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Hacking for Social Good: FinCapDev Sets Deadline for 2014 Competition

By David Penn Posted on March 5, 2014
Categories: FinCapDev

Got an idea to help improve the financial lives of the unbanked and underbanked? FinCapDev wants to hear from you.

The mobile app development competition hosted by the D2D Fund and the Center for Financial Services Innovation is accepting proposals for its 2014 event. The deadline is April 7.

And to better help inform the fintech community about FinCapDev, they are hosting the first of a series of free webinars Wednesday at 6pm Eastern.

Now in its second year, FinCapDev was founded with the goal of promoting what Shaheen Hasan, Innovation Strategist at the D2D Fund, calls “hacking for social good.”

“FinCapDev is hoping to create an ecosystem of players in all sectors to help move the needle to create better products and services for the unbanked and underbanked,” she said. “Especially using the mobile channel.”

Proposals for the 2014 competition will be evaluated based on degree of innovation, potential positive impact on American consumers, feasibility to build, and sustainability. Finalists will be announced in May.

Teams can receive up to $7,500 per app for development, and participate in webinars and mentorships on topics such as mobile technology, app development and product engineering, and will have selected access to APIs and data sets. Participants that make it through the app development stage will be eligible to win a $50,000 cash grand prize (or one of two runners’ up cash awards of $25,000).

After that? As a nonprofit, FinCapDev does not take an equity stake in the startups that participate in the program. “We are pre-incubators,” explained Shaheen, “helping transform ideas into apps, and facilitating relationships with investors, angels, accelerators, and incubators.”

For a list of the alums from FinCapDev 2013. click here. Our coverage of the winner, BetterHaves is here.

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Fintech Four: Banno, Borro, Personetics & Auction.com are on a Roll

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 5, 2014
Categories: Loans & Credit, Mergers & Acquisitions, Personal Financial Management, Real Estate

It’s been a crazy week in fintech, and it’s only Wednesday morning. Because my brain can hold no more than four stories at a time (and that’s a stretch), it’s time to publish a “fintech four” mid-week. I don’t know which of these is more dramatic, so I’ll go in alphabetic order:

1. Auction.com joins the billion-dollar fintech club

I’m not sure everyone considers Auction.com a fintech play, but as an online asset sales platform (which moved $7 billion last year), it’s close enough for me. It just raised a fresh $50 million from Google Ventures at a valuation of $1.2 billion. So I’ll be adding Auction.com to our “Fintech billion-dollar club.”

>>> Metrics and more from Bloomberg here.

2. Banno acquired by Jack Henry

While we don’t know the $$ number, given the traction Finovate alum Banno had in the market (375 bank clients), and the relatively high valuations in the fintech space these days ($1.75 billion for Stripe), this must have been a pretty nice payday for the owners and investors in Iowa-based Banno (formerly T8 Webware). Founder Wade Arnold is staying on at Jack Henry and is super excited about his future with the Kansas City-based technology vendor.

>>> Press release

3. Borro borrows $112 million

In one of the biggest fundraising rounds in fintech history, U.K.-based Borro landed $112 million to further its high-end online pawn brokerage business. I met founder Paul Aitken last fall and was impressed with the product, which allows consumers to borrow against non-liquid assets, say, a Jacob Lawrence in the hall, at pretty high rates (3% to 4% per month). Until then, I had no idea there was a large, underserved (near prime?) market holding high-end assets (outside Downton Abbey anyway). Even so, I was shocked to see a $112 million round. While terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, I have to believe all or part of the money is debt, not equity. So I’m not going to add Borro to the billion-dollar club, yet. Apparently online lending is back!

>>> Average loan amount = $12k (against a $20k value)… see Press release
>>> TechCrunch breaks down the Borro loan process and metrics here

4. Personetics is on a roll

At this week’s great Bank Innovation event in Seattle, I finally had a chance to meet face-to-face with Personetics, the Sequoia-backed “predictive financial services engine.” I’ve been impressed with what I’ve read about the company, and loved the Fiserv demo at FinovateEurope last month (demo here) featuring a forward-looking PFM piece powered by Personetics. But I had no idea how much traction the company was gaining in less than three years since its A-round. While I can’t name names, if even one of these deals moves into production, it has the potential to change the face of online banking.

>>> Fiserv demo at FinovateEurope featuring insights powered by Personetics here (12 Feb 2014)

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iQuantifi Launches Financial Advice Platform to General Public

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 5, 2014
Categories: iQuantifi

Earlier this week, iQuantifi launched its virtual financial advisor to the public. Now everyone can sign up for iQuantifi’s platform that helps users identify, prioritize, and achieve their financial goals.

Its Core Planning Algorithm helps users pay down their debt and achieve their financial goals that are personalized for each individual user.

In order for iQuantifi to help users build their goals, they need to answer a few basic questions about:

Family status
Income
Expenses
Debts
Accounts and policies

A subscription for iQuantifi costs just under $10 per month. However, it is currently running a Refer a Friend promotion that grants users free access to the platform if they share iQuantifi on Facebook or Twitter.

To see iQuantifi’s Best of Show demo, check out a video of its live demo at FinovateSpring 2012.

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Finovate Alumni News — March 5, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 5, 2014
Categories: Ignite Sales, ProfitStars, Tradeshift, Trustev

Margin Maximizer Interactive from ProfitStars added to ICBA Preferred Service Provider program.

Trustev partners with Datameer to combine big data analytics with its real-time ID validation technology.

Ignite Sales announces availability of AccountAdvisor sales solution for community banks and credit unions.

Spend Matters looks at Scentan Ventures, the Firm Behind Tradeshift’s $75M Round.

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 Alumni News — March 4, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 4, 2014
Categories: CUneXus Solutions, Digital Mailer, Fiserv, Jack Henry, LICUOS, MasterCard, MicroStrategy, VerifyValid

Jack Henry & Associates completes acquisition of Banno.

VerifyValid announces new iPhone app, Mobile Checkbook.

Finovate alums Fiserv, MicroStrategy, Digital Mailer, LICUOS, and CUneXus demo at Bank Innovation 2014 DEMOvation event. Catch Fiserv and CUneXus at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

MasterCard expands presence in Africa, entering seven new markets.

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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VerifyValid Launches New iPhone App, Mobile Checkbook

By David Penn Posted on March 3, 2014
Categories: VerifyValid

Combining the security and convenience of checks with the reduced costs of avoiding bankcard interchange fees is the goal behind VerifyValid’s Mobile Checkbook app, now available for download at the Apple App Store.

The new app makes it easy for small businesses and their customers to write, sign, receive and deposit electronic checks (“eChecks”) using their iPhone, iPad, or other iOS-powered device. All that is required to send someone an eCheck is the recipient’s email address, and new VerifyVaild customers can begin using the service by way of a free, 5-check, “starter” checkbook.

Said VerifyValid CEO Paul Doyle,

“While consumers gain the freedom to pay for goods and services directly through the app, our business customers experience greater convenience in accepting payments anytime, anywhere, without incurring costly interchange fees associated with card transactions.”

VerifyValid maintains a record of all transactions in the user account, and data is stored on the company’s secure servers rather than on the iOS device itself.

Some additional functionality for Mobile Checkbook includes:

Remote authorization for review and signing of checks over cellular of Wi-Fi network.
eLockbox where users can access and print received eChecks, as well as deposit payments into their bank accounts
Full validation of check authenticity

This last item is especially key. Doyle said,

“Based on growing instances of card network breaches, we saw a definite need for an advanced payment solution that builds upon traditional check payments to better serve and protect businesses and their customers.”

VerifyValid teamed up with Deluxe Corporation to demo its secure electronic checking technology at FinovateFall 2013 in New York. See the company in action here.

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Finovate Alumni News — March 3, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 3, 2014
Categories: Actiance, CashStar, Fiserv, IDology, Leaf, ShopKeep POS, Tactile Finance

Leaf adds chief operating officer, vice-president of finance, and vice-president of engineering as company expands to bigger offices.

Fiserv appoints Kevin Gregoire as group president of financial institutions group.

CashStar launches new edition of digital gifting platform, CashStar 5.

Actiance Socialite available through the EMC Select Program.

IDology’s ExpectID Global launches in Canada.

Tactile Finance PRO’s new features target mortgage loan officers’ ability to compete and increase referrals. See its live demo at FinovateSpring next month.

Pikanik Bakery discusses its experience with ShopKeep POS.

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: Credible Will Refi Your Student Loans Through Cooperating Lenders

By Jim Bruene Posted on February 28, 2014
Categories: Launches, Student Loans

On Monday, Credible debuted its student loan refi platform at Jason Calacanis’s Launch Festival (see demo below). The demo was a judge favorite, with three of the five judges naming it their favorite among the eight demos in that session. And the company ended up taking home the trophy (and optional investment) as the best established company demo. The overall winner was Connect, an address book that maps your contacts from social networks.

__________________________________

How it works
__________________________________

The business model is similar to Lending Tree. Users answer eight questions, all from memory:

1. Do you have a PRIVATE student loan? (Yes/No)
2. What year did you graduate? (choose 2001 to 2012)
3. What was the last school you graduated from?
4. Do you have graduate or postgraduate degree? (Yes/No)
5. What is your approximate income? (slider $0 to $200,000+)
6. What is your approximate student loan balance? (slider $0 to $200,000+)
7. What is the approximate interest rate on your student loan? (slider 2% to 15%+)
8. What is your approximate credit score? (slider very poor/300 to excellent/850)

Close = Enter your email address to get results

At the end of that 60-second quiz, as soon as the email is entered, Credible displays the potential savings from a student loan refi.

Interested borrowers select the Switch Lenders Now button, download their actual loan info through account aggregation technology (the demo showed Intuit powering an account scrape of Sallie Mae), complete a short loan, and upload a scan of their drivers license and last pay stub.

That info is sent off to student lenders who make actual credit offers to the user within two to three days (see screenshot #2).

In the 24 Feb 2014 demo, using an actual student from their beta launch, the three competing lenders shown were (may not be real quotes however):

Wells Fargo at 3.75%
SoFI at 5.88%
CU Student Loans at 4.90%

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About Credible
___________________________________

San Francisco-based startup launched in Feb 2014
Raised $500,000
30,000 borrowers registered during its beta test (carried out under previous incarnation, JoinStampede.com)
Founder Stephen Dash worked at JP Morgan Chase
Its goal is to move beyond student loans into “every bank and insurance service.”

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Bottom line
__________________________________

As proven by the success of Sofi ($400 million funded) and the buzz around Finovate alum Tuition.io, the student loan market is ripe for new thinking (I won’t say disruption, because debt consolidation is hardly a new concept). That said, existing financial institutions can play in this game, and win if they want to. We believe customers would be more likely to refi if it was delivered by their primary financial institution within the secure online (or mobile) environment.

And the great thing about saving your up-and-coming customers a few grand each year is that they are hardly going to jump ship to save $5 per month on a checking account.

—————————-

Exhibits

1. Credible wizard results

2. Competing offers

Credible demo (will launch in separate window set to begin demo at the 1 hour, 56 min mark; 25 Feb 2014)

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PrivatBank Launches HCE Mobile NFC Payments Solution

By David Penn Posted on February 28, 2014
Categories: PrivatBank

Here’s some good news out of the Ukraine: the country’s PrivatBank (FinovateEurope 2013) has introduced a mobile NFC payments service.

Based on host card emulation (HCE), the Liqpay app works with Android-powered NFC smartphones (Android 4.4) and lets users register both MasterCard and Visa cards for use at contactless, POS terminals.

Host card emulation is a technology that lets NFC applications function as smart cards. For consumers, this enables mobile payments via that NFC app. For banks and financial institutions, the technology allows them to save money by maintaining payment accounts in the cloud.

The technology was first deployed in 2012 and is seen as a way to speed mobile NFC adoption by card companies like Visa and MasterCard. By replacing the Secure Element traditionally used to host NFC applications, HCE technology promises an easier deployment for merchants, with lower costs and few changes to existing payment infrastructures.

PrivatBank is among the companies that will be demoing at FinovateSpring in San Jose. For more information about our upcoming event in April, visit our FinovateSpring 2014 page here.

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Finovate Alumni News– February 28, 2014

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 28, 2014
Categories: FreeAgent, Pindrop Security, PrivatBank, Realty Mogul, ShopKeep POS, Taulia, Tyfone

Pindrop Security launches Industry’s First Combined Voice Biometric and Phoneprinting Fraud Detection System.

Tyfone launches mobile banking platform for small and medium FIs.

Taulia launches Taulia Enhanced Discounting which gives organizations the choice of using cash or the capital of a third-party FI to pay early.

FreeAgent launches its first dedicated division giving direct support to UK accountants and their clients.

ShopKeep POS reaches 10,000 customers, announces expansion in Ireland and western U.S.

PrivatBank launches HCE mobile NFC payments solution.

Housing Wire lists Realty Mogul among its 100 most innovative technology companies for 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.

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FinovateEurope: Behind the Scenes with NF Innova, Tink, and Vaamo

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 27, 2014
Categories: FinovateEurope 2014, NF Innova, Tink, vaamo

In another behind-the-scenes view of FinovateEurope 2014, we take a closer look at NF Innova, Tink, and Vaamo.

If you missed the previous two behind-the-scenes features, be sure to check out:

NF Innova

What they do

NF Innova helps banks provide a tailored banking experience for their customers. This Personal Experience Module replaces a company’s static CRM system with an adaptive solution. It responds to individual users’ needs without the need for administrative input.

By monitoring user behavior on digital touch points, it automatically provides the functionalities that appeal most to each user. The result is a solution that provides a single location for the end user to address all of their financial needs.

Stats

$1.5 million in revenue in 2013
1 million users in its iBanking suite
42 employees
15 years experience working with banks

The experience

Customers are greeted with a login screen that speaks especially to them. In this example, the customer is greeted with a clean login screen that targets them with a home mortgage.

After logging in, the user sees a financial “command center” where they can view multiple accounts and have access to P2P payment options, alerts, account balance and feed of transactions over time, and more.

In this view, the My Cards section on the right is expanded to detail the customers’ balance across their credit card accounts.

NF Innova’s solution works for both larger and smaller financial institutions. It is working with one of the largest financial institutions in Russia but is mostly focused on the European market. However, it plans to expand to both North and South America later this year.

Check out NF Innova’s live demo video from FinovateEurope here.

Tink

What they do

Tink is a direct-to-consumer mobile app seeking to reinvent PFM to make managing finances more enjoyable and digestible for ordinary people. Its average user is a 25-year-old female, and in order to appeal to this demographic, Tink makes looking at finances as easy and beautiful and checking your Instagram feed.

The Sweden-based company does its own aggregation, ensuring that all of users’ transactions are accurately represented. This is crucial because, as Tink notes, it is rare for users to manually input or change details about their transactions. Therefore, if the aggregation isn’t done correctly the first time, the user’s view of their finances will never be accurate.

Stats

150,000 users
10 employees
Average user logs in 3 times per week

The experience

The middle phone below depicts the user’s financial feed, which has a similar feel to Facebook’s activity feed. Its purpose is to inform the consumer of their spending while not making them feel guilty about it. By viewing spending habits as something positive, Tink encourages users to log in more frequently.

In addition to the general activity feed, Tink also shows the user a close up view of their spending. The phone in the middle depicts spending across simplified categories, and the one on the right is a magnification of what the user spent on a specific category, Food & Drinks.

Tink is live in Sweden on iOS and Android. It plans to launch in other markets in the future.

Check out Tink’s live demo video from FinovateEurope here.

Vaamo

What they do

Vaamo helps users achieve their personal financial goals by providing them a simple and easy-to-use platform that visually portrays their goals over time.

It invests the user’s money in international equities, government and corporate loans and real estate. To optimize return on investment, Vaamo uses an investment approach that was developed in collaboration with the Goethe-University in Frankfurt.

If one of the funds changes unexpectedly, the user is prompted to log in and change their goal by either contributing more money or extending the time period.

Stats

14 employees
More than €500K in capital raised
It is in final negotiations in contracting with a bank in Germany to h
old customer account balances.

The experience

The screenshot below depicts a user’s view of their three goals. With a personalized picture as the background and the progress bar in the middle, it is easy to see each savings goal.

The interface below illustrates the simplicity of setting up a goal. Instead of being burdened with selecting individual funds, the user needs only to select their risk class and how much they are willing to contribute initially.

Users can withdraw funds from their goals at any time. When they opt to withdraw from their account, they are prompted to make a choice about how they want to make up the amount they took from their savings goal (see the red box in the screenshot below).

Vaamo is a paid product that will target 25-45 year olds who earn a range of €3k to €10k per month.

Check out Vaamo’s live demo video from FinovateEurope here.

Stay tuned next week for another behind-the-curtain view of FinovateEurope 2014.

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IntelliResponse Unveils Virtual Agent for Salesforce

By David Penn Posted on February 27, 2014
Categories: FinovateSpring 2014, IntelliResponse

A specialist in developing virtual agent (VA) technology for the enterprise, IntelliResponse announced today that its VA solution was now available on the Salesforce App Exchange.

David Lloyd, IntelliResponse CEO, said, “We are proud to partner with Salesforce1 App Exchange to deliver new customer service capabilities to companies and the customers they serve.”

Virtual Agent for Salesforce will make it easier for companies to provide their customers with consistent, correct answers to their queries. Operating out of the Salesforce Service Cloud, the technology provides service across channels for customers, and helps speed up the on boarding process for new sales/customer service agents.

Lloyd said, “With IntelliResponse VA for Salesforce, they can put the right answers at both their customers’ and employees’ fingertips, making every agent as good as their best agent.”

Click the image below for a YouTube introduction to IntelliResponse.

IntelliResponse’s technology was recently recognized by Opus Research, which gave the company high marks for its ability to bring natural language processing and machine learning to industries ranging from finance to retail to telecommunications. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, IntelliResponse is privately funded.

IntelliResponse was part of the spring show in San Francisco in 2013, and will be returning to FinovateSpring in this year in April. To learn more about our upcoming event, visit our FinovateSpring 2014 page here.

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Finovate Blog

Hacking for Social Good: FinCapDev Sets Deadline for 2014 Competition

Fintech Four: Banno, Borro, Personetics & Auction.com are on a Roll

iQuantifi Launches Financial Advice Platform to General Public

Finovate Alumni News — March 5, 2014

Finovate Alumni News — March 4, 2014

VerifyValid Launches New iPhone App, Mobile Checkbook

Finovate Alumni News — March 3, 2014

Launching: Credible Will Refi Your Student Loans Through Cooperating Lenders

PrivatBank Launches HCE Mobile NFC Payments Solution

Finovate Alumni News– February 28, 2014

FinovateEurope: Behind the Scenes with NF Innova, Tink, and Vaamo

IntelliResponse Unveils Virtual Agent for Salesforce

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