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Alumni News– September 11, 2014

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 11, 2014
Categories: Braintree, Check Point, Coinbase, Darwinex, Dealstruck, Kalixa, Lendio, Oink, Top Image Systems, Xero

Archer Daniels Midland deploys Tradeshift’s Collaborative Workflow system.

Coinbase opens its doors to European customers in 13 countries.

Dealstruck and Lendio partner to provide capital to Jidan Cleaning.

Oink releases v 2.0 of its app to improve mobile shopping experience and allow users to favorite retailers.

LightCyber partners with Check Point Software to provide breach detection and response.

Stitch Labs features Xero on its list of four apps for multichannel sellers this holiday season.

Forex Magnates takes a look at the latest upgrades to Darwinex’s trading platform.

Kalixa partners with Millicom to launch new payments service venture in Latin America and Africa.

Top Image Systems announces new subsidiary TIS Australia.

PYMNTS: Braintree CEO Bill Ready talks about ApplePay with MPD CEO Karen Webster.

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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FinDEVr Preview: MasterCard Developer Zone

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 10, 2014
Categories: FinDEVr San Francisco 2014, MasterCard Developer Zone

Global payments company, MasterCard, will be showing off its Developer Zone at FinDEVr in San Francisco this September 30 and October 1.

While MasterCard has a long history in fintech, it is also on the cutting edge of future technologies (as seen with its recent partnership with Apple). At FinDEVr, MasterCard will showcase APIs in its presentation and three workshops.

Early bird pricing ends this Friday, September 12 so get your ticket now to save.

MasterCard is a technology company in the global payments industry. It operates the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.

MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.

Why it’s great for developers:

1) Robust, proven and secure. That’s what businesses and developers need and are focused on. MasterCard provides it like no one else.

2) MasterCard offers services to address improving the shopping experience or making it safer. It is more than payment. MasterCard is a Technology Company and its expertise is a valuable tool for any developer.

3) MasterCard Developer Zone is the window into MasterCard technology. This is where it offers access to a suite of APIs, Tools and SDKs, including its popular Simplify Commerce or the digital wallet, MasterPass, sophisticated payment processing, peer-to-peer payments – all, and more, are now available, for the first time.

Keynote: Open for Business and Beyond – MasterCard Developer Zone

Come and discover how MasterCard has become a technology company and is sharing its resources with developers.

Workshops:

1) MasterCard Developer Zone: Under the Hood – Building a developer product and program

2) MasterCard Developer Zone: Selecting the right APIs and driving innovation

3) A Big Company in a Startup World (Building a global digital payment network with regions in mind)

Here are some previews you may have missed over the past few weeks:

We’ll also preview the remaining 46 companies in the weeks leading up to FinDEVr, so keep a look out for those, as well.

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iQuantifi Partners with MoneyDesktop to Use its Aggregation Engine

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 10, 2014
Categories: iQuantifi, MoneyDesktop

It’s quite common for Finovate alums to partner. It is more rare, however, for two previous Best of Show winners to work together.

That is what happened this week with iQuantifi and MoneyDesktop, two companies who will demo at the

upcoming FinovateFall show in New York. As a part of the partnership, iQuantifi will use MoneyDesktop’s aggregation technology to help iQuantifi users gain an even more comprehensive view of their finances.

iQuantifi, whose aim is to help users achieve their financial goals, is known for its platform that helps consumers create a holistic financial plan. Specifically, it will use MoneyDesktop’s technology to help:

Simplify on boarding, making it easier and faster for users to pull information from all their financial accounts
Enhance transaction categorization
Make goal tracking more accurate

iQuantifi launched its platform at FinovateSpring 2012, where it won Best of Show.

MoneyDesktop, a 4-time Best of Show winner, last demonstrated at FinovateFall 2013.

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Alumni News– September 10, 2014

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 10, 2014
Categories: AcceptEmail, Braintree, Cachet Financial Solutions, Credit Sesame, Dwolla, Loop, Prosper, Tradeshift, Trustly, TSYS, VISA

American Banker: TSYS and Visa have announced their tokenization technology will support Apple Pay http://bit.ly/WIBIwx

Credit Sesame and Prosper partner.

Cachet Financial receives order from top tier credit union in the U.S. for mobile money management platform, Select Mobile Money.

AcceptEmail selects Worldpay to power its international e-billing solutions.

Trustly releases open source alternative messaging technology for FIs, BankAPI.

Loop co-founder and CTO George Wallner weighs in on Apple Pay in Time.com Money column.

Visa teams up with the National Football League to promote Visa Checkout. See Visa at FinDEVr this fall.

Braintree to support Apple Pay. Come see Braintree at FinDEVr this September 30 through October 1 in San Francisco.

Business Insider profiles Christian Lanng, Co-Founder and CEO of TradeShift.

Dwolla CEO and Founder Ben Milne talks about the role of Apple as a new entrant in the mobile payments industry.

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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Launching: Self Lender Helps Build Credit with Digital "Credit-Builder" Loans

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 9, 2014
Categories: Credit Reports & ID Theft Protection, Launches, Loans & Credit

Ever since the financial debacle of 2008, it’s been harder for consumers to establish their first credit account. Therefore, with no credit history or score, it becomes even harder to get credit. That’s created a Catch-22 around new credit that Denver-based startup Self Lender looks to address. The company launched today at TechCrunch Disrupt (see full presentation here, at bottom of post).

Self Lender has a fairly straightforward value proposition.

Agree to transfer a certain amount of money to yourself for a set period of time via the Self Lender platform.
Self Lender reports the payments to credit bureaus as a secured loan.
At the end of the contract period, between 3 and 12 months, the user gets their money back (without interest) or can use the funds as a down payment on a vehicle or other item with the balance financed by Self Lender lending partners (see screenshot below).

The funds are held in an FDIC-insured account. Users can make their monthly transfers via ACH, debit card, paper check/money orders, or via cash through PayNearMe’s network. The startup also will accept bitcoin payments, an interesting side note that wasn’t mentioned during their demo.

Self Lender will make a few dollars on interest and lead-gen commissions, but its primary business model revolves around charging $3 per month for the service.

Thoughts: Many banks and credit unions offer products with similar benefits. According to CUNA (note 1), 15% of U.S. credit unions offer “credit builder loans.” Banks and credit unions also offer CD/saving secured loans. But those deposit-secured loans generally require a good sum of cash to get started. For example, Wells Fargo has a $3,000 minimum deposit and $75 origination fee. Self Lender lets you get started with just $25.

So, the concept is good. But I think it will be difficult for the company to get consumers to entrust them directly, so distribution through FI or PFM partners is crucial. To that end, during the Q&A session, Self Lender said it was hoping to ink deals with one or more major banks in the near future.

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Self Lender demonstrates how the money saved in the platform can be used as down payment (9 Sep 2014)

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Note:
1. Source: NY Times, 6 Feb 2012. http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/credit-builder-loans-can-help-burnish-your-credit-score/

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From API to POS: The Themes of FinovateFall 2014

By David Penn Posted on September 9, 2014
Categories: FinovateFall 2014

It’s hard to believe that FinovateFall 2014 is only two weeks away. And if the pre-event buzz is any indication, conference attendees and presenters alike are in store for quite a show.

As always, our presenters are a fascinating mix of new startups and industry veterans, and the innovations they will be demonstrating on stage later this month are no less diverse and interesting.

Take a look for yourself courtesy of our FinovateFall 2014 Theme Word Cloud. From authentication and biometrics to machine-learning algorithms and self-service banking, FinovateFall has something for everyone.

If you like what you see then you’ll love what we’ve got in store for you at FinovateFall 2014. This year, FinovateFall is moving to the New York Hilton Midtown. Located on the Avenue of the Americas, our new venue is centrally located, convenient to public transportation, and fully-equipped to serve as the center of the fintech universe for two days in late September.

We hope to see you there! Click here to get your tickets today.

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Heartland Financial USA Announces 10-Bank Deployment of Q2platform

By David Penn Posted on September 9, 2014
Categories: Q2

Ten of Heartland Financial USA’s banks have implemented the online banking platform developed by Q2 Holdings according to an announcement Tuesday morning.

The implementation of the Q2platform took place over the five months between April and August. Matt Flake, Q2 CEO and president, said, “Everyone at Heartland has an outstanding commitment to simplifying the online banking process and creating a seamless user experience for account holders.”

A full list of the banks that have deployed the technology is below:

Arizona Bank & Trust
Dubuque Bank and Trust Company
Galena State Bank & Trust Co.
The Morrill & Janes Bank and Trust Company
Minnesota Bank & Trust
New Mexico Bank & Trust
Riverside Community Bank
Rocky Mountain Bank
Summit Bank & Trust
Wisconsin Bank & Trust

An innovator in the field of cloud-based, virtual banking, Q2’s solutions are particularly sought after by community banks, regional banks, and credit unions looking to provide new mobile and online services to their customers while keeping costs low. Q2 was recently in the news, announcing partnerships with Easy Solutions in July, and First Financial Bank in June. The company went public in March, trades under the ticker symbol “QTWO” on the New York Stock Exchange, and is currently valued at $500 million.

Founded in 2005 and based in Austin, Texas, Q2 demoed its Risk and Fraud Analytics technology as part of FinovateSpring 2011 in San Francisco. See the company’s presentation here.

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Alumni News– September 9, 2014

By David Penn Posted on September 9, 2014
Categories: Nostrum Group, Nutmeg, True Potential, TSYS

Get Connected: Join the FinovateFall 2014 Community on Bizzabo.

PYMNTS.com talks with TSYS executive Paul Bridgewater on the importance of tokenization in payments.

Nostrum Group earns spot in Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.

True Potential launches Investor on Android Wear smartwatches. See True Potential demo at FinovateFall 2014.

London Evening Standard profiles wealth management innovator, Nutmeg.

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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Launching: Allre Will Help You Sell Your House for Zero Commission

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 8, 2014
Categories: Launches, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Real Estate

So far, the U.S. real estate industry has maintained its 6% standard commission despite mass adoption of the Internet for researching available properties. And the run-up in housing prices in many areas has made real-dollar commissions much larger than they were in 1995. Certainly Redfin and others rebating commissions on the buyer’s side have made inroads. But if the seller’s agent is still taking 3% the total commission remains stubbornly high.

Enter Allre.com, a San Diego-based startup that debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt today (demo video). Taking a page from Zenefits model (free payroll services if you buy your healthcare through them), Allre will do the real estate transaction for free. That would save the average California seller $24,000 in commissions.

The catch? Buyers use the Allre platform to buy their title insurance, homeowner’s insurance, mortgage and other closing services. Allre is able to book these ancillary commissions because as a free service it does not come under RESPA regulations forbidding such arrangements.

Allre said it will work with multiple vendors in each category; however, for now its exclusive mortgage provider in its first market is Prime Lending.

Real estate is a business with huge network effects, which is why the various MLS services around the country continue to maintain a tight grip on real estate marketing, and commissions. So the challenge for Allre, or anyone who wants to take on the local commissioned base, is to get a large cross-section of homes listed on its site. The company has some ideas on how to do that (see the Q&A session that follows the TC demo, specifically, the question at the 7:06 mark), but no one has really cracked that nut yet.

Relevance for Netbankers: Home ownership, and the financial services surrounding it, is an area that holds significant profit potential for banks and credit unions. Working with Allre or other real estate disrupters could be an effective way to find new mortgage (and banking) customers.

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Allre homepage (8 Sep 2014)

Allre transaction dashboard

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Get Connected: Join the FinovateFall 2014 Community on Bizzabo

By David Penn Posted on September 8, 2014
Categories: FinovateFall 2014

Once again we are partnering with social networking innovator, Bizzabo to make it that much easier for you to find, meet, and network with your fellow attendees at FinovateFall 2014.

FinovateFall 2014 will mark the third time we’ve turned to Bizzabo to help provide conference attendees with every opportunity to get in touch with colleagues and new acquaintances before, during, and even after the event.

Download Bizzabo and get connected today. Search for the app (“Bizzabo”) in the Apple App Store or at Google Play. Once you’ve downloaded the app, search for “Finovate”, sign in, and then press the green “Join the Community” bar and you’re ready to go.

If you’re new to Bizzabo, you can sign up using your LinkedIn information or simply set up an account using your email address (the email address you used when registering for Finovate) and a password. Please email [email protected] if you are asked for a code or have any difficulty signing in.

What is all this Bizzabo business good for?

See, meet, and connect with fellow Finovate attendees
Learn more about the presenting companies and their presentations via the “Partners” and “Agenda” tabs, respectively
Get to know the backgrounds of conference speakers courtesy of LinkedIn profiles.

You can also use Bizzabo on your laptop or PC courtesy of Bizzabo’s web app – available here.

Questions? Send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be glad to help.

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ZenPayroll Opens Up its API to Small Business Technology Providers

By David Penn Posted on September 8, 2014
Categories: ZenPayroll

For SMEs looking at the market for fintech productivity apps, the world often seems either anarchically “a la carte” or paralyzingly prix fixe.

And while companies have come to appreciate the flexibility of having a lot of little apps doing a lot of little things, having those apps talk with each other, work with each other, can be another challenge entirely.

I suspect this is part of the thinking behind ZenPayroll’s decision to open up its API further to make it even easier for developers to ensure that their business productivity apps play well with ZenPayroll.

Writing at the ZenPayroll blog, “Head of Inbound” David Cheng said, “(This) will make it dramatically easier for small businesses to compete with large, established companies.”

“We’re calling this movement Generation-E,” he added, “to celebrate the breed of entrepreneurs that are street smart, tech savvy, and ready to take on the world.”

As pointed out in coverage of the announcement at TechCrunch, ZenPayroll’s stable of partners already includes thoroughbreds like Intuit and Xero (both Finovate alums, by the way). But the opening up of its API for a dozen companies goes a long way toward helping even more small business technology providers bring their useful benefits and HR-related tools to market courtesy of a ZenPayroll integration.

Quoted in the New York Times earlier this week, ZenPayroll CEO and Co-Founder Joshua Reeves spoke to this point, saying, “you have these huge product suites from monolithic business software companies. Companies like Oracle, Workday, and ADP typically serve large companies. They aren’t in it for the little guy.”

Among the companies already taking advantage of the new integration are:

BambooHR and KinHR: human resources information systems
SimplyInsured and Baypoint Benefits: benefits administration
TSheets, WageBase/When I Work, Nimble Schedule, and Deputy: time-tracking
Receipt Bank: expense management
inDinero, Zenefits, and insynctive: back-office management

And for developers looking to integrate with ZenPayroll, the company’s developer page – including documentation of ZenPayroll’s API – is available here.

Founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, ZenPayroll made its Finovate devout as part of the Spring conference earlier this year. See the company’s live demo here.

For more from fintech’s developer community, be sure to visit our FinDEVr page.

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Alumni News– September 8, 2014

By David Penn Posted on September 8, 2014
Categories: FutureAdvisor, Kony Solutions, Mint.com, TIBCO Software, Tradeshift, Trustev, ZenPayroll

PYMNTS.com profiles Tradeshift Co-Founder and CEO Christian Lanng.

ZenPayroll opens up its API to small business technology providers.

Silicon Republic takes a look at Trustev’s “multimillion-dollar security deal” with Radio Shack.

Tibco announces Engage software as a service to motivate consumers with real-time and predictive personalization.

Investors.com features FutureAdvisor.

Kony named “Leader” by Gartner in Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms.

Mint launches free credit score.

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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