FinovateSpring Best of Show Winners Named

Our fifth annual FinovateSpring in San Francisco concluded a few hours ago. After seeing 63 demos over two packed days, the audience voted for their three favorites each day. The top seven overall were named Best of Show (see notes).

The winners (in alphabetic order):

  • BehavioSec for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns
  • BillGuard for its card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI
  • Dwolla for its FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments
  • iQuantifi for its new financial planning & advice tools
  • MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and integrated “deals”
  • Personal Capital for its iPhone app and interbank funds transfer
  • SoMoLend for its P2P lending platform

We’ll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate.com as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who presented, attended, tweeted, swapped biz cards, schmoozed and helped push fintech forward. You are the greatest! 

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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 seven 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.

SoMoLend Debuts its P2P Lending Platform

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Second, SoMoLend launched its P2P lending platform:

“SoMoLend is debuting its peer-to-peer lending experience by which business borrowers can raise capital by securing loans from friends and family, customers, and community supporters. 

Simultaneously, lenders can invest in the industries they care about most in their own neighborhood, fueling local economy and doing well by doing good all while earning a return.”

Product Launched: Beta Launch: December 2011; Full Product Launch: May 2012

HQ Location: Cincinnati, OH
Company Founded: May 2011
Metrics: SoMo has over 1,000 borrowers seeking loans on our platform and we have closed on $1.2 million in seed capital. SoMo has 5 full-time employees and 6 contract employees.
Website: somolend.com
Introducing Candace Klein (Founder & CEO) and Eric Elias (Director, Product Development)

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Finovate Alumni News– April 30, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgNetbanker features PayNearMe’s mobile app.
  • Fanlala and Virtual Piggy ink deal to provide secure online payments for U- 18 users. Come see Virtual Piggy at FinovateSpring next week.
  • Finextra reports United Bankers’ Bank implements Aptys’ data archiving system.
  • Hidden Levers is now easier to use with client portfolios thanks to TD’s open API initiative.
  • SoMoLend explains how it will position itself in light of the JOBS act. See its live demo at FinovateSpring next week.
  • Bank Innovation reports Pageonce will launch P2P payments functionality later this year.
  • Lucrative Lending compares Prosper & Lending Club returns.
  • Keynote DeviceAnywhere announces collaboration to give developers remote access to real devices from Sprint’s handsets. 
  • Washington Business Journal features inStream Solutions.
  • eToro is named a winner of Red Herring 100 Award.
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.

FinovateSpring 2012 Sneak Peek: Part 2

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Here’s part 2 of the sneak peek of the companies that will demoing at FinovateSpring May 8 and 9 in San Francisco. Each company provided a short summary of the innovation they will debut on stage. We published 23 last week and we will complete the preview next week.
Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the hottest innovations in financial technology. Get your FinovateSpring ticket here.
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InvestorBee puts data at consumers’ fingertips so they can make smart, confident investments.
  • It’s fact, not opinion. Users can tap into the database to learn from the experiences of nearly 1.5 million investors.
  • It’s an investment health check. Users can compare their portfolios and multi-asset products with fact-based, relevant benchmarks to understand whether they receive fair value.
  • It’s simple investing without guesswork. Users can choose an objective risk-based strategy to track that’s right for them in a few easy steps.
Users extract wisdom from the crowd to make better, simpler investment decisions – all for free at InvestorBee.
Innovation type: Investing, marketing, PFM

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iQuantifi takes you way beyond budgeting! It helps you reach all your financial goals and tells you exactly how you can do it. No estimates. No calculators. Just solid advice and the power to do it all online.
Innovation type: Banking products, investing, PFM
Historically, investing in securities has been 
a difficult proposition for retail investors, 

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mainly due to the lack of access to competitive products and the absence of user-friendly financial education tools.
This problem is exacerbated in emerging markets, where financial markets tend to be less developed.
Kuspit offers retail investors an online platform to learn about investing, apply what they’ve learned, and invest in the same platform. All of this is available in an easy and progressive manner, while sharing ideas with the community.
Innovation type: Investing, online, PFM

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The current infrastructure to deliver capital to Main Street businesses is broken. It’s simply too expensive for banks to manually analyze and underwrite a small loan – whether it is $10,000 or $100,000. As a result, banks make fewer loans, and creditworthy small businesses are denied the capital they need to grow. 
On Deck has created an efficient, effective and proven solution to this fundamental problem. By leveraging new digital sources of data, any institution can increase its small business lending through the On Deck platform, delivering funding decisions in minutes rather than weeks.
Innovation type: Lending, payments, small business

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PaySimple is launching an innovative platform for banks to set up their own private-labeled version of cloud-based receivables automation. With this platform, banks of all sizes can easily bring to market a sticky value-added offering to attract and retain small business members, while adding a new revenue stream. 
PaySimple will demonstrate how banks can set up custom-branded software in a few simple steps and how small businesses can immediately benefit from a system that combines payment acceptance across channels integrated with customer management.
Innovation type: Online, payments, small business

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Portfolio Football is a first-of-a-kind application that addresses the need for financial planning and literacy through gamification. Portfolio Football plays on the popularity of American Football and the adoption of fantasy sports into the lives millions. It makes financial management competitive, fun and easy to understand, while providing users with a powerful tool for personal finance and portfolio management. It’s a true “game changer.”
Innovation type: Investing, Online, PFM

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With 80% of Americans between the ages 20-40 now using social media and playing social games, how can financial institutions reach their customers in new ways?
Introducing SaveUp – an innovative program that uses game mechanics to reward good financial behavior. When users save money and reduce debt, they earn credits to play for prizes like cars, travel, and cash up to $2 million.
Financial institutions can use a customized SaveUp experience to help their customers make better financial decisions, increase engagement, and cross-sell products. Current FI partner campaigns have conversion rates of up to 44%.
Build a deeper relationship with your customers while helping them succeed.
Innovation type: Marketing, rewards

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SoMoLend makes investing in your online community simple, affordable, and social. SoMo is an online platform that uses patent-pending lending technology executed within a hyper-localized geographic scope to connect small business borrowers with individual and organizational investors.  
SoMo’s user-friendly technology allows business borrowers to raise capital from friends and family, customers and community supporters as well as from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn connections. Investors lend money directly to borrowers through the SoMo platform, which then packages the loans and sells them as notes, bypassing banks and credit-card issuers.
Innovation type: Investing, lending, small business

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Thomson Reuters is pleased to introduce their new App Store solution that enables access to the latest innovative capabilities and tools for use across the digital enterprise. Thomson Reuters’ solution makes it easy for financial institutions and third-party developers to create and integrate pioneering market monitoring and investing apps. 
By seamlessly enabling the combination of Thomson Reuters content, firm’s customer account data and firm’s internal and other data sources, Thompson Reuters is helping institutions leverage the providers of financial content. This delivers a differentiated experience for their customers while lowering both development costs and time to market.
Innovation type: Investing, marketing, mobile, online, PFM

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Approximately half of the world’s population are cash-preferred consumers (unbanked, underbanked, teens or privacy-concerned) and have no bank account or limited access to traditional financial services. eCommerce merchants have not had a way, until now, to monetize this segment of consumers simply missing out on the substantial revenues they represent.
ZipZap will unveil the latest innovations in global cash transaction solutions for eCommerce merchants. CashCade ensures no more lost revenue from card-based transactions being declined, while CashPayment enables consumers worldwide to make payments for online purchases at offline locations using cash.
Innovation type: Back office, payments

Finovate Alumni News– April 11, 2012

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  • Bazaarvoice appoints Kelly Connery as GM of brands in North America & Matthew Schatz as GM of retail & emerging markets.
  • SoMoLend wins first place prize in the University of Dayton’s 2011-12 Business Plan Competition. See it demo live at FinovateSpring.
  • Bank Technology News reports Intuit Buys M-Payments Co. AisleBuyer.
  • Over 100 institutional partners offer Currensee Trade Leaders Investment program to investors.
  • Expensify Lite iPhone app is now Expensify.
  • Mashable features Personal Capital. Come see its live demo at FinovateSpring.
  • Equifax launches ID protection & credit monitoring product for the family.
  • Ping Identity partners with Macnica Networks.
  • Kiplinger covers Betterment.
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.