FinovateFall 2013 Best of Show Winners

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We just wrapped up FinovateFall 2013 in New York. After a successful two days filled to the brim with 69 live demos, the audience voted for their favorites. Ultimately, the top eight companies were named Best of Show, and took home a trophy.

The winners (in alphabetical order):

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Interactions, for its voice-based virtual assistant technology

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LearnVest, for its iPad app and Workplace Solutions Center
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mBank & Accenture,  for their Bank 3.0 online platform
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Mitek for its Mobile Photo Account Opening solution
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MoneyDesktop, for its GuideMe solution
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Motif for its platform that lets you invest in ideas in one click
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TipRanks, cloud-based accountability engine for investors
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Yodlee, for its debut of TANDEM that helps groups manage and discuss shared finances
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All of the 69 demo videos will be posted on Finovate.com in a few weeks.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined the audience and participated in our largest New York show so far. And, of course, thanks to the 69 innovative companies who took on the FinovateFall stage in front of a crowd of 1,100+ audience members.

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Notes on methodology:  
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.     
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.    
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”  
4. The eight companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.  
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners.

LearnVest Debuts iPad App and Action Program

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2013.

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Up next, LearnVest demonstrated the functionalities of its new iPad App:
“LearnVest is debuting an iPad App, which will allow clients to access their custom Action Program on the go. This App brings an unprecedented level of mobility to the financial planning process. Not only will clients be able to see their plan and individual CFP-issued challenges, they will also be able to access LearnVest’s Money Center tool for a snapshot of their entire financial life.”
LearnVest will also debut a new distribution channel (“Workplace Solutions”) to provide financial wellness solutions in the workplace, allowing employers nationwide to give their employees access to LearnVest’s holistic financial planning services.”
Product Launch: Fall 2013
Metrics: $41M raised & 100 employees
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C) & Direct to Business (B2B)
HQ: New York, NY
Founded: Fall 2009
Website: learnvest.com
Twitter: @LearnVest
Presenting Alexa von Tobel (Founder & CEO) and Karim Naraghi (VP Business Development)
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The full demo video will be available at finovate.com in mid-September.

Finovate Alumni Driving Growth in Online Investment Advisory Industry

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If an investment portfolio gets optimized through an online investment advisor, do brick and mortar brokers make a sound?

As noted in today’s Wall Street Journal, many of the kinds of services that once were accessible only by high net worth investors patronizing financial advisors and planners in person are now available to the rest of us. This includes everything from using computer algorithms to make investment decisions to automatic portfolio rebalancing and asset allocation.

And of the seven companies highlighted in the column for helping make this possible, every single one is a Finovate alum.
In fact, two of the seven – FutureAdvisor and LearnVest – will be demoing their latest technology on the Finovate stage in New York next week for FinovateFall 2013.
The reasons for the growth in online investment advisory are as varied as the companies themselves. Some cite a new generation of investors far more comfortable with both handling their own finances and trusting the Internet to help. Others suggest that with Wall Street falling into disfavor in the wake of the financial crisis, more investors are willing to seek out non-traditional – and less expensive – sources of information and advice.
Bill Doyle, an analyst for Forrester Research who has studied the industry for more than a decade and is quoted in the column, puts it this way: “I’m paying a lot more attention this time around because the software required to transform this industry finally works.”
Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt that venture capitalists believe this time is different. Consider the funding success of the above seven companies in the past two years ago:
Note also that Wealthfront, which helps get investors into low-cost diversified portfolios, has assets under management (AUM) of $300 million. Betterment has a similar model and has AUM of $250 million.

Finovate Alumni News– September 5, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgThe Austin business Journal ranks Q2ebanking #29 of Austin-based Largest Private Companies.
  • City National partners with cloud accounting platform Xero.
  • Forrester Research names Ping Identity a leader in Identity and Access Management Suites, Q3 2013 report.
  • Allre and miiCard partner for First Complete Platform to Sell a Home Purely Online.
  • Wipit-powered Boost Mobile Wallet to provide Quick Check Service.
  • WSJ column takes a look at online investment advisors like Wealthfront, Personal Capital, Jemstep, and FutureAdvisor that use algorithms. Meet FutureAdvisor at FinovateFall in New York.
  • Float Money partners with credit reporting agency eCredable to offer consumers interest-free loans. See Float Money at FinovateFall in New York next week.
  • Finovate alums Betterment and LearnVest highlighted in Wall Street Journal column on innovations in the online investment advisory business. Watch LearnVest demo their technology next week at FinovateFall.
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.

Meet the Innovators of FinovateFall 2013

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FinovateFall 2013 is right around the corner. That means it’s time to start getting to know the entrepreneurs and innovators that will be presenting their technologies on stage in New York City in September.

Remember, the early bird deadline is this Friday, August 2nd. So to reserve your spot and register now.

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Akimbo Financial offers a social bank account alternative that makes sharing money easier than ever.
authenticIDs identity tools pictureID and catfishID, are the most accurate, time-saving solutions for the forms of ID we already carry.
Backbase‘s Launchpad, the Commercial Banking Edition, making CFO’s work easier.
BehavioSec uses behavioral analytics to transparently tackle web and mobile security.
BillFloat revolutionizes credit delivery to consumers and businesses.
Biometric Signature ID has a patented software-only biometric for secure ID online verification.
BizEquity is the first and leading cloud-based business valuation engine, an innovative solution to small business lead generation.
Capital Access Network is the largest and most experienced small business finance specialist.
Cardlytics uses consumer purchase data to drive a patented advertising platform. Ads are so relevant–they’re expected. 
CoverHound is a comparison insurance adviser, helping people discover, buy, and manage insurance online.
CR2 is the innovative provider of self-service banking solutions including ATM, Internet, and mobile banking.
DoubleBeam‘s SDK powers mPayments inside other mobile apps, helping signup customers quickly and save a ton on the cost of payments.
FinanceIt offers businesses the ability to provide consumer financing to their customers at the POS.
Financial Guard helps you protect your investments, providing online investment advice at the right price, finally.
Finect is the leading online network for the financial services industry.
Fiserv is a leading global technology provider serving the financial services industry, driving innovation in payments.
FlexScore “gamifies” financial planning, gives a “score” of your financial fitness, and provides education, advice, peer comparisons.
Float Money offers interest-free credit to members of its shopping club and financial health partners.
FutureAdvisor manages your investments for better returns, making quality financial advice available to everyone.
GMC Software Technology is a leading software developer of solutions that transform the customer experience.
Guide Financial is like a healthcheck for your finances – automatically scanning your accounts for ways you can earn or save more, and providing simple, easy fixes.
Ignite Sales is the leader in retail banking, customer acquisition, and retention technology.
Innovation Agency, where you can execute on your innovation mandate and unlock the wealth of ideas in your ecosystems.
Instabank – Beautiful money.
Interactions provides natural language Virtual Assistant application services for the automation customer care processes.
Jumio is a next generation credentials management company offering payments and ID scanning and validation products for mobile and web transactions.
Kofax is a leading provider of smart process applications that simplify the business critical First Mile of information-intensive customer interactions.
LearnVest empowers people everywhere to take control of their money and live their richest lives.
Level Money is a financial GPS, designed to replace budgeting.
Lighter Capital provides growth capital to technology companies in a highly-automated basis – Capital-as-a-Service.
Lumesis provides software for the fixed income municipal market. Compliance and credit-focused. 
Luminous is a boutique innovation company that has become synonymous with innovative banking around the world.
Manilla is the leading free and secure service to simplify and organize daily financial life.
MasterCard is a technology company in the global payments industry, operating the world’s fastest payments processing network.
mBank is the biggest, pure-play online bank and the third largest retail bank in Poland.
miiCard is the first digital identity verification service to prove ‘you are who you say you are’ entirely online.
Mitek is positioned as the leading innovator in mobile imaging software. 
MoneyDesktop empowers financial institutions to provide online/mobile banking experiences to promote personal financial intelligence.
Motif Investing is a thematic, customizable, low-cost and crowdsourceable ETF-like product that is disrupting investing economics.

Narrative Science
 
enables companies to uncover the insight hidden in their data and create new content at a scale and frequency never before possible.
Numbrs – One App – Every Bank.
P2P Cash is the mobile wallet with switch technology that allows us to aggregate all other mWallets and mobile financial services.
PayWith is powered by MasterCard. Funded by Merchants. Loved by Consumers.
PhonyInvoices provides invoice fraud detection and prevention. We check a company’s vendor lists and transactions for suspicious activity.
Place2Give provides valuable and trustworthy information to make the most impactful social capital investment decisions.
QuarterSpot lending platform delivers the lowest cost and most favorable term small business loans.
RevolutionCredit is a revolutionary solution that transforms the credit decisioning process for both creditors and consumers.
SaaS Markets is the enterprise app store company for financial organizations looking to leverage cloud-based applications for their employees or customers.
SavedPlus is an automatic savings program that helps customers save money with every purchase.
Simple Verity provides business credit reports on any SMB in America.
Socure offers a social identity verification solution to combat the growing risk of online identity fraud for financial institutions.
SpearFysh leverages mobile, speech analytics, big data, and SaaS technology to improve sales processes and drive growth.
Spreedly provides vault cards in the cloud and work with more than 50 payment gateways.
StockSmart apps and platform offer insight and information on the world’s best companies and people.
StrategyCorps delivers local/mobile/social consumer checking solutions so appealing and relevant, your customers will gladly pay for them.
Tinkoff Credit Systems is Russia’s leading provider of online financial services.
TipRanks is a cloud-based service that measures the performance of anyone giving investment advice.
Toopher eliminates online fraud using your phone’s location. Simple, secure, your phone stays in your pocket.
Unleash is the cloud CFO that helps small businesses make better decisions faster.
VerifyValid and Deluxe are giving checks their first major upgrade in more than 200 years.
Versafe protects all users from all malware, threat types. On all devices, all transparently. 
WordSentry software analyzes messages during composition, identifying non-compliant components, for correction before sending.
Yodlee is the platform for financial innovation, powering the world’s largest collection of transactional data.
Yseop creates a new age where financial services delivered to customers are driven by AI and human collaboration.
Zenmonics is a global technology services and mobile product provider to the financial services market.
Zighra empowers banks and financial institutions to leverage implicit mobile user authentication and accelerate payments.
Zooz provides complete payment essentials at your fingertips: a robust set of tools that will improve the payment process.
Plus more stealth companies to be announced in the weeks to come.
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To find out more about the upcoming FinovateFall 2013 event in New York, September 10 and 11, visit our FinovateFall information page here.

Finovate Alumni News– July 31, 2013

  • Netbanker: BBVA Compass bundles microbiz checking with PAYware mobile card processing.
  • FIS brings mobile, eBanking, remote capture and more to Sterling Bank.
  • GoBank announces plan to promote its mobile-first bank account in more than 500 Barnes & Noble bookstores on college campuses.
  • Pymnts.com interviews Allen Friedman of TSYS Acquiring Solutions on the role of EMV in a cardless world.
  • NYT features how LearnVest is bringing financial planning to the masses.
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– July 30, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgOpenCoin is among the virtual currency innovators looking to form a self-regulatory body for the industry.
  • MasterPass from MasterCard launches in the United Kingdom.
  • Bank Innovation takes a look at FIS Global’s recent remarks on the company’s technology deal with Sainsbury.
  • Yahoo Finance looks at rewards earned using Dynamics ePlate credit card.
  • StreetFight features reasons to opt in for card-linked loyalty programs from Cartera Commerce, Cardlytics, edo Interactive and Swipely.
  • Netbanker features BillGuard, Manilla, and Credit Karma as value-added apps driving mobile adoption.
  • eToro adds price alerts to eToro Trader app.
  • Bright Ideas features Noreen Hafez, senior product marketing manager at Akamai.
  • Kasasa holds sweepstakes, films big-bank breakup video, featuring CEO Gabe Krajicek.
  • Betterment joins fellow Finovate alumni FutureAdvisor and LearnVest in this NYT column on bringing “financial planning to the masses.”
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.

LearnVest Announces $16.5 Million Round, New Workplace Solutions Distribution Model, and More

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Money management service LearnVest came forward with a slew of announcements today, the biggest news being its recent $16.5 million round.

The new installment brings the startup’s total funding to $41 million. Contributors include:

    • Accel Partners
    • American Express Ventures
    • Claritas Capital
    • Ed Mathias
    • Todd Ruppert

CEO Alexa Von Tobel plans to use the new round to scale LearnVest Planning and provide more access to its team of certified financial planners.

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Multiple sources, including Forbes, have rumored that American Express Ventures involvement may lead to a partnership between the startup and the payments giant. American Express Ventures managing partner, Harshul Sanghi, states that he strongly believes in LearnVest’s mission and that the startup can help AmEx expand its goal to help customers better manage their money.

LearnVest also recently launched Workplace Solutions to widen the distribution of its seven-step Action Program, a tiered solution that provides affordable financial planning across wealth levels. The new Workplace offering makes it easy for employers to distribute the Action Program as an employee benefit.

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To help the three-year-old company better execute its financial advisory services, it brought some notable talent to its planning advisory board:

    • Ed Mathias (Carlyle)
    • Todd Ruppert (T. Rowe Price)
    • Susan Lyne (AOL & Gilt Groupe)
    • Ann Sardini (Weight Watchers)

To learn more about LearnVest, watch its FinovateFall 2012 demo where it debuted its MoneyCenter. Or come see the demo of its newest tech live at FinovateFall in New York this September. Get your ticket here.

Webby Awards Honor Finovate Alums Among Web’s Best

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So what do fintech innovators, and Finovate alumni, like Mint, Manilla, and Dashlane have in common with the likes of the Chrome Web Lab, Tom Hanks’ Electric City, and Cracked.com?

How about earning honors from the esteemed judges of the 2013 Webby Awards?

Thumbnail image for ManillaLogo.jpgManilla made the most of its showing at the 17th Annual Webby Awards, picking up honors in three categories (Utilities & Services, Web Services & Applications, and Financial Services/Banking). But the biggest winner among the Finovate-affiliated nominees was Mint. Mint won the Webby People’s Voice award in the Financial Services/Banking category, along with earning an honor in the Best User Experience category.

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Also representing well at the Webby Awards was Dashlane, coming in for Web Services & Applications honors, and a trio of Finovate alumnus that impressed judges in the Financial Services/Banking category: LearnVest, UBank’s PeopleLikeU, and Kapitall.


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The Webby Awards have been given out every year since 1996 by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). The Academy includes among its members such luminaries as David Bowie, Vint Cerf, and Arianna Huffington. 

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The Webbys provide two major awards per category: the Webby Award and the Webby People’s Voice Award. The latter award is determined by an online vote.

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Learn more about our Webby Award-winning alumni at our demo pages.
ManillaFinovateFall 2012
MintFinovate 2007
DashlaneFinovateFall 2012
LearnVestFinovateFall 2012
KapitallFinovateFall 2010

Yodlee Accelerator Program Bears Fruit with 300 Startups Served

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With 300 fintech innovators already taking advantage of Yodlee’s 10-month old accelerator program, the company’s sights are set on still more companies coming on board. In fact, Yodlee anticipates growth of more than 50% by the end of the year.

One of the key features of the program is free access to Yodlee’s API, which brings with it the ability to draw from a wealth of financial data, from bank accounts to rewards campaigns. Program companies have taken this data and run with it, building everything from eWallets to new lending services.

Aside from its role in “paying it forward” (fintech edition), Yodlee has been a very successful outfit in its own right. The company has more than 40 million users and $100 million in capital, with 20% of its customers coming from outside the United States.

It’s worth pointing out that Yodlee’s accelerated startups include a handful of Finovate alumni such as EZBOB and FreeAgent (both companies fresh from appearances at FinovateEurope). Other alumni taking advantage of Yodlee’s platform include Credit Karma, Xero, and LearnVest.

Success with the accelerator program, which was launched in May 2012, may be what has encouraged the company to launch its API incubator program to cater to a different subset of startups. So far, Yodlee has been able to incubate 10 companies, including Finovate alumn, Planwise.

Yodless was last on the Finovate stage in September 2012 as part of FinovateFall in New York. Watch a demo of Yodlee in action here, as they present their small business platform.

Finovate Alumni News– March 14, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTemenos to partner with Caisse Financial Group, providing T24, Insight, Temenos Connect.
  • ACI Worldwide completes Online Resources Corporation acquisition.
  • Standard Chartered Bank moves Africa headquarters from Dubai to Johannesburg.
  • TechCrunch reports: Intuit launching Intuit Pay mobile payments service in the UK.
  • LearnVest aims to hit 100 planners by year-end.
  • TechCrunch reports: PayPal Here takes on Square Register with new iPad payments app.
  • SafetyPay and giropay join forces to secure internet payments in Germany.
  • TIBCO enhances real time loyalty marketing platform.
  • PrintWeek interviews GMC Software Technology COO Michael Watts.
  • CSI Enterprises set to announce updates to its globalVCard pay systems solution at the Innovation Project 2013 in March.
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– February 27, 2013

  • Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgappPicker reviews Pageonce – Money & Bills app.
  • BrightScope announces top finance, insurance companies with the best 401(k) plans.
  • Device Fidelity announces Incipio partnership, new line of NFC enabled cases for iPhone.
  • NerdWallet interviews Bolstr co-founders, Larry Baker and Charlie Tribbett.
  • The Monitise-powered mobile wallet from Blackberry, BBM Money, launches pilot in Indonesia.
  • Cortera Pulse wins Gold Stevie Award for new version of business intelligence solution.
  • Lighter Capital appoints Molly Greg as VP.
  • SaveUp’s CEO & Co-founder Priya Haji awarded a Social Innovation Leadership Award by the World CSR Congress.
  • US News Money looks at LearnVest, FutureAdvisor, and Personal Capital.
  • Forbes speaks with Actiance CEO to learn how Socialite helps companies overcome challenges using social media.
  • Prepaid Resources adds FraudGuard security services to their BenefitsDirect Direct Deposit management solution.
  • MasterCard wins Mobile Money Innovation award at the GSMA World Congress in Barcelona, along with partners Etisalat and Oberthur Technologies.

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.