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Last Chance for FinovateSpring 2014 Early-Bird Tickets! Register Now to Save!

By Eric Mattson Posted on March 26, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized

FinovateSpring 2014 is only five weeks away and the event is on pace to be the largest Finovate event to date. After our sold-out London event in February, we are projecting over 1,400 innovators will descend on Silicon Valley on April 29th and 30th to watch the future of financial and banking technology debut live!

If you would like to join that audience and discover the latest fintech innovations before your competition does, please register before this Friday March 28th in order to lock in your seat AND the early-bird discount.

If it makes it any easier to commit, here is a small sample of the amazing organizations that will be in attendance:

Altimeter Group American Savings Bank ATB Financial Bank of the West Bankers Trust BBVA Ventures Bessemer Venture Partners BlackRock C1 Bank Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Capital One Celent Celtic Bank Charles Schwab Chase Paymentech CIBC Citi…

Last Chance for FinovateSpring 2014 Early-Bird Tickets! Register Now to Save!

By Eric Mattson Posted on March 26, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized

If it makes it any easier to commit, here is a small sample of the amazing organizations that will be in attendance:

Fintech Funding Bubble?

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 26, 2014
Categories: Crowdfunding

When we first started Finovate in 2007/2008, during the depths of the financial-services sector collapse, there were maybe a half-dozen major venture fintech fundings per quarter. In comparison, yesterday (25 March 2014), in a single day, 10 fintech fundings were announced totaling nearly $60 million (according to Crunchbase).

Yes, you read it right. TEN in 24 HOURS! And that doesn't even include ThreatMetrix, whose latest $20 mil round didn't make it into the database by today's noon (Eastern Time) cutoff.

What are the drivers? As you can see from the list below, the digital currency craze attracted nearly half the amount, with $23.5 million sent to three companies. Crowdfunding and other alt-lending has been absorbing large amounts of capital of late, and yesterday pulled in another $20 million in three fundings. The other four ran the gamut from $12 mil into a prepaid card company and $1+ million each…

Finovate Alumni News — March 26, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 26, 2014
Categories: Boku, Digital Insight, Dynamics, Fidor Bank, Jumio, Kasasa, Kofax, MasterCard, MiiCard, ProfitStars, Xero, ZipZap

ProfitStars' Gladiator ranks #36 in MSPmentor's top 501 managed service providers. Kofax Mobile Capture platform wins "Elegant Implementation" category of Housing-Wire magazine's HW TECH 100. Online TV host Doug Sleeter interviews Xero CEO, Rod Drury. Jumio wins 2014 METAward in "established" category. BancVue releases its Kasasa PFM app. miiCard bringing its ID verification technology to eMerchantPay. WTOP News asks: is the credit card with keypad from Dynamics is the "card of the future"? MasterCard selects Anna Yip as head of Hong Kong and Macau. Digital Insight to expand online banking portfolio to include shared access and small business payments. Come see Digital Insight demo at FinovateSpring next month. Kraken, the digital currency exchange platform used by Fidor Bank, raises $5 million. ZipZap pauses UK cash-to-bitcoin transfers through its platform. Boku partners with sunhill technologies to enable direct global carrier billing for sunhill's services. This post will be updated…

FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 1

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 25, 2014
Categories: ChiaraMail, Dealstruck, Digital Insight, FinovateSpring 2014, FinovateSpring 2014 Sneak Peek, ID.me, LendingRobot, Verde International

The northern hemisphere's first day of spring last week can mean only one thing: FinovateSpring 2014 is just around the corner. To help you prepare for the upcoming onslaught of innovation, we'll be dishing up bite-sized pieces of some of the companies you'll see in San Jose on April 29 and 30.

In this first installment, we showcase ChiaraMail, Dealstruck, Digital Insight, ID.me, LendingRobot, and Verde International:

ChiaraMail offers the first technology to protect your customers from becoming victims of e-mail address spoofing, while providing them unprecedented e-mail privacy without the use of encryption.

Features: Eliminates spoofing and the resulting identity theft. Ensures in-transit privacy. Adds critical functionality such as changing e-mails after sending, and improved mail network efficiency. Why it's great: ChiaraMail technology assures your customers that a message that claims to be from you is actually from you. Robert…

SmartAsset Brings in $5.2 Million in Series A Financing Round

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 25, 2014
Categories: Funding, SmartAsset

The team at SmartAsset, a company that aims to answer consumers' complex financial questions, has been busy lately. Not only are they preparing their 7-minute demo for FinovateSpring next month, they also recently launched a retirement planning tool, and this week announced they just closed on $5.2 million.

The Series A financing round was led by Javelin Venture Partners. Denis Grosz, SV Angel and Brendan Wallace, founder of Identified, also contributed.

SmartAsset plans to use the round to grow its New York-based team by around a dozen new employees and expand its platform's capability to give users more control of their financial future.

To see SmartAsset's newest tech and meet the innovators behind the platform, don't miss its live demo at FinovateSpring.

Finovate Alumni News — March 25, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 25, 2014
Categories: Backbase, Bazaarvoice, Betterment, Credit Karma, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, Kapitall, Lending Club, On Deck Capital, Place2Give, SmartAsset, Top Image Systems, Wealthfront

Eleven Finovate alums win awards at PYMNTS Innovation Project 2014. Bazaarvoice announces partnership with Spredfast. TechCrunch: Wealthfront, OnDeck, Lending Club, Credit Karma, Betterment, and Kapitall "come of age." CMS Wire reviews Backbase's customer experience platform. Top Image Systems' eFLOW to process the digital census of a country in EMEA in a deal worth more than $1 million. Place2Give releases GIVE-API to provide access to its database of charities as well as its payment processing tech. SmartAsset raises $5.2 million in series A funding. Come see their live demo at FinovateSpring next month in San Jose. Netherlands Queen Maxima visits Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) to see its psychometric credit scoring methodology in action. 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.

FinanceIt’s New Printed Materials Service Keeps Shoppers Informed of Financing Options at the Point of Sale

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 24, 2014
Categories: FinanceIt

In an era when the Internet of Things is becoming wildly popular, POS financing provider Financeit has opened up a communications channel in the analog world of print.

The Canadian-based company announced today that its users now have the option to order printed materials, such as:

Brochures detailing Financeit and its benefit to customers Price tags that help highlight monthly prices Posters and window displays Stickers for front window and cash register

These printed materials not only let shoppers know that instant financing is available in the store, but also help to educate them about the merchant's payment plan options through Financeit.

Users can order these items in the Library section of their account.

Financeit has raised a total of $21 million and demoed at FinovateFall 2013 and FinovateFall 2012.

Eleven Finovate Alums Win Awards at PYMNTS Innovation Project 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 24, 2014
Categories: Bill.com, Credit Karma, Klarna, Lending Club, Mitek, PayNearMe, PayPal, PaySimple, Prosper, Ripple, Venmo

The votes are in. The judges have decided. And 11 Finovate alums have earned awards at the 2014 PYMNTS.com Innovation Project, including three gold medals.

Finovate alums won awards in a diverse range of categories, from "B2B Innovation" to "Best Comeback Story." Areas where alums dominated included "Best Credit Innovation," where Credit Karma, Lending Club, and Klarna swept the field, as well as "Best Innovation via ACH" and "Best Check Innovation."

The Innovation Project is "powered by PYMNTS.com," a joint venture between BusinessWire and Market Platform Dynamics. The event is in its second year, and was again held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A total of 49 awards were presented. Gold, silver, and bronze in fifteen categories, plus singular Catalyst, Women Driving Innovation in Payments, Lifetime Achievement, and Best in Show awards.
Also announced were three inductees to the Payments Hall of Fame. See how the rest…

Finovate Alumni News– March 24, 2014

By David Penn Posted on March 24, 2014
Categories: BBVA, BellaDati, BillGuard, Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, CurrencyTransfer, Currensee, Kensho, Ping Identity, Quantopian, TransferWise

Oanda announces integration of Currensee's Trade Leaders platform to support social trading. TransferWise recognized as "boldest small company" in winning FT's Boldest in Business award for 2014. BBVA follows Simple acquisition with launch of new digital banking unit. Currency Transfer featured in Wired UK as Startup of the Week. BillGuard invites beta testers to try its new Android app. Mail Tribune highlights the importance of Credit Karma and Credit Sesame. Ping Identity purchases Accells Technologies to make mobile devices into a tool for logging you in to all of your cloud-based services in one shot. BellaDati launches the next level of visual data discovery with new release. Matt Turck examines opportunities for Kensho and Quantopian in a Bloomberg-dominated world. 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.

BancBox’s New API Ensures Accreditation of Investors So Crowdfunding Platforms Don’t Have To

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 21, 2014
Categories: BancBox

Players in the crowdfunding space have a lot of headaches in order to maintain compliance, especially since the SEC requires that parties who invest in offerings on crowdfunding platforms must be fully accredited. That is, they must meet one of the following two requirements:

1) Have earned $200,000/ year in both of the past two years (or $300,000 with spouse) and expect to earn the same next year

2) Have a net worth of $1 million (excluding primary residence)

BancBox, a company known for its money-moving APIs, is seeking to remove this barrier for players in the crowdfunding industry with its new API that will verify the accreditation of investors.

The API is a part of the BancBox Invest service. It will enable crowdfunding platforms to determine if their investors are accredited and legally allowed to invest in the platform. In order to comply with the SEC's 506(c)…

Payoneer Wins Role as Payments Provider for Google Trusted Stores

By David Penn Posted on March 21, 2014
Categories: Payoneer

Fresh off its announcement of a $25 million series D, global payments company Payoneer reports that it was chosen by Google to be a payments provider for Google Trusted Stores Program.

Scott Galit, Payoneer CEO, said, "Payoneer provides a seamless, automated payment process that meets Google's high standards for technology, security and service."

The Google Trusted Stores program is designed to help consumers find trustworthy merchants when shopping online. Payoneer's job will be to provide the bank transfer services, and deliver the program's purchase protection consumer payments in some of the countries where the program operates. Said Galit, "This exciting new program increases sales for merchants and builds confidence for consumers when making online purchases." Payoneer's global payout platform is used by companies in more than 200 countries around the world. In addition to enabling seamless, cross-border sending and receiving of funds, Payoneer also features a variety of payout…