Flint Raises $6 Million in Series B Funding

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Flint Mobile

A big month for Flint Mobile just got a bit bigger with news that the mobile payments company just raised $6 million in funding from new and existing investors.

The round was led by Digicel Group, and included participation from Storm Ventures, SVG Partners, and True Ventures. Flint's total capital raised stands at $9 million, which includes $3 million from a round completed in May 2012.

Flint plans to put the new capital to use by (1) adding new talent, (2) boosting customer acquisition efforts, and (3) accelerating R&D in the mobile payments space. Co-founder and CEO Greg Goldfarb said that Flint will remain "focused on empowering the 'non-countertop' businesses that operate outside of store (environment) and have different requirements (from traditional retail)." Today's announcement comes on the heels of news that Flint was releasing its Android app, and that the company had swapped out its card reader for a…

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Finovate Alumni News– October 25, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CardFlight, Flint Mobile, InComm, ShopKeep POS, Taulia, TransferWise
CardFlight wins best startup at New Jersey Tech meetup. Firmology interviews Jason Richelson, CEO of ShopKeep POS. Humanitarian organization Oxfram partners with TransferWise to help British Indians avoid fees. InComm launches Cashtie cloud match service. Flint raises $6 million in Series B funding. Taulia was recently announced as a 2013 Bully Award winner. 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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Payments, Mobile, Security, Social: A Look Ahead to FinovateAsia 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2013

How many ways will the presenters of FinovateAsia 2013 express "innovation in fintech" this year?

Finovate returns to Singapore on November 14th for a one-day showcase of the latest in financial technology. And many of the themes that have defined the fintech conversation in 2013 will be well-represented at this year's event:

Mobile From banks looking to onboard college students on campus to merchants making transactions in the field, companies are focused on providing superior mobile user experiences. Payments Lower costs and greater efficiencies remain key goals. Minimize friction. Maximize security. Reduce cart abandonment. Increase and personalize customer engagement.  Security and Social Acquisitions in the security space and the headline-grabbing IPOs of social media startups suggest major rewards for those companies able to make the marriage between what's public and what's private work for everyone.  Register here and join us November 14th for FinovateAsia 2013. And if you're looking for…

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Are Utilities Ready for Mobile BillPay? Industry Leaders Weigh-in via Check Survey

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Check

Check surveyed* more than 50 utility company professionals in October, asking them about their utility's mobile billpay strategy.

Or lack thereof. The survey revealed that only 25% of the respondent's utility companies provided mobile bill pay options for their customers.

But what may be most interesting about the survey are the aspirations that utility company professionals have and challenges they see when it comes to broader adoption of mobile billpay technology. Consider the responses: Among those professionals who wanted a mobile billpay option, the reasons why were: 51% - To reach customers more effectively through their preferred channel 24% - To decrease billing costs, including paper costs 18% - To increase customer engagement 7% - To collect money faster and optimize cash flow Asked for the top challenges to broader mobile billpay implementation in the utilities industry, the same professionals responded: 47% - Vagueness and/or uncertainty about the company's mobile…

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Finovate Alumni News– October 24, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, Check, FinovateAsia 2013, Fiserv, Guardian Analytics, Lending Club, Locaid, Manilla, PayPal, SeedInvest
Fiserv to offer clients Guardian Analytics' FraudMAP solutions. Lending Club CEO, Renaud Laplanche, named a winner of Ernst & Young's Venture Capital Award of Excellence. PayPal and Blackhawk Network join forces to bring gift card services to the digital wallet. Manilla User Survey: Consumers Want Bills in One Place and Banks with Bill Management. Payments, Mobile, Security, Social: A Look Ahead to FinovateAsia 2013. Are Utilities Ready for Mobile BillPay? Industry Leaders Weigh-in via Check Survey. Locaid featured in American Express Open Forum column on attracting mobile customers with geofencing. InfoTrends' Matt Swain takes a look at Check. SeedInvest "thrilled" by new rules proposed for equity crowdfunding. 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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Manilla User Survey: Consumers Want Bills in One Place and Banks with Bill Management

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Manilla

If the idea of having all your bills in one central location sounds good to you, then you're not alone.

Respondents in a recent user survey* by account management specialist Manilla ranked this feature near the top of the "convenience scale" with it comes to handling bills.

For Jim Schinella, CEO of Manilla, this is evidence that "consumers value the 'everything in one place' paperless experience that Manilla provides."

Consumers can use Manilla to manage household finances such as utility bills, subscriptions, and travel rewards programs. The technology is free, and can be accessed online at Manilla.com, as well as via iOS and Android mobile apps.         Other top metrics from the survey: 84% users prefer online statements to paper mail 70% of respondents use online bill pay More than half of all users receive more than 75% of their statements electronically How important should this be…

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Dwolla to Offer Its Second Credit Product, a Cardless Credit Service Called Dwolla Cash

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Dwolla

Alternative payments company Dwolla took another step into the credit arena this week. Its recently-announced partnership with Alliance Data Systems resulted in the creation of a new credit service called Dwolla Credit.

It previously dabbled in the credit space with the launch of Instant two years ago. Instant is an opt-in feature that, for a monthly subscription of $3, lends users up to $5,000 for one month with no interest.

Through the recent partnership, the Des Moines-based startup will offer consumers and merchants a cardless credit product. Dwolla Credit users can spend advanced funds at any of the 40+ (and growing) ecommerce merchants in Dwolla's online "Storefront."

When shopping at participating Storefront merchants, Dwolla Credit users will be able to simply select the "Pay with DWOLLA" button, login, and complete their purchase. Transactions will cost merchants Dwolla's traditional fee (25 cents per transaction, or free for transactions $10 and under). Merchants will…

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Finovate Alumni News– October 23, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ayondo, Dwolla, Fenergo, QuantConnect, Tradeshift, Zopa
Online trading community tradimo and ayondo form partnership to offer tradimo users an alternative to active trading. Tradeshift announces Dynamic Discounting as latest early payment offering to suppliers and buyers. Dwolla partners with Alliance Data Systems to launch Dwolla Credit. Wall Street & Technology takes a look at Fenergo's report on client on boarding. QuantConnect redesigns their website. Zopa profiled in Yahoo Finance UK column on peer-to-peer lending. 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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FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek: Part 2

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ArthaYantra, CustomerXPs, FinovateAsia 2013, FinovateAsia 2013 Sneak Peek, Kofax, Mobexo, Pixeliris

Here's a sneak peek of five more companies who will demo at FinovateAsia next month in Singapore. These companies each gave us a glimpse of what they plan to demo.

If you missed our first sneak peek, check it out here. We'll post the remaining companies in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned.  

To see all 37 companies demo live at FinovateAsia, get your ticket here.

ArthaYantra's Arthos is an online personal finance platform that replaces the traditional human advisor and provides holistic advice instantly.

Features:  Online personal finance platform with instant, actionable advice Replaces the need for a traditional human advisor Create a financial plan, implement recommendations, and monitor performance Why its great: 
Instant and end-to-end financial planning without visiting a traditional human advisor  

Nitin B Vyakaranam Founder and CEO of ArthaYantra with 14 years of BFSI and IT sector experience across countries. Holds multiple…

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Finovate Alumni News– October 22, 2013

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Blackhawk Network, Cachet Financial Solutions, CurrencyFair, Fenergo, Flint Mobile, Kiboo, Motif Investing, PayNearMe, Q2ebanking, Simple
US Storage Centers and PayNearMe unveil convenient electronic cash payments for self-storage tenants. Actiance expands partnership with ZL Technologies to deliver enterprise and public social data into unified archive. Kiboo launches new features. Blackhawk Network to acquire InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions. Cachet Financial Solutions launches CheckRisk Pro, a tool to mitigate RDC risk. Netbanker: Simple to launch bluetooth-based P2P payments. The American Bankers Association endorses Q2's enterprise solutions for secure virtual banking. Flint Mobile announces launch of swipe-free mobile payment app for Android. Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at Motif's "design-it-yourself investing." TechWorld Australia features P2P currency exchange innovator, CurrencyFair. Fenergo, Aite Group report: Capital market firms prefer centralized client onboarding. 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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Showing Our Age: A Look at FinovateAsia 2013 Demo Company Launch Timeline

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Advanced Merchant Payments, App Annie, Arkalogic, ArthaYantra, Backbase, BehavioSec, BlueKite, BRIDGEi2i, CustomerXPs, Dragon Wealth, FinovateAsia 2013, Funding, GMC Software Technology, i-exceed, IND Group, Intuition Intelligence, KlickEx, Kofax, LifePAD, Mambu, Matchi, Mistral Mobile, Mobexo, Mobino, Pangea Payments, Payoneer, Pixeliris, Red Zebra, SaaS Markets, Serverside Group, SinoLending, Smart Engine, TIBCO Software, Tootpay, TradeNet, TSYS, White Label Personal Clouds, Yodlee

At Finovate, we've seen how great innovation comes from companies of all ages. All we have to do is look at the Best of Show winners from FinovateAsia 2012. The founding dates of the winners ranged from 1858 (NAB, the parent company of UBank) to 2012 (SocietyOne).

We don't know who will win Best of Show at FinovateAsia in Singapore this year, but looking at the launch date of the 37 companies taking the stage November 14, we found a 28-year spread. 

Here they are in reverse chronological order with funding amounts, if disclosed:

2013- 2012 Arkalogic: 2013 BlueKite: 2013
Total Funding: $1.5 million Seed funding Dragon Wealth: 2013 LifePAD: 2013 Matchi: 2013 White Label Personal Clouds: 2013 ArthaYantra: 2012  Intuition Intelligence: 2012 Mistral Mobile: 2012 Pangea Payments: 2012
Total funding $1 million Seed funding 2011-2008 BRIDGEi2i: 2011 i-exceed: 2011 KlickEx:…

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Finovate Alumni News– October 21, 2013

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CurrencyFair, Equifax, Leaf, Lendio, MasterCard, PayPal, PaySimple, Prepaid Resources, TransferWise, TSYS
Alvaro Soltero of Leaf takes a look at the future of payments. Forbes.com features an interview with Brett Meyers, CEO of CurrencyFair. MasterCard launches TravelController to improve expense reconciliation. TSYS, PayPal, & PaySimple listed in top 10 multi-currency processing solutions for October. Lendio launches beta version of Lendio for the loan specialist. FORMFREE and Equifax partner to streamline borrower asset checks. Prepaid Resources announces formation of Trefoil Technology. TransferWise tops £1 million ($400,000 USD) mark in international money transfers. 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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