The #FintechRevolution Will Be API’d

The #FintechRevolution Will Be API’d

FintechRevolutionAPIEcosystem

An open Fintech ecosystem for developers could be imminent, at least if Xignite has anything to say about it.

Fresh off its FinovateFall 2015 appearance, the financial market-data provider to many of fintech’s most innovative companies is spearheading a new initiative, the #FintechRevolution API Ecosystem. The goal of #FintechRevolution—a partnership involving more than 20 other technology companies and accelerators—is to make it easier for developers to get their hands on the APIs and tools they need in order to bring their innovations to life.

Stephane Dubois, CEO and founder of Xignite, says the initiative “consolidates the best-of-the-best in the fintech API ecosystem. It will now be easier for firms, large and small, to start and grow financial services and fintech companies just by leveraging the APIs in the ecosystem.”

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From left: Xignite CEO Stephane Dubois, founder, and Anand Vidwanathan, developer, demonstrated Xignite Cloudstreaming at FinovateFall 2015.

Xignite divided the API contributions from the founding members into workflow, analytics and data categories. And, as Finance Magnates reports, a special emphasis should be placed on what it calls “non-traditional” APIs, the ones embracing inclusion of social and sentiment data alongside more-familiar financial data. This social data includes everything from the portfolio-management APIs of Advisor Software to the trader-mood-data APIs of PsychSignal.

The APIs from all of the founding members of the API ecosystem are listed in an integrated, Xignite-powered API catalog for easy access. All APIs have been vetted, and sales-and-support teams from all Ecosystem members are knowledgeable and ready to field questions from developers.

See the full list of founding members of the #Fintech Revolution below. The names of those companies that are also Finovate and/or FinDEVr alums are in bold.

Other founding members include incubators, Draper University in Silicon Valley, Fintech Sandbox in Boston, Level39 in London, and ValueStream in New York City.

Speaking of the initiative and its importance to startups and enterprises alike, ValueStream founding partner Greg Neufeld says, “We wouldn’t be investing our time, relationships and capital if we didn’t believe that the transformative changes happening today are merely the tip of the iceberg.” Neufeld is calling for innovators in fintech to work together to “build a better and stronger moat for the future.”

Neufeld says the entire industry of financial services is being “reinvented from the ground up,” and added: “We’re excited to be a part of this movement.”


FinDEVr2015LogoV2DateIf you are a developer, software architect, engineer, or CTO looking to hear from and network with some of the biggest builders in financial technology, then join us 6/7 October for FinDEVr 2015 in San Francisco. Save your spot and we’ll see you in the city by the bay!

TipRanks Takes Top Prize at IBM Watson Hackathon in Israel

TipRanks Takes Top Prize at IBM Watson Hackathon in Israel

TipRanks_homepage_June2015

Stock market analysis service TipRanks won first place at the IBM Watson Hackathon in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company’s winning solution was StockRadar, an application that leverages the AI of Watson to provide insights into stock market sentiment.

StockRadar determines which stocks have the most positive or negative sentiment, as expressed in both financial news and social media. For the hackathon, the application surveyed more than 80,000 news articles and 30,000 tweets.

The IBM Hackathon took place on 10/11 June 2015 and was the first Watson Hackathon event hosted in Israel. Applications were developed on IBM’s Bluemix platform, and the winning team was awarded a trip to visit the IBM Watson Labs in New York City.

TipRanks called the day-and-a-half hackathon “challenging and fun.” The company was especially glad to “have a working PoC (proof of concept) that (we) can integrate into our existing service. Very exciting.”

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Going forward, TipRanks will be integrating the capabilities developed through the StockRadar hack into the TipRanks dashboard. The company also plans to do some quantitative research to see just how positive and negative sentiment extremes can affect intermediate-term price-movement.

Founded in June 2012 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, TipRanks demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2013 in New York and FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco, winning Best of Show honors on both occasions.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • TipRanks Takes Top Prize at IBM Watson Hackathon in Israel

Around the web

  • Greg Smith and Chris Costello of Blooom discuss simplifying 401(k) management with Fox Business News.
  • Nilesh Dusane, Ripple Labs VP for global sales and client relations, talks about distributed ledgers and the future of payments.
  • EZBOB announces Everline as the sole channel for intermediary businesses.
  • Nomis Solutions teams up with Oliver Wyman to help FIs boost profitability in their retail deposit portfolios.
  • Temenos opens new office in Helsinki, Finland.
  • The Financial Brand highlights the need for banks to compete with Mint, MX, D3, Yodlee, Meniga, Geezeo, and Strands.
  • Investopedia features FutureAdvisor’s use for college savings.
  • Ping Identity enhances partner program with new options, benefits and requirements for partners in three programs.
  • BCSG appoints Deutsche Telekom’s Simon Lunn as COO.
  • Strategic News Service FiRe tech conference names ValidSoft a 2015 FiReStarter Company.
  • ProfitStars Banno Mobile named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: North American Mobile Banking Software Solutions 2015 Vendor Assessment.
  • Huffington Post considers advice from Scott Cook, Intuit co-founder.
  • Remember, the application deadline for the Fall 2015 cohort for the SixThirty accelerator is Friday, 10 July 2015.

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.

HedgeCoVest Takes Top Honors at 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards

HedgeCoVest Takes Top Honors at 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards

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The votes are in! HedgeCoVest is the winner of the Overall category at the 2015 Benzinga Fintech Awards.

HedgeCoVest earned its first-place award at the Benzinga Fintech Awards Gala Event held earlier this month in New York City. The company picked up 5 million ad impressions and a one-year license to the Benzinga Pro Real-Time News & Data feed. Second- and third-place prizes were also awarded.

In attendance at the event were more than 50 CEOs, more than 100 fintech companies, about 20 venture capital firms, 10 major U.S. retail brokerages, and four fintech accelerators, as well as a host of press and media.

HedgeCoVest also performed well in individual categories, winning the Alternative Investment category, and earning runner-up recognition in the Most Disruptive category. Finovate alums taking home individual awards are listed below. See a full list of all winners, runners-up, and finalists.

Betterment: winner: Robo Advisor Tools, Founder of the Year (Jon Stein); runner-up: “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned”

iBillionaire: finalist: Idea Generation Creating Proprietary Data

iQuantifi: finalist: Robo Advisor Tools, “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned,” Idea Generation Strategy

LikeFolio: winner: Idea Generation Research Platforms & Tools

Market Prophit: runner-up: Idea Generation Creating Proprietary Data

Motif Investing: winner: Most Disruptive; finalist: Founder of the Year (Hardeep Walia), Alternative Investment

Personal Capital: runner-up: Idea Generation Strategy; finalist: “A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned”

Thinknum: finalist: Best Use of the Crowd, Most Promising Startup

TipRanks: winner: Idea Generation Trade Recommendations

Trunomi:. finalist: Best Enterprise Solution

Benzinga Unveils Fintech Award Finalists; 12 Finovate Alums Featured

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On April 8th, the Finovate blog might be the second best place to find Finovate alumni.

The best place could actually be in New York at the Benzinga Fintech Awards where a dozen Finovate alums have been named as finalists to compete for Benzinga’s first, second, and third prizes, as well as honors for best in category. More than 115 companies competed to reach the finals in pursuit of the title of “Most Innovative Fintech Company.”

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The first, second, and third place winners will earn ad impressions:
5 million for first, 1.5 milion for second, and 1 million for third.
The top three companies will also win licenses to the Benzinga Pro Real-Time News & Data Feed:
1-year for first place, 6-months for second, and 1-month for third.
The initial 115 companies were chosen by Benzinga readers. Making the final vote for top three will be event judges Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Honos Financial; Ron Insana, senior analyst, CNBC; Andrew Ackerman, managing director, Dreamit; Charlie Kroll, former CEO and founder of Andera; and Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management.
Below are the finalist categories, as well as the Finovate alums in each.
Idea Generation
Data
Trade Recommendation
Research
Strategy
Investment Vehicle
Alternative Investment
Special Categories
Best Enterprise Solutions
Best Use of the Crowd
Founder of the Year
  • Hardeep Walia, Motif Investing
  • Jon Stein, Betterment
Most Promising Startup
  • Thinknum
A Penny Saved, A Penny Earned
  • Motif Investing
  • Betterment
  • Personal Capital
  • iQuantifi
Most Disruptive
  • Motif Investing
  • HedgeCoVest

Alumni News– January 12, 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.jpgFinancial Simplicity and T&C Consulting launch joint venture.
  • Bernard Lunn writes about the revolutionary “license as a service model” of Fidor Bank.
  • Forbes column on technology and community features Bright Funds.
  • ABS-CBN News highlights Toshl Finance among its “5 money moves for 2015.”
  • Business Insider looks to TipRanks to find top stock pickers from 2014.
  • BillGuard, LoopPay, and TransferWise earn spots on Motley Fool’s list of fintech startups that can help consumers handle money in 2015.
  • Open Bank Project is organizing 2 hackathons in Ireland (Dublin and Belfast) for Ulster bank. The first is in Dublin this month.
  • No Need to Fax: Kofax Launches E-Signature Solution, SignDoc.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions appoints Bruce Whitmore as New Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems partners with Industry Retail Group (IRG) to provide PCI-Validated Point-to-Point Encryption to IRG Clients.
  • AdviceGames CEO Diederick van Thiel, Talks About Gamification.
  • Mobile Commerce Daily reviews PayPal’s new BlackBerry app.
  • DoughRoller interviews Blooom founder Chris Costello.
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– December 17, 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.jpgThe Jerusalem Post profiles Israeli startup, TipRanks.
  • CashStar Market Solution is now powering 150 promotions during this year’s winter holiday season.
  • Enterprising Investor highlights Betterment, LearnVest, Motif Investing, Venmo, and Wealthfront in its column on Millennials and money.
  • TechZone 360 discusses CrowdFlower in a review of “What’s Hot and What’s Not on Data Science for 2015.”
  • Yahoo! Finance features an interview with Rippleshot co-founder and CPO Yueyu Fu.
  • WingCash unveils Brand Cash, a digital currency that replaces merchant-specific gift and loyalty cards.
  • Financial Times profiles Betterment CEO and co-founder, Jon Stein.
  • After Manilla’s demise, Mint launches bill pay and bill management platform.
  • Time, Inc partners with Coinbase to accept bitcoin for subscriptions to Fortune, Health, This Old House and Travel + Leisure.
  • Tradeshift to waive 30% revenue share from organizations that build apps to support the circular economy http://bit.ly/13cY6S6
  • Wealth Management looks at the human advisors behind Personal Capital and SigFig.
  • Money Talks News lists alternative lending sites to consider: Prosper, Lending Club, and Kabbage.
  • ID Analytics names Timothy Laughlin as new CFO.
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 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 Finovate-F-Logo.jpgOberthur and SecureKey announce collaboration to enable secure cloud transactions.
  • Zopa reports £250 million lent in 12 months.
  • Xendpay eliminates fee for overseas bank-to-bank transfers.
  • MX boosts its funding total to $20 million with new investment.
  • Xpenditure announces two new partnerships, US expansion.
  • Financial Advisor profiles robo-advisor, iQuantifi.
  • SK Planet teams up with Celcom Axiata Bhd to form joint-venture company, Celcom Planet.
  • Programmable Web takes a look at Feedzai’s anti-fraud API.
  • EyeVerify announces Eyeprint ID v2.0 to launch in January on iOS and Android.
  • Fidor Bank and Kraken join forces to launch specialized bank for crypto currencies.
  • TipRanks CEO and co-founder Uri Gruenbaum discusses financial accountability in a CNBC panel discussion.
  • Dragon Wealth named Euromoney Magazine’s Best Wealth Management Innovator in Asia.
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 24, 2014

  • C. Hoare & Co. choose TSYS’s Prime 4 card management solution.
  • Pymnts interviews Vib Prasad, Group Head of MasterCard’s MasterPass about digital wallets.
  • CSI globalVCard launches B2B payment system called globalVCard travel, designed to alleviate many of the corporate travel industry’s biggest pain points
  • FreeAgent integrates with PayPal Here to make it easier for UK small businesses to get paid faster.
  • Xero confirms it’s planning on filing for a U.S. initial public offering in 2015.
  • Actiance expands on its support of Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online, to help manage risks of Office 365 Lync Online.
  • LoopPay earns investment from Visa.
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.

TipRanks Announces $3 Million Investment

TipRanks Announces $3 Million Investment

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Featuring former New York State attorney general, governor, and so-called “Sheriff of Wall Street” Eliot Spitzer as one of its investors, TipRanks has just closed an initial round of funding, raising $3 million.

Also participating in the Series A round were Roni Michaely, a professor of finance from Cornell University, and John Nakamura, an angel investor. The completed round takes the company’s total funding to $3.7 million.

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TipRanks leverages machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze and rank more than 6,500 financial analysts and bloggers online. This enables the company to provide accurate performance measurements on anyone giving investment or stock trading advice online.
Uri Gruenbaum, TipRanks CEO and co-founder, explained, “Let’s face it, not all analysts are created equal.”
“By scanning leading (financial) websites for analyst recommendations, TipRanks is able to provide its users (with) relevant information regarding the analyst’s performance history.”
TipRanks was founded in 2012 by Uri Gruenbaum (CEO) and Gilad Gat (CTO). The company includes Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi among its financial institution customers. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, TipRanks demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2013, taking home Best of Show honors. See TipRanks in action here.

Alumni News– June 17, 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.jpgTop Image Systems launches eFLOW Signature Verification.
  • Cisco blog takes a look at the company’s partnership with Ignite Sales.
  • Device Fidelity announces first combined module of wireless charging and NFC on iOS.
  • D3 Banking partners with Blackstone Technology to help banks convert to the D3 Banking omnichannel platform.
  • Currency Transfer covers top Israel-based fintech startups: eToro, Seeking Alpha, Zooz, BillGuard, TipRanks, and Payoneer.
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– June 11, 2014

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgAmerican Banker looks at how BizEquity helps banks lend to small businesses.
  • Coinbase and Expedia.com partner to accept bitcoin for hotel payments.
  • Bank Innovation features TipRanks as 1 of 4 Israeli fintech companies tackling security and data issues.
  • The Currency Cloud Passes $5 Billion in International Payments Enabled in Two Years.
  • Market IQ wins spot in Barclays Escalator, a new, 15-week accelerator programme.
  • Monitise announces North American debut of Monitise Create, a mobile suite of innovation, design, and development 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.