It’s no secret that the fintech sector is hot. We have tracked $6 billion in new investments during the past 6 months alone (see note 1). Most of those dollars are from big VC deals, such as last week’s $58 million to Transferwise and $30 million to Ripple Labs.
Micronotes Receives $910k in Funding
Cross-selling is an effective tool in financial services, helping banks market everything from mortgages to new savings accounts. Micronotes‘ Cross-Sell helps banks take the sales conversation from the branch to the online channel.
Alumni News– February 3, 2015
ProfitStars adds Banno Mobile solutions to the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) Preferred Service Provider program.
- Lending Club to serve as exclusive POS financing for Alibaba.com’s U.S. business buyers.
- Visa CEO selects NBCUniversal’s Vasant M. Prabhu as CFO.
- On Finovate.com: “Fidelity Investments Acquires eMoney Advisor for Reported $250 Million”
- The Philippine National Bank deploys core banking solution and EFT switching solution from FIS.
- ABC2 News in Baltimore talks with Robb Gaynor of Malauzai Software about mobile banking apps.
- Thinking Bigger profiles Blooom and its new way to 401(k).
- The Costa Rica Star features Azimo, a money-transfer service.
- Financial Advisor’s look at assets managed by roboadvisors highlights Wealthfront, Financial Guard, Personal Capital, and Betterment.
- Jumio enhances capturing technology for its ID card-scanning service, Netverify.
- Discussion of the “positive powers” of fintech in The Guardian features ACI Worldwide, Azimo, TransferWise, Ripple, and Blockchain.
- Check out our final Sneak Peek before we launch into a record-breaking FinovateEurope.
- Micronotes receives $910k in funding.
- CSO Online features Nymi, Myris, and EyeVerify.
- Kabbage funding More Than $3 Million per Day.
- Remitly announces expansion into India.
Fidelity Investments Acquires eMoney Advisor for Reported $250 Million
Congratulations to our latest “one and done alum,” eMoney Advisor. The wealth management technology company that made its Finovate debut last September has been acquired by Fidelity Investments.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed; however, Philly.com is reporting that Fidelity paid more than $250 million for the company.


Alumni News—February 2, 2015
The Telegraph features SigFig and Motif Investing in its list of the 10 best apps for new investors.
- Geek News Central takes a look at IDKEY from Sonavation.
- PostConnect to deploy customer communications management technology from GMC Software Technology.
- Heckyl Technologies chooses Gurpreet Sidana for President-Sales.
- Tom’s Guide column on identity theft quotes Adam Levin of IDTheft911.
- American Banker reports: Green Dot to start offering credit lines to its customers.
- MyECheck to acquire Seergate.
- Financial Post features Nymi.
- TechVibes: “Trulioo Launches $100,000 Developer Fund to Support Financial Inclusion Efforts”
Bolstr Raises $1.7 Million in Seed Funding
Since its launch in 2011 Bolstr has been on a mission to offer a simple way for small businesses to get financing quickly. It began lending in 2013 and since then, the 1,000+ investors on its platform have delivered $1 million to more than 12 companies.
The Chicago-based startup pulled in its first round of funding yesterday. The $1.7 million comes from Montage Ventures, Kapor Capital, DRW Trading Group, Merrick Ventures, and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.
Bolstr will use the funding to add to its six-person team and scale the platform. It aims to host 15 to 20 deals per month by the end of this year (it did not disclose its current volume).
On the Bolstr platform, accredited investors contribute to small business’ funding campaigns, which range from $25,000 to $500,000. The businesses have 30 days to reach their target amount, but since launch, every campaign has reached its goal within five days.
Businesses retain full ownership and pay investors back over 12 to 36 months, depending on the agreed-upon revenue share. So far, there have been zero defaults.
Bolstr debuted its platform at FinovateFall 2012 in New York.
Fintech Fundings: 16 Companies Raise $150 Million Last Week of January
Finovate Alums Populate the FinTech50
Looking for the most innovative startups in fintech? The FinTech50 is a great place to start.

Alumni News– January 30, 2015
Wipro wins multi-year, IT outsourcing contract from Allied Irish Banks (AIB). Join Wipro in London for FinovateEurope 2015 next month.
- The Financial Services Blog features more than 20 Finovate alums in its look at the 50 most innovative FinTech firms.
- MasterCard PayPass partners with St. Petersburg Metro to bring contactless payments to Russian subway.
- Blackhawk Network unveils Blackhawk Engagement Solutions to build customized incentive and rewards programs.
- FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 6 is now up.
- American Banker highlights Cloud Lending’s role with banks.
- PYMNTS interviews TSYS Merchant Solutions’ Tom Boyer about changes in the payments acquiring space.
- Bolstr Raises $1.7 Million in Seed Funding.
- The blog herald shares an infographic detailing online security methods: Nymiband, Myris, Eyeverify, BehavioSec, Entersekt.
- Lifehacker features Betterment, Mint, Personal Capital as tools to manage your investments.
- Bitcoinist features Bitbond. Check them out at FinovateEurope February 10 & 11.
- BetaBoston: After a successful 2014, student services company SimpleTuition rebrands as Valore.
- Mitek Q1 revenue up 21% YOY; reports 3,300 financial institutions now signed & 2,700 live.
FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 6
- Sneak Peek Part 1: ebankIT, Jumio, SOFORT, TradeRiver Finance, Xignite, and Yoyo
- Sneak Peek Part 2: AlphaPoint, Avoka, Encap Security, investUP, Nostrum Group, and StreetShares
- Sneak Peek Part 3: CoinJar, EVRY, FOBISS, Strands, Trunomi, VATBox
- Sneak Peek Part 4: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, CPB SOFTWARE, Ixaris, JSC Delta Bank, QCR, and Topicus.Finance
- Sneak Peek Part 5: Financial Media Solutions, Fiserv, Intelligent Environments, mBank & i3D, Pirean, and Telenor banka & Asseco SEE
- Build a loan portfolio automatically
- Define regions and risk categories to invest in
- Re-invest received loan repayments
- Provides an extra layer of security for your added peace of mind
- Easy-to-use interface to lock/unlock your cards with a simple swipe of the finger
- Customizable lock settings and built-in alerts
- Complements existing financial savings vehicles
- Creates new college savings accounts and relationships
- Provides a marketing tool for consumer and business banking
Spreedly Raises $150,000 in New Funding
North Carolina-based payments specialist Spreedly has secured a new investment of $150,000. Information on the investors was not immediately available. The new funding takes the company’s total to more than $2 million.
Spreedly’s “credit card vault in the cloud” technology gives merchants and aggregator platforms the ability to work simultaneously with multiple payment gateways. With its single API and secure credit card tokenization, Spreedly’s solution provides both greater flexibility and control over the payments process.

Cachet Financial Solutions Integrates with Apple Pay
With Apple’s recent record-breaking earnings report, there’s been no shortage of Apple-talk lately, and today is no different.
Earlier this week, Cachet Financial Solutions announced its Select Mobile Money platform now integrates with Apple Pay.
Cachet’s prepaid card clients can enable customers to make purchases using Apple Pay at the physical point-of-sale (POS).
How it works:
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users open their white-labeled Select Mobile Money app and click on the Apple Pay icon. Their prepaid card is automatically placed top-of-wallet in Passbook, ready to pay.
After payment, the Select Mobile Money app shows the user’s updated balance and transaction details (see image on right).
President and CEO of Cachet, Jeffrey Mack, likes the improved user experience and, states, “we expect this unique feature to attract new prepaid users to our clients, as well as bring new banks, credit unions and AFS providers to Cachet.”
The Apple Pay update is available now to its clients as an upgrade.
Cachet Financial demonstrated its Select Mobile Money app at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.