to speed transactions and rollovers for its 65,000 customers, as well as enhance branding for advisor apps and services.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Betterment is now valued at $400 to $500 million. In comparison, competitors Personal Capital and Wealthfront are valued at $250 million and $700 million, respectively.

In a conversation with Investment News, Betterment CEO, Jon Stein, stated, “We didn’t need to raise the money today,” He says it still has $20 million in the bank from its last funding round. However, he goes on, “We’re getting a lot of interest from investors.”

Betterment, which manages about $1.4 billion in assets, fits in the “robo-advisor” category; it seeks to disrupt the wealth management space with specialized algorithms and tools that use automation to lower the cost of a personal advisor service. CB Insights reports that robo-advisors raised a cumulative $290 million in funding last year, double the amount raised in 2013.

Betterment demonstrated its Multiple Goals Feature at FinovateFall 2011.

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Alumni News– February 20, 2015

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 20, 2015
Categories: Alkami Technology, Betterment, Digital Insight, Entersekt, Evo Snap*, EyeVerify, FIS, InComm, Level, Loop, MaxMyInterest, Moven, MX

InComm to offer Hip Digital access to selection of gift cards and delivery options.

Betterment Raises a Fresh $60 Million in Round Led by Francisco Partners.

FPS GOLD Partners With MX for Personal Financial Management.

US News features MaxMyInterest, Moven, and Level Money in a feature on money-saving and simplifying tools.

Alkami Technology Brings its Digital Banking Platform to Patelco Credit Union.

Samsung Acquisition of LoopPay Puts Apple Pay on Notice.

FIS earns new ISO certification.

TheStreet.com column on new security technologies for banks features EyeVerify and Digital Insight.

EVO offers processing to underserved direct response merchants.

Moneyweb mentions Entersekt’s role in South African-based fintech.

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: 12 Companies Raise $240 million Week Ending Feb 20

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 19, 2015
Categories: Funding

The number of deals this week (12) didn’t set any records. But there were some doozies including three greater than $30 million, two of which are Finovate alums: Betterment ($60 mil) and Pindrop Security ($35 mil).

The total amount raised was $236 million.

There was one major exit this week: Finovate alum LoopPay was purchased by Samsung, presumably to beef up its handset in competition with Apple Pay.

Following are deals by size announced between Feb 14 thru 20:

WorldRemit
Global remittances
Latest round: $100 million
Total raised: $147.7 million
Tags: Funds transfer, money transfer, mobile, fx, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase

Betterment
Simplified investing platform for consumers
Latest round: $60 million
Total raised: $105 million
Tags: Consumer, investing, investment management, ETF, robo-advisor, Personal finance, Brooklyn, New York, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Pindrop Security
Call center anti-fraud technology
Latest round: $35 million
Total raised: $42 million
Tags: Security, authentication, anti-fraud, call center, telephone, Atlanta, Georgia, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Itz Cash
Prepaid card in India
Latest round: $16 million
Total raised: $51 million
Tags: Prepaid, debit card, India
Source: FT Partners

InDinero
Online accounting for small businesses
Latest round: $7 million
Total raised: $8.2 million
Tags: SMB, accounting, payroll, tax, receivables, invoicing, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase

Mobeewave
Mobile point-of-sale technology
Latest round: $6.5 million
Total raised: $6.5 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, POS, merchants, acquiring, EMV, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Source: Crunchbase

Argon Credit
Personal loans
Latest round: $3 million
Total raised: $5.1 million
Tags: Consumer, credit, lending, underwriting, loans, Chicago, Illinois
Source: Crunchbase

Credible
Refinancing student loans
Latest round: $2.7 million
Total raised: $3.9 million
Tags: Consumer direct, student loans, credit, underwriting, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase

Prism
Mobile bill payment
Latest round: $2.0 million
Total raised: $3.5 million
Tags: Consumer, billpay, payments, bills, SMB, Seattle, Washington
Source: GeekWire, Crunchbase

Ledger
Hardware bitcoin wallet
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $1.5 million
Tags: Cryptocurrency, security, bitcoin, USB drive, France
Source: Coinbase

Sindeo
Mortgage advisor for consumers
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total raised: $6.5 million
Tags: Consumer, personal finance, mortgage, refi, advice, lead gen, San Francisco, California
Source: Crunchbase

CyndX
Equity crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $500,000
Tags: Crowdfunding, investing, SMB, lending, New York City
Source: Crunchbase

——–

Acquisition

LoopPay
Contactless mobile payments
Acquirer: Samsung
Purchase price: Unknown
Total raised: $13 million
Tags: Consumer, credit/debit cards, mobile payments, mPay, Visa (investor), Woburn, Massachusetts, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

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Finsphere Lands $1.8 Million, Partners with Visa

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 19, 2015
Categories: Finsphere, Funding

Finsphere, a company that uses mobile phone location data to authenticate a consumer’s identity, announced $1.8 million in new funding last week. The new round is internal, with an additional contribution from an unnamed investor. Its funding now totals $33 million.

More notably, the Bellevue-based company partnered with Visa to offer what the credit card company is calling Mobile Location Confirmation. Visa will use Finsphere to ensure the GPS location of the customer’s smartphone matches the location their credit card is swiped. This helps eliminate unnecessary purchase declines, while ensuring the purchase isn’t fraudulent.

In a dovetail announcement this week, Finsphere also reported that it will bring retail banking executive Deanna Oppenheimer on board as a strategic advisor.

Finsphere demonstrated its identity security service at FinovateEurope 2012.

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Samsung Acquisition of LoopPay Puts Apple Pay on Notice

By David Penn Posted on February 19, 2015
Categories: Loop

Forgive me for being a Finovate fanboy. But when Apple unveiled its Apple Pay technology last fall, one of my first thoughts was about Finovate alum and digital mobile wallet innovator, LoopPay.

Apparently, Samsung was thinking the same thing.

Arguably the biggest mobile payments news since the Apple Pay announcement, Samsung has purchased LoopPay, for an undisclosed amount. LoopPay, which took home Best of Show honors in its debut demonstration at FinovateSpring 2014, has leveraged its expertise in magnetic stripe technology (MST) to produce a secure, non-NFC-based, mobile payment solution. With Samsung’s acquisition, the technology will likely become one of the major competitors to Apple Pay.

Writing at the LoopPay blog, said the company would become a “wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics America” and will continue to “innovate and operate” out of its Boston, Massachusetts headquarters.

For its part, Samsung talked about LoopPay as helping Apple’s biggest hardware rival build “the smartest, most secure, user-friendly mobile wallet experience.” An alliance between Samsung and LoopPay had been rumored since December, according to this reporting from Gigaom. And a major investment last summer also helped raise LoopPay’s profile – and hint at the technology’s potential for wider acceptance.

Above: Loop CEO Will Graylin at FinovateSpring 2014

Margaret Keane, President and CEO of Synchrony Financial, whose firm participated in last year’s funding, added: “This is great news for our customers who can access their cards and make payments using LoopPay’s contactless MST technology.”

“We look forward to working with LoopPay and others to deliver secure mobile payment solutions for all our 60 million active accounts.”

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Alkami Technology Brings its Digital Banking Platform to Patelco CU

By David Penn Posted on February 19, 2015
Categories: Alkami Technology

The last many of us had heard about Alkami Technology was its appearance as part of Gonzobanker’s five-part, all-star dream banking app:

So which vendor’s functionality would make it into my product? I would take the marketing functionality from Alkami’s ORB (Online Relationship Builder)…”

Flash forward several months later and the Alkami is making headlines with news that it is bringing its digital banking platform to Patelco Credit Union. Patella is described in Bank Innovation’s coverage of the news as a “top 30 credit union” with more than $4 billion in assets and more than 280,000 members.

Alkami Technology develops online banking solutions for companies and institutions in the financial services industry. The company’s Online Relationship Builder will provide what Patelco CU president and CEO Erin Mendez called “a modern, sophisticated digital banking platform to achieve a unified banking experience.” The credit union will also be upgrading its mobile app and working to encourage its processors to support Apple Pay as part of the overall enhancement to its digital banking options.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alkami Technology has raised more than $50 million, with its most recent fundraising bringing in more than $23 million of that amount in December. The company is an alum of Finovate Startup 2009, where Alkami Technology demoed as “iThryv.”

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Alumni News– February 19, 2015

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 19, 2015
Categories: Azimo, Digital Retail Apps, Dwolla, Encap, eToro, Finsphere, Kantox, MaxMyInterest, Motif Investing, PayPal, Pindrop Security, Ping Identity

American Banker: Retail Banking Vet Deanna Oppenheimer Joins Tech Vendor Finsphere.

American Banker: Federal Payments Website Partners with PayPal, Dwolla.

Kantox Surpasses $1 Billion in Foreign Exchange Transfers.

Pindrop Security Raises $30 Million.

Catching Up with the Innovators of FinovateSpring.

eToro launches its Popular Investment Programme to recognize and reward the network’s top traders.

Phroogal reviews Motif Investing.

MaxMyInterest brings consolidated tax reporting functionality to its cash optimization platform.

Encap Security CEO Thomas Boström Jörgensen and Ping Identity Managing Director EMEA Jason Goode weigh-in on Touch ID banking.

Digital Retail Apps featured in Toronto Star’s coverage of Canada’s first financial technology cluster.

Azimo launches its money transfer service in China.

Finsphere Lands $1.8 Million, Partners with Visa.

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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Transaction Alerts Need to Get Smarter

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 18, 2015
Categories: Alerts & Messaging, Email Samples, Security & Privacy, Service

My inbox is far from normal. With 25 active financial accounts, all set to maximum notifications, I am drowning in email alerts, push notifications and other helpful communications. But who isn’t overloaded with missives from social media, news feeds, spambots and whatever else is competing for your attention.

Banks need to help users cut down on the noise, by offering smart alerts that don’t bog you down in trivial details. Not to pick on anyone in particular, because all my providers do pretty much the same thing (with the notable exception of BillGuard), but this alert from Bank of America today (see below) is a good example of info overload.

Yes, I’m sure I asked the bank to notify me of any card-not-present transactions. Given the amount of times my card number has been breached in the past five years, it’s a good early warning. But really, do you think it’s necessary to tell me for the 89th consecutive month that you paid my $8.75 Netflix monthly fee? Really, I just want to be informed if it were to suddenly go up or be repeated.

BofA would probably want my permission to stop sending me this monthly alert. So how about a little button that says, “Don’t tell me about this charge if it’s the same next month” or something along those lines. And this should also be an option in the bank’s alert dashboard: “Please don’t alert me to repetitive monthly fees, unless they change.”

Thanks for listening.

——-

Bank of America email alert (18 Feb 2015)

——-

Source: Fraud artwork above from NCUA’s MyCreditUnion

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Catching Up with the Innovators of FinovateSpring

By David Penn Posted on February 18, 2015
Categories: FinovateSpring 2014, FinovateSpring 2015

With our first conference of the year wrapped up in London, we’re gearing up to bring the show stateside in May for FinovateSpring 2015.

Last year, we had an all-star cast on stage. Just look at what they have been up to in the last nine months.

Raised more than $350 million

Partnered with more than a dozen major financial services and technology companies including:

MoneyGram
Visa
Digital Insight
Ellie Mae
AT&T
Google
Blackstone Technology
Overstock.com
Meniga
Feedzai

Accelerator/incubator programs:

Wells Fargo Accelerator
SWIFT Innotribe Startup Challenge

Awards, honors, and recognitions:

KPMB’s Fintech Innovators for 2014
CNBC’s Disruptor 50
FSTech Awards
Forbes 30 Under 30 (up and coming CEOs)
Confirmit Ace Award
Future of Money Summit Startup Showcase Award
Bob’s Guide Fintech Startups to Watch in 2015
Star Performer Award from Speech Technology
Fast Company Top 10 Most Innovative in Finance
Dallas Business Journal 40 Under 40 (up and coming CEOs)
Mobile Innovations Awards
Mobile Excellence Award
Fintech 50
Paybefore Awards

Acquisitions:

IntelliResponse acquired by [24]7
LoopPay acquired by Samsung

Here’s a closer look at the highlights:

Avoka

Won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2015
Won Award at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014

BodeTree

Raised $2 million

Coinbase

Raised $75 million
Earned spot on KPMG’s 50 Best Fintech Innovators report
Named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50
Partnered with Time.com

CREALOGIX

Partnered with Meniga

CUneXus

Named “One to Watch” in KPMB’s Fintech Innovators for 2014
Won at Future of Money & Technology Summit Startup Showcase

D3Banking

Partnered with ProfitStars, Blackstone Technology, and SHAZAM Network
Raised $7 million

defiSOLUTIONS

Named to Dallas Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 (CEO)

Digital Insight

Won 2014 Confirmit ACE Award

Encap Security

Raised $5.4 million
Partnered with Feedzai

EyeVerify

Won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2014
Raised $6 million
Participated in Wells Fargo Accelerator

ID.me

Partnered with Overstock.com

Insuritas

Partnered with several small and medium sized community banks and credit unions

IntelliResponse

Acquired by [24]7

Interactions

Won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2014
Closed strategic deal to acquire AT&T Watson speech recognition and natural language platform

Jumio

Won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2015
Partnered with IDology, The Rock Trading Ltd
Won Most Innovative App for Payments at Mobile Innovations Awards

Kreditech

Named to FinTech 50
Raised $200 million in debt financing
Named Germany’s leading digital innovator of the year by Focus Magazine
Earned spot in KPMG’s 50 Best Fintech Innovators Report
Raised $40 million

Lending Robot

Raised $3 million
Earned finalist spot at SWIFT Innotribe Startup Challenge

LendUp

Partnered with MoneyGram
Raised $50 million credit debt facility

Loop

Raised undisclosed sum from Visa
Raised undisclosed sum from Synchrony Financial
Acquired by Samsung

LOYAL3

Won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2014

Motif Investing

Won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2014
Raised $75 million
Named to KPMB’s Fintech Innovators for 2014
Named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50

NICE Systems

Won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2014
Earned 2014 Star Performer award from Speech Technology magazine
Earned #1 spot in Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative in Finance

Ondot Systems

Raised $18 million

Personal Capital

Raised $50 million
Named to KPMG’s Fintech Innovators for 2014
Named to CNBC’s Disruptor 50

PrivatBank

Partnered with MoneyGram

Qapital

Raised $1.3 million

Radius

Raised $54.7 million

Realty Mogul

Featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Rising Stars of Enterprise Technology (CEO)

Roostify

Named Most Disruptive Financial Sector Technology Finalist in FSTech Awards
Partnered with Ellie Mae

Spreedly

Raised $900,000

Stockpile

Won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2014
Named “One to Watch” in KPMG’s Fintech Innovators for 2014

True Link Financial

Raised $3.4 million

WePay

Partnered with Google Wallet
Named to Bob’s Guide: “Fintech Startups to Watch in 2015”

Wipit

Named winner in Ninth Annual Paybefore Awards

Zumigo

Raised $6 million
Named finalist in Mobile Excellence Awards for Best Mobile Retail/Commerce Solution
Earned spot in Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator

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Updated: Pindrop Security Raises $35 Million

By David Penn Posted on February 18, 2015
Categories: Pindrop Security

A major infusion of capital has put the total funding for Pindrop Security at more than $42 million.

The leader of the $35 million Series B round was described in the Atlanta Business Chronicle as a “new West Coast investor.” The Chronicle adds that the new investor has valued Pindrop at more than $200 million.

The new capital will help Pindrop expand its operations. The Atlanta-based company says it will add 100 jobs in engineering, software development, and sales and marketing—as well as look for a new, larger workspace.

Pindrop Security specializes in combating phone fraud for enterprise call centers. Using acoustic fingerprinting, Pindrop’s technology isable to tell the difference between fraudulent and authentic callers. The company’s services include a database of more than 300,000 phone numbers associated with 40,000 phone-fraud “fingerprints,” a fraud-detection system to prevent call spoofing, and real-time call forwarding protection.

And because of the growing use of phones as part of a multifactor authentication process that requires an out-of-band component, Pindrop also sees its technology as a way to make sure that the phone is the strongest link.

Presenter: Pindrop Security CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan at FinovateFall 2012

Pindrop Security partnered in AGNOTiO in May to help call centers adapt to safety concerns from mobile customers. And in December, the company teamed up with Contact Solutions and IDology to develop technology to defend against IVR (interactive voice response) fraud. Pindrop Security launched its combined voice biometric/phoneprinting fraud detection system last year, as well as its NCE mobile NFC payments solution.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2011, Pindrop Security demoed at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. Vijay Balasubramaniyan is CEO.

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Kantox Surpasses $1 Billion in Foreign Exchange Transfers

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 18, 2015
Categories: Kantox

Foreign exchange management solution Kantox last week announced that it has exceeded $1 billion in currency transfers since its 2011 launch.

The U.K.- and Barcelona-based company reports that $200 million was traded in November and December alone. At this rate, it expects to reach another $1 billion by the end of 2015.

Kantox counts more than 1,000 businesses as clients, which is double the number of businesses that were using the platform a year ago.

Kantox drives down FX costs by disintermediating banks and brokers with its platform, whereby companies can trade directly with one another.

Kantox demonstrated Peer FX at FinovateEurope 2013. Check out the video here.

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Alumni News—February 18, 2015

By David Penn Posted on February 18, 2015
Categories: ayondo, BehavioSec, Bluefin Payment Systems, BlueVine, Braintree, Check Point, Coinbase, D3 Banking, Expensify, Hidden Levers, Insuritas, Kantox, Lending Club, Malauzai Software, Mitek, NICE Systems, Payfone, Ripple, Taulia, Temenos, TIO Networks, Tradier, TransferWise, Tuition.io

FinovateEurope 2015: Tweets by the Thames.

Mitek launches Commercial Mobile Deposit Capture, bringing MDC technology to the enterprise.

Malauzai reports doubling revenues, growth of customer base to more than 300 community banks and credit unions.

D3Banking adds to leadership team with four new appointments.

Check out FinovateEurope 2015 in the press.

Bluefin Payment Systems to provide Decryptx point-to-point encryption (P2PE) solution to Heartland Payment Systems’ clients.

Temenos purchases Akcelerant to accelerate growth in North America.

Lending Club partners with BancAlliance, a national consortium of 200 community banks.

Fast Company lists BehavioSec, Ripple, Braintree, Expensify, NICE and BlueVine as top innovative companies in the money category

PYMNTS discusses retail’s adoption of mPOS with Bluefin Payment systems.

PYMNTS highlights Taulia’s massive growth.

ayondo clients now receive free access to real time analysis tools from StockPulse.

Kantox uses Apply Financial’s API to enhance customer service and enable more integrated international payments.

TechFlash interviews Payfone CEO and co-founder Rodger Desai.

Stockhouse: TIO Networks poises to capture major portion of mobile payment market.

USA Today highlights Tuition.io for student debt management.

TransferWise launches in United States.

Code CU to use Insuritas for insurance agency solution.

Coinbase Android and iOS apps now available in 11 new languages.

Global Financial Private Capital selects HiddenLevers to help advisors grow their practice.

Check Point acquires Hyperwise.

Tradier’s API takes 15 million production calls in Jan., a 33% increase in a single month.

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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