Credit Sesame Scores $12 Million in Series C Funding

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Credit- and debt-monitoring service Credit Sesame, announced today that it raised $12 million in Series C funding from the following investors:

    • Globespan Capital Partners 
    • Menlo Ventures
    • Inventus Capital

The round brings Credit Sesame’s total funding to almost $20 million and is intended to help the company expand its customer base.

Credit Sesame has already seen a lot of growth since it launched in April of 2010: 

    • Oversees more than $22 billion in consumer debt
    • Finds $175 million a month in savings for users
    • Almost half frequent the site 2- 3 times per month   
    • Revenue growth has quadrupled quarter over quarter

To learn more about Credit Sesame, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– June 11, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTagit wins coveted Emerging Enterprise Award 2012.
  • BlogTalkRadio talks to Kathryn Petralia, COO & Co-founder of Kabbage.
  • Offermatic alters business model, no longer pursuing card-linked offers.
  • Chicago Tribune looks at Future Advisor and Betterment as two inexpensive investing platforms.
  • BBC news reports Zopa has lent more than £200m since it started in 2005.
  • Credit Sesame Scores $12 Million in Series C Funding.
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.

Card-Linked Offers in the Wild: Bank of America, Capital One and Fifth Third

We are starting to see more card-linked offers (aka merchant-funded rewards) in the wild:

  • imageBank of America: Consultant and former bank exec Tom Noyes showed off his BofA offers, BankAmeriDeals powered by Cardlytics, on his FinVentures blog earlier this week.
  • Capital One: For the past four weeks, I’ve been receiving FreeMonee offers from Capital One (see screenshot below).
  • Fifth Third Bank: I don’t know how long it’s been there (the service was announced in late Feb), but today I noticed that Fifth Third has a link up on its homepage to Prewards, the edo Interactive-powered rewards programs.

Bottom line: Card-linked rewards are great for consumers and banks, and hopefully they will prove to be equally valuable for the merchants who pay for the whole thing. If so, it could usher in a whole new era of ad-supported banking (note 1). In the meantime, it makes for awesome Finovate demos (note 2).

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Fifth Third homepage features Prewards under "Personal | Bank" navigation (8 June 2012)

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Prewards landing page (link)

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Capital One weekly email with five new offers (1 June 2012)
Note: Offers are typically good for 2 weeks after email received.

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Notes:
1. We wrote about merchant-funded rewards in our Online Banking Report (Feb. 2011, subscription).
2. We covered the the best new products at FinovateSpring 2012 in our most recent Online Banking Report (May 2012, subscription).

Holvi Reveals Beta Account Activity

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Earlier this week, we received an email from Finland-based group-account platform Holvi that listed recent developments:

    • New homepage
    • Have processed payments of more than 300,000 euros
    • The majority of requests for beta accounts (70%) come from outside of Finland (though Holvi currently takes only Finland-based users)
    • Most requests for accounts are from people wanting to use it to organize finances for activities and events
    • People wanting to use Holvi for business comprise the second highest number of requests for accounts. For example:
– Lille-lle is running her small T-shirt print business on Holvi
– Devaamo is a developer event that conducts its banking with Holvi
– Hermanni Turkki is running their band and selling their first album on Holvi

To learn more about Holvi, watch its FinovateEurope 2012 demo.

Planwise Lands $200K in Seed Funding

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San Francisco-based PFM Planwise announced a $200,000 round in seed funding today. Several angel investors participated in the round. 

The startup plans to use the funding to further expand its user base.

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BetaKit covered the funding announcement and explained some of Planwise’s future goals:

    • Update the platform with more visualizations
    • Integrate with more banks
    • Add mobile apps 
    • Integrate with existing PFM tools to enable users to track their spending
To learn more about planwise, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– June 8, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBillGuard adds premium fee-based options.
  • National Journal examines how Simple (formerly BankSimple) is disrupting traditional banking.
  • USA Today considers whether the Zecco/TradeKing deal could bring changes to online investing.
  • Spectrum explains how ZipZap enables customers to pay online transactions using cash.
  • Holvi reveals beta account activity.
  • Planwise lands $200K in seed funding.
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.

BillGuard Adds Premium Fee-Based Options

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Credit-card statement-monitoring platform BillGuard celebrated its first birthday earlier this week and distributed an email notifying its users of two milestones:

    1. Exited beta
    2. Added fee-based premium options intended for families or businesses with more than three cards to monitor (see below)
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Beta users will be grandfathered into the unlimited version for free, for life. New users who sign up before June 30 still have this opportunity, also. Use this link to receive the unlimited version for free.

To learn more about BillGuard, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo (coming soon) and FinovateFall 2011 demo.

TIO Networks Launches MobilePay iPhone App

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Earlier this week, TIO Networks, a payments specialist serving primarily the underbanked, launched its iPhone app for mobile billpay.

Unlike traditional billpay methods that connect to your bank’s checking account, TIO enables users to pay bills using their credit/debit Visa or MasterCard in real time. 

The app allows users to: 

    • Make same-day bill payments in real time 
    • Store your billing information and payment methods to enable quick payments in the future
    • Schedule bill payments and set up reminders so you never miss another payment
    • View historical payments within the app

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To learn more about TIO Networks, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo (coming soon).

Finovate Alumni News– June 7, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgCheck out VC funding trends in financial services startups.
  • Cartera Commerce raises $12.2 Million in growth equity.
  • Braintree expands payments gateway to merchants in 30 countries.
  • Lending Club receives $15 mil from Kleiner, Mary Meeker joins board.
  • ThreatMetrix positioned as a “Visionary” in the Magic Quadrant for Web Fraud Detection.
  • Clairmail awarded 2012 Best Mobile Application or Service.
  • mFoundry launches mobile banking solution for Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union.
  • City National Bank partners with Cachet Financial Solutions and Panini to deliver RDC to Mac users.
  • Bill.com receivables wins ninth annual Tax and Accounting Technology Innovation Awards.
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.

Lending Club Receives $15 Mil from Kleiner Perkins, Mary Meeker Joins Board

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Peer-to-peer platform Lending Club made two announcements today. First, a $15 million equity investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It also received $2.5 million from board member John Mack, the former CEO of JPMorgan.

These installments bring Lending Club’s total funding to $100 million and total unrestricted cash to over $45 million.

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The company also announced that Mary Meeker (inset), general partner at KPCB, will join its board of directors. Meeker states:

“Lending Club is helping reinvent the consumer lending industry, it’s the kind of opportunity that Kleiner Perkins is interested in and I knew I wanted to be involved.”

Meeker joins Lending Club’s existing board members:

    • Lending Club CEO, Renaud Laplanche 
    • Former Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack
    • Jeff Crowe of Norwest Venture Partners
    • Daniel Ciporin of Canaan Partners
    • Rebecca Lynn of Morgenthaler Ventures

Lending Club presented at FinovateStartup 2009.

Braintree Expands Payments Gateway to Merchants in 30 Countries

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Payment gateway, Braintree, announced yesterday that its platform will soon be available internationally. Merchants in 30 countries (see below) will have access to Braintree’s:

    • Merchant account
    • Payment gateway
    • Recurring billing
    • Vault credit card storage

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The private beta will begin in the next few months, and the expansion will launch publicly in the 3rd quarter of 2012.

Braintree also shared its plans to support local, non-credit payment methods and additional countries next year.

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

Cartera Commerce Raises $12.2 Million in Growth Equity

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Yesterday, card-linked offer company Cartera Commerce announced it raised $12.2 million in growth equity funding. The round was led by Comvest Group. Other investors include:

    • Flybridge Capital Partners
    • Dace Ventures
    • LBO Enterprises
    • Venture Capital Fund of New England

The Boston-based company plans to use the funds to enhance sales, product development, and operations to support growing demand.

To learn more about Cartera Commerce, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.