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Quantopian Raises $6.7 Million in Series A Round

By David Penn Posted on October 2, 2013
Categories: Quantopian

In a week that already has seen funding announcements from Finovate alums, azimo and Leaf, here comes news that Quantopian (FinovateSpring 2013) is also on the receiving end of a major capital infusion.

Quantopian announced today that the company had secured $6.7 million in its latest funding round. Participating in the Series A were Khosla Ventures and seed capital investor, Spark Capital. This puts Quantopian’s total capital at more than $8 million. The company raised $2.1 million in seed financing at the beginning of the year.

Quantopian Live Trading provides quantitative traders and investors with a browser-based algorithmic trading platform. Users can build and share their own algorithms, as well as take advantage of historical backtesting and real-time, simulated trading features. The technology also allows traders to execute their algorithms directly from the Quantopian platform itself.

The company has a userbase of 10,000, which has racked up more than 600,000 years in backtested trading strategies. The platform requires some technical coding skill, but the service is free and includes features that allows users to “clone algorithms” rather than building algorithms from scratch.

Quantopian is led by co-founders John Fawcett (CEO) and Jean Bredeche (CTO), and is headquartered in Boston.

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Online Lender Kabbage Partners with Cloud Accounting Software Provider Xero to Provide SMBs Capital Based on Their Online Accounting Data

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on October 2, 2013
Categories: Kabbage, Xero

Two Finovate alums are joining forces to better provide online small businesses with working capital.

Atlanta-based Kabbage announced yesterday that it has partnered with New Zealand-based Xero to use small business’ accounting data to underwrite loans.

Through this partnership, Xero’s customers will be able to receive an answer on an underwriting decision in fewer than 10 minutes.

This is Kabbage’s fourth major underwriting and distribution partnership in the past six months. Integrations with Authorize.net, Quickbooks, Stripe have also provided enhanced ways to underwrite small business loans.

Kabbage debuted its Quickbooks financing platform at FinovateSpring earlier this year.

Xero showcased its Business Identification method at FinovateSpring 2011.

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Finovate Alumni News– October 2, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on October 2, 2013
Categories: ACI Worldwide, BehavioSec, Billhighway, FIS, Quantopian, Tradeshift

Billhighway 3-peats with “Metropolitan Detroit Best and Brightest Company to Work For” 2013 win.

BehavioSec awarded DARPA Phase 2 contract.

Spend Matters interviews Tradeshift CEO, Christian Lanng.

ACI Worldwide embraces Experian Decision Analytics decisioning solution.

FIS announces partnership with Australian debit card system eftpos to build payments hub.

Quantopian raises $6.7 million in Series A 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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Leaf Raises $20 Million from Heartland Payment Systems

By David Penn Posted on October 1, 2013
Categories: Leaf

Hiring more talent and accelerating development of its point-of-sale payment processing systems is what Leaf plans to do with the $20 million in new funding from Heartland Payment Systems.

The financing is a major step up from the $4 million in funding the company had as of its FinovateSpring appearance in May.

Leaf specializes in providing a mobile payment platform for small businesses. The company’s LeafPresenter tablet accepts payments, provides business analytics, and makes it easier for businesses to transact with customers using a variety of payment options.

Aron Schwarzkopf, CEO and co-founder of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Leaf, says that he expects his company to be processing payments at an annualized rate of $500 million by the end of 2013.

Heartland Payment Systems is a national payments provider, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The company processes more than 11 million transactions daily, and more than $80 in payments a year.

As part of the deal, Heartland will sell Leaf via its 800-member salesforce, and also will develop apps for the platform.

As noted in Xconomy’s coverage of the announcement, Heartland has been active in the fintech startup market, helping LevelUp gain national exposure for its mobile payment app.

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Finovate Alumni News– October 1, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on October 1, 2013
Categories: Bright Funds, Cardlytics, CurrencyFair, Leaf, Personal Capital, planwise, Taulia

Newsday features planwise.

Personal Capital to open Denver office.

Purchasing Insight reports: Taulia to bolster their presence in Europe.

Cardlytics announces new brand identity, including new logo and redesigned website.

CurrencyFair wins “Most Insightful & Intriguing Internet Innovation” at IIA Net Visionary Awards.

Leaf raises $20 million from Heartland Payment Systems.

Bright Funds announces support for PayPal.

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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Azimo Announces $1M Seed Round for European Expansion

By David Penn Posted on September 30, 2013
Categories: Azimo

As far as Azimo is concerned, the “M” in Monday might as well stand for “Million Dollar Seed Round.”

FinovateEurope alum Azimo announced that it has raised “just over” $1 million in seed funding from existing investors.

The seed round was led by the European division of venture capital firm, eVentures, and included investment from Matt Cooper, founder of Capital One. The $1 million is slated to help the U.K.-based money transfer startup successfully expand to the Continent.

The new funding puts Azimo’s total capital at approximately $1.5 million. The company announced an angel investment of 300,000 pounds ($480,000 USD) in January of this year. TechCrunch is reporting that Azimo’s European expansion will begin in Germany. Other nations targeted include France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Azimo provides a simple and secure money transfer service that allows people to transfer money via PC or mobile device in more than 125 countries around the world. Funds can be transferred using debit cards or bank accounts, and cash can be received at more than 150,000 collection points.

To celebrate the funding news, Azimo will be offering free money transfers through October. More on transferring money via Azimo available here.

Founded in London in January 2012, Azimo was launched in August of that year. The company demoed its technology as part of the FinovateEurope 2013 show in February.

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Finovate Alumni News– September 30, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 30, 2013
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Azimo, eDeposit, Geezeo, Manilla, peerTransfer, Taulia

Section 705 FCU to offer Geezeo PFM.

Taulia announces its Supplier Assurance Initiative, designed to provide services to customers and suppliers within Xign’s buyer network.

Upstart Business Journal features peerTransfer.

Azimo announces $1 million seed round for European expansion.

ACI Worldwide launches ACI Bill Presentment Services to ease adoption of electronic billing and invoicing.

Bank Innovation takes a look at Manila’s AOL Bill Manager.

eDeposit announces that it is now a fully licensed money transmitter in all 50 states.

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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Umpqua Bank Launches Mortgage Sales Tool: Home Hunter

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 27, 2013
Categories: Loans & Credit, Mobile Banking, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity

Ever since I saw CEO Ray Davis speak at BAI in the mid-1990s, I’ve been a huge Umpqua Bank fan. But most of the bank’s notoriety is around its fresh take on the brick-and-mortar experience. But that’s not my thing, at all, so I don’t get a chance to write about them often.

However, today I was delighted to see a new mobile app appear in the iOS store called Umpqua Home Hunter. It’s a simple tool for house hunting. When a home buyer runs across a home of interest when out and about, they can open up the Home Hunter and automatically document the address (via GPS), then add comments, pictures, and a 1-to-5 star rating (see screenshots below).

There is also clever integration to Umpqua lenders. Users can forward the house to the lender of their choice to start the mortgage prequalification process (see third screenshot).

Bottom line: While the app is pretty basic, lacking integration to home value databases such as Zillow, or MLS/Realtor services such as Redfin, it could recoup its development costs with a couple incremental mortgages every month. And even if it fails to do that, it’s a novel mobile service that helps position Umpqua as an innovator in digital, like they’ve long been in branch banking.

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Users add a home details ….pictures, comments, rating

Below left: Users have the option to send homes over to their Umpqua
loan officer to get the mortgage process started

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Note: For more on mobile banking and/or online lending, see our Online Banking Report archives (subscription).

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Singapore-Based MyHero Earns $10M from Kleiner Perkins and Others to Enhance TradeHero App

By David Penn Posted on September 27, 2013
Categories: TradeHero

Majulah, MyHero!

With the backing of Kleiner Perkins, Caufield Byers China fund, and IPV Capital, Singapore-based MyHero is now $10 million closer to reaching its goals of expanding into the Chinese market and growing its user base to more than 300,000.

Led by CEO and founder, Dinesh Bhatia, MyHero is the developer behind TradeHero. TradeHero, says Bhatia, is a “financial literacy tool” that lets users trade and invest virtual dollars in the stock market. Top performing traders and investors can monetize their talent by selling real-time market notifications through the app to their followers.

This combination of gamification and virtual trading community has earned the app a #1 spot in the financial category of the iOS App Store in 75 countries. The app is expected to be available in Android soon.

The $10 million in Series A funding is the company’s first major financing since a seed round put more than $450,000 in TradeHero’s coffers at the beginning of the year. The current infusion of capital is slated to help MyHero market TradeHero more aggressively over the next few years, as well as support a focus on China over the next three to six months. Bhatia cited successful testing of TradeHero’s mobile app in markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore as providing confidence that a move into China would be well-received.

Read more about Asia-based Finovate alumni in our recent feature by Julie Schicktanz that explores the support startups like TradeHero have received from the venture capital community.

TradeHero demoed their mobile app as part of the inaugural FinovateAsia event in Singapore in 2012. Finovate will be returning to Singapore for FinovateAsia 2013 in November, and early bird tickets to the one-day show are available through October 4. For more information on FinovateAsia 2013, visit our page here.

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BankersLab and FICO Launch New App in Brazil: Missao Positivo

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 27, 2013
Categories: BankersLab

BankersLab, the company that gamifies financial learning, unveiled a new app in Brazil in conjunction with FICO today called Missao Positivo (Portuguese for “Mission Positive”).

The goal of the app is to:

help players take charge of their financial life
create a better understanding of their financial obligations
understand how payment behavior affects their credit options

FICO brings 57 years of experience in understanding how a consumer’s behavior impacts their credit risk. The new app helps it bring that knowledge to consumers with insights into how to improve their financial standing.

BankersLab last demoed at FinovateAsia 2012 where it launched ScoringLab. If you’re interested in seeing the lineup of companies for FinovateAsia this year, check it out here.

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Finovate Alumni News– September 27, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 27, 2013
Categories: Check, Manilla, mBank, mBank & Accenture, Mint.com, MoneyDesktop, Personal Capital, planwise, TradeHero

Real estate tech firm Tribus is integrating Planwise’s PFM to help homebuyers evaluate the affordability of listings.

MyBankTracker lists Check, Manilla, and Personal Capital as 3 finance apps just as good as Mint.

MoneyDesktop marketing video wins 2013 Telly Award.

PC World features 11 FinovateFall demo companies.

Singapore-based MyHero earns $10M from Kleiner Perkins and others to enhance TradeHero app.

What’s the Next Big Thing in financial services? Ideas from FinovateFall and beyond.

American Banker: The cutting edge of online banking, as practiced by a Polish bank (mBank).

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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What’s the Next Big Thing in Financial Services? Ideas from FinovateFall and Beyond

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on September 26, 2013
Categories: FinovateFall 2013, MiiCard

Finovate conferences are all about innovation and “what’s next” in financial services. At the recent FinovateFall conference miiCard Founder and CEO, James Varga, compiled thoughts and ideas of people from all places in the industry

The following clip is the first installment of his two-part series, detailing current trends in the fintech industry. In it, participants are asked, “What’s the next big thing in financial services?”

Here is just a taste of the responses:

“Large-value transactions online, such as real estate transactions”
“Personalized financial services including social payments and social authentication”
“Mobile as primary interface with the customer”
“Shifting of lending risk away from banks and to more flexible, non-bank lenders”
“Giving customers a fantastic experience and capitalizing on it by making revenues from those customers”

Watch the video for more from the presenters, sponsors, attendees of FinovateFall.

The second piece in the series, Predictions for 2020 and Beyond will come next week so stay tuned.

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