H2 Ventures and KPMG Unveil 2016 Fintech 100

H2 Ventures and KPMG Unveil 2016 Fintech 100

h2_kpmg_2016fintech100

H2 Ventures and KPMG have released their Fintech 100 roster for 2016. Divided equally between 50 “industry leaders” and 50 “emerging stars,” the roster features 17 Finovate/FinDEVr alums in the first category, and 10 in the second. Calling its roster a “celebration” of the most compelling innovators in this “bold new space,” the H2 Ventures/KPMG 2016 Fintech 100 covers a variety of different shades of fintech:

  • Lending (32 companies)
  • Payments (18 companies)
  • Insurance (12 companies)
  • RegTech (9 companies)
  • Data & analytics (7 companies)
  • Wealth management (6 companies)
  • Blockchain (5 companies)
  • Digital currency (5 companies)
  • Capital markets (3 companies)
  • Crowdfunding (2 companies)
  • Accounting (1 company)

And here is a look at how Finovate/FinDEVr alums fared. Earning recognition among the companies in the Leading 50 group are:

Also noteworthy in the Leading 50 are Ant Financial, which acquired Best of Show-winning EyeVerify in September 2016, and Avant, which acquired Finovate alum ReadyForZero in the spring of 2015.

Additionally, Finovate/FinDEVr alums earning spots in the Fintech 100’s 50 Emerging Stars roster were:

The H2 Ventures/KPMG report includes a geographic breakdown of the 2016 Fintech 100, as well as a set of key takeaways such as increased geographic diversification, the return of lending, the continued ascent of Insurtech, and the appearance of RegTech. The report also notes that China now has four out of the top five companies in the report’s top 10, and eight companies in the top 50. The report says funding for fintech “continues to rise,” and its authors cite more than $14 billion in capital was raised by the Fintech 100 in the past year.

Coinbase Offers Mobile Card Payment Option to European Bitcoin Buyers

Coinbase Offers Mobile Card Payment Option to European Bitcoin Buyers

Coinbase_homepage_August2016

European customers of Coinbase have been able to buy bitcoin and ethereum using debit and credit cards for a little over a year. Now, they can do it on mobile, too.

Strong numbers from the U.S. seem to support the move. Announcing the new functionality on the its blog, Coinbase noted that 40% of its credit and debit card purchases of digital currencies in the U.S. are coming from mobile devices. “Our mission at Coinbase is to create an open financial system for the world,” the post read, “and enabling easy access to digital currencies like bitcoin and ether in as many countries as possible gets us one step closer to that goal.”

Indeed. Coinbase last month added Australia, Canada, and Singapore to the list of countries where Coinbase customers can use payment cards to buy digital currencies. The company added support for ethereum earlier this year, and enabled PayPal and credit cards for bitcoin sales and purchases, respectively, in June. Coinbase launched the U.S. beta of its instant bitcoin purchase via debit card in March and expanded the service to all U.S. customers later in the spring.

Coinbase’s free mobile wallet works for both Android and iOS (in addition to online). Customers can create a digital wallet, connect a bank account, debit, or credit card, and then begin buying both bitcoin and ether on the Coinbase exchange.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2014. The company has raised more than $117 million in funding, including a strategic investment of $10.5 million from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ in July. Coinbase has exchanged more than $4 billion in digital currency and served more than four million customers in 33 countries.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • ID.me Lands $3.7 Million Grant
  • Coinbase Offers Mobile Card Payment Option to European Bitcoin Buyers

Around the web

  • RightCapital announces new partnership with Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP). See Right Capital at FinovateFall 2016 in New York next week.
  • Intuit unveils personalized app recommendations for QuickBooks Online.
  • Business News Daily names BlueVine Best B2B Factoring Service.
  • Top Image Systems increases footprint in Asia.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Q2 Leverages MX Technology to Launch Contextual PFM
  • PTIN Gives Members Access to BizFi’s Aggregation Marketplace

Around the web

  • iSignthis to verify ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) for fellow Finovate alum, Ixaris.
  • ABA Bank leverages TranzWare from Compass Plus to launch new Cash by Code service.
  • Top Image Systems earns spot as sample vendor in Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Banking Transformation 2016.
  • Coinbase to extend its Bitcoin, ether services to both Canada and Singapore.
  • The Economist reports how EquityZen is catching on.
  • PC Magazine labels Xero the fastest accounting-software innovator.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Quantopian Receives Undisclosed Amount from Steve Cohen’s Point72

On FinDEVr.com

  • Venmo Enables Payments in Merchant Apps

Around the web

  • Kontomatik introduces Financial Health Indicator for small- and medium-sized lenders.
  • Venmo’s in-app payments technology emerges from beta.
  • Kantox processed $100 million in transactions in the six months since the debut of its API.
  • Kony launches MobileFabric, which features a model-driven approach to mobile app development using microservices.
  • American Banker’s Association features results from banks using Fiserv, Buzz Points and Larky for customer loyalty and rewards.

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.

 

Coinbase Lands $10.5 Million in Strategic Investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

Coinbase Lands $10.5 Million in Strategic Investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 11.03.45 AM

Coinbase, a Bitcoin platform for merchant processing and consumer wallets, received backing from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (MUCAP) and Sozo Ventures today.

The three firms have made a strategic investment of $10.5 million in Coinbase, bringing the company’s total funding to just north of $116 million. Previous investors in Coinbase include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the New York Stock Exchange, BBVA Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.

BTMU, the largest bank in Japan, plans to work with the San Francisco-based company to fuel its international expansion. Coinbase does not currently support digital currency-exchange services in Japan, but said in a blog post that it is looking forward to working with BTMU “to support this focus in key markets in Asia and globally.”

Late last month Coinbase announced it now accepts PayPal for selling bitcoin. Coinbase users in the U.S. can now sell bitcoin and have the funds deposited in their PayPal wallet. The company plans to add support for other countries in the future. Coinbase also added support for purchasing bitcoin with credit cards. Both services are still in beta.

At FinovateSpring 2014, Coinbase debuted Instant Exchange, a merchant-payment solution that allows businesses to accept bitcoin without any exchange-rate risk, shielding them from market volatility. Coinbase has 4 million customers across a supported network of 32 countries and has seen $4 billion in bitcoin exchanged over its platform since launching in 2012.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Ping Identity Unveils Security, Usability Upgrades to IDaaS Platform.
  • defi SOLUTIONS to Launch Full-Service Analytics and Reporting Platform by Year’s End
  • Coinbase Lands $10.5 Million in Strategic Investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

Around the web

  • Misys honored by Celent Model Bank Awards for its work with Russia’s Alfa-Bank.
  • Holvi launches new debit card, Holvi Business MasterCard.
  • Risk Ident CEO Roberto Valerio writes about fighting account-takeover fraud.
  • Ixaris helps Amadeus build prepaid B2B wallet.
  • WattzOn unveils three new web and mobile tools for monitoring and managing utility bills.
  • The Street: Lending Club ‘Platform Investors’ Are Slowly Returning Despite Recent Hiccups
  • Buzz Points joins Jack Henry’s Symitar Vendor Integration Program.
  • iSignthis integrates with XM.COM to deliver due diligence Digital KYC service.
  • ProfitStars Ranked Among Top-50 Providers in MSPmentor 501 Global Edition.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • A Score for Socure: The Digital ID Company Lands Funds from Santander.
  • Digital Payments Guardian from Prairie Cloudware Goes Live at Multibillion Dollar Regional Bank.
  • Tradeshift Unveils Go,the First B2B Virtual Assistant for Managing Business Expenses and Travel.
  • With Ripple, Seven Banks Test Out the Blockchain.

Around the web

  • TSYS and Equinox team up to launch semi-integrated EMV payment solution for Value-Added Resellers.
  • Forbes column on “millennial money mistakes” features Kapitall.
  • iQuantifi founder and CEO Tom White writes about goal-based selling for BankDirector.com.
  • Accusoft wins spot in 2016 SD Times 100 for its innovations in software development.
  • Prairie Cloudware’s Digital Payments Guardian mobile wallet goes live with multi-billion dollar regional bank.
  • Fintech profile interviews Cloud Lending CEO Snehal Fulzele.
  • Fiserv launches Notifi to deliver actionable alerts.

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.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “San Francisco Times Recognizes Credit Karma as Best Fintech Company”

Around the web

  • Markit partners with BitSight Technologies to enhance its Know Your Third Party (KY3P) platform.
  • Coinbase launches Buy widget to create a better Bitcoin buying experience.
  • Wipro open sources its big data solution, Big Data Ready Enterprise (BDRE).
  • itBit publishes its Bitcoin OTC Market Recap for March.
  • American Banker looks at the relationship between EyeVerify and Wells Fargo.
  • Money Q&A reviews Wall Street Survivor.
  • AltFi investigates how the loan-validation expertise of Global Debt Registry might help the P2p lending market.
  • Q2 subscribes to FI Navigator’s cloud-based mobile banking module.
  • Top Image Systems delivers $100,000 eFLOW project to subsidiary of a national postal service group in Asia-Pacific.
  • Barron’s features Student Loan Genius and PayActiv as employee benefits aimed at millennials.
  • Xero featured as one of first New & Notable Apps on Google Apps Marketplace.
  • SF Business Times features CEO Talbott Roche of Blackhawk.

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

Coinbase to Support Ether; Will Rebrand Exchange Service as GDAX

Coinbase to Support Ether; Will Rebrand Exchange Service as GDAX

Coinbase_homepage_May2016

Starting this week, traders will be able to buy and sell the digital currency Ether on bitcoin-exchange Coinbase.

Ether, the digital currency used by the Ethereum platform, has gained traction among financial institutions like Barclays and UBS. Corporations such as IBM have also expressed interest in the technology and how it could enable communications and transactions between connected devices in an internet-of-things world.

According to Adam White, Coinbase VP of business development, bitcoin and ether are not necessarily competitors, meaning the addition of ether could help boost trading volumes for the exchange. Ether is the second most widely traded cryptocurrency behind bitcoin, with $44 million in average daily trading volume compared to bitcoin’s $134 million. And while both digital assets can serve as alternative currencies, ether can also be used to help developers build and run distributed applications and smart contracts on the Ethereum platform. Ethereum is a public decentralized blockchain, co-founded and created by Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin.

Coinbase is expected to make an official announcement on Tuesday, March 24.

Coinbase_stage_FS2014b

Pictured (let to right): Business Development Managers Nahid Samsami and Roger Gu demonstrated Coinbase Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

The decision to add ether comes as part of a rebranding of Coinbase’s exchange service. The platform will be renamed “GDAX” (Global Digital Asset Exchange). The company will continue to provide basic “dollar for bitcoin/ether” conversions under the Coinbase brand.

Recent headlines for Coinbase include earning a spot on Fast Company’s Most Innovative list back in February. The company was featured in a round up of blockchain-powered digital wallets in April and added stop orders to its exchange platform in March. Coinbase enabled bitcoin purchases by debit card in March, as well,

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange technology at FinovateSpring 2014. The bitcoin wallet and platform has 3.8 million users and has raised more than $106 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, BBVA, USAA, and Ribbit Capital.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Trulioo’s GlobalGateway Available in BRIC Countries”
  • “Kabbage Reaches $2 Billion in Loans in 5 Years”
  • “Coinbase to Support Ether; Rebrands Exchange Service as GDAX”
  • “MaxMyInterest Launches Client Invitation Feature”
  • “Finovate Debuts: Personetics Helps Banks Provide Personalized Guidance to Customers”

Around the web

  • OnDeck adds to credit offerings available to Canadian small businesses.
  • Thomson Reuters and Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Ltd. to create new indices for the Chinese currency, the renminbi.
  • ACI Worldwide earns technical accreditation to provide access to real-time, faster payments in the U.K.
  • Markit unveils compliance solution to help meet new FRTB, market risk capital requirements.
  • Fiserv to integrate ADAPA from Zementis to enhance its Financial Crime Risk Management Platform.
  • TSYS launches Virtual Payment Precept to streamline B2B virtual payments and enhance the ePayables process flow.
  • Dwolla adds more banks to its instant account-verification flow.

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.

 

Finvoate Alumni News

Around the web

  • Let’s Talk Payments features Ledger, Blockchain, and Coinbase in its roundup of blockchain-powered digital wallets.
  • PYMNTS.com interviews BlueVine CEO Eyal Lifshitz on the return of the SMB line of credit.

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.