FinovateStartup09 Kicks off Today

image It promises to be a big day in the world of financial innovations as 57 companies demo new products and services at our FinovateStartup 2009 Conference. Whether you are in the auditorium or not, you can follow the Twitter, blog, and Flickr streams through our FinovateStartup Live page (see screenshot below).

The Live page will also contain the real-time webcast. There is still time to purchase access to the webcast (see note 1). You’ll also receive the 70-page PDF summarizing all 57 participants (links to companies here).

Although we’ve live-blogged in the past, we are moving most of our live coverage to Twitter. At seven minutes per demo and one minute in between, there’s really not enough time to do much of a blog post. Twitter is a much better way to keep the info flowing. I’ll be twittering under the Netbanker handle and our conference director, Eric Mattson, will broadcast under the Finovate name.

We’ll blog about the event afterwards and announce Best of Show winners. There will also be blog coverage during the day at Banktastic and others.

FinovateStartup Live page (link)

image

FinovateStartup 2009 participants

image

Note:
1. Online Banking Report subscribers and Finovate alums receive a 50% discount on the webcast, email info@netbanker.com for the code if you don’t have it. Press and bloggers can receive free access by emailing jim@netbanker.com.

Peer-to-Peer Lender Prosper Reopens Today at FinovateStartup

image There’s good news in peer-to-peer lending today as Prosper reopened for business. The announcement was timed around its appearance at FinovateStartup today.

The company is adding a loan-resale component called Open Market (see diagram below). Open Market loans are initiated by other financial institutions, then resold on the Prosper platform. Open Market loans must have been originated by Prosper-vetted financial institutions, and be current and have had at least three on-time payments.

We’ll look deeper at the new Prosper in coming weeks; for more coverage now, check out articles today at The Wall Street Journal, CNET and the San Francisco Chronicle

How Open Market lending works

image

FinovateStartup Conference Offers Live Webcast

image Every demo at our FinovateStartup and Finovate conference is videotaped and eventually uploaded to the conference website to be viewed later. Typically, the edited videos are available about a month after the conference.

But this year, we will webcast the conference in its entirety live. If you can’t make it to San Francisco next week because of time or budget issues, the webcast is a lower-cost option that provides real-time access to the new demos. 

The webcast will include more than 5 hours of live demos beginning Tuesday morning April 28 at 8:30 AM Pacific and ending before 5 PM. See our previous post for a list of the 57 demoing companies. The exact schedule will be sent to you along with instructions for logging in. To help follow the action, webcast registrants will also receive the 70-page PDF file that profiles all 57 participating startups.

Register online here. Cost is US$495 per computer connecting to the webcast. Note: Online Banking Report subscribers and alumni of past Finovate and FinovateStartup conferences receive a substantial discount on the registration fee (email info@netbanker.com or call 206.517.5021 to obtain your customer discount code).

Press, analysts, and banking industry bloggers may request complimentary webcast access by emailing jim@netbanker.com.   

FinovateStartup 2009 Conference Registrations Surpass Last Year

image While there is still plenty of bad economic news, positive reports are starting to trickle in. Hopefully by this time next year, the Great Recession will be in the rear-view mirror.

Our bit of optimistic news is the outstanding turnout for our second annual FinovateStartup conference taking place April 28. Thanks to the creativity, energy, and sheer willpower of fintech entrepreneurs worldwide (note 1), we have 57 startups participating this year compared to 39 in 2008. And we’ve just surpassed last year’s event registration total ensuring that the auditorium will be buzzing with an audience ready to feed on all those new ideas.

And more important than raw attendance numbers, is the fact that subjects being tackled this year are much bigger and potentially more disruptive than last. It’s almost mind-boggling when I look at the list of demos we’ll see in a single day (note 2): 

  • A bank optimized entirely around the mobile channel
  • A new approach to decoupled debit
  • Several approaches to dramatically lowering transaction costs at
    the online point of sale by bypassing Visa and MasterCard
  • A mutual fund created to invest in unsecured personal loans
    originated online in a social environment
  • New peer-to-peer services supporting borrowing and payments
  • The integration of financial management tools with payments accounts
  • Platforms that allow financial institutions to customize their own
    financial offerings around market segments and/or personal finance needs
  • New, transparent marketplaces for buying and selling debt instruments in
    large quantities ($ billions potentially)

We truly appreciate the show of support in a trying year and even now are plotting ways to get even more startups on stage next year. For a complete list of startup demos, see our Quick Guide.

If you haven’t registered yet, this is the last week to do so and save $100 over the last-minute price.  

Notes:
1. See our previous post, “Why Financial Technology Remains Important
2. It’s a single-track event, so you’ll be able to see all 36 demos. The secret, each lasts no more than seven minutes.

Quick Guide to the Upcoming FinovateStartup Conference

finovatestartup09_logo In previous posts we’ve announced the innovative young companies participating in our FinovateStartup conference. The entry deadline to demo has passed, so we are able to bring you the final list of 57 young companies showing their latest and greatest on April 28 in San Francisco (see note 1).

There are still a few days left to register for the conference and save $100 compared to last-minute prices. Current Online Banking Report subscribers can save even more. Email info@netbanker.com for more info.

Here’s a breakdown of the participants by main subject area with sub-categories in parentheses:

Alt-payments

See also, Acculynk (security), Expensify (small biz), Seergate (platforms)

Banking/lending platforms

Bill payment

Financial markets (B2B)

Home/real estate

See also, Centrro (search), SmartHippo (search)

Investment management

Mobile (note 2)

See also, Aradiom (security)

Personal finance management/tools (PFM)

See also, BillShrink (search), Expensify (small biz), iThryv (youth), Jwaala (platform), OurCashFlow.com (small biz)

P2P lending/credit

See also, People Capital (youth/student), ZimpleMoney (platform)

Search/discovery/comparison

Security

Small business

Youth/student

*Guaranteed to demo live from stage on April 28; nine others will be selected by the audience to demo live in the last session of the day (see note 1).

Notes:
1. Due to time constraints, only 36 companies will demo live on stage April 28, while all 57 companies will be showing their products on the demo floor and be recording demos for later viewing online. 
2. A number of the companies have mobile applications/versions which they may choose to demo at the event.

MoBank, SecondMarket, Globefunder, Micronotes, ValueCruncher, LowerMyAssessment and ChartMechanic Added to FinovateStartup Lineup

finovatestartup09_logo.pngThe deadline for startups wishing to participate in our second annual [**FinovateStartup**](http://www.finovatestartup.com) conference was a few days ago. The final seven startups added to the lineup are:
– [**ChartMechanic**](http://www.chartmechanic.com): A startup working on better data-visualization tools
– [**GlobeFunder**](http://www.globefunder.com): A financial services company with solutions for P2P lending and healthcare
– [**LowerMyAssessment.com**](http://www.lowermyassessment.com): A web-based tool designed to help consumers lower their property tax payments
– [**Micronotes**](http://www.micronotes.com): A interactive direct marketing specialist leveraging opportunities in bill payment
– [**MoBank**](http://www.mobank.co.uk): A UK-based startup about to launch a mobile shopping and banking service (previous post)
– [**SecondMarket**](http://www.secondmarket.com): A marketplace for illiquid financial assets such as bankruptcy claims, restricted stock and so forth
– [**ValueCruncher**](http://www.valuecruncher.com): A New Zealand-based startup that allows users to compute and share public company valuations
That brings the total number of demo’ing startups to 57 (*see below*). It’s going to to be an inspiring and educational day. If you are involved in charting the course for your company’s Web-based, mobile, or alt-delivery strategies, you should be there. Pick up your tickets [here](http://finovatestartup09.eventbrite.com/).
finovatestartup09_presenters.jpg

FinovateStartup Early-Bird Ticket Deadline Tuesday

image With our FinovateStartup conference just a month away (April 28), I wanted to alert readers to the upcoming early-bird deadline. This Tuesday, March 31, is the last day to save $100 by purchasing tickets for the early-bird price of $895 each. Registration is here.

You’ve seen the amazing lineup of 52 participating startups (latest four here plus previous 48 here), but I also wanted to point out there is an equally impressive lineup of attendees already registered for the event (see selected logos below).

Whether you work for a tech company, bank, credit union or other financial services company, there is no better way to be exposed to so many new ideas in just a single day. It can be extremely thought-provoking to view the market through the lens of focused, energetic and creative startup. It’s an entire day thinking outside the box

Some of the ideas you’ll experience April 28:

  • Opportunities with decoupled debit
  • Social savings, lending and investing
  • Helping consumers find the best financial solution to fit their needs
  • How to leverage the community to help solve financial problems 
  • The grand reopening of person-to-person lending
  • New mutual funds targeting retail investors
  • The best ideas for online personal financial management
  • New ways to help users find and track investments
  • Using PIN-debit online
  • How to help consumers manage their total debt
  • Small business solutions for managing expense reports online
  • iPhone applications that help you engage customers
  • An online solution for accounts-receivable financing
  • Using the credit report/score as a jumping off point to targeted offers
  • New ways to increase actual and perceived security
  • Mortgage optimization engine

Sample of registered attendees for FinovateStartup 2009

image


Participating startups at FinovateStartup 2009

image

Tempo Payments, SeerGate, Mozo, and BudgetPulse Added to FinovateStartup 2009 Conference Lineup

imageWe are pleased to announce four more companies to the Finovate Startup conference lineup. The total number of demoing companies now stands at 52, 13 more than last year (see logos below; company descriptions here). Startups have just a few more days to apply (see note 1), so we’ll be announcing the final lineup shortly.

Here are the latest additions:

  • BudgetPulse, an online personal financial management service
  • Mozo, a financial services comparison engine out of Australia
  • SeerGate, a startup working on popularizing online debit payments
  • Tempo Payments, looking to make decoupled debit a household word

         image                       image 
       image     image

About FinovateStartup2009
The second annual FinovateStartup conference will be held April 28 in San Francisco. At the event, select startups in financial services technology have six minutes to demo their latest and greatest to execs and investors in banking and financial technology. The one-day event is organized by the publisher of Netbanker and Online Banking Report.

Early-bird deadline: You have until Tuesday, March 31, to reserve a seat at the early-bird price (here).

image

Notes:
1. Financial services technology companies should contact Eric Mattson before March 31 to participate in FinovateStartup (eric@netbanker.com, main office: 206.517.5021).

Banktastic Posts Interviews with FinovateStartup 2009 Companies

imageThe Garland Group’s banking community arm, Banktastic, has provided thorough coverage of Finovate and FinovateStartup events (note 1). This year they are way out in front, posting video interviews with Finovate Startup 2009 participants in advance of the upcoming April 28 conference (see note 1).

imageSo far Banktastic has posted a half-dozen 9- to 10-minute video interviews here (note 2) with more to come. Here are the interviews in reverse chronological order: 

Screenshot of Banktastic interview with ZimpleMoney founder Steven Rabago (link, 25 March 2009)

image

Notes:
1. Thanks to the Banktastic team: Brad Garland, Lisa Randolph and Mark McSpadden.
2. You can still save $100 by registering for FinovateStartup (here) by the end of March. 
3. Banktastic’s interviews are done via webcam, with the image of both participants superimposed over screenshots/demos from the company’s websites (see above). Interviewer Brad Garland controls the website views. 

Finovate Startup Conference Company Descriptions

image To give you an idea of the types of innovations being funded in financial services these days, here’s a capsule description of the first 48 companies demoing at FinovateStartup April 28 in San Francisco (note 1).

Attention attendees: You have just one day left to register (here) at the discounted price of $795. 

Finovate Startup 2009 Participants

Acculynk
Acculynk is a payments solutions provider with a suite of software-only services that secure online transactions by utilizing a graphical, scrambling PIN-pad for the secure entry of sensitive cardholder information.

AlphaClone
AlphaClone is a web-based investment research service that lets users explore the investing ideas of top hedge fund and institutional money managers.

Aradiom
Aradiom is a mobile solutions provider and designer of Java mobile applications and platform development technology including turn-key applications, embedded soft-token security solutions and BlackBerry® enterprise applications.

BillShrink
BillShrink is a personalized savings advisor that helps consumers make smart, money-saving decisions by providing continuously updated, personalized, usage-based recommendations on everyday services like credit cards and cell phone plans

BudgetTracker
BudgetTracker is a personal finance manager that allows users to manage their finances and keep track of their budget, bills, and transactions online without having to install software.

CalendarBudget
CalendarBudget is a free online personal budgeting tool that helps users organize and track their finances, plan future spending and save money.

Centrro
Centrro is a financial search engine that allows consumers to anonymously shop for personal financial products that best fit their specific credit profile.

CircleUp
CircleUp provides group communications services, which enable actionable and efficient interactions across diverse social, email, mobile, messaging and private web networks.

Cooler Inc.
Cooler Inc. enables users to know, decrease, and offset the global warming impact of their everyday purchases and activities by using the country’s only peer-reviewed carbon calculator to calculate impact and then providing reductions targets and strategies, and offering recommendations on high quality carbon offsets.

CreditArray
CreditArray is a vault of proprietary information to allow consumers to better apply for and manage their credit portfolios.

Credit Karma
Credit Karma provides consumers free access to their credit score and offers credit simulators, advice, and credit score comparison tools in order to allow them to more actively manage their credit and financial health.

GoalSpring
GoalSpring’s product, DebtGoal, makes paying down debt as easy and efficient as possible by taking into account all of a customer’s debt and helping them organize, optimize and pay it down.

Expensify
Expensify simplifies keeping track of business expenses by combining an electronic payment card and a web-based expense manager to automate expense report preparation, approval, and reimbursement.

Green Sherpa
Green Sherpa offers personal cash flow management software that lets users conveniently download, manage and update all their financial accounts via a single online resource.

Home-Account
Home-Account is in stealth mode at this time. 

HomeATM
HomeATM provides a secure PIN debit and PIN credit card transactions method via the Internet that utilizes the HomeATM swipe pad technology to allow users to conduct secure PIN-based transactions from home, ensuring virtually zero fraud and lower merchant processing fee costs.

iBearSoft
iBearSoft is the creator of iBearMoney, a personal finance application for the iPhone that allows users to input and categorize their transactions, run financial reports, analyze payments, and keep track of expenses.

iThryv
iThryv is a financial literacy platform that combines a content delivery system and an incentive system in order to create an immersive learning environment which provides a powerful tool when used in partnership with online banking and core providers.

Jwaala
Jwaala provides software for banks and credit unions that improves their online banking services. Their MoneyTracker application offers a personal financial management solution that can be added to any bank or credit union’s existing online banking solution.

kaChing
kaChing is a social investment community that applies an open source and social-networking strategy to offer every investor the opportunity to find outstanding investors, emulate their portfolios, and access the returns, insights, transparency and talent previously only available to wealthy individuals.

Kapitall
Kapitall is a rich web application that aims to make investing easy for everyone. Inspired by game design, Kapitall combines an graphical user interface with tools that make it easier than ever to research companies, build portfolios, share ideas and get smarter about the market.

Lending Club
Lending Club is an online social lending network where people can borrow and invest money at attractive rates.

LendingKarma
LendingKarma is a person-to-person lending site that makes it easy for parties that know each other to create loans and provides borrowers and lenders with tools to help service the loan and see it through to repayment.

Looniesdesk.com
Looniesdesk.com enables people to manage their finances online using an open source financial platform that allows developers to build sophisticated applications which will help users enhance their experience and increase the efficiency of the service.

Mint
Mint is an online per
sonal finance service that securely downloads users’ financial transactions, allows them to categorize their transactions, provides a unified view of all account activity and relevant account alerts, and offers personalized suggestions for significant savings opportunities.

Moneta
Moneta provides a secure, quick and easy form of online payment that directly debits users’ checking or money market account allowing users to only enter a secure username and password when making online purchases.

NCore
NCore provides enterprise class delivery channel solutions to financial institutions within the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions fusing applications, innovative security and middleware technology into a single integrated platform.

OurCashFlow
OurCashFlow offers personal finance management tools for financial institutions that can turn their website into a place where customers can create a budget, save money and achieve their savings goals.

Pennyminder
Pennyminder helps individuals and small groups manage their shared and personal finances by tracking deposits and withdrawals allowing them to see what’s happening with their money

People Capital
People Capital is a peer-to-peer private student loan service that utilizes a unique scoring system to predict a student’s potential and provide a true, unbiased measure of the economic value of an education that empowers students to make better educational decisions and offers multiple advantages for both borrowers and lenders.

Pertuity Direct
Pertuity Direct offers social lending for personal loans by bringing together the advantages of capital markets, social networks and traditional banking.

Portfolio Monkey
Portfolio Monkey provides free online portfolio management tools to help average investors optimize their portfolios and find customized investment ideas so they can create more efficient portfolios with higher expected return and less risk.

Prosper
Prosper is a person-to-person lending marketplace where people list and bid on loans using Prosper’s online auction platform.

The Receivables Exchange
The Receivables Exchange is a real-time online market for trading accounts receivable that gives businesses access to working capital at a competitive cost by connecting a global network of accredited investors to the nation’s small and mid-sized businesses.

Rudder
Rudder is a free personal finance software designed to minimize the effort required in managing money by helping users to manage their budget, track their bills and analyze their expected income and projected expenses.

Silver Tail Systems
Silver Tail Systems provides fraud prevention to defend users’ websites against business logic abuse through the use of behavior detection, efficient investigation and real-time mitigation to track suspicious behavior and divert the bad actors, leaving legitimate users unaffected.

SimpliFi
SimpliFi provides independent financial advice online. Users can complete a profile and receive a personal financial plan with specific actionable steps.

SmartHippo
SmartHippo uses the power of the community to find users the best rates on financial products and services.

SmartyPig
SmartyPig is a social saving service that helps users save for a specific goal by allowing them to invite others to contribute to their account, providing incentive boosts from top retailers, and offering a competitive interest rate.

Strands
moneyStrands is a money management service that helps users get information on anything from practical savings tips to getting help tracking expenses down

Syphr
Syphr is a technology and marketing credit union service organization that created RateMatch, a service that matches participating credit unions with the thousands of credit report purchasers per month.

ThreatMetrix
ThreatMetrix helps companies control online fraud and abuse in real time by profiling the device used in an online transaction so companies can determine whether the users are fraudsters or customers.

Transparent Financial Services
Transparent Financial Services is online comparison-shopping service for small businesses that uses technology to help users compare and purchase financial services like payroll processing, credit card processing and business loans.

Victrio
Victrio offers a credit risk management system that uses voiceprint recognition technology to fight credit card fraud and identity theft.

Wesabe
Wesabe is an online personal finance management tool that provides members with information about where they spend and links them with a community dedicated to helping each other make smart financial decisions.

WeSeed
WeSeed seeks to demystify the stock market by helping real people share what they know and make smart investing decisions based on the collective wisdom of the community.   

ZimpleMoney
ZimpleMoney is a web-based financial services platform enabling people and organizations to manage and administer financial agreements including loans, leases, rentals, tithing, trusts and settlements.

image

Note
1. Several other participants are remaining anonymous for the time being. 

Nine More Added to Finovate Startup Conference Lineup

imageThe financial services startup community will be out in force April 28 at our second annual Finovate Startup conference.

The nine new companies below, along with the 39 participants announced two weeks ago, plus several we can’t yet name, bring the total to 50 startups. That’s eleven more than last year! We can now say that we’ll have the largest group of financial services startups ever assembled in one place.

Don’t miss your opportunity to talk to the companies that will help change the financial services landscape in the coming years. Join the many bank, credit union, and technology execs in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 28, for a thought-provoking and exciting day (see note 1).

The early-bird deadline ends Friday, so register now for just $795. Current Online Banking Report subscribers can save even more. Look on the back page of the most recent issue, or email info@netbanker.com for your customer discount code. 

Here are the latest additions to the conference (note 2):

image

Notes:
1.  And if you can come early, don’t forget BarCampBankSF2, happening Saturday and Sunday, April 25/26 (previous post). 

2. Are you a startup interested in participating? Contact Eric Mattson.

3. Members of the media, including financial industry bloggers, should request a press pass here .

FinovateStartup 2009 Conference Participants Announced

imageFinovateStartup09, our annual springtime technology event in the San Francisco Bay area, is just three months away. Today, we announced the first wave of young companies committed to participate on April 28.

More companies are in the pipeline, and when all is said and done we expect more than 50 startups to be on hand to demonstrate the latest in online and mobile financial services and technology.

The Finovate format combines fast-paced demos (no PowerPoint!) with extensive networking where you can meet the start-up founders along with influential industry executives, press corps, and analysts. To get a taste for the event, take a look at videos of past demos.

Because we hadn’t named any companies until today, we’ve extended the Super Early Bird registration deadline until this Friday, Feb. 6 (register here). See you in San Francisco.

Finovate Startup 2009 lineup (as of 2 Feb. 2009):