Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • FinovateEurope Best of Show Winners Announced.
  • Welcome to Day Three of FinovateEurope.

Around the web

  • Ripple partners with Japanese banking consortium to launch mobile payments app, MoneyTap.
  • S&P Global to acquire Kensho in cash and stock deal valued at $550 million.
  • Banque du Caire to deploy core banking technology from Temenos.
  • TransferTo and Sentbe team up to provide real-time money transfers from South Korea to more than 60 countries.
  • Coinbase unveils new index fund to provide investors with exposure to all digital assets on its GDAX exchange.
  • Entersekt launches Connekt, a digital commerce enablement solution that makes it easy to add new payment services to banking apps.
  • Finicity partners with MortgageHippo to streamline and accelerate the verification process in mortgage lending.
  • Baker Hill announces strategic alliance with Built Technologies, a Tennessee-based construction lending software provider.

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

Around the web

  • Two-time Best of Show winner Finn.ai launches Spanish-speaking virtual banking assistant with Nicaragua’s biggest bank, Banpro.
  • Fiserv to offer Mastercard’s anti-fraud solution, Decision Intelligence.
  • Former LinkedIn executive, Emilie Choi, joins Coinbase as VP of Corporate and Business Development.
  • Kabbage and Citi commit to new cybersecurity-based consortium for fintechs and data aggregators established by the World Economic Forum.
  • Onboarding friction and security concerns remain as obstacles to wider mobile banking adoption for consumers across age groups according to joint review by Javelin and identify verification specialist Jumio.

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 Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance

Coinbase Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance

Digital currency wallet Coinbase is expanding its horizons– and its potential client base– this week with the launch of Coinbase Commerce.

The new offering aims to enable merchants across the globe to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin payments and deposit the funds directly into their personal wallets. Coinbase Commerce gives merchants full control of their own digital currency, since it is not a hosted service.

To sign up, merchants just need an email address and a smartphone and can directly integrate Coinbase Commerce into their existing checkout flow or add it as a payment option on an e-commerce platform. Coinbase Commerce already integrates with Shopify, which serves 500,000 merchants. The company is actively adding new integrations to facilitate payment acceptance.

Coinbase also provides a merchant dashboard, where business owners can manage payments and monitor earnings from a single place.

The Coinbase Commerce merchant dashboard

Merchants that leverage Coinbase Commerce will join the list of other large businesses that currently accept cryptocurrencies, including Overstock.com, Newegg, Dish, Gyft, Expedia, and Microsoft. That said, the volatility of cryptocurrencies, combined with the fact that most people hold cryptocurrencies as a speculation tool and are hesitant to spend it, means that there might be slow adoption for cryptocurrency merchant acceptance.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. In August of 2017, the company became a fintech unicorn after it closed a $100 million round of Series D funding. At that point, Pitchbook estimated Coinbase’s value to be $1.6 billion. Last month, the company acquired talent from Memo.AI to bolster its engineering team during the bitcoin boom.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • IdentityMind Global Raises $10 Million to Fuel Global Growth.
  • Coinbase Launches Crypto eCommerce Acceptance.
  • Roostify Lands $25 Million to Disrupt the Mortgage Industry.

Around the web

  • Revolut partners with payment issuer processor GPS ahead of APAC launch.
  • Ripple teams up with Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to begin cross-border payments pilot program using xCurrent.
  • NICE Actimize brings financial crime, risk and compliance technology to global provider of core banking systems technology.
  • South Africa’s Absa Bank goes live with Finastra’s CLS platform, PAYplus.
  • CASHOFF wins finalist spot in PFM & Robo Advice category of Innovate Finance’s 2018 Pitch360 competition.
  • Microsoft features Onfido. Come see Onfido at FinovateEurope next month!
  • Softtek and Mambu launch banking platform as a service.

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.

Forbes Names 17 Finovate Alums on the Forbes Fintech 50

Forbes Names 17 Finovate Alums on the Forbes Fintech 50

Forbes has released the third* Fintech 50 list, which this year features 17 Finovate alums, many of which have made the list for the third time. The Fintech 50 list highlights the top private fintechs that have operations, customers or impact in the U.S. The list excludes public companies and divisions of public companies.

Here are the alums honored in this year’s compilation:

Ayasdi

Among 22 newcomers to this year’s list.

Betterment

The company’s third time making the list.

Blend

Among 22 newcomers to this year’s list.

Blockchain

Among 22 newcomers to this year’s list.

Chain

The company’s third time making the list.

Coinbase

The company’s second time making the list.

Credit Karma

The company’s third time making the list.

Feedzai

Among 22 newcomers to this year’s list.

Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll)

The company’s second time making the list.

Kabbage

The company’s second time making the list.

Kensho

The company’s third time making the list.

Plaid

The company’s third time making the list.

Qapital

The company’s second time making the list.

Ripple

The company’s third time making the list.

Symbiont

Among 22 newcomers to this year’s list.

Symphony

The company’s second time making the list.

TransferWise

The company’s third time making the list.

In 2016, the list contained 20 Finovate alums, including Betterment, Chain, Coinbase, Credit Karma, Gusto, Kabbage, Kensho, Klarna, Motif, Personal Capital, Plaid, Qapital, Quantopian, Ripple, Signifyd, SoFi, Symphony, TransferWise, TrueAccord, and Xignite.

The list from three years back also contained 20 Finovate alums. Algomi, Betterment, Braintree, Chain, Credit Karma, HelloWallet, Kensho, LearnVest, Motif, Personal Capital, Plaid, Prosper, Quantopian, Ripple, Simple, TransferWise, TrueAccord, Vouch, Wealthfront, and Xignite made the list.


*Forbes skipped this compilation for 2017.

20 Finovate Alums Earn Spots on One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencers List

20 Finovate Alums Earn Spots on One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencers List

When you think about it, what’s cooler than being named to a Who’s Who list in the world of digital identities?

One World Identity, an independent identity research and strategy company that specializes in cybersecurity, digital commerce, and risk management, published its roster of the Top 100 Influencers in Identity this week. This year, 20 Finovate alums made the cut. The individual influencers – as well as the companies they work for- are listed below.

As with last year’s roster, this year’s list was compiled by taking nominations submitted via Twitter, LinkedIn, and at oneworldidentity.com. The staff and advisory council for One World Identity whittled down the initial list of more than 1,000 nominees to a final 100.

One World Identity began as a project from a group of Google employees back in 2015. The company was officially launched the following year as a way to help spur innovation and collaboration in the field of digital identities. Travis Jarae is founder and CEO.

Finovate Alums Larsen, Armstrong, Garlinghouse Among Crypto’s Richest

Finovate Alums Larsen, Armstrong, Garlinghouse Among Crypto’s Richest

Mirror, mirror, on the wall … Who has reeled in the biggest cryptocurrency haul of them all?

Forbes has published its first – and hopefully not last – list of the richest “secretive freaks, geeks, and visionaries” in the world of cryptocurrencies. And on a list that features widely-known tech luminaries like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (“the Winklevoss Twins”), and Tim Draper, Forbes’ roster of cryptocurrency’s richest also features a handful of Finovate alums including Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse (founder and current CEO of Ripple, respectively), as well as Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase.

Not just that, but by Forbes’ estimation, Chris Larsen is the richest person in cryptocurrency, with an estimated crypto net worth between $7.5 billion and $8 billion. Armstrong comes in at between $900 million and $1 billion in crypto net worth, with Garlinghouse’s crypto net worth estimated between $400 million to $500 million.

Introducing their new roster, Forbes noted that they based their rankings using the “estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies, post-tax profits from trading crypto-assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses” as of January 19, 2018. Additionally, in order to qualify for the list, cryptocurrency investors needed to have holdings valued at at least $350 million.

The publication acknowledges that there may be richer crypto investors out there who were inadvertently overlooked. Additionally, Forbes concedes that its estimated valuations of cryptocurrency investments may be “wide of the mark.” But the editors suggest that the list remains valuable for the same reason its list of the Forbes 400 richest Americans first published in 1982 was of value: by “(making) the world a better place by shining a light on the invisible rich.”

See the full list. In addition to the names and estimated cryptocurrency wealth figures, the Forbes feature shared some additional interesting data on the Kings (and they are all men, by the way) of Crypto. They found, for example, that the average age of cryptocurrency’s richest was 15 years younger than the average age of their Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans (42 years old versus 67). The article also noted the average price change in 2017 of the most common cryptocurrencies (more than 14,000% for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP). The piece also included an interesting comparison of daily price volatility of various assets, with gold at the low end of 0.7%, shares of Apple stock at 1.37%, and XRP topping the list at 16.75%. Whee!

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding.
  • Wipro Announces Minority Stake Investment in Harte Hanks.

Around the web

  • Invoice Cloud collaborates with PayNearMe to accept cash payments.
  • Reuters: Trading Technologies-Coinbase deal to bridge bitcoin and futures
  • MX and Coast Capital empower members with the Take Charge Money Manager.
  • Fortune: Ripple adds New Partners in Push to Make Case for XRP.
  • Temenos completes migration to core banking platform at EFG International.

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

  • iSignthis and Worldline Finalize Partnership.
  • WealthForge Tops $500 Million in Investments Processed.
  • Innovation and Collaboration: The Rise of Fintech in the MENA Region.
  • Dwolla to Power Identity Verification for Yahoo!’s Tanda Savings App.

Around the web

  • TransferWise updates its remittance comparison tool.
  • Featurespace hires Ritz Steytler as Chief Operating Officer.
  • Infosys selected as tech partner by A S Watson Group.
  • Ephesoft moves headquarters to Irvine, California.
  • Compass Plus to help VietinBank issue Diners Club cards in Vietnam.
  • Coinbase appoints Tina Bhatnagar as VP of Operations and Technology.
  • Kony launches Kony Base Camp, an online community to empower developers to gain skills to accelerate app development and delivery.

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

  • Coinbase Brings on Engineering Talent from Memo.AI.
  • ThreatMetrix Teams Up with GlobalOnePay.
  • Jumio Partners with Byteball to Bring KYC to ICO Issuers.

Around the web

  • YellowDog celebrates 3 years, shares how it went from 1 to 17 employees, from £0 to £2.8 million in funding, and 4 awards. YellowDog will demo at FinovateEurope in March.
  • Computer Weekly interviews Tink CEO Daniel Kjellén, one of our featured speakers at FinovateEurope in London.

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 Brings on Engineering Talent from Memo.AI

Coinbase Brings on Engineering Talent from Memo.AI

Last month we reported that digital currency wallet Coinbase had the pedal to the metal to keep up with burgeoning bitcoin demand. This week, it appears the company is furthering its growth goal by acquiring the engineering team at Memo.AI.

Founded in 2016, Memo.AI is a startup that built a bot that turns Slack chats into a searchable knowledge base. The company has stopped accepting new users and will shut down its services on March 16 of this year.

In a blog post announcing the change, Memo.AI founder Mircea Pașoi said, “We’re happy to announce that most of the Memo engineering team will be joining Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular ways to buy and sell cryptocurrencies! We decided to join Coinbase because we’re super excited about the company’s mission of building an open financial system.”

If you’ve been following Coinbase’s success, you can guess that this “aqui-hire” buy is a good move right now. In a blog post earlier this month titled, “Customer support: failure is not an option,” newly-minted Coinbase VP and GM Dan Romero illustrated the company’s recent explosive growth.

In November and December of last year, Coinbase saw transaction volumes grow by almost 3x. Additionally, the company has expanded the capacity of number of peak transactions it can process per hour by 77x and number of customer support agents by almost 9x.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. Last August, the company became a fintech unicorn after it closed a $100 million round of Series D funding. At that point, Pitchbook estimated Coinbase’s value to be $1.6 billion.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Backbase 6 Features New Digital Banking Backend, Open Banking and PSD2 Readiness
  • DoubleNet Pay to Power Cash Flow Management Tool for T. Rowe Price
  • SBDA Group Closes Series A Investment Round
  • ID.me Reaches 5 Million Users, Appoints C-Level Execs
  • BLUERUSH Introduces New CEO and Director Steve Taylor

Around the web

  • Filene interviews Larky CEO Gregg Hammerman on the company’s recent VISA partnership.
  • PR Savings Bank in APAC signs with Temenos.
  • Ripple completes XRP Lockup to create certainty of XRP supply at any given time.
  • ACI Worldwide receives SWIFT gpi certification for itsUniversal Payments (UP) Real-Time Payments solution.
  • Facebook Messenger chief David Marcus joins Coinbase board.

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.