Kabbage Acquires Radius, Adding Insights into Millions of SMEs to its Platform

Kabbage Acquires Radius, Adding Insights into Millions of SMEs to its Platform

Small business financing company Kabbage has made a purchase that will help it get to know the world of SMEs all the better. In a deal announced today, Kabbage will acquire small business intelligence firm, and fellow Finovate alum, Radius, adding insights from more than 20 million U.S. small businesses to its platform.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upon the successful closing of the acquisition, Kabbage said in a statement that it will add “nearly 20 team members” from Radius to its offices in San Francisco, including Radius CEO Joel Carusone, to help support the integration of the two platforms and the two companies.

“Data has always been our competitive advantage, and Radius strengthens it by adding millions of new and verified small business insights to our platform,” Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein said. “These new technology and data-analysis capabilities further differentiate us from other SMB-focused fintech companies as we dramatically expand our product set and service platform to address the unique cash flow needs of small businesses.”

Expressing a “deep respect for Kabbage’s data-driven technology and focus,” Radius’ Carusone highlighted similarities between the two firms. “Our companies have complementary technical architectures and domain experience for decision making,” he said. “With Kabbage, we can build a more sophisticated analytics solution to identify, reach, and serve small businesses.”

San Francisco, California-based Radius was founded in 2009. The company demonstrated its platform at FinovateSpring 2014, showing how it leverages big data to gain insights into more than 27 million small and medium-sized businesses. This information helps FIs find the best customer segments, build efficient and accurate targeted lead lists, and measure the success of marketing campaigns.

Radius began 2019 with the launch of its Data for Good campaign to help the company’s employees and customers give back to their communities. This included credit-backs to the accounts of for-profit companies for any data used to support philanthropic causes. The campaign also featured service donations to nonprofits to enable them to use the Radius’ enterprise customer data platform to reach out to and potentially partner with small businesses.

In May, Radius unveiled a new data stewardship app designed to fix bad, siloed Salesforce data. The new solution enables enterprises to manage data across any Salesforce field based on unified, trusted data. “Existing tools enrich some external data,” Radius CEO Joel Carusone explained, “but what’s missing is an easy-to-use application coupled with a powerful platform that gives users access to data unified across all third-parties and their internal data sets.”

Atlanta, Georgia-based Kabbage made its first appearance on the Finovate stage in 2010, demoing its Kabbage Loan offering at FinovateSpring that year. The company most recently demoed its Kabbage Card, a part of the company’s Kabbage Everywhere product expansion, at FinovateSpring 2015.

Featured in June by CEO World in its look at fintechs that are helping fight for fair lending, Kabbage announced a partnership with online banking platform Azlo in May that would create a new entity, Mission Street Capital, to help small businesses get the financing they need to grow. Kabbage also announced in May that it was teaming up with the BTEA (Building Trades Employers’ Association) in a strategic alliance to help women and minority-owned business enterprise contractors to secure funding for their projects.

With $2.5 billion in funding, Kabbage includes SoftBank Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and BlueRun Ventures among its investors. The company was founded in 2009.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Quantopian Partners with FactSet to Launch Quantopian Enterprise.

Around the web

  • Dwolla partners with Cryptanite Blockchain Technologies to enable the firm’s ChargaCard payment app to process online payments.
  • The Paypers interviews Maxim Yevdokimov, Head of Mobile and Digital Strategy at Tinkoff Bank Maxim.
  • Fortytwo Data appoints machine learning expert Luca Primerano as Chief AI Officer.
  • Radius partners with Leadspace to deliver a go-to-market platform with data, artificial intelligence and integrations at its core.
  • NCR names Michael Hayford Chief Executive Officer, Frank Martire Executive Chairman, and Bill Nuti Chairman Emeritus.
  • BBVA issues loan using the blockchain.
  • ACH Alert launches PRO-TECH RT and PRO-TECH CR.

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

  • WealthForge to Raise $2.5 Million in New Convertible Note Offering

Around the web

  • Green Dot unveils Visa credit card for thin-file consumers.
  • First National Bank of Pennsylvania upgrades its mobile banking and payments platform from Fiserv to enable debit card management.
  • Martech Advisor interviews Radius CEO and co-founder Darian Shirazi.
  • PYMNTS.com talks with Hyperwallet VP Tomas Likar about the challenge of payments in the on-demand workforce. See Hyperwallet at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, October 18 & 19.
  • Radius announces the Radius Customer Exchange (RCX), a solution to advance co-marketing for B2B marketers.

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.

Radius Selects Chief Product Officer

Radius Selects Chief Product Officer

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RadiusCPOPredictive marketing platform Radius named Mark Woollen as chief product officer. In his new role, Woollen will be responsible for expanding Radius’ marketing tool.

Radius CEO Darian Shirazi says the company selected Woollen for his “impressive experience” and his “ability to manage teams through the entire product lifecycle.” Woollen, who previously served as VP of product management at DocuSign, has also held VP positions at Salesforce, Oracle, and InQuira.

Founded in 2012, Radius offers a Business GraphSM database that draws on 50 billion attributes from CRM systems of 18+ million U.S. companies. The San Francisco-based company’s algorithm helps banks connect prospective and current client information to gain insight into their best customers, deploy marketing campaigns, and measure conversions. Radius CEO Darian Shirazi demonstrated how banks can benefit from the Business GraphSM at FinovateSpring 2014.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Roostify Announces Integration with PCLender to Streamline Loan Origination Process.
  • New Version of the Pendo Data Platform from Pendo Systems Brings Machine Learning, AI to Spreadsheet Data.
  • Fiserv Makes In-Branch Customer Identification as Easy as a High Five.
  • Radius Selects Chief Product Officer.
  • Tuition.io Has Saved Users More Than 5,000 Years of Student Loan Payments.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Mambu Unveils FinTech Startup Program.

Around the web

  • Indopay to leverage Up eCommerce Payments platform from ACI Worldwide.
  • Thomson Reuters named 2016 European Tax Technology Firm of the Year by International Tax Review.
  • Revel Systems partners with Vantiv Integrated Payments to launch the “Rev Up Your Dream” social media contest.
  • FICO acquires cybersecurity firm QuadMetrics, announces plans for “enterprise security scores.”
  • Betterment named Fastest-Growing Firm in the 2016 Financial Times List of 300 Top Registered Investment Advisers.
  • Independent Research Firm Designates GMC Software a Leader in Customer Communications Management.

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

  • Credit Karma Thinks Mobile with Snowball Acquisition
  • “Finovate Debuts: Urban FT Brings a Social PFM to Prepaid Cardholders”

Around the web

  • Let’s Talk Payments features several Finovate alums in its look at fintech in Europe. Remember FinovateEurope 2016 is just over one month away.
  • American Banker highlights Global Debt Registry in a review of companies tackling the problem of debt collection.
  • WealthForge publishes its 2015 Year in Review in infographic form.
  • American Banker recognizes CBW Bank’s Suresh Ramamurthi as Innovator of the Year.
  • Suffolk Bancorp in N.Y. Names Fiserv Core Processor (paywall).
  • Zopa reviews 2015 stats and discloses 2016 plans.

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

Around the web

  • Financial Times talks with Zopa CEO Giles Andrews and his plan to disrupt banks.
  • Wipro acquires Cellent in 73 million euro deal.
  • Actimize from NICE Systems reaches 150 million customer milestone with its anti-fraud, cybercrime protections.
  • Radius launches improvements to its Global Payroll tool by introducing a way for employers to consolidate payroll across jurisdictions.
  • Xero introduces podcast series for small business.
  • Tech in Asia names Tradehero one of five interesting startups from Singapore.
  • Meniga partners with Bankdata to provide personal finance management to 11 banks in Denmark.
  • First Castle Federal Credit Union partners with BancVue.

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

  • “T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Lead $130 Million Investment in Twilio
  • “i-exceed Unveils Appzillon 3.1 with Enhanced Security, UX”
  • “Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund”

Around the web

  • Daily Fintech profiles financial analysis platform, Thinknum.
  • Patch of Land adds commercial real estate to its crowdfunding platform.
  • CR2 appoints Tammo van Leeuwen as market strategy director.
  • NerdWallet looks at Wealthfront, Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Personal Capital, and Vanguard in feature on how automation disrupts investing.
  • Dough Roller features FutureAdvisor as a free service to manage your child’s college fund.
  • Battery Ventures, a tech-focused investment firm, has agreed to acquire Physical Security Business Unit, part of the security division of NICE Systems in a deal valued up to $100 million.

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.

Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund

Radius Raises $50 Million in Round Led by Founders Fund

Radius_homepage_July2015

An investment of $50 million gives predictive analytics innovator, Radius, total capital of more than $125 million and a valuation of somewhere between $500 million and true unicorn status: $1 billion, according to Fortune.

The round was led by Founders Fund, and featured participation from a host of other investors, including AME Cloud Ventures (Jerry Yang), BlueRun Ventures, Formation 8, Glynn Capital Management, Salesforce Ventures, and Yuan Capital. The new funding will support product development, as well as developing what Radius CEO Darian Shirazi called “the Radius customer success organization.”

In a statement, Joe Lonsdale, a founding member of Formation 8, highlighted the rapid adoption of Radius’ technology as a reason to support the company. “The team at Radius has pulled ahead with a clear network effect, which means that their data is getting updated hundreds of millions of times a day,” Lonsdale said. “It’s no surprise they are becoming the leading platform for marketing to businesses, and it’s clear they’re just getting started.”

Radius_FS2014_stage

Radius CEO Darian Shirazi demonstrated his company’s platform at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Speaking of the struggle marketing professionals often have when working the data to better engage and reach customers, Shirazi said, “We address the challenge with a single, beautifully designed application that allows CMOs to navigate, define, expand, and acquire their entire customer universe.”

The capital infusion comes just a few weeks after Radius made headlines with a quartet of executive hires. In June, Radius added Chief Operating Officer David Obrand; Vice President of Sales Jerry Clarno; Senior Vice President of Strategy Andrew Garvin; and Senior Vice President of Marketing Angela Zener.

Radius specializes in providing businesses with big-data technology that helps them better understand their customers, identify new market opportunities, and intensify their marketing efforts. Solutions like the Radius Intelligence Cloud and Business Graph, according to Shirazi, make it easier for marketing teams to reach specific audiences. The company’s proprietary technology within The Intelligence Cloud uses data on more than 30 million SMEs in the United States, and more than 50 billion data points to help businesses turn their customer data into actionable marketing opportunities.

Radius was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Bright Funds Closes Seed Round with $1.8 Million Investment
  • Zooz Launches Insights to Give Merchants Actionable Intelligence on Customer Behavior

Around the web

  • APCI Federal Credit Union to deploy core processing technology from Jack Henry & Associates’ Symitar division.
  • EU Startups interviews Sebastian Diemer, Kreditech CEO.
  • New COO David Obrand leads team of new executive hires at Radius.
  • Shell Geismar Federal Credit Union chooses account processing platform from Fiserv.
  • Mambu enhances platform to help smaller FIs manage the requirements of lending to SMEs.
  • Techli St. Louis features Hip Pocket as 1 of 3 finalists for its most promising startups award.
  • Glassdoor ranks Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche as one of the highest-rated CEOs for 2015.
  • Hedge funds can run but not hide from disruptors like HedgeCoVest and DarcMatter, according to Daily Fintech.

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.

Alumni News– January 8, 2015

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgForbes series on thought leaders in business and technology features Ayasdi CEO and co-founder, Gurjeet Singh.
  • defi SOLUTIONS announces its Loan Origination System is now integrated with Dealertrack’s eDocs.
  • PrivatBank upgrades its Privat24 business account management mobile app.
  • Service Credit Union hires Insuritas to open and manage turnkey insurance solution.
  • Sonavation unveils IDKey M-Series fingerprint scanner for storing passwords, data.
  • WSJ blog post on banks and mobile payments features quote from Paul Thomalla, SVP and managing director EMA at ACI Worldwide.
  • Loop announces two new OEM partners, XPAL Power and Trident Case.
  • All Day features Dynamics interactive payment cards in its review of the “coolest gadgets from CES 2015.”
  • Radius reflects on its collaboration with big data analytics company, BIME.
  • Dealbook looks at the cooperative side of fintech innovation with Behalf, Nymi, and Dynamics.
  • CSI globalVCard announces availability of the Android version of its mobile payment.
  • EZBOB boosts its maximum loan size from £50,000 to £120,000, and extends its maximum term length from 12 to 15 months.
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.

Radius Raises $54.7 Million in Series C Round

Radius Raises $54.7 Million in Series C Round
RadiusLogo

Bringing Big Data to bear to help companies market to small and medium-sized businesses, Radius announced this week that it had raised $54.7 million in funding in its Series C round. The infusion of capital takes the San Francisco-based company’s total financing to more than $80 million.

The Series C was led by Founders Fund, and included participation from a host of new and existing investors:

  • BlueRun Ventures
  • Formation 8
  • Glynn Capital Management
  • Slow Ventures
  • Western Technology Investment
  • Yuan Capital
Also involved in the round were individual investors John Mack (chairman, Morgan Stanley), Charles Songhurst (former Microsoft corporate vice-president), and actor/musician Jared Leto.
RadiusHomepage
The funding will go toward on boarding additional engineering, data science, and marketing talent, as well as helping support the company’s plans to expand globally.
Radius CEO Darian Shirazi points to having a “core competency” in data science as a key differentiator between his company and its competitors, calling it “the only way to build great marketing intelligence”. A software engineer at Facebook at the age of 17, Shirazi’s approach marries proprietary data and public information to provide exacting “confidence scores” that help show which prospects are most likely to turn into actual sales. 
In real-time, Radius tracks 40 million businesses with 50 billion data points. And by providing the software with feedback on ROI and sales that actually close, the technology becomes more accurate and intelligent.
Radius demoed its technology as part of FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose. See a video of the company in action.