ERN Raises Another $1 Million, Acquires Two UK Companies

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Recently, the big data trend has been pulsing through fintech and beyond. To further prove this, data insights company and creator of looop, ERN, recently announced $1 million in funding and the acquisition of two companies.

This seed funding, combined with the $1.6 million it announced in July and the $2 million it received late last year, brings the London-based company’s total funding to $4.6 million. All investors are unnamed, high-net worth individuals.

ERN acquired two U.K.-based consulting companies that were both purchased with a combination of undisclosed fees and stock:

    1. Inspired Analytics
    2. Elucidata

ERN also mentioned in its news release that it is preparing to announce its first commercial customer.

To learn more about ERN, check out its FinovateEurope 2013 demo video.

Finovate Alumni News– August 5, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgZopa featured in a Scottish Express column on P2P lending in the United Kingdom.
  • MasterCard and Visa to bring standardized chip-and-pin technology to the U.S.
  • Azimo, Zopa, and Lending Club are among the Finovate alumns highlighted in an Economist column on “changing finance for the better.”
  • VentureBeat lists BillGuard as 1 of 20 fastest growing mobile startups.
  • Slate lists reasons why everyone should download and use Braintree’s Venmo app.
  • Digital Trends chats with Basil Anan, CoverHound CEO on insurance rates trends. Check out CoverHound’s new tech at FinovateFall in NYC next month.
  • Braintree listed by Pando Daily as one of Chicago’s “new class of anti-Groupons”.
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.

Higher One Acquires PayDivvy’s Social Bill Management Solution

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PayDivvy’s social bill management services will soon be available to college and university students on the Higher One platform.

That’s because Higher One, a tech services company for college campuses, has purchased PayDivvy’s software. Now that the year-long acquisition process is complete, Higher One will enable its client base of college students to split and track bills and share expenses using PayDivvy’s social bill management services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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While the technology is well-suited for expense tracking and splitting among college roommates, Higher One has future plans to open the service to non-college students, in order to retain users after they graduate.

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PayDivvy’s founders, Mike Melby and Ray Tamblyn, have left to pursue other ventures, but the team of engineers at PayDivvy will still work with Higher One.

To learn more about PayDivvy, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

An Update on Q2 and a Look at its Partnership with Geezeo

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We recently chatted with Austin-based Q2 (formerly Q2ebanking) to find out what its team has been up to since demoing at Finovate. We also wanted to get a closer look at the recent announcement of its partnership with PFM solutions provider, Geezeo.

Q2 Overview

    • Headquarters: Austin, TX
    • Employees: 360 with plans to hire 40 more by year end
    • Funding: $20 million
    • Number of FI clients: Just under 400
    • Clients include: Umpqua Bank, Urban Partnersip Bank, and Eli Lilly FCU
    • End users: Just under 3 million
Since FinovateSpring 2011
At FinovateSpring 2011, Q2 demoed its Risk & Fraud Analysis to help FIs defend against account takeover in ACH, wire, and external transfers. Since then, the Austin-based company has been quite busy. Here is a sample of what it has been up to:

1) Enhanced security: Q2 is the only online banking provider that has built its own security solution into its platform.

2) Q2Clarity: This new solution provides bank executives with easy-to-digest visuals of how their customers are using online and mobile banking platforms. Graphs show logon rates, mobile device usage, and more.

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3) Tablet: A step further into mobile development allows end users to perform daily banking tasks, including mobile bill pay, remote deposit capture, and mobile enrollment.

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Geezeo partnership
Geezeo first took the Finovate stage in 2007 with a followup appearance at FinovateFall 2010, where it demoed its Enterprise Marketing Platform alongside SapientNitro.

Integrating Geezeo’s PFM with Q2’s e-banking platform will provide users easy access to their spending summary. Financial institutions will have the option to customize how they want Geezeo’s PFM to look inside their online banking experience. For example, it can appear on a sidebar on the homepage, or be located under a separate tab.

People’s Bank of Alabama is the first to adopt this new platform, and Q2 is in the process of on-boarding additional customers. 

What’s next
Q2’s next innovation will focus on Big Data marketing. Retail banks will be able to use data gathered from client interactions to cross-sell and up-sell to customers.

Q2 demoed at FinovateSpring 2011. Check out the demo video here.

Finovate Alumni News– August 2, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgNetbanker looks at LendUp and BillGuard as 2 innovators creating services to protect the elderly from spam.
  • Kofax acquires data integration software provider Kapow Technologies.
  • Startup Owl features Lighter Capital and On Deck. Check out Lighter Capital at FinovateFall in NYC.
  • Bill.com’s two-factor authentication brings security to SMBs.
  • Thoma Bravo completes billion-dollar acquisition of Intuit Financial Services, re-launched as Digital Insight.
  • Net Element International integrates its Aptito POS payments platform with TSYS.
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.

Meet the Innovators of FinovateFall 2013

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FinovateFall 2013 is right around the corner. That means it’s time to start getting to know the entrepreneurs and innovators that will be presenting their technologies on stage in New York City in September.

Remember, the early bird deadline is this Friday, August 2nd. So to reserve your spot and register now.

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Akimbo Financial offers a social bank account alternative that makes sharing money easier than ever.
authenticIDs identity tools pictureID and catfishID, are the most accurate, time-saving solutions for the forms of ID we already carry.
Backbase‘s Launchpad, the Commercial Banking Edition, making CFO’s work easier.
BehavioSec uses behavioral analytics to transparently tackle web and mobile security.
BillFloat revolutionizes credit delivery to consumers and businesses.
Biometric Signature ID has a patented software-only biometric for secure ID online verification.
BizEquity is the first and leading cloud-based business valuation engine, an innovative solution to small business lead generation.
Capital Access Network is the largest and most experienced small business finance specialist.
Cardlytics uses consumer purchase data to drive a patented advertising platform. Ads are so relevant–they’re expected. 
CoverHound is a comparison insurance adviser, helping people discover, buy, and manage insurance online.
CR2 is the innovative provider of self-service banking solutions including ATM, Internet, and mobile banking.
DoubleBeam‘s SDK powers mPayments inside other mobile apps, helping signup customers quickly and save a ton on the cost of payments.
FinanceIt offers businesses the ability to provide consumer financing to their customers at the POS.
Financial Guard helps you protect your investments, providing online investment advice at the right price, finally.
Finect is the leading online network for the financial services industry.
Fiserv is a leading global technology provider serving the financial services industry, driving innovation in payments.
FlexScore “gamifies” financial planning, gives a “score” of your financial fitness, and provides education, advice, peer comparisons.
Float Money offers interest-free credit to members of its shopping club and financial health partners.
FutureAdvisor manages your investments for better returns, making quality financial advice available to everyone.
GMC Software Technology is a leading software developer of solutions that transform the customer experience.
Guide Financial is like a healthcheck for your finances – automatically scanning your accounts for ways you can earn or save more, and providing simple, easy fixes.
Ignite Sales is the leader in retail banking, customer acquisition, and retention technology.
Innovation Agency, where you can execute on your innovation mandate and unlock the wealth of ideas in your ecosystems.
Instabank – Beautiful money.
Interactions provides natural language Virtual Assistant application services for the automation customer care processes.
Jumio is a next generation credentials management company offering payments and ID scanning and validation products for mobile and web transactions.
Kofax is a leading provider of smart process applications that simplify the business critical First Mile of information-intensive customer interactions.
LearnVest empowers people everywhere to take control of their money and live their richest lives.
Level Money is a financial GPS, designed to replace budgeting.
Lighter Capital provides growth capital to technology companies in a highly-automated basis – Capital-as-a-Service.
Lumesis provides software for the fixed income municipal market. Compliance and credit-focused. 
Luminous is a boutique innovation company that has become synonymous with innovative banking around the world.
Manilla is the leading free and secure service to simplify and organize daily financial life.
MasterCard is a technology company in the global payments industry, operating the world’s fastest payments processing network.
mBank is the biggest, pure-play online bank and the third largest retail bank in Poland.
miiCard is the first digital identity verification service to prove ‘you are who you say you are’ entirely online.
Mitek is positioned as the leading innovator in mobile imaging software. 
MoneyDesktop empowers financial institutions to provide online/mobile banking experiences to promote personal financial intelligence.
Motif Investing is a thematic, customizable, low-cost and crowdsourceable ETF-like product that is disrupting investing economics.

Narrative Science
 
enables companies to uncover the insight hidden in their data and create new content at a scale and frequency never before possible.
Numbrs – One App – Every Bank.
P2P Cash is the mobile wallet with switch technology that allows us to aggregate all other mWallets and mobile financial services.
PayWith is powered by MasterCard. Funded by Merchants. Loved by Consumers.
PhonyInvoices provides invoice fraud detection and prevention. We check a company’s vendor lists and transactions for suspicious activity.
Place2Give provides valuable and trustworthy information to make the most impactful social capital investment decisions.
QuarterSpot lending platform delivers the lowest cost and most favorable term small business loans.
RevolutionCredit is a revolutionary solution that transforms the credit decisioning process for both creditors and consumers.
SaaS Markets is the enterprise app store company for financial organizations looking to leverage cloud-based applications for their employees or customers.
SavedPlus is an automatic savings program that helps customers save money with every purchase.
Simple Verity provides business credit reports on any SMB in America.
Socure offers a social identity verification solution to combat the growing risk of online identity fraud for financial institutions.
SpearFysh leverages mobile, speech analytics, big data, and SaaS technology to improve sales processes and drive growth.
Spreedly provides vault cards in the cloud and work with more than 50 payment gateways.
StockSmart apps and platform offer insight and information on the world’s best companies and people.
StrategyCorps delivers local/mobile/social consumer checking solutions so appealing and relevant, your customers will gladly pay for them.
Tinkoff Credit Systems is Russia’s leading provider of online financial services.
TipRanks is a cloud-based service that measures the performance of anyone giving investment advice.
Toopher eliminates online fraud using your phone’s location. Simple, secure, your phone stays in your pocket.
Unleash is the cloud CFO that helps small businesses make better decisions faster.
VerifyValid and Deluxe are giving checks their first major upgrade in more than 200 years.
Versafe protects all users from all malware, threat types. On all devices, all transparently. 
WordSentry software analyzes messages during composition, identifying non-compliant components, for correction before sending.
Yodlee is the platform for financial innovation, powering the world’s largest collection of transactional data.
Yseop creates a new age where financial services delivered to customers are driven by AI and human collaboration.
Zenmonics is a global technology services and mobile product provider to the financial services market.
Zighra empowers banks and financial institutions to leverage implicit mobile user authentication and accelerate payments.
Zooz provides complete payment essentials at your fingertips: a robust set of tools that will improve the payment process.
Plus more stealth companies to be announced in the weeks to come.
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To find out more about the upcoming FinovateFall 2013 event in New York, September 10 and 11, visit our FinovateFall information page here.

Financial Innovation Marches On, Even in July

image I subscribe to about 800 blogs/alerts and usually find one or two new fintech companies, potential Finovate presenters, every single day. But July was slower, with the pace of new companies dropping to a few per week. Even though I know summer tends to be quieter, I always start wondering if we’ve finally invented everything…then I wake up to my RSS feed this morning and find two clever new services launching today:  

  • Crowdsourced home values: Everyone who owns a home wonders how much it’s worth. But unless you have a real estate agent in the family (and even then, they are probably biased to the high side), it’s a time-consuming and not-so-exact science to get a professional appraisal. Enter Redfin’shome price whisperer” service. Participants simply submit their house address and target price, and the company will have 250 others users give the valuation a thumbs up or thumbs down. While it won’t put realtors out of business, it’s a great way to get a quick handle on where you stand on what can be a key part of your financial security. (Another new startup, Trov, just landed $6.8 mil to help value less liquid assets).
  • Scam-protection geared to the elderly: Ever since Y-Combinator (YC) spawned a pair of billion-dollar companies during the Great Recession (AirBnB, Dropbox), I’ve been watching closely to see what its graduates will offer up to the financial services world. At FinovateSpring last May, we saw 2012 YC graduate LendUp (watch its Finovate demo here) wow the audience (and win Best of Show) with its service to lift consumers out of the payday lending cycle into less-expensive bank credit products. In a similar vein, 2013 YC graduate True Link Financial just announced a service to protect consumers, especially the elderly, from getting scammed by misleading or downright fraudulent charitable solicitations and other gray charges (it’s like BillGuard, but trying to block the questionable charges first, rather than dispute later). It’s basically a $20/yr prepaid card with customizable spending controls.

image So, it looks like we have officially moved into the second half of the year and all the fintech excitement that will bring. I’d be remiss if I didn’t put in a plug for the upcoming FinovateFall, where we’ll have 72 demos (full list here) offering up a plethora of new ideas. The early-bird deadline is Aug 2. So register now and save. 

Bill.com’s Two-Factor Authentication Brings Security to SMBs

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Bill.com announced today that it has brought two-factor authentication to customers using its Bill.com Banking Platform. The company is an innovator in the field of integrating bill pay, custom invoicing, and cash flow management for small and medium-sized businesses.

Available for banks and built into the platform for small businesses, the technology is compatible with existing authentication methods, and can be readily integrated. Said CEO Rene Lacerte, “banks can offer small businesses one more reason to trust all of their business needs to one bank.”

Bill.com stresses the unobtrusive nature of their authentication solution. The technology uses a risk-based model to monitor all activity and determine when a request for further authentication from the user should be made. This, according to Bill.com, helps prevent workflow interruptions that can take place when authentication processes are triggered whenever any change is made.

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Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com won Gold at the 2013 PYMNTS.com Innovator Awards in the “Best Innovation via ACH” category. The company recently announced that it had converted more than 40% of its customers from checks to electronic ACH transactions.
Bill.com presented its technology as part of the FinovateSpring 2011 show in San Francisco. See the company’s demo here.

Finovate Alumni News– August 1, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgKeyBank names ProfitStars software operations strategic partner of the year.
  • Payment Eye interviews Currency Cloud CEO, Mike Laven.
  • Checkpoint Technologies partners with Mobile Labs.
  • Zopa sets record for P2P Lending in UK, amassing a total £20m lent for July.
  • ACI Worldwide again wins SWIFT Certified Application accreditation for its ACI Money Transfer System.
  • Meet the Innovators of FinovateFall 2013.
  • Kabbage announces it’s made 80k advances over 2 years, with an advance volume 4X higher than nearest direct competitor.
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 Alumni News– July 31, 2013

  • Netbanker: BBVA Compass bundles microbiz checking with PAYware mobile card processing.
  • FIS brings mobile, eBanking, remote capture and more to Sterling Bank.
  • GoBank announces plan to promote its mobile-first bank account in more than 500 Barnes & Noble bookstores on college campuses.
  • Pymnts.com interviews Allen Friedman of TSYS Acquiring Solutions on the role of EMV in a cardless world.
  • NYT features how LearnVest is bringing financial planning to the masses.
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.

BBVA Compass Bundles Microbiz Checking with PAYware Mobile Card Processing

imageI rarely get a chance to write about checking accounts, so I was glad to see the BBVA Compass announcement on the wires yesterday.

The bank launched a Business Mobility Bundle which has checking, mobile card processing and a free Galaxy Tab 3 Android tablet (wifi-only), a $200 value (note 1). It’s a soft bundle (note 2) of the bank’s existing e-Business Checking Account and its Merchant Mobility Pack, powered by Verifone PAYware

imageThe checking account is fee-free up to a certain level of activity (note 3). But the optional card-acceptance piece is $24.95/mo, which is waived in this promo for 12 months. The offer is not currently visible on the bank’s website, but a link in the press release leads to a landing page with the offer (see first screenshot).

Myimage take: The Business Mobility positioning is excellent, nicely tying two key business products together. The underlying accounts seem to be solid values, and the free Samsung tablet is sure to spark sales. 

However, my initial enthusiasm from the press release was somewhat tempered by the realities of the fine print (see second screenshot, note 1) and overall execution. For example:

  • No online application, it’s a call-me form (albeit a good one)
  • Mobile deposit is limited to $1,200 every 30 days
  • Both the free e-Business Checking and the 12-month fee waiver for mobile card acceptance are currently available on the bank’s website. There are no added benefits to the Business Mobility Bundle, outside the tablet premium
  • The free tablet is wifi only and sells for $199 online (it’s no iPad)

The offer is not currently visible on the BBVA website, even through site search, presumably so it doesn’t irk existing customers who cannot get the free tablet.

Bottom line: I like the promotion, although I wish the bundle had more features. For example, mobile banking pre-loaded on the Galaxy; customer service available via Skype; or even higher mobile-deposit limits for those using card processing (note 4).

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BBVA Business Mobility landing page (link, 30 July 2013)

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Fine print (positioned directly below the screen shown above)

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Notes:
1. Fine print: (A) New small business customers only, 1 per household/biz; (B) Must perform 10 transactions, not including intrabank funds transfers, within 30 days of account opening; (C) $100 minimum opening deposit
2. I just made up that term, but what I mean is that the customer is not required to add the Merchant Mobility piece to qualify for the free Samsung tablet. The checking account alone earns the premium.
3. Transaction limits before fees kick in:
– 50 items processed
– 2 in-branch deposits
– 5 processed checks and/or in-branch withdrawals
– $5,000 cash processing
In addition, mobile deposit has stingy initial limits of $500 max per item and only $1,200 max every 30 days  
4. The landing page could use more powerful visuals showing the BBVA mobile app and/or PAYware dongle in use.

FIS Brings Mobile, eBanking, Remote Capture and More to Sterling Bank

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Sterling Bank announced this week a new, multi-year agreement with FIS to deploy the banking technology company’s Business eBanking and Mobile Banking technologies.

The FIS Business eBanking solution is geared toward small and medium sized businesses. Features include check imaging, account transfer, ACH payments including direct deposit, as well as real-time access to both personal and business accounts. Mobile Banking through FIS brings services like mobile wallets, prepaid and debit card services, and remote deposit capture.

The announcement comes in the wake of previous moves by Sterling Bank to take greater advantage of online and mobile banking. The bank has already converted its business clients to the FIS business internet platform, outsourcing its core banking to FIS two years ago.
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Sterling Bank is the principal operating subsidiary of Sterling Financial Corporation. With nearly $10 billion in assets, Sterling is based out of Spokane, Washington and has branches in California, Idaho and Oregon, as well as Washington state.
Also doing business as Sonoma Bank, the corporation serves more than 54,000 small and medium-sized businesses, and more than 280,000 retail accounts.
FIS provides mobile banking services to more than 20 million mobile users and more than three million mobile deposit customers. The company demoed its FIS Payment Manager at FinovateFall 2010 in New York. See the FIS demo here.