Finovate Alumni News– November 9, 2012

  • Billcom adds open APIs to banking platform.
  • Blackhawk Network Announces New Financial Service Products in Canada.
  • Startup Central looks at Heckyl, Clari5 and BankBazaar at FinovateAsia.
  • VentureBeat considers SecondMarket’s partnership with Angellist.
  • M.O. interviews Constancio Larguia, CEO & founder of Weemba.
  • SiliconBeat looks at Personal Capital’s 401(k) product.
  • Kabbage Becomes Exclusive Funding Provider for Bonanza Sellers.
  • American Banker reports: Bill.com Ties Cash-Flow Tools to Banks’ Small Business Software.
  • Finextra reports UBank gathers transaction data for spending comparison site.
  • ShopKeep POS announces entry into the quick serve market with full kitchen printing capabilities.
  • Mashable lists SimpleTuition, ReadyForZero, and Tuition.io as tools to help minimize student loan debt.
  • Capital Access Network moves Headquarters to NYC.
  • Crowdfund Insider reports SoMoLend Announces New York Expansion.
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– November 8, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgBill Dwight, CEO of FamZoo, interviewed by Unlock Your Wealth Radio.
  • TechCrunch reports BillGuard Teams Up With Lemon’s Mobile Wallet, Will Alert Users To Fraudulent Charges.
  • MyBankTracker reviews Betterment’s gift registry feature.
  • Tech in Asia describes why Striata caught its eye at FinovateAsia.
  • Personal Loan Finder looks at SocietyOne.
  • BetaKit reports ShopKeep adds employee time tracking feature to iPad POS system.
  • SecureKey launches Online Authentication Service for Government of Canada.
  • TechCrunch reports Lending Club Surpasses $1B In Personal Loans, Hits Profitability.
  • PaySimple Launches ReceivablesPro Turnkey Private-Label Solution.
  • Campaign Asia reports London-based Innovation Agency launches in Singapore.
  • At FinovateAsia, Barclays announces the launch of PFM powered by Strands.
  • SG Entrepreneurs covers Perfectsen’s launch of The Hook at FinovateAsia.
  • Des Moines Register covers Dwolla’s MassPay.
  • e27 lists 3 finance startups that caught their eye at FinovateAsia 2012.
  • Pando Daily reports Bazaarvoice replaces its CEO and acquires Longboard Media.
  • Finextra reports Authentify opens Japanese subsidiary.
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.

ShopKeep POS partners with BlueStar to Distribute Cloud-Based Point-of-Sale Solution

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Cloud-based point-of-sale system, ShopKeep POS, announced today that it has partnered with BlueStar, a distributor of mobility, POS, RFID, digital signage, and security technology solutions.

Through this partnership, ShopKeep POS is able to provide a complete POS system, with software and hardware that uses BlueStar’s bundled “In-A-Box” offerings.

It also gives ShopKeep POS access to more resellers. Now, 16,000 resellers across the U.S. will be able to buy the cloud-based solution directly from BlueStar and join the 3,000 locations that already use it.

To learn more about ShopKeep POS, watch its FinovateFall 2012 demo.

New Online Banking Report Published: The Best of FinovateFall 2012

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We wrapped up FinovateFall in New York City about a week ago. Over the course of two days, 64 companies give seven-minute demos to an audience of around 1,100. We’ve summarized the information and presented in our latest Finovate Report, Fall Edition.

Introducing:

The Best New Products at FinovateFall 2012

This post-show wrap-up is designed to help those that weren’t there get a better understanding of the major themes. And for those that were in attendance, it’s a box score to compare with your own notes and impressions.

In the report, we looked at the three big trends that emerged at FinovateFall:

    • Small businesses get the same financial tools as bigger businesses
    • Security moves past the PIN 
    • Beyond plastic, the mobile wallet is here

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And we profiled each of the seven companies voted Best of Show by the attendees at the event (note 1):

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About the report
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The Best New Products at FinovateFall (link)
Includes a look at all eight Best of Show winners

Author: Julie Schicktanz, Finovate Group Research Analyst
Editor: Jim Bruene, Finovate Group Founder

Published: 28 September 2012

Length: 59 pages, 12,000 words

Cost: No extra charge to OBR subscribers, US$195 for others

The printed version will be mailed to subscribers next week

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Note:
1. See Best of Show methodology here.

Finovate Alumni News– September 27, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgZipZap to power global cash payments for omba.
  • Forbes mentions Credit Sesame, Tuition.io, PayTap, Digital Mailer as 4 tools to help you manage your money.
  • Capital Access Network closes $295 mil credit that to serve the small business community.
  • PYMNTS chats with Kabbage’s co-founder & chief operating officer, Kathryn Petralia.
  • GambleID taps Locaid for geolocation services.
  • PC World features Yodlee, ShopKeep POS, Bolstr, PaySimple, CommunityLend, & Billhighway.
  • CU Times reports Mortgagebot Launches First Credit Union on Integrated Platform.
  • SafetyPay, in conjunction with the Bank of Montreal, the RBC, TD Bank & Scotia Bank, offers online payment service via Canadian Interac network.
  • Fiserv selected as Affinity Provider in FPA Practitioner Resource Guide.
  • Currensee delivers PAMM Replacement Solution for CTAs and Money Managers.
  • Netbanker: BillGuard is first financial service to Integrate with the New iPhone Passbook Wallet.
  • Compass Plus partners with WorldWide Financial Services.
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.

FinovateFall 2012 Best of Show Winners

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Our fifth annual FinovateFall in NYC concluded an hour ago. After seeing 64 demos over two packed days, the audience voted for their three favorites each day. The top eight overall were named Best of Show (see notes).

The winners (in alphabetic order):

  • Credit Sesame for its Financial Fitness Indicator that gives users a comprehensive view of their financial situation
  • Dashlane for its instant login and checkout featureFFBOSWinners2.jpg
  • Dynamics for its Triple Interface card, allowing for tap, swipe, or EMV payments
  • eToro for its social trading index 
  • LearnVest for its certified financial planning capabilities and mobile app
  • MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and bubble budgets 
  • PayTap for its social bill-payment platform
  • ShopKeep POS for its tablet-based POS

We’ll have videos of all 64 demos posted at Finovate.com as fast as possible (probably two to three weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who presented, attended, tweeted, networked, blogged, tolerated the Internet hiccups and helped push fintech forward. You are the best! 

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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 as the day went on and choose three favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day. 
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. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.” 
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.

ShopKeep POS’ Solution Enables Merchants to Run a Store from an iPad

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Afterwards, ShopKeep POS demonstrated its mobile tablet-based POS:

“The simplest way to make smarter business decisions, ShopKeep POS is the affordable and complete cloud-based point of sale platform for running a store from an iPad. 

Backed by the industry’s best customer care, the ShopKeep POS iPad app rings sales, processes credit cards and mobile payments, prints and emails receipts, and prints orders remotely to the kitchen. Merchants can manage inventory and a customer database and view ClearInsight Reports from any web browser. Plus, they can access real-time sales remotely via a smartphone to make important business decisions even when they are not in the store.”

Product Launched: August 2011
HQ Location: New York, NY
Company Founded: 2008
Metrics: $4M raised to date, 35 employees, over 2,000 users, processing more than $480M in transactions annually
Website: shopkeep.com
Twitter: @ShopKeep
Finovate demo videofinovate.com/fall12vid/ (demo video will be posted next week)
Introducing Jason Richelson (Founder & CEO) and David Olk (COO/ Co-Founder)
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Finovate Alumni News– September 7, 2012

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  • Fox Business News interviews Personal Capital CEO, Bill Harris, on 401(k) fees.
  • ShopKeep POS launches new iPhone app to give merchants better, faster access to real-time sales data. Come check out ShopKeep at FinovateFall next week.
  • Forbes considers: Why Intuit Is More Innovative Than Your Company.
  • TechCrunch reviews Giftly’s new app.
  • FreeMonee wins Direct Marketing Association 2012 Innovation Award.
  • Kiboo announces 3 key partnerships with First California Bank, FIS and MasterCard.
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.

FinovateFall 2012 Sneak Peek: Part 1

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We’ve selected over 60 leading innovators to take the stage for the sixth annual FinovateFall conference in New York on September 12 and 13.

Each company provided a sneak peek of what they’ll demo next month. Below is the first installment of these teasers. We’ll have more next week.

Don’t miss your chance to see the live demo from each company and meet the execs responsible. Get your FinovateFall ticket here.

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Socialite from Actiance allows financial advisors, agents and sales and marketing to engage with clients, build customer relationships, and create a personal brand – all while being compliant with FINRA and SEC regulations. 
At Finovate you will see for the first time the integration of Actiance’s Socialite platform with Salesforce enabling users to maximize the power of Salesforce, monetize their social involvement and increase revenue. Now users can Link Socialite contacts to Salesforce accounts and send Socialite activity to Salesforce when contacts provide feedback or respond to posted content. In addition, we will be showcasing our new Socialite Mobile application for the iPhone.
Innovation type: Marketing, sales, security

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Come meet Billhighway at the intersection of technology and philanthropy! It’s your chance to witness the debut of a faster, more compelling way to fundraise. Billhighway’s mobile application, unveiled for the first time at FinovateFall 2012, brings a mobile cashless approach for an easy, secure, fun way for folks to give in real time, and perhaps give more! 
The application is specifically developed for nonprofits to effectively increase funding from new sources. A great example of technology used for good, nonprofit organizations immediately collect and put to use mission-critical donor funds, the lifeblood of their efforts to do more good.
Innovation type: Marketing, mobile, payments

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BCSG will be launching an innovative and customizable cloud-based package at FinovateFall 2012, incorporating the most important tools a small business owner needs to manage and grow their business. For just $25 a month, users will get access to several market leading applications via one online platform using a single username and password. This unique package has been developed specifically to address the day to day challenges small businesses owners face and is supplied through financial institutions.

Innovation type: Online UI, PFM, small business

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CommunityLend’s product, Financeit, enables businesses to offer installment loans to their customers at the point of sale. Since launching in January of 2011, they have signed up over 1,200 merchant partners and processed over $130MM in loans. The key verticals are vehicle, home improvement, retail and health.
CommunityLend has raised over $9MM in financing since launch and is now pursuing a U.S. expansion strategy. Lending capital comes from banks and other institutional investors.
Innovation type: Lending, payments

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Can “The Cloud” be trusted to store important files? Are safe deposit boxes still practical in the age of electronic documents? Is there a way to ensure “Total Information Privacy” for the customer? My Virtual StrongBox is the online answer to safe deposit boxes. Customers store electronic copies of important documents in this easy-to-use filing system AND retain ownership of their documents. Files are managed by, and only visible to, the customer. Financial institutions using My Virtual StrongBox add one more sticky product to their list of benefits and keep customers around for years to come. Learn more at myvirtualstrongbox.com.
Innovation type: Banking products, PFM, small business

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Optimize your online marketing and improve your acquisitions strategies with Experian’s Premium Prequalification, a powerful credit-screening tool that allows institutions to proactively utilize individual credit data online in real time to:

    • Empower and educate consumers with a snapshot of their credit health
    • Save consumers time and money by instantly providing them with their most viable options at the very start of their shopping experience 
This best-in-class process also offers Prequalification Triggers, notifying consumers of recent chan
ges to their credit while offering relevant products, and Credit Comparables, which compares individual credit to the average in their area. Redefine your acquisitions strategies today with Experian’s Premium Prequalification
Innovation type: Cards, lending, sales

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Fiserv understands that convenience and supporting user preference are keys to increased adoption and usage of digital payments. Our innovation seamlessly blends a variety of information input modes in our mobile banking application, Mobiliti Enterprise
Using our applications, users can choose from traditional keypad and screen touch interaction, image capture and OCR, or voice-driven commands and inputs to make payments. And a key feature is that users can effortlessly switch modes at any time, whenever they want – even in the middle of a transaction.
Innovation type: Banking products, mobile, payments

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In a world optimized to get us to spend more at every turn, ImpulseSave has made saving your money just as easy and instantly gratifying as spending it. Our simple web and mobile tools incent consumers to turn every point of sale into a “Point of Saving”, as well as every point in between. 
ImpulseSavers are saving close to $4,000 per year on average. While others argue that greater discipline and better budgets are the answer, ImpulseSave represents the exact opposite approach. Instead of trying to change consumer behavior, encouraging more self-denial, we’ve actually transformed saving itself to leverage that very behavior, making saving as impulsive, fun, even addictive as is spending.
Innovation type: Communications, marketing, PFM

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Ready, Set, Locate! See how one easy-to-use API can locate any customer or cardholder mobile phone for authentication or mobile marketing. No apps to download, it works on feature phones, smart phones or on any carrier. Mobile phone network location can be a low cost, high quality, unspoofable authentication factor for mobile payment and credit card identity. 
See Locaid’s live location demo that can be easily integrated into any CRM system, mobile marketing, web services or anti-fraud applications. With a mobile device number and permission, you can locate 350 million devices via our location privacy platform.
Innovation type: Identity, marketing, mobile

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See how financial institutions can save millions by implementing BankFiling, a first-of-its kind innovation that delivers significant ROI yet requires limited investment. A whole new approach to commercial and business banking! Prepare yourself!
Innovation type: Banking products, lending, small business

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The fear of not getting paid and concern over finding new clients is keeping small business owners up at night. PaySimple is launching a “get paid faster while you grow your business” addition to its PaySimple Pro receivables automation solution. The innovation automates pricing to ensure the small business is paid on time and also fosters social engagement as a natural extension of the payments process.
Innovation type: Online UI, payments, small business

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Times are tough. The kids are in college. You’re caring for aging parents. You’re underemployed. You have bills. Bills that are due. But your family and friends want to help. Because that’s what family and friends do. If only there was a way for them to provide this financial help quickly. Conveniently. Securely. Online. Without the hassle of sending cash and checks, or the high cost of wire transfer services. Meet PayTap.
Innovation type: Communications, payments, PFM

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Personal Capital is wealth management for the Internet Age. The company’s online platform combines digital technology with highly personalized service to provide a holistic view of your unique financial picture. The free online dashboard, iPad and iPhone apps present all of your financial data in one place, showing you exactly what you own and what you owe, in real time. 
At Finovate Fall, Personal Capital will unveil new features that enable even greater transparency into your money for the long-term: your retirement. Do you know how much your 401(k) costs?
Innovation type: Investing, online UI, PFM

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Pindrop Security’s technology is being used by banks to identify fraud callers and to prevent fraud transactions. In the Fall of 2012, we’ll introduce our latest solution for financial institutions that rely on the phone for transactions. Join us for the debut at FinovateFall 2012!
Innovation type: Identity, security

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Prepaid Resources introduces BenefitsDirect ‘Direct Deposit Management’.
Capture recurring Federal benefits, State benefits and Payroll deposits through your accountholder website, in-branch, at retail, by mobile app or via live agent. Track enrollment success and measure direct deposit activity to proactively personalize accountholder relationships.
Innovation type: Banking products, cards

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ShopKeep solves the last mile in local. It enables vertical partners from delivery, payments, loyalty, and deals to connect directly to SMBs. A revolutionary iPad based SaaS product, ShopKeep’s POS system makes traditional cash register products obsolete. 
For $2/day merchants receive a high end operating system and can manage their store even when they are not inside it. Made in NYC, ShopKeep now has over 2,500 customers. It provides merchants flexibility to choose their credit card processor and offers unheard of customer support and economics. ShopKeep POS is the simplest way for retailers to make smarter business decisions.
Innovation type: Payments, sales, small business

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Stockr

Stockr is a finance portal for the social web. For most people, investing is more social than scientific, and investment ideas come from close friends, trusted advisors and various periodicals. 
Stockr embraces this social element of investing, creating powerful connections among those who have actionable information and those who are seeking it. While other portals compete on content, our view is that content becomes most relevant and actionable when it’s shared and discussed.
Innovation type: Investing & asset management, PFM

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Everyone has come to expect innovative, reliable and low cost local currency payment services, yet we continue to live with expensive and unreliable international payments. Over $37 trillion in foreign currency payments are sent or received each year. The international payment services offered by the major banks are far from satisfactory. The Currency Cloud evolves the international payments process – we make currencies simple.
Innovation type: Back office, payments, small business

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With Tuition.io, student loan borrowers can easily access all their loans in one visually appealing dashboard, use graphical visualization tools to compare them and get customized optimization plans that take advantage of little-known and hard-to-understand restructuring options.
Innovation type: Banking products, lending, PFM

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The mobile phone is fast becoming a dominant player in payments and banking worldwide. As electronic fraud will certainly be drawn to the new medium, so too must security be made usable, flexible and ultimately reliable. ValidSoft’s proprietary technology can secure all transaction channels, in real-time. All our solutions are telecommunications-based. 
At FinovateFall 2012 we will show you how our advanced mobile payments authentication platform, SMART, supports a mobile wallet product and demonstrate how scalable and flexible it can be.
Innovation type: Identity, payments, security
Stay tuned next week for another sneak peek of FinovateFall 2012 presenting companies.

Finovate Alumni News– August 1, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgInc. Mag features ReadyForZero & Tuition.io as tackling the student debt crisis. Check out Tuition.io at FinovateFall.
  •  Orlando Sentinel reports Kony Solutions is on cutting edge of app development.
  • The Chicago Tribune reports Braintree to add 150 jobs.
  • Check out Q2 funding for Finovate alumni: over $120 mil raised.
  • ReadyForZero begins Smart Money Debate series.
  • Netbanker reports: Bank Simple Innovations #1 & #2: Demo Mode After Login.
  • MiiCard names RBS tech veteran Stephen Brannan chairman.
  • BostInno features LearnVest. Come see LearnVest’s new fintech at FinovateFall in NYC next month.
  • Beloit Daily News looks at how 2 local businesses are using ShopKeep POS.
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.