Finovate Alumni News– January 16, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgSmartMoney (Feb 2012) article, “Attack of the 6.5-point Typeface” cites research from Transparency Labs.
  • Rescuecom asks if Dwolla can become the new PayPal.
  • CNN Money names SmartyPig “Best Savings Alternative”.
  • Missouri News channel KY3 recommends using Prosper and Lending Club as a creative way to fund your business.
  • NY Times blog talks about LearnVest as a financial planner for the middle class.
  • AARP lists ChargeSmart as a future way to pay bills using unwanted gift cards.
  • FeeFighters hosts webinar about ecommerce on January 16.
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– January 11, 2012

  • Forbes lists Expensify as 1 of 10 financial innovations that will make your life easier in 2012.
  • Guardian Analytics releases Anomaly Detection Toolkit to help FIs address the expectations for layered security.
  • Tax compliance monitoring service, Tax Guard, partners with ProfitStars.
  • ValidSoft joins “Get Safe Online” to help consumers protect themselves. Watch its live demo at FinovateEurope.
  • Regions Bank joins eWise’s Secure Vault Payments network.
  • Intel will use SecureKey’s authentication technology on new Ultrabooks.
  • PayPal partners with payment solution company ABJ Software.
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– January 3, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgRobotDough leaves GoDaddy due to SOPA support conflict.
  • Philly.com describes the Jemstep signup process.
  • Providence Business News reports Andera moves to a new office building.
  • eToro blog launches new column dedicated to analyzing the weekly activity on eToro OpenBook.
  • Forbes looks at Dwolla’s payment revolution.
  • Ping Identity announces PingFederate is now available as an Amazon Machine Image on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
  • Credit Karma launches free credit monitoring service.
  • The Receivables Exchange announces strategic alliance with Insperity Investment.
  • Lending Club removes service fee on large loans.
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– December 22, 2011

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  • Best Buy Canada & Future Shop are the 1st major retailers in Canada to offer eGift Cards via CashStar.
  • The Street interviews Zecco CEO, Michael Raneri.
  • Fox News interviews Dwolla CEO Ben Milne about the startup’s business model.
  • PayPal partners with Fandango to allow users to purchase movie tickets using PayPal.
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– December 20, 2011

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  • Steven Kietz, former Mobile Money Ventures CEO, joins EDO Interactive as GM & EVP of Strategic Partnerships.
  • CNNMoney discusses how Simple can provide a no hassle bank account.
  • Melrose Mutual Insurance Company, Grinnell Mutual, & ID Theft 911 partner to remind shoppers to safeguard identities.
  • Forbes names Dwolla’s Ben Milne to ’30 Under 30′ list for finance.
  • BizReport interviews Xero to discover how the cloud is helping small businesses.
  • Fox Business News recommends visiting Credit Sesame and Credit Karma to check your credit score.
  • INOVA FCU depicts its success from using Mortgagebot’s PowerSite.
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.

Dwolla Gives Users Instant Access to Cash

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Dwolla, a Des Moines-based payments network, launched a new feature today called Instant. By avoiding the electronic funds transfer process that usually takes 2-3 days, the new feature gives Dwolla’s 70,000+ users immediate access to cash:

“Instant is a new opt-in feature that provides you access to cash immediately. When you turn the feature on, you can deposit and send cash without the wait or delay users typically bump into with Dwolla. Whether you’re in a combine, on the streets of New York, walking down the Embarcadero in San Francisco, or stopping in at Mars Café in Des Moines, if you have access to the Internet, you have cash.”

When users want to use Instant to make a purchase from the 4,000+ merchants in Dwolla’s network, they have two options of funding sources. They can either link to a bank account or borrow money from Dwolla and pay it back at the end of the statement period. If the user chooses the latter option, there is a $500 limit.

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The pricing structure is simple. Here’s how it works:

    • $3/ month participation fee. This can be turned on and off at any time.
    • $5 late fee if the user has not paid his Instant balance by the end of the statement date

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

Finovate Alumni News– December 15, 2011

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  • Celent’s report identifies ProfitStars as the market share leader in Remote Deposit Capture.
  • Finextra looks at the growth and success of Lending Club, Prosper, and Zopa.
  • Segmint appoints Thomas C. Tyler as VP.
  • PayPal plans its own version of daily deals.
  • Dwolla gives users instant access to cash.
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– December 12, 2011

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  • The Wall Street Journal recommends Braintree & PayPal as online payment platforms.
  • Dwolla reports there are more merchants using Dwolla in San Francisco and New York City than there were in Des Moines 1 year ago.
  • Accounting web recommends using Xero to automate business accounting.
  • Mootwin receives 4 million euro in series B funding round.
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– December 9, 2011

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  • San Francisco Chronicle discusses the 700 investors chasing after Dwolla.
  • Fiserv signs Sunrise Community banks for prepaid services.
  • Arizona Business Gazette lists using MyCyberTwin as 1 of 6 effective tools to boost your sales in 2012.
  • Computerworld profiles Linkable Networks.
  • TechCrunch reports founder of Mint.com spends his time inventing a vehicle transit system.
  • StockTwits enables public companies to publish news on the Yahoo! Finance site.
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– December 2, 2011

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  • MasterCard and mFoundry executives discuss partnership.
  • The Silicon Prairie names Dwolla number 1 startup in DesMoines, looks for a number 2 startup following the “Dwolla-trajectory.”
  • Simple is slowly sending out a few dozen invites at a time.
  • Prosper announces its support of UK P2P Finance Association.
  • The Social Lending Network shows off Lending Club’s Trading Platform.
  • Bloomberg Businessweek lists Expensify as an app that lets you work like an executive.
  • peerTransfer partners with Nelnet Business Solutions, provider of campus commerce services.
  • Boku, SecondMarket, & Lending Club listed in Forbes Top 20 Private Companies.
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.

Dwolla Now Free For Transactions Under $10

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Mobile payment startup Dwolla announced today that it will no longer charge a 25-cent fee for transactions under $10.

Dwolla assures its clients that there will be no changes to the product or service and that merchants will receive the same benefits.

On a separate note, Dwolla is celebrating its one-year anniversary of its national rollout today.

To learn more about Dwolla, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo

Finovate Alumni News– December 1, 2011

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  • Bank Technology News lists ActivePath, Cardlytics, and PayPal as 3 of the top 10 tech companies to watch.
  • mFoundry powers First Hawaiian Bank’s m-banking.
  • The Houston Chronicle examines how Dwolla helps consumers give money to friends & family without exchanging cash.
  • Mixergy interviews Matt Fellowes, CEO of HelloWallet, to discover how it went from 0 to 300K subscribers in 5 months.
  • Plastyc receives over $1.2 mil in new funding from undisclosed investor.
  • Acculynk forms International Internet PIN Acceptance Consortium with major e-commerce merchants.
  • Taulia’s billFLO to continue service beyond December 1 shutdown date.
  • Continuity Control doubles 3rd quarter revenue, partners with BancVue.
  • PeerTransfer partners with Tuition Management Systems.
  • MasterCard invests in mFoundry to bring PayPass to mobile phones.
  • Dwolla now free for transactions under $10.
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.