FinDEVr Preview: Who’s Who on Day Two

FinDEVr Preview: Who’s Who on Day Two
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There will be a lot going on over the course of the two day FinDEVr conference in San Francisco next Tuesday and Wednesday. You can still pick up your ticket here.

Each of the companies below will have 6 minutes on stage to show off what their tools are all about:


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PayStand, an online payment solution that offers zero transaction fees

Presentation: Comparing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Payment Types
Card Networks (Visa/MasterCard/Amex), eCheck (ACH/Bank Network/Check21), and Digital Currency (Bitcoin/Ripple/Altcoins) all have unique advantages and disadvantages. Explore the different use cases of why each are valuable and learn how to use PayStand’s unique multi-payment network technology to build the next generation of commerce applications.
Why it’s great for developers:
 
    • Payments as a service
    • Enables merchants to accept eCash, eCheck, and credit card payments
    • Allows for no transaction fees
PayStand is an online payment solution that enables organizations to accept credit cards, eChecks, and digital currency without transaction fees.

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Plaid, an API that powers fintech applications

Presentation: Plaid: API for Financial Infrastructure
Learn all about Plaid, the problems we’re solving, and the companies we power.
Why it’s great for developers: 
    • Access detailed account and transaction data from financial institutions
    • Authorize accounts for ACH and Wire transfers in seconds
    • Verify account holder information

Plaid is an API for financial infrastructure – we give developers the tools they need to build applications that interface with banks.


PrudenaLogo

Prudena is a subscription-based online community that provides value analysis to developers.

Presentation: Prudena: Automating Financial Statement Analysis
Charlie Strout founded Prudena when – after graduating from Columbia Business School – he decided performing fundamental equity analysis was too labor intensive. The presentation discusses how he was able to leverage existing APIs to develop Prudena’s analysis tools and publish his own API.

Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Allows you to reduce the time required to perform financial statement analysis
    • Better understand risk by running simulations
    • Aggregate your investments accounts
Prudena automates the process of performing high-quality financial statement analysis–saving investors time and improving their decision-making processes.


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SecureKey Technologies delivers authentication solutions for online consumer services

Presentation: Moving Away from Passwords: The Future of Digital Identity
We are first exploring some of the traditional ways to secure online access. We will then look at a more innovative approach via device anchoring and dynamic authentication that will show the audience how to strongly and uniquely identify customers with a unified solution across devices.
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Every authentication event provides unique proof of their customer’s identity
    • Simple access with a better, more secure user experience
    • Eliminates password frustration
briidge.net Connect can provide users with the opportunity to use simpler methods that are actually far stronger than passwords and better secured.

SekurMeLogo

Sekur.me eliminates passwords by turning your phone into your digital identity. 

Presentation: Want to be secure? Eliminate passwords!
If you don’t have a password, it cannot be stolen. See a live demo of a patented disruptive technology taking security to the next level, while making login safer and simpler. And see how it can be used to secure payments and reduce shopping cart abandonment for eCommerce and mCommerce.
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Eliminate passwords
    • Single-Click payments
    • Checkout and pay in 9 seconds
If you don’t have a password, it cannot be stolen.

SimplyTappLogo

SimplyTapp provides host card emulation

Presentation: Host Card Emulation
Overview of SimplyTapp’s HCE solution and offering.
Why it’s great for developers: 

Host Card Emulation (HCE) is the presentation of a virtual and exact representation of a card using only software.

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Tagcash, a digital payments and rewards company

Presentation: TAGCASH
The importance and benefits of a platform for both users and merchants that makes use of these key features: digital wallet usage, merchant payments integration, remittance capabilities, and built-in rewards program (which includes marketing modules and advertising).
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Digital Wallet Usage (including Remittance)
    • Rewards Program
    • Practical Advertising
Cash, Rewards, and Advertising can all be found on a single (yet multi-featured) and safe /secure platform.

TxPUSHlogo

The TxPUSH Initiative makes real time account events available to third party apps.

Presentation: Aggregation 2.0 – TxPUSH and the Evented Financial Web
TxPUSH technology is focused on aligning app user experience and FinTech industry players around the Evented Financial Web. The TxPUSH technology will improve the security model of the existing account aggregation ecosystem and promote the delivery of real-time financial transaction data to account holders in the apps they choose.
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Eliminate third party interactions with user credentials
    • Push real time transactions to your app
    • See the launch of TxPUSH and the Evented Financial Web
TxPUSH and the Evented Financial Web deliver the framework to build secure, event driven, real-time apps for the Evented Financial Web ecosystem.

ThinknumLogo

Thinknum provides technology for financial analysts to host their financial data in the cloud.

Presentation: Thinknum: A Powerful Web Platform for Financial Analysis
Learn about Thinknum, the web platform that is changing the way that financial analysts work. Find out more about our unique data and technology that enhances the financial research process.
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Utilize unique web data to value companies
    • Leverage web technology to enhance the research process
    • Manage user generated content
Thinknum is changing the way that financial analysts work, enabling them to manage their own content while enhancing their research processes.

TruliooLogo

Trulioo a cyber identification company.

Presentation: Trulioo’s Global Gateway
Demonstrating how Trulioo’s Global Gateway verifies a consumer’s identity within a single, unique portal. We will input a person’s first name, last name, date of birth and address to show how Trulioo verifies these attributes from our 130+ data sources.
Why it’s great for developers: 

    • Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer compliant electronic ID Verification
    • Instant global address verification for ecommerce and P2P
    • Access over 3B identities
Global Gateway is the leading identity verification solution with the largest coverage in the market.

Thinknum’s Collaboration Tools Help Analysts Build Better Financial Models

Thinknum’s Collaboration Tools Help Analysts Build Better Financial Models
This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2014.
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Thinknum showed how it helps financial analysts build better financial models:

“There are many financial technology corporations that specialize in writing data to users. However, as financial analysts, we saw firsthand how there is no software to manage and leverage the content we created. So we built Thinknum, enabling analysts to take advantage of collaboration tools and cloud computing to build better financial models.”
Presenting: Justin Zhen, Co-Founder
ThinknumHomepage
Product Launch: December 2013
Metrics: $1M raised, 3,500 analysts on the platform
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions
HQ: New York, NY
Founded: December 2013
Website: thinknum.com 
Twitter: @thinknum

Who’s Who in New York Fintech Scene Features Five Finovate Alums

Who’s Who in New York Fintech Scene Features Five Finovate Alums
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With FinovateFall 2014 starting a week from today, you’ll have to forgive us if we’ve got a little New York on the brain.

But you’d have to admit that the latest roundup of the New York fintech scene’s “Need to Know” from AlleyWatch couldn’t be more timely.

Even better, not only does the lineup include five companies that have demoed at Finovate shows in the past, it also features a pair of alums that are presenting at the upcoming FinDEVr event in San Francisco, as well.
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That would be CardFlight and Thinknum. Derek Webster, founder and CEO of CardFlight, and Thinknum Co-Founder Justin Zhen were two of the five alums featured in AlleyWatch’s “21 People in the New York FinTech Scene You Need to Know About.” CardFlight specializes in mobile POS technology that enables card-present transactions. Thinknum has designed a web-based platform that helps financial analysts leverage big data to better value companies.

Both companies will be presenting at FinDEVr at the end of the month. Bronze sponsor CardFlight will host a presentation at FinDEVr on Tuesday. Thinknum will be holding its FinDEVr workshop on Wednesday. And there’s still time to get your tickets and join us for the first fintech event for developers.
Also noted in AlleyWatch’s review of New York’s Fintech Who’s Who were Betterment Product Manager Nick Gavronsky, LearnVest founder and CEO Alexa von Tobel, and Market Prophit CEO Igor Gonta.
Betterment was a Best of Show winner at FinovateFall in 2010. LearnVest won Best of Show honors for its demo at FinovateFall 2013. And Market Prophit made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose.

Alumni News– July 29, 2014

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  • Concur partners with Uber to allow Concur users to link their accounts and automatically send Uber receipts to their expense reports.
  • The Financial Brand looks at opportunity for banks and credit unions in the Loop Visa partnership. 
  • Open Bank Project making its API available during hackathon in September.
  • TechCrunch explores Pellucid Analytics’ take on PowerPoint pitch books.
  • Seed Me! Thinknum raises $1 million in seed funding round.
  • Feature on robo-advisors highlights seven alums: Betterment, Financial Guard, FutureAdvisor, Jemstep, Personal Capital, SigFig, and Wealthfront.
  • Macwelt reviews banking app Numbrs.
  • Bank Systems & Technology points to Moven as a nontraditional financial service provider “gunning” for banks.
  • Xero partners with MarketInvoice to bring faster funding to UK businesses.
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.

Seed Me! Thinknum Raises $1 Million in Seed Funding Round

Seed Me! Thinknum Raises $1 Million in Seed Funding Round
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Thinknum, a web-based platform that makes it easy for junior bankers to read and analyze corporate financial data, announced today that it had raised $1 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Pejman Mar Ventures, and included participation from 500 Startups, 645 Angels, Green Visor Capital, HKB Capital, and Signature Capital.

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Quoted in The New York Times Dealbook, Thinknum co-founder Gregory Ugwi talked about his technology as “building a platform using the web to become one living, intelligent platform.” Indeed, one of the virtues of Thinknum’s solution is the technology’s ability to pull data directly from the Internet, saving analysts a significant amount of data collection and entry time. In fact, Dealbook’s coverage of the announcement included a report on the “grueling” working conditions of the average junior banker to help make the point.
Thinknum says that the funding will go toward hiring additional software engineering talent. 
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Thinknum was referred to as the GitHub for finance in a TechCrunch profile this spring. The company seeks to crowdsource financial analysis, making it possible for financial professionals to benefit from their combined efforts in much the same way that programmers are able to do with code. The technology is optimized for collaboration, enabling efficient change-tracking and audit trails.
Founded in 2013, and based in New York, Thinknum will make its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in September. To join us and see Thinknum in action, click here. Early-bird savings are still available.