FinovateEurope 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 3

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With just a few weeks to go before FinovateEurope, here’s the third and final part of our Sneak Peek preview of the companies demoing in London (click here for part 1, here for part 2).

There still time to get your ticket and be a part of the conference in London on February 12 & 13 at Old Billingsgate Market Hall. For more information or to register, visit our FinovateEurope page here.

Each presenting company supplied a few teasers about the innovations they will be showcasing at the event.

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In a unique demonstration, Akamai will command agents and attack servers across the Internet to launch attacks commonly directed at financial services sites (including SQL injection, slow HTTP post, and DDoS attacks) at a pair of live demonstration banking sites on the public Internet. One site in the clear, and one protected by Kona Site Defender.

The demonstration will show how these attacks can compromise an unprotected site, and how Kona Site Defender is able to detect and mitigate these attacks automatically, live, in real-time. The demonstration will feature innovative adaptive rate control and real-time Web security monitoring security technologies.

Innovation type: Security

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Birdback

A lot is happening on the front-end of payments: Mobile POS, mobile wallets, NFC payments … The back-end of payments, however, remains untouched. A card transaction is nothing more than a money transfer.  Meanwhile, developers dread the prospect of having to develop native applications for each of these new, front-end payment platforms.

So why not an API that sits at the very heart of the transaction network, on top of the most widespread means of payment: the payment card? What if one could link applications to payment cards, essentially turning what’s already in consumers’ pockets into a loyalty card, a discount voucher or a means of sending them digital receipts?

Innovation type: Rewards, cards, back office

Device Ident

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Device Ident will showcase its new solution to prevent online fraud in real time. Our product identifies and evaluates any device interacting with our customers’ online services, and analyzes history and behavior of the visiting device to prevent fraud and misuse for all our customers.
It is easily integrated into our customers’ online services and it fully complies with European privacy laws.

Innovation type: Security, identity

Five Degrees

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Watch a fully automated model bank with an unparalleled level of self-service giving both customer and bank imminent insight and control in the process.

Through our Web-based, mid-office portal, Five Degrees offers the potential of enormous business benefits in terms of efficiency in adapting new business processes on the go. As today’s market demands, our open services hub integrates with external services like KYC checks, Passport Validation, and PFM.

Come and view the fast and instant response for the next banking generation: rapid deployment, rich customer experience, instant and transparent insight for bank and client alike.

Innovation type: Back office, banking, communications, sales

FreeAgent

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FreeAgent is the UK’s market leader in SME cloud accounting software. The FreeAgent platform’s capabilities extend far beyond traditional accounting software, and are developing toward performance and health measurement tools, providing vital information for both the businesses themselves and current or prospective lenders.

We will demonstrate how cloud accounting and the associated data creation, aggregation and interpretation functions can provide financial institutions with real-time insights into the underlying fundamentals and risk trends existing within a single business or across a base of clients.

Innovation type: Back office, lending, small business

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GMC Inspire Dynamic Statement is an interactive and engaging way to present your customers’ statements, online or offline.

Instead of the standard online statements, GMC Inspire can generate thousands of dynamic statements in minutes, presenting your customers’ data through attractive charts and graphs that are fully clickable.

Areas that require attention and action can be highlighted and customers can even drill down to granular level detail, providing a fully intuitive service. GMC Inspire also allows you to track usage of every statement and use this data to populate relevant offers and marketing messages for every customer.

Innovation type: Mobile, PFM

Meniga

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“To Buy or Not to Buy” is a white-label module for mobile banking applications that uses PFM functionality to empower and infl
uence consumers at the point of sale or when considering buying something.

It allows users to check if they can afford what they are about to purchase or see how much closer to their savings goals they would be if they saved the money and used it to feed their goal instead.

One unique aspect of this innovation is allowing the users to leverage their social networks and direct messages to crowd-source the decision and instantly collect feedback before making the purchase. This fun and simple feature uses gamification to engage users and their network of friends.

Innovation type: Mobile, online, PFM, rewards

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PhotoPay provides the easiest and fastest way to pay paper and PDF bills using mobile devices.

Paying bills on a mobile phone is often difficult. Manual data entry is cumbersome and frustrating for smartphone users. PhotoPay has developed an advanced technology that significantly improves the mobile bill payment experience for both paper and electronic bills.

Banks and payment providers love PhotoPay because it can dramatically improve user experience and increase bill payments transactions. Our first bank customer has seen a 2,000% increase in mobile bill payments after implementing PhotoPay.

Innovation type: Payments, cards

Finovate Alumni News– January 29, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgAcculynk joins EMV Migration Forum.
  • TSYS announces extension agreement with Payment Alliance International.
  • True Office scores $3 million funding round. See them demo at FinovateEurope in London!
  • GetApp compares accounting options in FreeAgent and Kashoo.
  • Taulia doubles customer base in 2012.
  • miiCard granted U.S. patent for method of establishing true online identity based on ability to access online financial accounts.
  • TIO Networks appoints Bill Burnham, founder of Inductive Capital, to Board of Directors.
  • WorkSaveLive blog features ReadyForZero.
  • PaySimple launches 3 new integrated partners.
  • PlayMoolah launches Yusheng Rush, a Chinese New Year themed mobile game.
  • IP Commerce announces latest release of Commerce Boarding, a real-time qualification and decision engine.

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.

Mobile Monday: Square Wallet Provides a Sneak Peek at the Future of Proximity Payments

image We’ve used Square to accept payments at Finovate events for two years and have had an overall good experience. And recently, when our name-brand merchant acquirer of 17 years partially shut off our account for giving them too much risk-free business (a subject for another post, once I calm down), Square saved us by happily accepting our CNP volume with its fat 3.5% fee.

But this post is about the other side of Square’s two-sided market, its mobile wallet for consumers. I’ve already written about Square’s gift card option launched right before the holidays, but I hadn’t used the wallet for day-to-day charges.

In surveys, consumers don’t yet see the value of a mobile wallet. Mobile payments are looking to replace a plastic-card system that works very, very well. And who’s costs, so far, are mostly hidden from consumers (note 1).
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Rewarding Usage
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Here’s why Square is better than plastic. And it’s not because you can pay with your name, which is nice, but a little unsettling for both customer and clerk. It’s the built-in rewards. And to a lesser extent, stored receipts/records (can you say PFM?)

We Americans are absolutely enamored with getting something for free. In total, we’ve joined more than a half-billion rewards programs (see inset, note 2). And it crosses all demographics. Have you seen how the billionaires’ eyes light up on Shark Tank whenever someone offers them a free cupcake or cup of frozen yogurt? 

But we’re also lazy busy and few people want to carry a wad of punch cards around in their wallet/purse to earn rewards at local retailers. Plus, the cards are mixed blessing for merchants. The loyalty is nice, but merchants are mostly giving free stuff to regulars who would pay for it anyway. Paper punch cards just don’t do enough to convert people into “new” regulars.  

image This is where Square shines. When you use its wallet, a virtual punch card is automatically started for you (note 3). And when enabled, the next time you are near the merchant, Square will automatically remind you (via popup message) to come back and buy from that merchant. And even if it’s six months later, you get a second punch on that virtual card. And if all goes well for the merchant, they have incremental sales and you are well on your way to a complimentary mocha.

And all your previous transactions, with full itemized receipts, are available within the Square app (see left). It’s truly the future of payments available for a sneak peek today. I highly recommend giving the Square Wallet a try.

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Notes

1. It’s also hard for consumers to answer questions about something they don’t really understand. It’s like asking someone in 1997 if they’d like to have their music purchases stored “in the cloud.”  10% would say sure, 10% would say I don’t know and the remaining 80% would choose the other options at random (but 100% would say WTF to themselves).
2. See our report on card-linked offers (Feb. 2011, subscription).
3. Starbucks does not currently support loyalty options via Square, but they are coming. Starbucks has $25 million invested, so they want Square to shine.

SocietyOne Reaches $1 Million in Loan Originations on ClearMatch Lending Platform

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SocietyOne, a FinovateAsia Best of Show winner, announced last week that it has reached $1 million in loan originations on its P2P lending platform, ClearMatch.

The Australia-based startup launched the ClearMatch platform, which allows investors to bid together at different interest rates and amounts against a single loan, six months ago in August of 2012.

In the six months since its launch:

    • Has originated over $1.1 million in loans
    • Borrowers faced an average interest rate of 14.4%
    • Investors earned average interest rate of 11.3% per annum
    • Investors have received $15,600 in interest payments

The following graph charts the growth of the loan amount originated since its inception.

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For comparison, SocietyOne charted the growth of LendingClub’s originations over time.

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Matt Symons, SocietyOne CEO, states that he plans to replicate the success of Lending Club in Australia.

To check out SocietyOne’s award-winning platform, watch its FinovateAsia 2012 demo.

True Office Scores $3 Million Funding Round

TrueOfficeLogo.jpgWhen the regulatory and compliance training gets tough, the tough get gamified.

At least that’s the approach taken by True Office, a company that specializes in gamifying the complex (and often tedious) regulatory and compliance training process for professionals working in financial institutions.

And this effort to bring a little bounce to the step of those trudging through mandatory compliance training has won the company $3 million in Series A funding.

Said True Office CEO and founder, Adam Sodowick: “A well-designed game has the power to engage employees and at the same time produce analytics that can help banks identify and reduce operational and compliance risk.”

According to information released by the company late last week, True Office will use the funding to help the company expand its presence in the financial sector, as well as apply its gamification approach to other highly-regulated industries.

Participating in the funding round were Rho Ventures, the Partnership for New York City Fund, and Contour Venture Partners.

Watch True Office in action next month in London at FinovateEurope 2013.  More information about the event is available here.

Finovate Alumni News– January 28, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgSaveUp begins Stamp Card rewards program. Collect 10 stamps and redeem card for reward.
  • Chargebee blog features Braintree as a payment gateway integration optionin the U.K.
  • Firmology reports on new Dwolla features: Send Money to Non-Dwolla Users and Split Payments for Multiple Facilitators.
  • eToro launches YouTube channel for free trading lessons.
  • The M Report features BankersLab’s Banc-it: Scoring Edition app.
  • Dexter Credit Union implements Q2ebanking’s full suite of eBanking solutions.
  • Locaid partners with CAMS to provide solutions for mobile gaming industry.
  • Jingit chooses Direct Source as its preferred systems integration partner.
  • Compare Broker reviews the latest developments in the Zecco/TradeKing merger.
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.

Tradeshift Inks Deal & Investment from Intuit

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What’s better than a deal that turns your current customer base of 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses into a potential field of five million?

The same deal, with an undisclosed but “multi-million” dollar investment thrown in for good measure.

That’s how the year is beginning for Tradeshift. The company announced that it has formed a partnership with Intuit, integrating its e-invoicing and business transactions platform with QuickBooks. The new free app, which connects to customer’s Tradeshift or Quickbooks accounts, will be available first to QuickBooks users in the United Kingdom.

The company also announced a significant investment from Intuit, which will join Tradeshift’s board of directors. Although the amount was undisclosed, it has been characterized as “multi-million”.

Newly available to QuickBooks users, the app will also be an opportunity to further test Tradeshift’s social networking approach to business. CEO and founder Christian Lang has said that “invoicing is one of the few business processes that’s really viral.” Thanks to Intuit, he’ll now have five million opportunities (and undisclosed millions in new capital) to help prove his point.

See Tradeshift in action in this video from their demo at FinovateEurope 2012.

Finovate Alumni News– January 25, 2013

  • Silicon Valley Business Journal interviews BillFloat CEO and co-founder Ryan Gilbert.
  • Commercial Bank of Qatar to deploy latest version of TSYS card and merchant management platform.
  • TransferWise wins “Best Middleweight Startup” at The Europas.  See them demo at FinovateEurope in February!
  • Concur rolls out new datacenters in France and the Netherlands.
  • Santander receives 2012 Banking Technology Award for Best Security Initiative for its SIM swapping solution, developed with ValidSoft.
  • Portland’s KATU.com features Simple.
  • UK’s KashFlow integrates with Tradeshift to enable SMBs who use its cloud-based accounting software.
  • The Paypers reports: Geezeo enters 2 new partnerships.
  • VatorNews considers what’s next for Lending Club.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions partners with Volunteer Corporate to provide mobile RDC to their 325 member CUs.
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.

PFMs Are Top Browser “Money” Plugins for Google Chrome

image While they are overshadowed by the hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, there is a growing eco-system of plugins and apps for use with desktop browsers. I recently poked around in the Money section of Google’s Chrome Web Store.

Not surprisingly, Google Finance was the most popular with almost 300,000 users. Mint was second at about half that (160,000 users). No one else was close (see table below).

Of the top 11 money plugins, six were PFMs: Mint, Finance 41, CashBase, PocketSmith, Easy Envelope Budget, and Toshl. Four were investing related, and Zillow tracks residential real estate (note 1).

One surprise: There was just one U.S. financial in the store. BofA? Fidelity? PayPal? No, it was Mountain America Credit Union (screenshot below). There were several international financial institutions in the store as well (Maybank, BBVA, Bradesco).

Bottom line: With 700,000 total users across the top-11 apps, this is a niche market so far, and could remain that way. But interestingly, it’s another place where Mint dominates.

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Table: 11 Most Popular Chrome Extension
in the “Money” Category

Name Users Type
1. Google Finance 283,000 Investing
2. Mint 161,000 PFM
3. Zillow 49,000 Real estate
4. Finance 41 41,000 PFM
5. Cash Base 35,000 PFM
6t. Pocketsmith 34,000 PFM
6t. Wikinvest 34,000 Investing
8. WealthLift 28,000 Investing
9. Free Stock Charts 20,000 Investing
10. Easy Envelope Budget 18,000 PFM
11. Toshl 15,000 PFM
TOTAL 710,000

Source: Google, 18 Jan 2013

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Mountain American Credit Union extension for Google Chrome browser (link)
Note: The app currently has 127 users

Mountain American Credit Union extension for Google Chrome browser

PFM Toshl featured in the Google Chrome Web Store (link, 18 Jan 2013)
Third-party PFM Toshl was one of the featured apps in the broader Lifestyle Category. They have about 15,000 users, making it the 10th most popular app in the Money category.

PFM Toshl featured in the Google Chrome Web Store  

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Notes:
1. And Finovate alums are well represented. In addition to Mint, Pocketsmith and Wikinvest, BillGuard, FutureAdvisor, Xero, ImpulseSave and SmartyPig (previous post) have plugins.
2. For our take on PFMs, see our May 2010 Online Banking Report (subscription).

New TradeKing Finds Focus in Customer-First Mindset

tradeking_logo.jpgWhen TradeKing met Zecco, and the two online brokerages merged last year, the big question was whether or not the whole would be more than merely the sum of its parts.

Based on a review of where the “new” TradeKing stands at the beginning of 2013, the answer seems to be an ever-less-qualified “yes.”

The combined entity now boasts more than 500,000 total accounts, making TradeKing the sixth largest online brokerage. And once known primarily for its “disruptive” approach to the industry due to its low and transparent pricing strategy, TradeKing now has the opportunity to impress a whole new cohort of traders and investors with its customer service and investor education resources, as well.

Here’s a look at what TradeKing has accomplished as of the end of 2012:

  • Earned a four-star ranking for six years in a row in Barron’s Online Broker Survey
  • Voted #1 for customer service for the fourth time in the SmartMoney annual broker survey
  • The number of daily users of TradeKing LIVE has doubled since the Zecco acquisition
  • More than 49% of TradeKing’s registered representatives have FINRA Series 4 licenses
  • More than 50% of TradeKing’s registered reps have Series 24 licenses
  • TradeKing has hosted more than 60 live educational events for accountholders, with more than 8,000 total attendees

To that last point, TradeKing clients have watched more than 280 of the brokerage’s educational videos for more than 15,000 hours of watching and more than 57,000 total views.

TradeKing also announced that its trading platform now includes streaming charts, enhanced options functionality (including strategy recognition) and real-time, intraday updates. The company has also unveiled TradeKing Forex, which allows clients to trade more than 50 currency pairs, plus gold and silver, as well as provides access to charting tools, trader education, and actionable research.

Both TradeKing and Zecco made their Finvoate debuts back in 2008 at FinovateSpring.

Finovate Alumni News– January 24, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgThe WSJ looks at angel investing via SecondMarket.
  • BOKU announces mobile payments partnership with U.S. Cellular.
  • In 4Q 2012, peerTransfer partnered with 51 schools. Over 25% of international students in the U.S. can pay their education expenses using peerTransfer.
  • TSYS announces partnership with Priority Payment Systems.
  • Jim Offerdahl appointed as new Bazaarvoice CFO.
  • Credit Agricole is the first bank in Portugal to provide contactless cards.  See their demo at FinovateEurope in February!
  • Keynote offers free mobile testing via DeviceAnywhere.
  • American Banker reports: Iowa Bank Creates Digital Identities from Fingerprints & Photos using TASCET’s Financial ICONN software.
  • VentureBeat reports BBVA pools $100 million fund to invest in fintech startups. Come see BBVA’s live demo at FinovateEurope.
  • Credit.com announces “best balance transfer card” as part of Best Credit Cards in America series.
  • TrueOffice announces $3 million raised in Series A financing.  Catch their demo at FinovateEurope in February.
  • Access Development launches “Savings Across America” customer incentive product.
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.

Pageonce Handling $1 Million per Day in Mobile Bill Payments

Thumbnail image for PageonceLogo.jpgYou may or may not want to send money to friends and family. But sooner or later, we’ve all got bills to pay. 


And betting on the latter is paying off for mobile payment company, Pageonce.

Here are the key items from the company’s recent announcement as reported in TechCrunch:

  • Processing $1 million in mobile bill payments every day
  • Expecting an annual payment volume run-rate of $1 billion by the middle of 2013
  • Reached a 30% month-over-month growth in payment volume

Pageonce_mobile_payments_graph.jpg              Source: TechCrunch

Pageonce has more than 7.5 million users and 6,000 billers. The company’s mobile bill payment operation began a year ago. An upgrade last November added new features such as File Cabinet and Scheduled Payments.

With more than 50 employees, Pageonce has raised more than $20 million in venture funding capital. They demoed at FinovateSpring 2010.