A Look at the First Week of Nasdaq’s Fintech Index

A Look at the First Week of Nasdaq’s Fintech Index

While many of you were busy catching Pikachu last week, you may have missed that Nasdaq, in collaboration with KBW, launched an index to track financial technology. Officially named KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index (KFTX), the fund tracks 49 fintech companies, including 17 Finovate and FinDEVr alums.

On Monday, 18 July, the index opened at 1,000 points and closed at almost 1,014 points on Friday, 22 July.

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Finovate and FinDEVr alums listed in the index include:

According to Nasdaq’s press release, the companies in the index “represent roughly one-fifth (18%) of the investable domestic financial universe and nearly 4% of the investable domestic equity universe to account for approximately $785 billion in total market cap.”

It’s worth noting that the index, which will be rebalanced quarterly, does not consider activity from private companies, startups, or banks. Large, public companies may not be as sprightly as two guys in a garage, but they create their fair share of cutting-edge products and services. When creating the index, KBW and Nasdaq adhered to three guidelines:

  1. The companies mainly sell financial services
  2. Not primarily brick-and-mortar operated
  3. Income is generated from fees, rather than interest

Other companies in the index include (each company in the index is weighted equally):

Alliance Data Systems Corp. (ADS); Bankrate Inc. (RATE); Black Knight Financial Services Inc. (BKFS); BofI Holding Inc. (BOFI); Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. (BR); Cardtronics Inc. (CATM); CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE); CME Group Inc. (CME); CoreLogic Inc. (CLGX); Dun & Bradstreet Corp. (DNB); Euronet Worldwide Inc. (EEFT); EverBank Financial Corp. (EVER); EVERTEC Inc. (EVTC); FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS); First Data Corp. (FDC); FleetCor Technologies Inc. (FLT); Global Payments Inc. (GPN); Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE); MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX); Moody’s Corp. (MCO); MSCI Inc. (MSCI); Nasdaq Inc. (NDAQ); S&P Global Inc. (SPGI); SEI Investments Co. (SEIC); Square Inc. (SQ); SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. (SSNC); Total System Services (TSS); The Western Union Co. (WU); VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY); Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK); Virtu Financial Inc. (VIRT); and WEX Inc. (WEX).

Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail

Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail

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After launching the Masterpass mobile payment app for retail stores last week, payment giant Mastercard today announced it has agreed to purchase a majority stake of U.K.-based VocaLink for up to $1.14 billion.

In the all-cash deal, Mastercard will pay $920 million for a 92.4% stake in VocaLink and an additional $220 million if performance targets are met. The outstanding 7.6% share of VocaLink will remain in the hands of its 13 bank shareholders.

The acquisition is expected to offer Mastercard a stronger footing in the United Kingdom where VocaLink processes more than 90% of salaries and more than 70% of household bills. In 2015, the company processed 11 billion transactions and its revenues totaled $240 million. Once the deal is complete, VocaLink CEO David Yates will join the Mastercard management committee.

Mastercard told TechCrunch that the deal is unrelated to Brexit. “As you can imagine, it has been worked on for many months,” a spokesperson said. “MasterCard has been keen to acquire VocaLink for many months before the Brexit vote even took place. Brexit isn’t a factor in this transaction.”

This news comes a week after the New York-based company’s July 14 event that unveiled an enhanced version of the Masterpass digital payments service along with Mastercard’s new logo which features a lowercase c to signify the company’s transition from physical cards to digital payments. The expansion of Masterpass allows consumers to make contactless payments at more than 5 million brick-and-mortar stores in 77 countries.

Mastercardlogo

MasterpassMasterpass is partnering with multiple banks to allow consumers to use online banking credentials to log into the Masterpass Wallet. The company is also partnering with Pizza Hut Asia, Cheesecake Factory, ShopRite, JetBlue, mobile ticketing-service Masabi, and says there are more to come.

Mastercard anticipates consumers will reach for their phones instead of their wallets at the point of sale. This concept, while now made possible with the availability of Masterpass, ApplePay, Samsung Pay, Wells Fargo Wallet, ChasePay, etc., has yet to take hold.

At FinovateFall 2014, Mastercard took the stage to launch Mastercard Pay with Rewards, a solution that allows cardholders to redeem points at the point-of-sale. The company presented its Developer Zone at FinDEVr San Francisco 2014.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Mastercard to Buy VocaLink for Up to $1.14 Billion After Masterpass Expansion to Retail
  • Finovate Debuts: How Blend is Reinventing the Mortgage Application Process
  • SBDA Group Wins Gold, Sedicii Takes Silver at UniCredit Hackathon

On FinDEVr.com

  • Mexico’s Grupo Bursátil Deploys Messaging Tech from Solace Systems

Around the web

  • GMC Software Technology announces integration with DocuSign to streamline business workflows.
  • Cloud Lending Solutions adds new online modules to its Learning program.
  • Google Cloud Platform opens its first West Coast region.
  • Rapid Financial Solutions Partners with Cachet Financial Solutions to Deliver Mobile Money Solutions to More Than 2 Million Cardholders
  • The Tennessean lists ProfitStars in Nashville’s top workplaces for 2016.

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

  • “Shoeboxed Partners with ScanSnap Cloud for Receipt Scanning”
  • “Finovate Debuts: Race Data Helps Community Banks Turn Customer Data into Market Intelligence”
  • “Opentech Teams Up with MasterCard, Swiss Bankers to Launch Card Management App”
  • “HelloWallet Launches Savings and Debt Guidance Tool”
  • “Kasasa Reaches One Millionth Account”
  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence

Around the web

  • Fiserv announces its new biometric authentication solution, Verifast: Palm Authentication.
  • Markit to provide fixed income pricing data and liquidity metrics for the European Commission.
  • INETCO to power real-time transaction monitoring for Turkey’s Central Processor for Bank Payment Cards, Bankalararasi Kart Merkezi (BKM).
  • ThinkAdvisor looks at how Blackrock is taking on Schwab and Vanguard with FutureAdvisor.
  • ebankIT expands its headquarters facilities in Porto to grow R&D team.
  • Corezoid moves platform-as-a-service core banking engine to AWS.
  • Blackhawk Network Appoints Sachin Dhawan as CTO and SVP.
  • PCWorld votes Xero as its top-choice accounting software in 2016.

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.

 

Seven Alums Make the Fortune 500 List

Seven Alums Make the Fortune 500 List

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Fortune Magazine released its famed list of 500 companies, a ranking of top U.S.-based companies by revenue. This year, seven Finovate and FinDEVr alums made the cut. Here are a few quick facts about these seven companies:

  • Almost half ranked in the upper half of the list
  • Combined revenues of the alums make up almost $88 million
  • Companies represent 170,000 employees
  • This is the first time on the list for both PayPal and Fiserv

Qualcomm (Firethorn)

  • Rank: #110 (up from #113 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $25.3 million
  • 17th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 33,000 employees
  • Headquartered in San Diego, California
  • Ranked #448 on Fortune’s Global 500 list
  • FinovateFall 2009 demo

CenturyLink

Visa

  • Rank: #204 (up from #238 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $13.9 million
  • 8th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 11,300 employees
  • Headquartered in Foster City, California
  • Ranked #47 on Fortune’s list of World’s Most Admired Companies
  • FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 demo

MasterCard

  • Rank: #294 (up from #308 in 2015)
  • Revenues: $9.7 million
  • 8th year on the Fortune 500 list
  • 11,300 employees
  • Headquartered in Purchase, New York
  • Ranked #11 on Fortune’s list of Change the World
  • FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 demo

PayPal

NCR

Fiserv


*This was PayPal’s first year as a stand-alone company. The company’s CEO Daniel Schulman explains what the honor means to the company in a short video.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVrSV16-LogoV2(wdate)Our FinDEVr New York developer showcase last week was a success! FinDEVr Silicon Valley will be held October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara. Register today and save.

On FinDEVr.com

  • “EVO and Verifone Partner to Make EMV Payments Feasible at Restaurants”
  • “GreenKey Unveils New CEO and May Launch of Instant Messenger Aggregator”
  • “FICO Launches Score Simulator; Adds New CIO Claus Moldt”

The latest from FinDEVr New York 2015 presenters

  • Celent recognizes EdgeVerve Systems as one of two model bank vendors for 2016.
  • “Finovate Debuts: Nexmo Brings Seamless Multi-Factor Authentication to Mobile Banking Apps”
  • Hyperwallet to help expert freelancers on OnFrontiers network get paid.
  • Markit to power Thornburg Investment Management’s enterprise data-management solution.
  • Beyond Bank wins Celent’s model bank award for 2016, courtesy of its customer-engagement platform from Avoka.
  • “PayPal Marks Rollout of PayPal Credit in the U.K. with Interest-Free Financing”

Alumni updates

  • MasterCard unveils new remittance service in Bangladesh with partners, Western Union, bKash, and BRAC bank.
  • Xero and Waddle team up to combine cloud accounting with invoice financing.
  • “Finovate Debuts: Envestnet “Advisor Now” Offers Robo-Tools for Wealth Management”

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate Debuts: Nexmo Brings Seamless Multifactor Authentication to Mobile Banking Apps”

On FinDEVr.com

  • “GreenKey Unveils New CEO and May Launch of Instant Messenger Aggregator”

Around the web

  • Xero and Waddle team up to combine cloud accounting with invoice financing.
  • Hyperwallet to help expert freelancers on OnFrontiers network get paid.
  • New York Times’ DealBook profiles Ripple.
  • MasterCard unveils new remittance service in Bangladesh with partners Western Union, bKash, and BRAC bank.
  • Kony and Cognizant partner to jointly develop and deliver solutions to enhance efficiencies and security.
  • Markit to power Thornburg Investment Management’s enterprise data-management solution.
  • CGI Financial Services to add Ripple gateway to its portfolio of payment solutions.
  • Hanse Orga partners with Taulia to guide organizations through supply-chain decisions with an interactive dashboard.

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

  • IP Commerce Closes Series A Round”
  • Linxo Raises €2 Million from Crédit Agricole”

Around the web

  • MasterCard and TransferWise talk about the “future of money and credit” with TechCruch at Davos 2016.
  • Let’s Talk Payments features Betterment in a roundup of fintech startups focused on reducing fees for retirement savers.
  • OnDeck enters referral agreement with Opus Bank to power SMB lending.
  • BehavioSec to power behavioral biometrics for TeleSign.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Fintech Developers, Lock in Presale Savings for the Very First FinDEVr in NYC”
  • “Q2 Acquires Social Money in $10 Million Deal”
  • Check out the latest developer news in this week’s edition of “FinDEVr APIntelligence”

Around the web

  • Employee Benefit News features Financial Guard in a discussion on the rise of robo-advisers.
  • Misys unveils its next-generation capital markets trading platform in the cloud, Misys FusionCapital.
  • CO-OP Financial Services to help credit unions deploy MasterPass from MasterCard.
  • ING expands its host card emulation (HCE) mobile payment service to all of its customers in the Netherlands. Join ING in London for FinovateEurope 2016.
  • Intuit partners with Fundbox to provide invoice financing for SMEs.
  • Technical.ly Delaware profiles Global Debt Registry.
  • Nostrum Group urges personalization in digital lending in new report on digital finance. See Nostrum at FinovateEurope 2016 in February.

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.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVr2016-NY-(Stacked)V2Are you building new financial technology? Be sure to check out coverage from our recent developer conference in San Francisco. We’re taking the fintech developer tool showcase to New York on 29/30 March 2016. Stay tuned for details.

Developer news

  • TechCrunch: Rakuten Launches $100 Million Global Fund for Fintech Startups.
  • GitHub is rolling out a redesign for code repositories.
  • New Relic Now Lets Developers Dive Deeper Into Their Analytics.

The latest from FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 presenters

  • Hyperwallet launches loyalty program for independent workers.
  • Arxan announces cyber security scholarship program.
  • Avoka introduces digital account opening from within Salesforce.
  • Kabbage to power Sage’s small business loan offering.
  • Market intelligence provider Ipreo selects Xignite to provide real-time and delayed equity prices to its Investor Relations platform, BD Corporate.
  • Nexmo announces partnership with Netherlands KLM.
  • CenturyLink adds former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to its board.
  • Banking CIO Outlook magazine features Praesidio.
  • TokBox’s new developer toolkit brings voice and video chat to Apple TV apps.
  • Thinking Capital earns Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Canada Awards.
  • Worldpay employees evaluate use of finger vein technology to authenticate payments at the POS without the need for a card.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Brent Warrington, Hyperwallet CEO.

Alumni updates

  • Pymnts chats with Nymi founder and CEO, Karl Martin.
  • Deccan Herald features Cloud Lending Solutions.
  • Xero pilots program to allow users to file their GST returns.
  • MasterCard announces Ed McLaughlin as new chief information officer.
  • VentureBurn highlights Entersekt: SA’s fintech gem making it safe for millions to bank, shop online.

Stay up to date on daily developments by following FinDEVr on Twitter.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Finovate Debuts: DarcMatter Shines a Light On Alternative Investments”
  • “BBVA’s Wallet App Tops One Million Downloads; Goes Live in Turkey This Week”

Around the web

  • Magnify CU partners with Insuritas to launch an insurance agency.
  • Worldpay employees evaluate use of finger-vein technology to authenticate payments at the POS without need for a card.
  • mydesq selects Encap Security to boost productivity and engagement for wealth managers.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews Brent Warrington, Hyperwallet CEO.
  • MasterCard announces Ed McLaughlin as new chief information officer.
  • VentureBurn highlights Entersekt: SA’s fintech gem making it safe for millions to bank, shop online.
  • Algomi’s Honeycomb named “Product of the Year” and “Best Buy-Side Newcomer” in Waters Technology’s Buy-Side Technology Awards.
  • The Next Web profiles BioCatch, a biometric security specialist.
  • FusionWire looks at ways that banks can use Matchi to build relationships with fintech startups.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Money20/20 Hackathon: A H-API Ending

Money20/20 Hackathon: A H-API Ending

M22Hackathon

Hackers returned to the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas this week, bringing an army of 625 developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with it. All were competing for top prizes, and one team won the grand prize, a “h-API” ending.

First, a bit about the hackathon. Teams were given 24 hours to create a fintech solution that uses at least one API from their choice of 10 companies, 7 of which are Finovate or FinDEVr alums:

At the end of the 24 hours—after working all night on the challenge—165 teams had three minutes to pitch their projects to a group of judges from the 10 sponsors. The sponsors selected winning teams with solutions varying from a donation platform for homeless people, to PFM for children, to a virtual reality shopping platform.

The winning team—Replay*—used MasterCard’s API to enable purchases of items seen on screen while watching a program on Apple TV.

Here’s how it works. While watching Star Wars, for example, a button appears, indicating an item on screen, such as a light saber, is available for purchase. Clicking the button pauses the Star Wars program, and redirects the user to a marketplace screen to make their purchase.

Money2020Hackathon

As part of their prize, Replay won $20,000 and a demo-slot in front of the larger Money20/20 audience.

I tracked down the winners after their demo for a quick chat. Because it offered a quick payments experience, the Replay team chose to use the MasterCard API. The team said they found the MasterCard team helpful in building their technology, and they are eager to build out the product while looking for funding, and merchant partners, to further enhance it.

If you’re interested in seeing fintech APIs, check out our FinDEVr New York conference where developers, CTOs, and VPs of engineering will gather to view the next evolution of APIs in fintech.

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*Replay does not yet have a website, but here is a link to the LinkedIn page of one of the founders, Messiah Jacobs.