CurrencyTransfer Launches its FX Price Feed Aggregator for SMEs

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

Our next innovator is CurrencyTransfer, developer of technologies to make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to operate internationally.

“FX price feed aggregator and execution platform that takes the technology blue chip treasurers take for granted, and makes it accessible to the masses. We offer a price feed aggregation solution to problems SMEs trading internationally face, including: outdated phone based comparison, experiencing ‘honeymoon rates’ & dreadfully expensive bank foreign exchange rates. 
Our goal is to create efficiency & total price transparency in an expensive, and opaque international money transfer industry. Version 1 features include: bidding platform, trade execution, multi broker registration & post trade history.”
Presenting Daniel Abrahams (Co-Founder & Head of Partnerships) and Steven Litobac (Co-Founder & Head of Product)

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Product Launch: February 2014
Metrics: Public launch of CurrencyTransfer.com at Finovate, office in London & Tel Aviv; 7 employees
HQ: London, UK
Founded: December 2013
Twitter: @currencytransfr

SaaS Markets Helps FIs Build, Brand and Launch Their Own App Stores

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

Making their way to the stage is the team from SaaS Markets with their Enterprise Cloud Marketplace Platform for financial companies.

“Saas Markets’ MarketMaker platform allows financial companies to deploy a fully branded cloud marketplace containing proprietary apps and/or selected software from our catalog of over 1,500+ pre-qualified business applications, plus other cloud products and services – all in one convenient marketplace for your employees or business customers.”
Presenting Ferdi Roberts (CEO & Founder) and Jay Manciocchi (Director of Marketing)

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Product Launch: November 2013
Metrics: $3.5 million private funding, 20+ employees in USA and Europe, confidential revenues, but fully profitable.
Product Distribution Strategy: Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions
HQ: San Mateo, CA, USA
Founded: November 2011
Twitter: @SaaSMarkets

Nous.net’s Spark Feed Leverages Trading Intuition Rather Than Software Algorithms

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

Next up to the stage is Nous.net, a company that operates a next generation, free trading simulator

“Nous ‘Spark Feed’ is a real-time financial data service that helps you understand and predict the markets. Uniquely, Spark Feed uses the intuitive and analytical capabilities of tens of thousands of real people, not software algorithms. Their predictions are segmented by proven trading skill and then quantitatively blended.”
Presenting Justin Short (CEO & Founder) and Mick Horgan (Co-Founder)

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Product Launch: February 11, 2014
Metrics: Self-funded, pre-revenue, pre-launch; 5 FTE; 15,000 users (January 2013)
Product Distribution Strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B), through other fintech companies and platforms
HQ: Tokyo, Japan (Operations), British Virgin Islands (Legal)
Founded: September 2012
Website: nous.net
Twitter: @nousinc

Recently partnered Jack Henry & Associates and Luminous Demo DataVault

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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Luminous, along with its partner Jack Henry & Associates, started off the second day of FinovateEurope with its DataVault:
“DataVault is a virtual safety deposit box that allows banking customers to upload, sort, and store personal and business documents in one secure place. Now customers can bank online with important documents just a click away.”
Presenting Phillip Wood (Sales EMEA, Jack Henry & Associates) and Andrew Teversham (CTO, Luminous) 

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Product distribution strategy: Through financial institutions
HQ: Monett, Missouri, USA (Jack Henry & Associates) & Johannesburg, South Africa (Luminous)
Founded: 1976 (Jack Henry & Associates) & 2009 (Luminous)
Product Launch: November 2013
Twitter: @ProfitStars, @LuminousBanking

The Currency Cloud Revamps International Payments Platform

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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The Currency Cloud took the stage to finish off the first day of FinovateEurope 2014:
“This release will provide our clients access to an easy-to-use web console. Cross-border transactions tend to be expensive and inefficient (i.e., error prone) as the majority are executed through some type of manual process. While a variety of alternative international payment providers claim to offer relief, their services have limitations that often leave companies encountering the same issues of high costs, inadequate automation and deceptive pricing. We think global businesses deserve better, and have developed an entirely new model for international payments.”
Presenting Michael Laven (CEO) and Richard Bastin (CTO)

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Product Launch: April 2014
Metrics
• Current number of employees: 42
• Money raised: $8M as of December 2013 – next round imminent. 
• Financial Data: transaction run rate is approximately $4B per calendar month and is projected to double every five to six months. Revenue run rate is currently $4.4M.
• Customer Traction: we have on-boarded over 50 new direct clients with over 1,000 indirect customers since January 2013.
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: London, England
Founded: January 2012
Twitter: @Currency_Cloud

SQLI Launches Augmented Banking

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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Next, SQLI launched Augmented Banking:
“Augmented Banking is a new take at Online Banking. It is aimed at positioning a Bank at the very center of people’s digital lives. 
The core concept behind Augmented Banking is to collect a massive amount of information about a user’s digital life from multiple sources and to push it back to him as a visualization of his financial behavior.”
Presenting Benjamin Thomas (Innovation Manager) and Mederic Morel (Head of Consulting Services) 

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Product Launch: February 2013
Metrics: 2,000 employees
Product distribution strategy: Through financial institutions, licensed
HQ: Saint Denis, France
Founded: 1990
Website: sqli.com
Twitter: @Groupe_SQLI

Kensho Debuts Warren to Help Institutions Perform Quantitative Analyses

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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Then, Kensho debuted Warren, its technology that aids institutions in quantitative research: 
“Warren is a user friendly, interactive research environment that enables portfolio managers and researchers to quickly and easily perform sophisticated quantitative analyses in a fraction of the time spent by institutional research teams today.
Kensho designed Warren to shorten traditional investment research cycles from days to minutes. Warren can currently answer a million distinct types of natural language questions about the impact of global events on asset prices, such as, “What happens to the share prices of energy companies when oil trades above $100 a barrel and political unrest has recently occurred in the Middle East?” Warren will be able to answer 100 million distinct types of complex financial questions by the end of 2014.”
Presenting Daniel Nadler (CEO) and Adam Broun (Head of Strategy & Bus. Dev.)

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Product Launch: February 2014
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: Cambridge, MA, USA
Founded: May 2013
Website: kensho.com
Twitter: @kensho

Encap Security’s Smarter Authentication Turns Personal Devices into Security Credentials

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

From Oslo, Norway, Encap Security is next, demoing their software-based, authentication solution.

“Smarter Authentication is the world’s only software-based, banking-grade, authentication technology that doesn’t compromise between security, user experience and utility.”

Presenting Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen (CEO) and Adam Dolby (VP Bus. Dev.)

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Product Launch: November 1, 2012
Metrics: People – Based in Oslo and Palo Alto, Encap Security’s management team has more than 60 years’ experience and an unrivaled pedigree in authentication, identity management, mobile app security and mobile financial services. Finance – Following a recent funding round, the total investment in Encap Security stands at €4.8 million. Market Traction – Encap Security’s solution is used by major financial institutions, enterprises and technology integrators including Santander Consumer Bank Norway, EnterCard and Sparebanken Vest. Encap Security’s technology is approved by the Norweigian Banks’ Standardisation Office and security experts Room66.
Product distribution strategy: Indirect through System Integrators and Service Providers, Direct to Business (B2B), and through financial institutions/tech companies and licensed platforms.
HQ: Oslo, Norway
Founded: 2007
Twitter: @encapsecurity

Nostrum Launches its Virtual Collector, An Automated Lending Platform

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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Then, Nostrum took the stage to debut its Virtual Collector:
“Nostrum’s mission is to provide a fully automated lending platform, enabling lending to be performed cheaper, faster and safer.
Whilst innovation in certain sectors of the lending industry have addressed the auto approval of applications and now provide loan funds rapidly, no business has adequately considered how delinquency management activity can be redesigned to ease the customer experience and reduce the risk of compliance failure. The functionality demonstrated will replace the traditional call centre operator who manages in and outbound calls to customers to discuss their delinquent payments and either takes a payment or puts an arrangement in place.”
Presenting Richard Carter (Chief Executive) and Tom Martin (Head of PMO)

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Product Launch: February 2014
Metrics: Self funded, 65 employees, £7M+ revenues, 20+ customers
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: Harrogate, United Kingdom
Founded: August 2001
Twitter: @nostrumgroup

Switchless’ Solution Helps Banks Enable Users to Buy, Sell, Save, and Spend Bitcoin

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

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Afterwards, Switchless launched its solution that helps financial institutions enable their users to buy, sell, save, and spend bitcoin:
“Our proprietary modular enterprise software allows for partial or full integration into existing financial infrastructures, giving financial institutions maximum flexibility for the unique and complex requirements they face. The following modules are currently available:
Broker: Allows end users to buy and sell Bitcoin using traditional currencies. Our broker algorithm searches for the best pricing globally and offers instant and reliable execution.
Vault: Allows end users to store their Bitcoin securely. Our state-of-the-art cold storage system makes use of multi-level security that substantially increases overall security whilst still delivering a frictionless end-user experience.
Merchant: Allows merchants to accept Bitcoin as payment for goods or services, guaranteeing conversion of Bitcoin to traditional currencies at competitive rates. Full integration also means that end users can easily spend the Bitcoin they have purchased.
Controller: Manages the account level end-user environment. It controls interactions with existing banking infrastructure such as online banking and KYC verification, the Broker, Vault and any other Switchless or external modules.
Our extensive range of exchange, payment and storage modules give financial institutions the unique ability to implement entire crypto-currency ecosystems for their clients.
At FinovateEurope we are showcasing a full implementation of our software for a banking client. This solution allows the bank’s customers to buy, sell, save and spend Bitcoin, all in one easy to use and integrated platform.”
Presenting Marcus Swanepoel (Co-Founder) and Timothy Stranex (Co-Founder)
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Product Launch: January 2014
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: Singapore
Founded: June 2013
Twitter: @goswitchless

Vaamo Debuts its Mobile-Optimised Goal Saving App

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

Making their way to the stage now is the team from vaamo, demoing their goal saving app.

“Our web application is designed to provide private individuals with easy to use and intuitive access to savings and investments. A key differentiator is the focus on customer’s personal financial goals instead of financial products, the strict limitation of available financial products to only one investment solution, as well as the mobile optimization.
Customers can set up personal financial goals (e.g., retirement, new home), and define for each goal the amount they want to save by when, how much they want to save today and regularly, and which risk they are willing to take. Inputs are instantaneously illustrated using a chart that projects future contributions, performance, and risk, enabling customers to understand the impact of each input.”
Presenting Oliver Vins (Co-Founder & CPO) and Thomas Bloch (Co-Founder & CFO)
 
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Product Launch: Spring 2014 (soft launch)
Metrics: 14 employees; > €500,000 capital raised to date
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C)
HQ: Frankfurt, Germany
Founded: April 2013
Website: vaamo.de
Twitter: @teamvaamo

Five Degrees Launches Matrix, the Universal Bank in the Cloud

FiveDegreesLogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014.

Our next innovator is Five Degrees, showing how they have leveraged their core BPM universal banking solution to provide a suite of new services:
Matrix Accounts is a modern lean back office solution that manages product and admin specific data for the benefit of the mid and front office operations. Matrix Accounts is designed for existing banks, as well as banks of the next generation. With a focus on automation, flexibility, traceability and security, Matrix Accounts is the solution for lowering cost and enhancing agility in the banking environment. Matrix Accounts incorporates a highly flexible product builder to support the varying needs of different kinds of banks: retail, commercial and investment. Matrix Accounts comes with basic features, covering all standard needs of any bank.”
Presenting Bjorn Holmthorsson (Co-Founder & CTO) and Brian van Wachem (Chief Commercial Officer)

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Product Launch: February 11, 2014
Metrics: Software company founded in 2009, delivering front-to-back next generation banking platform, operating with 45 staff from the Netherlands, Iceland and Luxembourg, ISAE 3000 certified, revenue 2012 €3.3 million, 2013 expected revenue €3.7 million; funding: Angel rounds (2009/2010): €2 million, Series A (2011): €3 million, April 2013: €1.5 million
Product Distribution Strategy: Licensed
HQ: Breukelen, Netherlands
Founded: 2009