Fintech Fundings: 19 Companies Raise $240 million Week Ending Nov 7

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized
The blistering $1 billion-per-month funding pace continued into early November, with more than $236 million raised globally across 19 fintech companies. Five Finovate alums recorded multi-million rounds including Trustly ($30 million), MX ($8.3 million), Kofax ($2.8 million), InvoiceASAP ($700,000) and Gremln ($500,000).

The deals by size recorded on Nov. 1 through Nov. 8, 2014:
Mobile payments & commerce
Latest round: $80 million
Total raised: $177 million
Tags: Payments, ecommerce, mobile, shopping, POS, point of sale, London, UK
Source: Crunchbase 
Global payments gateway
Latest round: $50 million
Total raised: $165 million
Tags: Payments, processor, Waltham, Mass 
Source: Crunchbase http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/plimus
Direct online/mobile bank payments
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $30 million
Tags: Payments, billpay, ecommerce, Stockholm, Sweden, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 
Indian digital wallet
Latest round: $30 million
Total raised: $30.3 million
Tags: Mobile, payments, ecommerce, Gurgaon, India
Source: Crunchbase 
MX (formerly MoneyDesktop)
Online & mobile banking platform
Latest round: $8.3 million
Total raised: $20 million
Tags: Digital banking, PFM, Utah, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 

Payroll & HR platform
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $21.8 million
Tags: Payroll, human resources management, tax reporting, New York City
Banking & rewards app for millennials
Latest round: $8 million
Total raised: $8 million
Tags: Cards, rewards, debit, prepaid, San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners 
Small business credit reporting
Latest round: $6.5 million
Total raised: $6.5 million
Tags: SMB, credit, underwriting, South Jordan, Utah
Source: Crunchbase 

Card-linked rewards program
Latest round: $4.7 million
Total raised: $6 million
Tags: Rewards, debit cards, credit cards, offers, loyalty, San Francisco, California
Source: FT Partners
Document & image capture solutions
Latest round: $2.8 million
Total raised: $8.8 million
Tags: Docs, remote capture, mobile, mobile account opening, Irvine, California, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase: 
Tax & insurance tools for independent contractors
Latest round: $2.5 million
Total raised: $2.6 million
Tags: Invoicing, SMB, invoicing, tax
Source: Crunchbase
Cash-back & rewards platform for merchants
Latest round: $2.4 million
Total raised: $2.4 million
Tags: POS, point-of-sale, loyalty, rewards, ecommerce, London, UK
Source: FT Partners
ACH at the point-of-sale
Latest round: $2 million
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Payments, merchants, mobile, SMB, acquiring, ACH, 
Source: Crunchbase
Cloud-based invoicing & payments
Latest round: $700,000
Total raised: $1+ million
Tags: Invoicing, SMB, accounting, receivables, San Francisco, California, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate 
Social media compliance and monitoring
Latest round: $500,000
Total raised: $2 million
Tags: Social media, compliance, marketing, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate
Alternative payment provider in Philippines
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unkown
Tags: Payments, Philippines
Source: Crunchbase
French online marketplace for business loans
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Lending, SMB, P2P, crowdfunding, investing, Paris, France
Source: FT Partners
Chinese P2P lending platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Undisclosed
Tags: Marketplace lending, person-to-person loans, crowdfunding, investing, credit, Whenzhou, China
Source: Crunchbase
Real estate transaction platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
Tags: Home buying, real estate, mortgage, Austin, Texas
Source: Crunchbase
——————–

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Alumni News– November 7, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Concur, Fiserv, Jack Henry, MasterCard, P2BInvestor, Toopher
  • Thumbnail image for 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.jpgP2Binvestor marks milestones in new credit lines, purchased invoices.
  • MasterCard announces acquisition of Payment Gateway Services business from TNS.
  • Andover Bank to deploy Precision core processing platform and other solutions from Fiserv.
  • Jack Henry Banking’s Symitar division partners with Stickley on Security to bring SoS Advisor to its core credit unions.
  • Josh Alexander, CEO of Toopher, named “Top Techpreneur” by Austin Business Journal.
  • eWeek looks at Concur’s ecosystem for app development.
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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech Companies Attract $1 Billion in New Equity in October

By Jim Bruene Posted on
Categories: Funding

We have only been tracking fintech investments across all companies since Aug 1. But I’m pretty sure that even if we’d been doing it for 20 years, there would never have been a month as frenzied as October. 

In just one month, 76 fintech companies worldwide attracted a combined $1 billion in new equity investments. The largest ten deals alone were worth at least $30 million each: 
$185M Mozida
$150M Square
$75M   Yodlee (IPO) 
$70M   Cardlytics
$64M   Wealthfront
$57M   Financial Software Systems
$50M   Personal Capital
$42M   VivaReal
$40M   Credorax
$31M   Blockchain
————————
$764M Top 10 deals
$276M 66 Other deals
—————————–
$1.04B Total Investment
For more information, see our weekly postings.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

P2Binvestor Marks Milestones in New Credit Lines, Purchased Invoices

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: P2BInvestor

Thumbnail image for P2BiLogo.jpg

P2Binvestor, the Denver-based crowdfunding platform, announced today that it reached two major milestones this week. The receivables-secured SME lender has originated more than $10.5 million in lines of credit to 19 clients, and purchased more than $24 million in invoices since May.

At this pace, P2Binvestor believes it will reach $35 million in credit lines extended by the middle of next year. “Crowdlending is perfect for younger, fast-growing companies that need a good chunk of working capital to get to the next growth stage,” said P2Binvestor President Krista Morgan.

P2Binvestor offers SMEs four different financing produts: an asset-backed line of credit, a future contractual revenue-secured line of credit, a purchase order product and receivables-purchase financing. Borrowing amounts range from $25,000 to $5 million, and eligible companies are B2B, with at least one year of operating history and a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue. Rates range from 1-2%.
“We can provide larger credit lines and better rates and terms than typical online lenders,” Bruce Morgan, CEO and co-founder said. He added that at the same time P2Binvestor has great relationships with banks because they help their clients become better clients. “We finance their clients when they cannot, then release those clients from our contract with no penalties when the bank is ready for them,” he explained.
Founded in February 2012, P2Binvestor funds a wide range of businesses. A June funding announcement from the company, for example, featured an education software company, a field services provider for companies in the oil and gas industries, and a natural foods maker. “Even good companies may not qualify for bank financing,” Morgan said. “We have products to help you grow to the point where you are bankable.”
P2Binvestor was last on the Finovate stage in September as part of FinovateFall. The company demoed new borrowing and loan management features of its platform.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Alumni News– November 6, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Kofax, Mitek, Top Image Systems, VerifyValid
  • Thumbnail image for 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.jpgSmartphone checkbook app MagicMony powered by VerifyValid. Read our CEO interview with VerifyValid CEO Paul Doyle here.
  • Pymnts.com takes a look at how innovators like Mitek, Top Image Systems, and Kofax are dealing with mobile deposit fraud.
  • Sramana Mitra interviews Avoka CEO Phil Copeland for the One Million by One Million Blog.
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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Gremln Secures $500,000 Investment from Cultivation Capital

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Gremln

Thumbnail image for GremlnLogo.jpg

Gremln, the company dedicated to making it easier for banks and other financial institutions to benefit from social media, has secured a new investment of half a million dollars from Cultivation Capital.

The new funding takes Gremln’s total capital to nearly $2 million. 

Gremln_homepage_new
Tim Stern, General Partner at Cultivation Capital, emphasized the “safety first” aspect of Gremln’s technology, saying there is a “large need” for software that will help industries control what is shared via social media. Stern will be joining Gremln’s board of directors as part of the investment.
Gremln specializes in social media management software that helps institutions use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn without having to worry about regulatory and compliance issues. The technology includes compliance and organizational tools, analytics, features like bulk post upload, scheduling, and message assigning, and is available as a white label solution. Gremln has won awards and recognition from PC World, CIO Magazine, and the Innovators Cup. This summer, Gremln raised $100,000 as a participant in the SixThirty Accelerator program.
Among the interesting notes in the coverage of the investment was the suggestion from Gremln CEO Ryan Bell that the company looking into other potential revenue sources, such as working with financial broker dealers. Bizjournals also reports that Gremln has grown approximately 500% since early 2013.
Gremln last demoed on the Finovate stage in September as part of FinovateFall 2014. See the company present its new mobile platform here.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

What the Hack to do With All those APIs?

What the Hack to do With All those APIs?
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bionym, Blockchain, Feedzai, Intuit, MasterCard Developer Zone, Modo Payments, PayPal
IMG_3008

We’re in Vegas this week, catching up with several Finovate and FinDEVr alums. Before the week even started, however, we took a gamble and spent the weekend at the Money20/20 Hackathon.

Many Finovate and FinDEVr alums have powerful APIs to enable the creation of solutions to solve all types of problems. At the hackathon, the crowd of 450 developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs developed a myriad of solutions over the course of 25 hours.

Here are the winners for each company:

BionymLogo_FinDEVr

Bionym winners: 

  • OffBank, which uses Bionym’s Nymi band to authenticate bank customers before initiating a wire transfer
  • I Heart Pay, which uses Bionym’s Nymi band, combined with an app, to enable merchants to verify a customer’s identity to charge them for a transaction

Check out Bionym’s demo from FinDEVr 2014, San Francisco

BlockchainLogo


Blockchain winner:

Samaritus, which uses barcode scanners inside of recycling bins that read bar codes on recyclable materials to reward people for recycling. The app pays them in bitcoin, while simultaneously collecting data on what and where users recycle.

FeedzaiLogo.jpg

Feedzai winner:
Bacon, which places a multi-layer authentication platform that layers more security data on top of Feedzai’s algorithm to authenticate customers before a transaction. 

IntuitLogo.jpg

Intuit winner:
In Reach, which uses the QuickBooks Online API to determine the availability of a retailer’s inventory, then enables customers to purchase goods via a native app, and pick up the item in the store.
MasterCardLogo

MasterCard winner:

Enterchange, which uses MasterCard’s API to enable customers to order food and pay at sit-down restaurants.
Modo Payments winners:
    • ShopperPal (for FIS), an app that incents consumers to enter a physical retail store by giving them points for entering a 
      ModoLogo_FinDEVr

      store, liking the company on Facebook, and making purchases in the store. The points are added to the consumer’s Modo Payments app.

    • KidFit (for Alliance Data), an app that syncs with wearable devices, such as a smartwatch, to enable parents to reward their children for elevating their heart rate for a set amount of time. The rewards are given in the form of points in the Modo Payments app. 
    • Nike Modo, a system that uses the Nike Fuel band to track a consumer’s geolocation and add reward points to their Modo Wallet when they enter a store and make a purchase.
Swift, a solution for retail stores that uses an RFID sensor to track each product that is placed into shopping carts. The data syncs to the consumer’s PayPal app to enable a quick and mobile checkout experience.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

InvoiceASAP Raises $700,000 from Current Investors

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: invoiceASAP

invoiceasap_logo.jpg

CEO Paul Hoeper confirmed the WhoGotFunded.com report yesterday that InvoiceASAP had raised $696,000 in new funding.

The company’s SEC Form D filing is available here. The investment takes InvoiceASAP’s total capital to more than $1 million.

invoiceasapHomepage
InvoiceASAP is a cloud-based mobile invoicing and payments platform. The technology is available as both a “freemium” offering as well as a premium service that allows for credit card acceptance and QuickBooks syncing. InvoiceASAP is compatible with PayPal and QuickBooks, and users can add and send a variety of media (from pictures to audio files) to their invoices, as well. A partnership with Zebra Technologies enables mobile printing, and all content is safely stored on InvoiceASAP’s secure servers.
InvoiceASAP was founded in November 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company demoed its Mobile Invoice Network as part of FinovateSpring 2013.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Alumni News– November 5, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Braintree, CAN Capital, Financial Guard, FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, MasterCard, Nutmeg, PayPal, SigFig, SumUp, Venmo, Wealthfront, Yodlee
  • 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.jpgBraintree announces new service that makes it easier for merchants to sign up for the platform.
  • MasterCard launches MasterPass in Czech Republic.
  • CAN Capital to offer loans via Yodlee’s Small Business solution.
  • PayPal’s Venmo to power payments for web and mobile chat app, Dasher.
  • Wall Street Sector Selector highlights Financial Guard and lists Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, Nutmeg, SigFig, and Wealthfront in a column on using roboadvisors with retirement accounts.
  • SumUp partners with BitPay to integrate bitcoin into its mPOS solution.
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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Trustly Announces $30 Million Investment from Bridgepoint Development Capital

Trustly Announces $30 Million Investment from Bridgepoint Development Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Trustly

Thumbnail image for TrustlyHiLogo.jpg

Trustly, the Swedish payments company that began 2014 with a deal to make Groupon easier to use for customers at seven Swedish banks, is closing out the year with a €23 million ($30 million USD) investment courtesy of Bridgepoint Development Capital.

Carl Wilsson, Trustly CEO, said that the investment from Bridgepoint will help fuel the company’s European expansion. Trustly is live in eight European countries, and covers 57 banks representing 67 million consumers. The company currently processes more than seven million payments a year.

TrustlyHomepage
“We are delighted to partner with Bridgepoint, who will provide support and financial resources as we continue to grow and innovate,” Wilsson said. A partner at Bridgepoint, Johan Dahlfors, pointed to both the growth of the European online payments market and the B2B, B2C, and P2P-based payment tools developed by Trustly as support for his firm’s investment.
“The business is therefore well positioned in a growing market for online payment solutions,” Dahlfors said. “We look forward to working with the ambitious team to build out its European presence further.”
Trustly develops online and mobile banking payment solutions. The company specializes in enabling direct bank e-Payments, integrating its technology with FI’s existing online banking infrastructure to make paying online as easy as paying in person with cash.
TrustlyHomepage2
The technology allows the merchant website to be visible throughout the payment process – a boon for both consumers and banks, as far as Trustly is concerned. The platform supports a wide range of authentication methods used by banks, as well, from MobileBankID to SMS codes.
Named one of the fastest growing technology companies in Sweden, Trustly’s recent headlines include the release of its open source, alternative messaging technology, BankAPI in September. In June, Trustly announced a partnership with PayPal to facilitate direct payments for online banking customers in Sweden and Denmark.
Trustly is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and was founded in 2008. See the company’s 2013 FinovateEurope demo of Trustly’s direct, person-to-person bank payment solution here.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Alumni News– November 4, 2014

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dragon Wealth, EyeVerify, Feedzai, Fidor Bank, iQuantifi, MX, SecureKey, SK Planet, TipRanks, Xendpay, Xpenditure, Zopa
  • 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.jpgOberthur and SecureKey announce collaboration to enable secure cloud transactions.
  • Zopa reports £250 million lent in 12 months.
  • Xendpay eliminates fee for overseas bank-to-bank transfers.
  • MX boosts its funding total to $20 million with new investment.
  • Xpenditure announces two new partnerships, US expansion.
  • Financial Advisor profiles robo-advisor, iQuantifi.
  • SK Planet teams up with Celcom Axiata Bhd to form joint-venture company, Celcom Planet.
  • Programmable Web takes a look at Feedzai’s anti-fraud API.
  • EyeVerify announces Eyeprint ID v2.0 to launch in January on iOS and Android.
  • Fidor Bank and Kraken join forces to launch specialized bank for crypto currencies.
  • TipRanks CEO and co-founder Uri Gruenbaum discusses financial accountability in a CNBC panel discussion.
  • Dragon Wealth named Euromoney Magazine’s Best Wealth Management Innovator in Asia.
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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Socure Scores $2.5 Million to Overcome Evil with Good

Socure Scores $2.5 Million to Overcome Evil with Good
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Socure

Socurelogo.jpg

Online security companies are always working to stay one step ahead of fraudsters. Socure, a New York-based company is out to fight these malevolent deeds with an approach it calls Social Biometrics.

As it turns out, it pays to be good. The company just closed a $2.5 million round of funding this week. Investors include:

    • Founder Collective
    • Two Sigma Ventures
    • ff Venture Capital 

This, added to Socure’s $2.2 million Seed round it generated in March, brings the company’s total funding to $4.7 million.

Socuredashboard

Socure’s fraud detection solution uses people’s social behavior across networks to determine the authenticity of their identity. See their debut of Social Biometrics at FinovateFall 2013.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook