Finovate Blog

This past week, NYC hosted TechCrunch’s semi-annual tech event. TechCrunch Disrupt covers the entire tech spectrum from software to 3D printers to gaming and ecommerce. Generally, the financial vertical accounts for 2% to 3% of the companies involved. That said, several notable fintech companies have done well there. Notably, Mint won the first event in 2007. And in 2011, both InvoiceASAP (demoing at Finovate next week) and BillGuard (see post) made it to the final round, (with BillGuard finishing second overall).  

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Startup Battlefield
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This year, three of the 30 "battlefield" companies that made it one stage were in fintech. One of those, Zenefits, was one of seven finalists called back to demo again to the judging panel. Enigma a public-dataset discovery and analytics startup, was the eventual winner.

1. OK’d by PaidPiper (description | demo)

• Kids payment tracking and authorization service
• Partnering with Vantiv
• Mobile first…team has mobile background
• Can also be used by small biz with their employees
• Charging parents 5% of value transferred (non-starter…needs to get to monthly subscription)

2. Trustev (description | demo)

• "Social fingerprinting" to provide a "Trustev score" pulled from social media and other data sources
• $20 billion lost in 2012 by online merchants
• 27% of all online orders are reviewed by humans for potential fraud
• Call themselves "Stripe for fraud"

3. Zenefits — Battlefield Finalist (description | demo)

• Free, comprehensive HR-benefits platform, monetized with health insurance commissions only
• Displaces client company’s health insurance broker to fund the free HR services
• Co-founded by Wikinvest’s Parker Conrad
• Y-Combinator alum
• Typically, small customers can pay up to $2,000 per year for similar services

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Startup Alley Tradeshow
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The "startup alley" is the tradeshow floor where more than 100+ startups and event sponsors have tables to talk to interested parties. There were eight more fintech companies there:

• ePaisa: Mobile POS startup
• EXP Commerce: Futures market for consumer products
• PayTango: YC company authorizing payments with fingerprint biometrics
• Peela: Brazilian gift card provider "gift cards on steroids"
• Purchext: Parental spending control system using sale receipt capture/OCR (now) and/or NFC (soon)
• Taclaro.com: Brazilian online insurance supermarket
• TouchtoPay : Fingerprint-based payment system
• YourCapital: Algorithmic financial advice for DIYers

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Panel Discussion
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Financial subjects come up throughout the program, for example three VCs over the three days mentioned that they were putting money into Bitcoin. But there was only one focused financial-services session, a panel entitled, Show Me the Money.

Panel members: PayPal (Hill Ferguson, VP), Stripe (John Collison, Co-founder), Gumroad (Sahil Lavinga, Founder)

• PayPal launched "login with PayPal" today
• Stripe is powering Walmart’s new Goodies food-subscription service
• PayPal used to buy $7 billion annually in digital goods (music, online gaming, etc)