Fintech Fundings: 17 Companies Raise $350 Million Week Ending Oct 31

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized
It’s beginning to sound like a broken record — another monster week for fintech investments. Finovate alums alone pulled more than $200 million: Cardlytics ($70 mil), Wealthfront ($64 mil), Personal Capital ($50 mil), Segmint ($9 mil), Linkable Networks ($8 mil), and Socure ($2.5 mil). In total, 17 companies raised more than $349 million this week. 
The deals in order of magnitude, Oct 24 through Oct 31, 2014:

Card-linked offers and rewards
Latest round: $70 million
Total funding: $170 million
Tags: Credit, debit cards, rewards, merchant-funded, advertising, Atlanta, Georgia 
Source: Finovate
Wealthfront (formerly KaChing)
Robo-investment advisor
Latest round: $64 million (at reported $700 million valuation)
Total funding: $130 million
Tags: Investing, asset management, ETF, Palo Alto, California
Source: Finovate
Asset management & investment tracking
Latest round: $50 million
Total funding: $109 million
Tags: Investing, personal advisor, ETF, San Francisco, California
Source: Finovate
Brazilian real estate marketplace
Latest round: $42 million
Total raised: $75 million
Tags: Home buying, mortgage, real estate, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Source: Crunchbase
Online payment processor
Latest round: $40 million
Total funding: $80 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, acquiring, merchants, Southborough, Massachusetts
Source: FT Partners
Transverse
Cloud-based billing & revenue management
Latest round: $25 million
Total raised: $25 million
Tags: SMB, accounting, invoicing, receivables, Austin, Texas
Source: FT Partners
Data analytics for alternative assets
Latest round: $20 million
Total funding: $20 million
Tags: Big data, investing, capital, Wells Fargo (investor), San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners
Digital advertising, with a significant financial services practice
Latest round: $9 million
Total funding: $17.5 million
Tags: Marketing, online advertising, in-statement promotions, Akron, Ohio, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Linkable Networks (formerly Clovr Media)
Rewards & advertising platform
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $28.7 million
Tags: Card-linked offers, rewards, loyalty, Boston, Massachusetts, Finovate alum
Source: FT Partners
Peer-to-peer currency exchange
Latest round: $7.5 million
Total funding: $10 million
Tags: P2P, fx, funds transfer, remittances, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase
Digital expense reporting solutions
Latest round: $3.5 million
Total funding: $3.5 million
Tags: SMB, accounting, payables, New York City
Source: Crunchbase
Biometric authentication solution
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total funding: $4.7 million
Tags: Authentication, security, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Mobile payment solutions for emerging marketings
Latest round: $2 million
Total funding: $2 million
Tags: Payments, mobile, point of sale, Chennai, India
Source: Crunchbase
Lenda (formerly GoRefi)
Online mortgage refi specialist
Latest round: $1.5 million
Total funding: $2.0 million
Tags: Home lending, home loans, refinance, San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners
Financial and investment information provider
Latest round: $1.2 million
Total funding: $2.7 million
Tags: Financial data, publishing, Dublin, Ireland
Source: FT Partners
Virtual payment gateway
Latest round: $900,000
Total funding: $900,000
Tags: Bitcoin, point-of-sale, POS, cryptocurrency, Vancouver, Canada
Source: Crunchbase
Mobile point-of-sale terminal
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total funding: Unknown
Tags: Mobile, POS, mPOS, Square, card acquiring, merchant, SMB, Palo Alto, California
Source: Crunchbase

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TransferWise Hits London with #RIPHiddenfees Halloween Parade

TransferWise Hits London with #RIPHiddenfees Halloween Parade
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TransferWise
TransferwiseNewLogo

With a giant, inflatable tombstone inscribed “RIP Hidden Fees” looming overhead, international money transfer startup, TransferWise used a horde of Halloween ghouls and more than a little theatre, to put traditional banks on notice when it comes to hidden charges.

Led by a hearse, the parade of costumed TransferWisers and its customers marched through the City of London to the Silicon Roundabout tech cluster. The crowd of goblins and ghosts numbered more than one hundred and claimed to be “lay(ing) misleading price claims” to rest.

TransferWiseRIPHiddenFees
See for yourself. Below is actual footage of the fee-eating zombies making their way down Old Street Roundabout on Thursday (All Hallow’s Eve Eve?).
TransferWise is one of fintech’s more creative marketers. The company announced a major redesign last month, and accompanied it with a fun, cheeky TV advertisement that similarly heralded the beginning of the end of bank fees.
TransferWise has been recognized as an innovator in the money transfer space by a variety observers, earning a spot in CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list earlier this year. The company has attracted the interest of the investment community in 2014, as well, announcing an investment of $25 million and the support of investor, Sir Richard Branson.
TransferWise demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. See a video of the company’s presentation.
And because nothing beats a doubleheader, here’s a little more movie fun, this time from the clever folks at Moven. Have a great weekend!

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Alumni News– October 31, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: App Annie, Avoka, Coinbase, EverSafe, EXCESS RETURN, Jack Henry, Malauzai Software, Rippleshot, Stocktwits, The Currency Cloud, Tradier, Vantiv
  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgRippleshot wins Up and Comer honors at Chicago Innovation Awards.
  • Vantiv announces agreement to provide merchant services to MUFG Union Bank.
  • Symitar division of Jack Henry introduces Malauzai-powered Episys Anywhere.
  • Breaking Banks interviews Derek Corcoran, Founder of Avoka.
  • App Annie releases new app, VPN Defender, published by Smart Sense.
  • Currency Cloud partners with XE.com to deliver money transfer solution for business.
  • Excess Return launches new Ideas Center and Screener modules in partnership with Keytrade Bank
  • Coinbase introduces Multisig Vault to enable companies to control their private keys on Coinbase.
  • Benzinga interviews Howard Lindzon on what’s next for StockTwits.
  • Quantcha enhances stock options search engine with integrated trading from Tradier.
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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Cardlytics Pulls in $70 Million in Series F Round, Prepares for IPO

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, Funding

CardlyticsLogoNew.jpg

Card-linked offers company, Cardlytics, closed a $70 million Series F round yesterday. The round was led by Discovery Capital, who will appoint a representative to Cardlytics’ board.

The Wall Street Journal reports that, with this newest installment, the Atlanta-based company has raised a total of $170 million since it was founded in 2008. Past investors include:

    • Groupe Aeroplan
    • Canaan Partners
    • ITC Holdings
    • Kinetic Ventures
    • Polaris Venture Partners
    • TTV Capital
    • Aimia

The company plans to use the funding to develop products that analyze data in new ways. It will not only help the merchants, who pay Cardlytics to list their offers, but it is also good news for its 400 bank partners.

This includes Bank of America, who uses the company’s technology to power its BankAmeriDeals (below). This year, Cardlytics anticipates the banks’ cut of payment it receives from merchants will add up to $20 to $25 million.

CardlyticsTablet1.1.jpg

The company plans to go public within the next 18 months. According to Cardlytics co-founder and President, Lynne Laube:

“We want to be ready to take advantage of the market, and getting ready for an IPO takes work.”

Check out Cardlytics’ demo from FinovateFall 2013, where it debuted its Gelocation Application.

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Finovate Debuts: HedgeCoVest

Finovate Debuts: HedgeCoVest
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: HedgeCoVest

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is HedgeCoVest, which demonstrated its Replicazor at FinovateFall 2014.

HedgeCoVestLogo

HedgeCoVest’s web-based tool enables users to replicate hedge fund investments in their own brokerage accounts. The platform is aimed at existing hedge fund investors, advisors, and retail investors seeking more flexibility.

The stats

    • $900,000 raised
    • 12 employees
    • Product launched in September 2014
    • 35+ hedge fund managers have signed up 
    • 50+ models coming in the next few months

Hedge funds vs. HedgeCoVest
While hedge fund returns can be impressive, investing in them is not always practical. To qualify, investors need to have a net worth of $1 million (excluding primary residence). Additionally, hedge funds have prohibitively high account and strategy minimums.

Investors also face liquidity restrictions, locking them into strategies, and there’s little transparency into strategy specifics.

In comparison, HedgeCoVest’s minimum is $30,000, and investors can allocate as little as $10,000 to individual strategies. Liquidating investments is easy, just one click. HedgeCoVest charges a flat fee of 2.5%, instead of the often-confusing legal, audit, and trade fees incurred with traditional hedge funds.

HCVHomepage

How it works
HedgeCoVest enables investors to automatically replicate real hedge fund portfolios in their own brokerage accounts, in real time. It does this using a trading technology called the Replicazor, which automatically mirrors hedge fund investments.

In milliseconds, the Replicazor registers a hedge fund trade and makes the same trade for HedgeCoVest clients.

The overview page (below) is used to search and compare available hedge fund models.

HCVSearchModels

Users select a model for an in-depth view of the strategy. The overview tab breaks down the exact sector allocations, both long and short.

HCVSectors

Other tabs include statistics (shown below), real-time fund performance, and an About Us section that profiles the firm and person behind the strategy.

HCVStatistics

When the user finds a strategy they like, they select Invest Now, enter the amount to allocate, and choose their leverage. The Replicazor buys the securities into the brokerage account and tracks the holdings going forward.

By trading outside of the rigid hedge fund structure and requirements, HedgeCoVest opens hedge fund investing to a wider audience.

Check out HedgeCoVest’s debut of the Replicazor at FinovateFall 2014.

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Finovate Debuts: EverSafe

Finovate Debuts: EverSafe
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EverSafe, Finovate Debuts
EverSafeLogo_FF2014

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. At FinovateFall 2014, Howard L. Tischler and Elizabeth Loewy demonstrated EverSafe, technology that helps seniors and their caretakers fight financial elder abuse.

EverSafe

EverSafe’s technology is a proactive defense network that helps older Americans defend themselves against financial fraud. The software reviews financial transactions and credit report activity on a daily basis. Alerts are sent in the event of suspicious activity, such as unexpected patterns in spending, deposits, or withdrawals.
The Stats
    • Founded in January 2012
    • Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland
    • Funding raised: $1.5 million
    • Total employees: 7
    • Product launched: Spring 2014 (soft launch)
    • Howard L. Tischler is Founder and CEO
EverSafeHomepage_FF2014final
The Story
    • 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day
    • 20% of Americans over 65 are financially exploited 
    • Seniors lose more than $2.9 billion a year to financial exploitation
    • At least $18 trillion at risk (the net worth of Americans 65 and over)
These are the numbers that drive the EverSafe story. Older Americans are particularly vulnerable to criminals who take advantage of new technologies to steal and commit fraud. Whether it is due to declining cognitive facilities, relative ignorance of technology, or both, seniors and their families can face a number of challenges when it comes to making sure financial accounts remain fraud-free.
Howard Tischler, founder and CEO of EverSafe knows these challenges first hand. In helping his mother, who was a victim of what is called “elder financial abuse,” he learned about the scope of the problem. He also realized that his background as a technology entrepreneur might go a long way toward helping solve it.
“I saw the devastating effect it had on my mother and my family and resolved to apply technology to help prevent this tragedy from happening to others,” Tischler said.
EverSafeOmniChannel
The idea of providing a solution directly to seniors and their caretakers was key for Elizabeth Loewy, who worked as the former chief of the Elder Abuse unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and is now SVP for Industry Relations with EverSafe. She noted that as a prosector, she was only able to try and help after the fact. “Finally we have a service that addresses the problem at the source,” she said.
Addressing the Finovate audience, Loewy told attendees that over the 20 years she spent battling this phenomenon, she realized that the victims varied. Some had cognitive difficulties, like dementia, and some were certainly wealthier than others. “But these seniors all had one thing in common,” she pointed out. “These seniors had worked hard investing and saving in an effort to ensure that the fruits of their labor would be put away safe and sound for their golden years, protected from exploiters.”
Equally painful were the conversations she had with adult children, caregivers, powers of attorney who were devastated that they hadn’t detected elder financial abuse that had occurred “under their watch.”
In this, the founding of EverSafe represents a coming together of law enforcement and technology in order to not just defend seniors against financial exploitation, but to empower older Americans and those caring for them, as well. “(EverSafe) allows seniors to live independently, which is what seniors want,” Tischler said.

The Solution
EverSafe can be thought of as a suspicious activity report (SAR) for consumers. Getting started on the platform is simple and straightforward. Set up an account by linking credit cards, savings, checking, money market, investing accounts and more. EverSafe links to more than 20,000 different types of account. Once the account is registered, the platform downloads the last 90 days worth of activity, and begins daily monitoring.
EverSafeAlert
The technology scans linked accounts, using pattern recognition to ferret out instances of atypical and potentially suspicious behavior. “We’re analyzing whether someone is taking their money,” Tischler explained. “And notifying them immediately rather than waiting until the end of the month.”
When suspicious activity is detected, the platform sends out an alert to the designated contact person. Alerts can be modified and customized, for example to set spending limits or transactions at certain locations and merchants. Similarly, alerts and transactions can be customized and annotated for further reference.
EverSafeArt3
The point is to bring activity to the attention of someone in a position to make a call. Some of the alerts will undoubtedly turn out to be unusual, but benign, transactions. But because most financial fraud “starts small and then escalates,” as Loewy explained, “early detection and monitoring is key.”
Basic service provides daily monitoring of up to five financial accounts and one credit bureau for $9.99 a month. EverSafe will soon offer a “Full Alert plan” that will provide monitoring of an unlimited number of financial accounts and all major credit bureaus. The Full Alert plan will be $24.99 a month. There is also a “limited time only” $4.99/month “introductory offer” that consists of account monitoring.
The Future
For now the task is obtaining broader adoption of the platform, which includes helping people understand the breadth of the problem and recognize that there is now a technology that is easy to use and dedicated specifically to stopping it. “Financial institutions and credit card companies have definitely gotten better at detecting suspicious activity,” Loewy said. “But they can’t catch it all.”
Asked what’s next for EverSafe, Tischler mentions wearables. He sees a compatib
ility between his platform and wearable technology, especially watches, which may be a better way to deliver alerts to some seniors or caregivers. He hinted at a prototype, although provided no specifics at this point.
And while today’s octogenarians may not be big smartphone users, those of tomorrow are likely to be. “Aging (baby) boomers are among the fastest growing users of technology,” Tischler said. While it is true that in many instances those actually using EverSafe on a daily basis are the grown children, seniors of the future may be better equipped to take the fight against financial elder abuse into their own hands.
Check out a video of EverSafe’s FinovateFall 2014 demo.

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Alumni News– October 30, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BBVA Compass, Cardlytics, Dwolla, Fiserv, HedgeCoVest, Insuritas, Knox, Lendio, Mitek, Personal Capital, SimplyTapp, Temenos, Trustev
  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTemenos announces availability of its new mobile banking app.
  • Mitek reports more than 3,000 FIs have signed up for its mobile deposit solution.
  • BBVA Compass partners with Dwolla to bring real-time payments to bank customers.
  • Personal Capital announces $50 million series D round.
  • xconomy profiles anti-fraud innovator, Trustev.
  • Fiserv launches Popmoney for Disbursements.
  • Insuritas to open and manage turnkey insurance agency for Heritage Community Credit Union.
  • Knox Payments recognized in emerging startup category at Venture Forum RVA event.
  • Cardnotpresent.com features how SimplyTapp uses host card emulation (HCE).
  • Lendio partners with The UPS store to help SMBs.
  • Cardlytics pulls in $70 million in Series F round, prepares for IPO.
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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Personal Capital Announces $50 Million Series D Round

Personal Capital Announces $50 Million Series D Round
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Personal Capital

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for PersonalCapitalLogo.jpg

Personal Capital has announced a new investment of $50 million.

The Series D round was led by Corsair Capital, BBVA Ventures, and USAA, with current investors Crosslink, IVP, and Venrock also participating. The investment takes Personal Capital’s total funding to $109 million.

Personal Capital CEO Bill Harris said, “This infusion will help accelerate our already-rapid growth – we’ve seen revenue increases of 10% or more each month for the past seven quarters.”
Personal_Capital_homepage
It’s one thing to have a banner year in funding for alternative investment services. Between Personal Capital and Wealthfront, the sector is having a banner week. In a statement, Corsair Capital’s Jeremy Schein positioned Personal Capital at the “intersection of consumer technology and financial services.” It will be interesting to see how the platform continues to distinguish itself on what is an increasingly crowded corner.
Personal Capital differentiates itself with an approach that blends the PFM and online investors advisory approaches in order to provide an “end-to-end” money management system. And unlike the “robo-advisors” it is often grouped with, Personal Capital uses a technology-assisted advisor strategy, in which real-live human financial advisors play a key role in helping clients plot their financial plans.
As Harris explained in a talked-about interview on CNBC from earlier this year: 
“We take the best of traditional wealth management, which is typically only available to people with multiple millions of dollars. We take that sophisticated and customized financial management, and bring it down and make it available to regular people, affluent households in this country.”
On the technology side, Personal Capital’s online and mobile apps give clients the ability to discover their net worth, track and manage cash flow and budgets, and check up on investments, including 401(k)s. Clients can review finances on their desktop, tablet, or smartphone and, when ready, schedule a consultation with a Personal Capital financial advisor.
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Personal Capital demoed its One Click Investment Proposals at FinovateSpring 2014. See a video of the company’s presentation.

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Segmint Raises $9 Million in New Funding

Segmint Raises $9 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Segmint

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for SegmintLogo9.11.jpg

Fresh off a $9 million capital infusion from an unnamed “global FinTech leader”, Segmint is looking to leverage its success with financial institutions to move beyond banks into other verticals.

The new funding takes Segmint’s total capital to $23 million.

Segmint CEO, President, and Co-Founder, Rob Heiser said in a statement:
“We are consistently innovating our technology to not only help marketers increase their overall ROI, but also to remain the leading solution for brands seeking complete impression to influenced conversion metrics.”
The statement also notes that the Segmint will use the funding to help “accelerate enhancements” to current and new products, as well as growing the number of employees, and helping manage increased demand for Segmint’s services.
But there’s more. According to a conversation between Heiser and VentureBeat, the company will be looking to use the money to “pursue the insurance vertical.” Heiser plans to use the same formula that worked to bring banks to his platform to onboard insurance companies and, after them, retailers, as well.
SegmintHomepage
Segmint’s technology helps banks better understand and evaluate customer data. The company’s platform collects financial data (checking account history, credit cards, loan payments, etc.) and then uses that information to establish a Key Lifestyle Indicator or KLI. These KLIs can then be used by banks to evaluate customer suitability for various financial products, such as a loan refinance. Segmint has strategic partnerships with a number of major fintech innovators such as FIS, Computershare, and Cognizant.
What helps separate Segmint from its rivals is the company’s end-to-end platform. This makes it easier for users of the platform to build, execute and measure marketing campaigns while at the same time ensuring that those marketing campaigns remain within compliance and regulatory guidelines.
Founded in 2007 and based in Akron, Ohio, Segmint demoed its One Button SegmintEngage Solution at FinovateFall 2012. See a video of the company’s presentation here.

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Alumni News– October 29, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, CurrencyFair, Flint Mobile, Forte Payment Systems, Google Cloud Platform, Knox, MasterCard, Segmint, vaamo
  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgSmall Business Computing features Flint Mobile in its short list of small business financial apps.
  • MasterCard announces launch of MasterPass in Taiwan.
  • Segmint raises $9 million in new funding.
  • Vaamo raises $3.2 Million, Launches Out of Private Beta.
  • Coinbase adds multi-signature tech to its Vault for high net worth Bitcoin holders.
  • Vogogo partners with Knox Payments to enable its future US clients to accept payment from any US bank account.
  • Google Cloud Platform announces Beta For Local SSD.
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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Finovate Debuts: Linqto

Finovate Debuts: Linqto
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Linqto

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is Linqto, which demonstrated its virtual Personal Banker solution at FinovateFall 2014.

LinqtoLogo

With Linqto’s Personal Banker, users can talk face-to-face with their bank teller in real time, from anywhere with an Internet or data connection.

The stats

    • Company founded in 2010
    • Product launched in 2014
    • Clients include Marriott, Intuit, NCR, and other major organizations

The product
Digital banking has transitioned from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have,” but many customers find that an online-only channel lacks the personal connection that comes with the in-branch experience. Personal Banker captures the convenience of remote banking while maintaining the personal, face-to-face relationship aspect of in-branch banking.

With Linqto’s system, customers launch a live video chat with a real teller directly on their mobile device. Personal Banker is built to accommodate all devices; even customers without a camera can use SMS to text with a teller.

LinqtoIphoneChat

How it works: Consumer facing

>>Banking
Customers launch the video chat by clicking a button on the web or mobile platform. The one-touch access works like the Mayday button for the Kindle Fire HDX.

To make it as easy as possible, there is no software to upload, no plug-in to install, and no additional user name or password required.

During a video chat, customers can view and discuss their balance and take a picture of a check to deposit it during the session. They also have the option to type in questions and answers during the discussion, in the event they are in a public place.

LinqtoPersonalBankerVideo

>>Learning
The Personal Banker solution also has community rooms that act as virtual conference rooms where banks can host seminars on subjects such as retirement and home buying. Customers can interact with the conference host by speaking through their microphone or typing into the chat box.

How it works: Bank-facing

The teller’s screen shows a streaming video of the customer, their location information, their account information, and notes, such as their preferred nickname.

The teller also sees the availability and location of other tellers or specialists. Similar to a call-in experience, the teller can transfer the customer to someone such as a loan officer or wealth management specialist.

LinqtoTellerApp

Since Personal Banker still requires the use of tellers, it enables banks to use idle teller resources, helping some branches remain cost effective. This serves digital customers while keeping tellers in geographical locations where they are needed.

Security

Personal Banker adds an extra layer of security. First, it is difficult to spoof a live video of a face, which enables the teller to verify the customer’s identity. Additionally, the video feed is delivered securely, and all proprietary information is sent behind a firewall.

Linqto markets Personal Banker to bank technology providers such as Intuit, who combine the functionality with other solutions and market it to banks. The Personal Banker solution is coded to fit seamlessly within a bank’s website, mobile app, and branch software.

Watch Linqto’s live demonstration of Personal Banker at FinovateFall 2014.

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Xignite: Inspiring the Future of Finance with Easy and Speedy APIs

Xignite: Inspiring the Future of Finance with Easy and Speedy APIs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Xignite
XigniteLogo

Are companies like Xignite the key drivers of financial innovation?

Within minutes of his company’s keynote at FinDEVr this fall, Xignite founder and CEO, Stephane Dubois had already dropped the names of StockTwits, Personal Capital, and Robin Hood. All headline-grabbing fintech companies that have chosen Xignite to supply the crucial market data that makes their innovations work.

Sharing the stage with software engineer Anand Viswanathan, Dubois used a real stock purchase to take the us from financial social network to PFM/investment advisory to trading platform, connecting the dots of a real fintech ecosystem with Xignite at the center.
Xignite_Homepage
From Xignite’s perspective what makes them the resource of choice for so many innovative fintech startups is that Xignite understands two key things about innovation in a competitive technology marketplace. First, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if you can’t get it to market before your competitors. Second, don’t make developers spend any more time on  the “financial market data piece” as Dubois calls it, than is absolutely necessary.
“Individual developers have an idea, a vision of building something unique,” Dubois explained.
“By creating something that developers can look at and say, ‘I can code this today’ it makes it easier for them to create and innovate,” Dubois said.
Ready, Set – Xignite!
It’s worth remembering that there was a time when getting access to market data itself was a challenge. “Historically sourcing and integrating market data has been very painful,” Dubois said from the stage at FinDEVr this fall. “It’s very complex area, its full of quirks and its littered with legacy technologies.” He recounted a story of Wealthfront founder Adam Rachleff, who became frustrated with legacy data providers, and decided instead to turn to Xignite for market data. 
XigniteStephanewithAnand
“We helped Andy build Wealthfront,” Dubois told developers. “And we can help you build your business.”
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Xignite’s story has been about more than just building a better market data delivery mousetrap.  By 2008, the media had begun to pick up on how, in the words of TechCrunch’s Jeff Widman, Xignite was a “case study” in how a wide range of businesses – in this case Forbes.com – could take advantage of cloud-delivered data and free themselves from the costs and technology issues of legacy financial market data providers. 
As Dubois explained in an interview earlier this year, the previous generation of APIs assumed two things: slower networks than we have today, and applications that stored data. “Now the networks are faster and apps ask for data repeatedly rather than storing it,” he said.
This is what has allowed for “massive cloud ecosystems” such as Amazon Web Services, which Xignite leverages in order to support its own ecosystem of fintech builders and innovators.
Xignite_Art2
Today Xignite offers a wide array of fintech solutions. Its Market Data Cloud provides real-time, historical, and reference financial data on instruments in all asset classes. Its Market Data Distribution solution is used by exchanges and vendors such as NASDAQ to provide transaction data especially through Xignite’s on-demand APIs. Large FIs can take advantage of Xignite’s Enterprise Data Distribution solution, which helps organizations clean up data redundancies, as well as provide data through a private, branded API catalog.
Xignite currently processes more than 15 billion API calls a month from more than 45 countries. Its FI partners include BlackRock, Charles Schwab, BNY Mellon, Natixis, and TD Ameritrade, and exchanges like the Nasdaq OMX and the NYSE both use Xignite to sell their data.
The Technology
Xignite calls itself a design company rather than a “market data” company. It’s another way of saying that in addition to accurately delivering data quickly, Xignite has to provide that data in ways that are easy for developers to deal with. “Market data is especially complex,” Dubois explained. “We demystify it so they can build apps super quickly. We also have everything they need in one place – a one-stop shop – and what they’ll need for tomorrow.”
Some of what makes Xignite help developers get their projects finished easier and to market faster may seem like minutiae to non-builders. But according to Vishwanathan, its the minutiae that matters. He points to the layout of Xignite’s Product Catalog, which offers “tons” of API operators for individual services such as Get GlobalDelayed Quote. This gives developers the maximum ways to get the data they need. The API test forms in Xignite APIs can be customized so that developers can see only the outputs they are interested in, and in-line documentation helps make sure that builders are know both exactly what they are getting and exactly how to integrate it into their projects.
Xignite_Art3
Xignite and the Fintech Gold Rush
Dubois thinks we are living in a “fintech gold rush”. And as such its Xignite’s job to provide prospectors with the shovels, pans, and dredges. Newly queued up is FactSet, which provides financial information and analytics to more than 50,000 customers via desktop analytics, mobile apps, and data feeds. Xignite announced earlier this month that its customers will have access to FactSet’s global fundamental market data via its APIs as early as Q4 of this year.
In making the announcement about FactSet, Dubois referred the challenge of “keep(ing) pace with innovation.” It’s a telling acknowledgement and heartening to hear for fans of the platform. After all, it was a change in the way that data moved and was used – from slow
er and locally stored to faster and distributed from the cloud – that helped give Xignite the advantage it has. It is impossible to know the next evolution in data, the form it takes or the way the apps of tomorrow will consume it. But in either event, it will be worth watching to see how Xignite grows and adapts to stay at the forefront of change.
What’s not likely to change any time soon, however, are the number of companies discovering providers like Xignite and deciding that cloud-based financial market data delivery is a better alternative.
“Whether you are a startup trying to topple the world order, or working for a large company and trying to hold on to what you’ve got, what you need is speed,” Dubois said. “We have the largest, fastest, most powerful set of RESTful APIs that will help developers get their products to market faster.”

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