Finovate Alumni News– April 8, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgPYMNTS: Shopkeep POS undergoes latest revision and releases 2.0 version.
  • Jumio partners with Equifax to make mobile transactions more secure.
  • Leaf launches Payments Apps Marketplace.
  • Dallas Business Journal names defiSOLUTIONS CEO Stephanie Alsbrooks one of its 40 Under 40. See defiSOLUTIONS demo at FinovateSpring in San Jose.
  • Bloomberg column on apps for financial health features Level Money, Check, Mint, LearnVest, and Betterment.
  • Level Money earns spot on Entrepreneur.com’s “5 Must-Watch San Francisco Tech Startups in 2014”.
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.

UX Lessons for Card Issuers from the New Starbucks Mobile App

image When I moved to Seattle, Starbucks had just four locations. So I’ve had a ring-side seat in their climb to worldwide ubiquity. Though not a huge fan of their coffee, I greatly admire their business model, technology, and payments innovations.

I have been paying with the Starbucks mobile app for the past few months (note 1) as have 14% of its customers. It’s great as long as there is a queue. That gives you plenty of time to go through the 9-step mobile payments process (10 steps with tipping):

1. Dig out your phone
2. Enter the smartphone passcode (if applicable) 
3. Locate the app
4. Open it
5. Press pay
6. View balance to ensure there is enough cash available
    (not applicable if auto reload is enabled)
7. Wait for cashier to press the correct key on terminal
8. Position your phone under the QR reader
9. Wait for cashier to give you the OK
10. (Optional) Dig in your wallet/purse/pocket for tip money

While this process seems ridiculously time-consuming compared to a card swipe (or cash), if you are waiting in a queue (typical), you can take care of all that before your turn to order (especially if you already have your phone out and are logged in).

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The new Starbucks app
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image The latest version of the Starbucks mobile app (iOS released 20 March 2014) cuts two steps from the 10-step process. More importantly, the crucial “hit pay” (step #5 above) has been replaced by a shake of the smartphone to signal it to display the Starbucks QR code needed at the point of sale. While not a huge timesaver, it pretty much eliminates navigation within the app before payment, quite an improvement in UX once you get the hang of it (note 2).

The new app also offers electronic tipping, a welcome improvement for the staff, since the move to no-signature card-transactions many years ago took away credit-card tips.  

The app integrates four components into the homescreen (see screenshot #1 right):

A. Top navigation with choice of:
— Pay: Opens up QR code (in lieu of shaking) (see screen #2 below)
— Stores: Starbucks store locator with map and list
— Gift: Opens to virtual gift-card function with integration to iPhone contacts (see screen #3)

B. Loyalty program: A screen-dominating donut shows exactly where you stand on the path to the next loyalty level.

C. Messages: Links to a “feed” of available offers (screen #4) including:
— discounts
— free iTunes song and app downloads (with integration to iTunes for easy redemption) (screen #5)

D. Account history (see screen #6)
— purchases and reloads 
— tipping function allowed for two hours after purchase (screen #7)

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Lessons
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There are some lessons here for card issuers:

  • Focus: Go to Starbucks.com on your desktop browser, and you’ll see about 150 navigation choices delivered via mega-menus across six main tabs. It’s worse than most bank websites. However, the mobile app has just three primary navigation choices (Pay | Stores | Gift), plus rewards, messages and transactions on the main screen. Starbucks rightly chose to concentrate on exactly what customers need when they are on the go. 
  • Integrate rewards/loyalty: Despite the “shake to pay” process improvement, the Starbucks mobile payment experience is still cumbersome and by no means easier than paying by card. However, because the app is integrated with rewards, all of sudden it becomes compelling, both for early adopters (certainly) and the mass market (note 3). 
  • Annotate the transaction: Besides the new tipping function, the transaction history includes both a feed of the transactions (screen #6), plus the ability to click through to a full receipt (screen #7). While not super interesting at Starbucks, when so-called “level 3” data is available for more complex purchases, it becomes an important part of the value delivered. 
  • Mobile first: If you offer information or services consumed on the go, mobile services (app & website) are the key interaction point going forward. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz understands this (note 4). Does your CEO?

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Screenshots
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2. QR code (scanned at POS)             3. Virtual gift cards

image     image

4. Offer stream                                5. iTunes integration to redeem

image       image

 

6. Transaction history                &nb
sp;     7. Transaction detail with tipping

image        image

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Notes:
1. Previously, I was paying with Square Wallet since no reloading is required. But now I’m on the quest for Gold Status at Starbucks, so Square will have to take a backseat.    
2. Since users are not accustomed to shaking their phone to make it do something, it may take a while for everyone to figure out this shortcut. Luckily, the Pay button has been moved to a position of great prominence, for those that prefer to use the old navigation process.   
3. The Starbucks app is now on my wife’s iPhone. Besides the map, weather, Yelp, and French translations, it will be only the fifth app she uses frequently.
4. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is a genius and seems to genuinely care about his employees and the world. If he had only stayed out of pro sports ownership (go Sonics!), his record would be virtually untarnished.

Launching: 2,000 Bitcoin/Crypto-currency Startups

English: Looking north up Eleventh Avenue (Man...

Jacob K. Javits Center (Wikipedia)

The bitcoin logo

Bitcoin first passed the $200 mark a year ago (vs. $450 today). I didn’t know much about it then, figuring it was a fad best left to the speculators to debate. But I was wrong. Bitcoin, or something similar, appears to be here to stay.

Case in point: There is a 2,000-person Bitcoin event in NYC today and tomorrow, Inside Bitcoins, at the Javits Center no less. But don’t worry if you miss it, the event is scheduled to travel the globe with stops in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Tel Aviv, London, Singapore, Berlin, before landing back in NYC a year from now.

In the keynote, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire estimated 2,000 startups globally are working on crypto-currency products and services. That alone makes it more than a fad (bubble perhaps, but not a fad). There is no putting the crypto-currency genie back in the bottle. The technology is too compelling. The demand for alternative stored value is so huge that I don’t see it being regulated away, at least outside the west.

Relevance for Banks: U.S. financial institutions will steer clear until regulatory uncertainties are cleared up. While regulators ARE paying attention (even the IRS recently weighed in), don’t expect banks or credit unions here to be accepting Bitcoins for deposit anytime soon.

However, I do expect U.S. prepaid-card based “near banks” (Moven, Onbudget) to work with Coinbase and others to make it easy to move Bitcoin value onto their cards (see note 1). For inspiration, check out the Bitcoin debit card launched today by Hong Kong-based Cryptex Card (press release).

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Notes:
1. Both Coinbase and Onbudget will demo separately at FinovateSpring, three weeks from now.       
2. For more, see our Feb 2014 OBR report on alt-payments, Money 3.0 (subscription).

Jumio Partners with Equifax to Make Mobile Transactions More Secure

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There may be better ways to encourage cart abandonment than requiring customers to fill out forms in order to complete online transactions. But I doubt it. And if the consumer is on a mobile phone or tablet, the problem is even worse.

To this end, Equifax has teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Jumio to provide a set of solutions that will make it easier for mobile device users to safely and securely auto-fill information on their devices.

Two of Jumio’s technologies – Netverify and Netswipe – will be integrated with Equifax’s 1-Touch Services and Mobile Wallet. The 1-Touch integration will enable auto-fill of personally identifiable data. The integration with the Mobile Wallet will allow users to either scan their cards with their smartphone or complete the transaction in person at the point-of-sale with their smartphone.

The partnership was driven at least in part by Jumio’s research, it seems. The company’s Mobile Consumer Insights Study found in 2013 that nearly 47% of consumers blamed their cart abandonment on the inconvenience of entering personal data into forms on mobile devices.
Jumio was founded in 2010. Based in Palo, Alto, California, the company specializes in credentials management that is geared both toward minimizing fraud and reducing friction for consumers. Daniel Mattes is founder and CEO.
Equifax became a Finovate alum as a presenter at FinovateFall 2011 in New York. The company’s B2C unit, Personal Solutions, demoed Equifax Complete, a credit score monitoring and fraud alert solution accessible via the company’s mobile app.
Last on the Finovate stage in February (FinovateEurope 2014), Jumio is among the companies that will be demoing its technology at the upcoming FinovateSpring show in San Jose, California, April 29 and 30. For more information on how to see Jumio’s demo live and in person, visit our FinovateSpring 2014 page.

Leaf Launches Payments Apps Marketplace

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The developers of the Leaf mobile POS tablet realize that there is more than one way to attract merchants to your payments platform.

Leaf announced today that it is launching its Payments App Marketplace. The marketplace will make it easier for payment service providers to market directly to merchants, creating new branding opportunities and, potentially increased sales and retention. The two separate apps launched today by Leaf support credit cards and prepaid cards.

Leaf CEO and co-founder, Aron Schwarzkopf said:
“Our merchant customers often ask for our advice when choosing a payment provider … Now we can guide our customers to Payment Apps, where they are empowered to make an educated decision based on the needs of their small business.”
The new Payments Apps Marketplace provides payment processors with real-time, in-system product marketing. Messaging, upselling, and generated sales through online referrals are all ways that processors can take advantage of the Leaf POS system to reach new customers and do a better job of connecting with and serving existing customers. 
Moreover, the hope is that the the presence of a variety of payment processors aggressively competing for merchant business will help attract new merchants to the Leaf platform. Schwarzkopf said, “Many were losing portfolios to technology. We’re helping them be able to adopt technology without losing what they do day to day, which is processing.”
Leaf has raised $26 million in funding, including a $20 million venture round completed last September. Founded in 2011 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Leaf demoed its LeafPresenter technology as part of the FinovateSpring show in 2013.
And to learn about our upcoming FinovateSpring event at the end of April, go here to visit our FinovateSpring 2014 page.

Finovate Alumni News– April 7, 2014

  • Lighter Capital provides growth funding to 3 tech co’s in Colorado: Envisiontel, Influence Tech, & YogaDownload.
  • Dexterity Consulting gives sneak peek of its Give API v. 2.0.
  • Vietnam Eximbank deploying biometric fingerprint authentication from TSYS.
  • New partnership to bring ProfitStars’ remote deposits and bill pay capabilities to Online Banking Solutions’s Messenger Financial Center e-banking platform.
  • PYMNTS: Leaf Disrupts Acquirer Market.
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.

Xero Announces 80% YOY Revenue Growth

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Fresh off news of its integration with Square, cloud accounting software specialist Xero announced the end of a fiscal year that saw the company grow its revenues by more than 80%.

A few other metrics just released by the company include:

  • NZ$70 million ($60 million USD) in operating revenues
  • NZ$93 million ($80 million USD) in annualized subscriptions
  • NZ$210 million ($180 million USD) in cash on hand to fund growth
  • 284,000 paying customers
  • 758 employees
Xero is the leading accounting software provider in New Zealand, and leads the online market in both Australia and the United Kingdom. In fact, Xero has seen the most significant year-over-year growth in the latter two regions, as well as North America. Metrics on Xero’s paying customers by region are below:
  • Australia: 109,000
  • New Zealand: 102,000
  • United Kingdom: 47,000
  • North America: 18,0000
  • The rest of the world: 8,000
And here are numbers on Xero’s year-over-year growth in subscription revenue:
  • North America: 154%
  • Australia: 120%
  • United Kingdom: 92%
  • The rest of the world: 86%
  • New Zealand: 48%
Xero demonstrated its technology as part of the show at FinovateSpring 2011. See the company in action here.

Finovate Alumni News– April 4, 2014

  • MasterCard partners with SIX Payment Services to bring MasterPass to Switzerland.
  • Texas Bay Area Credit Union to deploy Fiserv payments solution suite.
  • New agreement means MasterCard EMV debit cards will run on First Data’s STAR Network.
  • Pymnts News: Equifax partners with Jumio for Mobile Commerce.
  • Actiance’s partnership with Trustlink to give it access to a growing market in Africa.
  • D magazine interviews Yseop CEO John Rauscher. See Yseop demo at FinovateSpring in San Jose.
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.

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 4

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What’s the only thing better than getting to know 18 of the companies that will demoing at FinovateSpring 2014 less than a month from now?

Meeting six more.

Here’s the fourth installment of our FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek series. In today’s edition, we’ll introduce you to a sextet of innovators in fields ranging from loan origination and in-store offers to mobile data capture, mobile banking, and mobile security.

If you missed any of our previous editions, the links below are a great way to get caught up. 
In the meanwhile, get ready to meet defi Solutions,Digital Retail Apps, Kofax, StrategyCorps, Rippleshot, and Vorstack. And to save your spot at FinovateSpring, April 29-30 in San Jose, California, click here to buy your ticket today.


defi_solutions_logo

defi Solutions takes auto lending to the next level with its SaaS Loan Origination System that can be configured and launched within days not months.

Features:
  • Affordable, enterprise system completely configurable for auto lenders of all sizes
  • Accesible from mobile devices
  • Browser-based solution allowing lenders to focus on lending v.s. technology
Why it’s great: 
defy Solutions SaaS Loan Origination System allows auto lenders to configure the system to meet market demands without costly development time.
Presenters:
Stephanie Alsbrooks, Founder
Founded defi Solutions with the mission to overcome the auto lender challenge of choosing between dated, inefficient, out-of-the-box systems and costly, long-to-implement custom solutions.
Chris Holt, Senior Engineer, Automation

Digital_Retail_Apps

Digital Retail AppsSelfPay is a platform to engage in-store shoppers. Shoppers scan items, view product details, and pay for their purchases on their own mobile devices.

Features:
  • Locates and welcomes the shopper using Beacon technology
  • Integrates with POS and merchant account
  • Offers lineup-free payments via shopper’s own device
Why it’s great:
We give in-store shoppers a natural shop + pay flow and merchants a way to engage in-moment while collecting deep insights into shopper in-store activity.
Presenter:
Wendy MacKinnon-Keith, CEO/Founder
Innovating by pushing payments into the background. Speaker at events such as SXSW and CNP; consulted to IBM, Nokia, Safeway, and others.

KofaxLogolarge.jpg

Kofax’s Mobile Capture Platform is helping consumers better connect with retailers by automating the process of checking balances on their gift cards through the use of their smart phone or tablet.
Features:
  • Use mobile devices to automatically detect retail gift cards
  • Eliminate the process of manually entering accounts numbers
  • Give customers immediate access to account balances and other information
Why it’s great: 
The solution makes gaining access to gift card information more convenient for gift card issuers. It gives vendors a cost effective tool that helps them deliver better service and faster transactions.
Presenter:
Drew Hyatt, Senior Vice President of Mobile Applications
His team is responsible for driving the company’s mobile capture business on a worldwide basis.

StrategyCorps_new_lo_res_logo

StrategyCorps’ BaZing expands basic mobile and online banking, connecting them closer to the way consumers use mobile and online financial services in their everyday lives.

Features:
  • Hundreds of thousands of local merchant discounts at your fingertips
  • Location-aware coupons and targeted notifications
  • A mobile financial services customer experience beyond basic mobile banking
Why it’s great:
BaZing boldly goes beyond basic mobile banking, delivering in-demand services that connect better with consumers and how they use their mobile phones every day.
Presenter:
Mike Branton, Managing Partner

Rippleshot_logo_with_slogan

RippleShot detects credit card data breaches. Our cloud-based solution helps merchants and banks proactively stop fraud before it occurs.

Features:
  • Next Gen fraud prevention – stopping fraud before it occurs
  • 24/7 monitoring – detecting breaches faster
  • Early warning alerts – proactively protects merchants, consumers and credit card issuers
Why it’s great:
It’s not if you are going to be breached, it’s when. Rippleshot’s 24/7 monitoring proactively detects, mitigates and stops fraud before it occurs.
Presenters:
Canh Tran, Co-Founder and CEO
Has over 25 years of experience focused on big data and predictive analytics to solve sales, marketing, fraud and credit problems.
Lucas Ward, Co-Founder and COO
Is a proven technology leader. At Fundspire, Lucas created an innovative product to change the way hedge funds viewed and analyzed their data.

vorstack_logo

Vorstack combats cyber threats with automated and collaborative threat intelligence. Brand-conscious organizations will lower risk, save money and protect intellectual property.

Features:
  • Automated analysis and correlation of disparate cyber threat information
  • Coordinated threat intelligence with industry and peers
  • Fine-tuned configurable control over shared threat info
Why it’s great:
Vorstach lowers the probability and cost of a cyber attack through automation and coordination. You’ll save time and money, and protect your brand.
Presenters:
Joe Eandi, JD, CEO and Co-Founder
Has served on executive management teams and boards, and was an attorney with Wilson Sonsini.
Mark Manning, VP Technical Services
Has founded and advised numerous startups, and held management roles at Trust Digital, ORBID, Phoenix Technologies, and British Telecom.

Be sure to join us next week for another installment of our FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek series.

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Weathfront Raises $35 Million in Round Led by Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital

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Investment management service Wealthfront will have some investment management of its own to do in the coming weeks and months: the company just reported that it has raised $35 million in new capital.

The funding round was led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, and included the participation of existing investors such as The Social+Capital Partnership, Greylock Partners, and DAG Ventures.

Wealthfront’s total funding now stands at $65 million.

Wealthfront is one of the largest automated investment management services in the world. In a market crowded with competitors, Wealthfront continues to see a bright future in automated investing thanks to the 90 million person, $2 trillion dollar millennial generation.
Said the company in a statement: “(Millennials) have grown up with software and lived through two market crashes. They overwhelmingly seek an investment solution that is automated, index-based, and low-cost.”
A few metrics from Wealthfront:
  • Growth of more than 700% since the beginning of 2013
  • Manages more than $500 million in customer accounts
  • Client accounts range from $5,000 to $10,000,000
  • More than 55% of the company’s users are below the age of 35
We last reported on Wealthfront when the company launched its new mobile app back in February. The mobile app lets users check account balances, view investment performance, and transfer funds to Wealthfront accounts.
Wealthfront (as “kaChing”) demoed on the Finovate stage as part of Finovate Startup in 2009. Former COO Adam Nash was promoted to chief executive officer in January 2014.

Finovate Alumni News– April 3, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTop Image Systems wins awards for innovations in crowdsourcing and mobile imaging.
  • Insuritas E-InsuranceAISLE Platform generated more than 2 million product impressions in March. The technology is deployed in more than 50 banks and credit unions, supporting more than $1.5 million in product sales. See them demo at FinvoateSpring.
  • Misys trade and supply chain finance processing platform embraced by National Australia Bank (NAB).
  • Nostrum Group announces opening of new office in London.
  • Kantox integrates AU10TIX B.O.S solution to auto-classify, authenticate and extract data from of images of customers ID documents.
  • Compliance Week looks at how Actiance helps banks stay compliant with social media.
  • The Australian looks at PayPal’s Braintree.
  • BancVue launches new youth spending app, PiggyBot.
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.

Finovate Alums Raise $600 Million in First Quarter of 2014

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Want some context on the torrid pace of fintech financing in the first three months of 2014?

Consider this: a year ago, fourteen Finovate alums raised a total of more than $150 million in the first quarter of 2013.

A year later, we have just nine alums raising more than twice as much in the month of March alone.

March Madness, indeed.
Q1 of 2014 saw 23 Finovate alums walk away with just under $600 million in capital. The biggest haul of the quarter came courtesy of Klarna, which raised more than $125 million. 
But there were plenty of similarly impressive fundraisings, including the $85 million raised by Credit Karma, and the $77 million and $75 million secured by OnDeck and Tradeshift, respectively.
Total raised = More than $592 million
January — $91 million raised by seven companies
February — $139 million raised by seven companies
March — $362 million raised by nine companies

Note: Funding prior to becoming a Finovate alum not included. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]