Alumni News– January 29, 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.jpgTinkoff Bank to deploy fraud prevention solution from Iris Analytics.
  • EagleBank implements EnAct client management and sales software from Fiserv.
  • KDnuggets interviews Anthony Bak, principal data scientist for Ayasdi.
  • Red Zebra Analytics brings its card-linked offers service to Germany.
  • Ripple Labs raises $30 million in Series A round.
  • CNBC Tech Check interviews Tradeshift CEO Christian Lanng.
  • Computer Business Review features Venmo and Flint Mobile in its list of “5 mobile apps to turn your wallet digital.
  • Datamonitor analyst describes why he’s looking forward to watching Advice Games’ demo at FinovateEurope 2015.
  • Simple now works on BillGuard.
  • Google Cloud Platform now available to VMware customers.
  • TechCrunch explores Coinbase’s recently launched U.S. exchange.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions integrates with Apple Pay.
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.

Ripple Labs Raises $30 Million in Series A Round

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The Wall Street Journal, Crunchbase, and other sources are reporting that open payments protocol specialist, Ripple Labs, has raised $30 million in new funding. Although the company has not confirmed some of the details of the deal, participating investors are believed to be IDG Capital Partners, Google Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.

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This latest infusion of capital follows successful angel and seed funding rounds which raised $9 million in 2013, and takes the company’s total capital to nearly $40 million. WSJ further reported that the investment puts Ripple Labs’ valuation at $100 million.
(Crypto Coins News helpfully compares this valuation to Ripple’s “primary value in XRP” to arrive at a very different figure.)
Ripple Labs developed the Ripple protocol, a distributed open source payment network that enables the real-time transfer of funds in any currency. The technology was deployed by Fidor Bank AG last May, and in September Cross River Bank and CBW Bank became the first U.S. banks to incorporate the Ripple protocol into its settlement operations. In January, Ripple Labs named Gene Sperling, former Chief White House Advisor, to its board of directors.
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The investment comes at a time of resurgent optimism for digital and cryptocurrencies like Ripple. Recent investment in bitcoin exchange Coinbase, which opened its first U.S. exchange this week, has helped restore interest in the technology after the price of bitcoin dripped below $300 and fell to as low as $178.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Ripple demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco. Chris Larsen is CEO.

Alumni News– December 4, 2014

  • 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.jpgIntelligent Environments awarded Fairbanking certification. See Intelligent Environments demo at FinovateEurope 2015 in February.
  • Xsolla partners with BitPay to bring bitcoin payments to gaming. See Xsolla at FinovateEurope in London.
  • MasterCard partners with Gates Foundation to launch innovation lab in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • App Annie unveils Audience Intelligence, a solution mobile app publishers can use to learn demographic data from users.
  • Access Development partners with Oklahoma Education Association.
  • Yueyu Fu, co-founder and CPO at Rippleshot interviewed at Benzinga Fintech Awards.
  • Intuit’s Quickbook Online Accountant is now available in the U.S.
  • Ripple to plug its real-time settlement protocol into Earthport’s payments hub.
  • Braintree is now rolling out its One Touch payment service outside the U.S.
  • eGift Card feature added to Wipit-powered Boost Mobile.
  • SocietyOne Closes Undisclosed Series B Funding Round.
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– November 13, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgKili acquires NFC microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity.
  • American Banker lists Currency Cloud, BioCatch, Linqto, VerifyValid, and Rippleshot as top 10 tech companies to watch.
  • Fintech in the fall: themes and company updates from CAN Capital, Encap Security, Fuze Network, Guardian Analytics, Larky, Ripple, and Xpenditure.
  • American Banker examines 2015 plans for FIS, Fiserv and Diebold.
  • Forbes looks at the success of RoboAdvisors: Betterment, Wealthfront, Personal Capital, and SigFig.
  • Forbes examines Kantox’s P2P FX trading technology.
  • TSYS partners with FICO to deliver a marketing product for card issuers called TSYS Targeted Messaging.
  • Digital Insight enters reseller agreement with Guardian Analytics to deliver anomaly detection services to financial institutions.
  • Trulioo wins 2014 Canadian Technology Companies to watch award from Deloitte.
  • Huffington Post interviews Andrea Gellert, SVP Marketing at OnDeck.
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.

Fintech in the Fall: Themes and Company Updates

Fall is in full swing and there has been plenty of news to keep the fintech world busy.

I spent last week at Money20/20 where the themes centered around Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and Millennials. In between listening to industry experts on these and other topics, I sat down to chat with seven Finovate alums. Here are a few notable updates:

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CAN Capital (fka Capital Access Network) has supplied just over $4 billion in funding to more than 55,000 small businesses. It continues to expand, reporting double-digit growth from last year.

CAN’s financing works well for small businesses who cannot obtain funding through traditional bank loans. Its 60%+ approval rate is made possible by the robust tech and big data analytic capabilities that enhance market insight. This ultimately broadens CAN’s access to prospective clients and enables it to provide customers with a lower priced loan.

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In June, it launched the beta version of CAN Connect, a set of 4 APIs. One of these APIs is called CAN Instant Quote (IQ). It pulls data from software that a small business uses frequently, such as scheduling or accounting software, to pre-approve them for instant financing.

In November, CAN announced a partnership with Yodlee to extend funding through its small business offering. This will enable Yodlee’s financial institution clients to offer customers access to funding via CAN’s Instant Quote API. The service will be available by Q1 of 2015.

While fixed term loans are still CAN’s core product, it is currently looking into offering flexible payment terms in 2015.

See CAN Capital’s demo from FinovateFall 2013 where it debuted Mobile Funder.

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Encap Security offers Smarter Authentication, a seamless way for banks to authenticate users across multiple channels, without disrupting the user experience.

Several weeks ago, Encap partnered with Feedzai to leverage its analytic engine that authenticates users. When the customer’s identity is in question, they are sent challenges to authenticate themselves, rather than being shut out of the system entirely.

Other partnerships are in the works, but all are confidential at this point.

Additionally, Encap has recently integrated Apple’s Touch ID to replace users’ PINs. While Encap’s Smarter Authentication will still be the underlying technology, Touch ID will help authenticate the user at each point of interaction.

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The company plans to incorporate other biometrics in the future.

Watch Encap demo Smarter Authentication at FinovateSpring 2014.

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As we tweeted last week, Fuze was recently acquired by Ingo Money, a company that specializes in mobile check cashing services for underbanked consumers. Ingo enables customers to instantly deposit checks onto a prepaid card, bank account, or mobile wallet.

The acquisition will combine Ingo’s mobile check cashing with Fuze’s swipe-to-pay and swipe-to-load features to give users more control over their money. Ingo will also leverage Fuze’s existing network of more than one billion cards, which includes:

    • 50 million prepaid cards
    • 459 million debit cards
    • 576 million credit cards
    • 531 million private label cards
    • 137 million other types

Ingo is also working on solutions to help users avoid late fees by enabling them to send funds to a location of their choice, such as their landlord. Additionally, it plans to expand the number of retail locations where customers load cash and move money from card to card.

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The terms of the acquisition, which is set to be finalized by the end of this year, were undisclosed.

Fuze Network last demonstrated at FinovateFall 2011 where it debuted Swipe2Pay.

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With a swell in data breaches this year, security has become a hot topic with the half-billion personal identities stolen in the last 8 months.

The increasing number of new solutions and capabilities banks now offer has opened up fresh opportunities for fraudsters to compromise users’ identities. To combat this, Guardian Analytics has added capabilities that gather user reputation data, such as their IP address.

Guardian Analytics is working with more than 300 financial institutions and has expanded its partnerships outside of banks. In the last year and a half, it has partnered with two non-bank institutions, Fiserv and Digital Insight.

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In the future, the California-based company plans to expand its analytics-based security solutions, since rules-based security is failing under the ever-expanding number of requirements needed to protect institutions.

Guardian Analytics debuted FraudXCHANGE at FinovateFall 2012.

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Larky, a company that provides card-linked discounts and offers on a mobile platform, signed six new financial institution clients across Alabama, Michigan, and New York in October.

Each new client is using a white-labeled version of Larky’s platform coupled with a package of local offers and rewards. The offers not only save users money, but also drive traffic to local business, and increase card usage.

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Check out Larky’s demo from FinovateFall 2014.

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Open source payments protocol, Ripple,announced a partnership with Yantra, which specializes in electronic payment systems. Specifically, Ripple will use Yantra’s risk management capabilities.

The Ripple network increases the speed and velocity of transactions, which add to its risk. To mitigate the liability, it leverages Yantra’s technology to create context and conditionality to its money movement processes.

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Yantra will augment the data collected about transactions and is adding new tools, such as custom search fields, to better analyze the data, and all within seconds.

Ripple debuted at FinovateSpring 2013.

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When we last spoke with Xpenditure at the beginning of this year, the company had $2.2 million in Angel funding and 15 employees. By the end of 2014, it will have raised $3.5 million in total funding and expects to have 25 employees.

It is also expanding its operations. It recently opened offices in São Paulo and New York City. In fact, the U.S. is its fastest growing market and accounts for 30% of its customers.

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In late October, it launched a partnership with MasterCard and its expense management system will be available as a part of MasterCard’s Business Owner ToolBox in Canada.

Check out Xpenditure’s demo from FinovateEurope 2014.

Alumni News– November 3, 2014

  • 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.jpgMoney on Toast to outsource its administration to Equiniti Wealth Solutions.
  • Mitek announces Restrictive Endorsement feature to reduce risk of duplicate check deposits.
  • Azimo opens up money transfer service to Kenya’s M-Pesa.
  • Better ATM Services signs agreement with ATM manufacturer, Genmega.
  • Ixaris teams up with United bank for Africa (UBA) to bring its virtual card platform to 20 markets in Africa.
  • Socure scores $2.5 million to overcome evil with good.
  • Yantra Financial Technologies integrates Ripple Protocol into risk management system.
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– August 27, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgMonitise announces digital commerce and resourcing alliance with IBM.
  • ThinkAdvisor takes a look at the deal between the San Francisco 49ers football team and Wealthfront.
  • The Globe and Mail profiles David Lloyd and IntelliResponse as part of its Innovators at Work contest.
  • Fortune magazine column discusses Ripple and the “Internet of value exchange.”
  • ValueWalk: FutureAdvisor can be used as a free tool to rate your own investment decisions or a low-cost asset management service.
  • Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation visits Bolstr for video interview.
  • Bill.com CEO and co-founder Rene Lacerte writes about the “new sharing economy” for Inc.com.
  • CashStar announces spot in Inc 500|5000 for a second year in a row.
  • EyeVerify opens new offices to accommodate recent growth.
  • Locaid partners with Danal to leverage location services in fight against financial fraud.
  • Wallaby Financial named finalist in Samsung Gear App Challenge 2014.
  • ZDNet: Xero continues march into U.S., launches partner marketplace.
  • The Independent looks at how BehavioSec uses behavioral biometrics.
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– August 18, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgSilanis Technology releases e-signature solutions for Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. See Silanis at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.
  • Michael Grillo of ACI Worldwide talks about the role of mobile devices in fighting payments fraud.
  • Klarna announces appointment of Jon Kamaluddin to its Board of Directors.
  • SumUp earns double-digit million dollar investment led by Life.SREDA
  • Xero’s Customer Experience team wins Bronze Stevie Award in 2014 International Business Award. Check out Xero’s presentation at FinDEVr in San Francisco this October.
  • TechCrunch: Coinbase acquires blockchain explorer, Blockr.io.
  • Silicon Angle: Why Cardlytics ditched sample data for its real-time analytics tactics.
  • EE Times reviews the similarities and differences between Ripple and bitcoin.
  • Forbes column on “the other sharing economy” profiles Expensify
  • Investors.com checks in with Betterment on strategies for meeting retirement financial challenges.
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– August 6, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgYahoo! Germany looks at financial innovation in Kreditech.
  • Prosper earns a spot on the 2014 AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies roster.
  • Feedzai launches anti-fraud, transaction scoring apps for Shopify and Big Commerce.
  • Forbes.com features Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Kapitall, LearnVest, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, SigFig, and Wealthfront in a discussion on Millennial generation investment habits.
  • Richard Hagen, CEO of TradeKing Advisors, named to WealthManagement.com’s “Ten to Watch in 2015”.
  • Insuritas announces partnership with Financial Partners CU to open and manage its turnkey insurance solution.
  • Bank Innovation highlights alums SigFig and Ripple in a discussion on “8 under the radar fintech startups you should know.”
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– August 6, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgYahoo! Germany looks at financial innovation in Kreditech.
  • Prosper earns a spot on the 2014 AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies roster.
  • Feedzai launches anti-fraud, transaction scoring apps for Shopify and Big Commerce.
  • Forbes.com features Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Kapitall, LearnVest, Motif Investing, Personal Capital, SigFig, and Wealthfront in a discussion on Millennial generation investment habits.
  • Richard Hagen, CEO of TradeKing Advisors, named to WealthManagement.com’s “Ten to Watch in 2015”.
  • Insuritas announces partnership with Financial Partners CU to open and manage its turnkey insurance solution.
  • Bank Innovation highlights alums SigFig and Ripple in a discussion on “8 under the radar fintech startups you should know.”
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– July 10, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgOptimal Payments announces partnership with Oink.
  • Braintree releases v.zero SDK, featuring support for Pay with PayPal.
  • Bank Innovation highlights leaders at Ripple, LoopPay, Finect, and Fiserv in its list of 30 key innovators in fintech.
  • Segmint named a Preferred Vendor of MAGNET Global Network.
  • Holvi preps to launch into Irish marketplace.
  • doxo named one of Washington State’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 2014 by Seattle Business magazine.
  • Think Advisor features the different approaches of 3 robo-advisors: Betterment, Personal Capital, and Wealthfront.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions prices Initial Public Offering.
  • DoubleBeam’s GoPago POS system is enabling Slyde, a mobile commerce beacon-enabled shopping app.
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– July 9, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBank Systems & Technology: Consumers CU Expands National Footprint with Andera’s Online Account Opening Solution.
  • Lendio launches free version of prospect mgmt software, Pipeline, for the business loan process.
  • Encap Security joins the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance to change the nature of online authentication by reducing reliance on passwords.
  • LendAcademy takes a look at $146 million in new loan originations in June for Prosper.
  • And speaking of Prosper, Altifi.con’s This Week in Crowdfunding features Prosper CEO Ron Suber.
  • Rebranded version of Ripple Client, Ripple Trade emerges from two-month soft launch.
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.