Alumni News– July 25, 2014

• Fox Business News features Kabbage’s small business lending process.

• Huffington Post describes how DemystData’s big data analytics help evaluate creditworthiness.

• Cartera Commerce’s CFO Karen Cambray named a finalist in Boston Business Journal’s 2014 CFO of the Year Awards.

• Bloomberg: BillGuard programmers code in bomb shelters.

• Coinbase launches Coinbase Vault to Better Secure Your Bitcoins.

• MoneyDesktop appoints Brandon Dewitt as its first ever CTO.

• SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert stepping down in order to refocus his attention solely on bitcoin.

• InvestmentNews features roboadvisors Jemstep, FutureAdvisor, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital.

• The Irish Times looks at Holvi’s move into Ireland.

• CMS Wire: Actiance wants to help companies curb social media mistakes.

• Karen Webster of Market Platform Dynamics interviews Zooz CEO Oren Levy.

• eToro announces new version of OpenBook for iOS.

• Mobile Entertainment talks with Adam Levene, SVP of Strategy at Monitise Create.

• LendingTree launches personalization platform.

• Pymnts takes a look at the partnership between Malauzai Software and Trusteer. See Malauzai at FinovateFall in September.

• Fortune.com interviews Bill Siegel, interim CEO of SecondMarket.

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.

LendingTree Launches Personalization Platform

Calling it “the next step forward to help(ing) consumers take control of their financial lives,” Doug Lebda, CEO and founder of LendingTree, announced the launch of the new LendingTree personalization platform.

The platform incorporates LendingTree’s VantageScore 3.0, credit scoring technology designed for the post-financial crisis era. VantageScore is a tri-bureau credit scoring model that can generate credit ratings for more than 30 million more consumers than with traditional methods.

Peer comparisons and credit education are also components of the platform, giving users a level of transparency to the credit-scoring process. And by integrating users’ financial accounts, LendingTree’s personalization platform gives consumers the ability to see an analyze their overall credit profile, as well as spot opportunities to save money.

The key is LendingTree’s ability to leverage its network of banks, peer-to-peer lending platforms, and other credit and financial institutions to provide users with insights into how their behavior affects their credit profile. It also is easier to provide consumers with cost-saving offers that are more relevant and more likely to be used.

A leading online lender, LendingTree has facilitated more than 30 million loan requests and more than $200 billion in closed-loan transactions. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was founded in 1996. LendingTree demoed its mobile app at our spring conference in San Jose this year. See a video of the company at FinovateSpring 2014 here.

LendingTree Debuts New LoanExplorer-Powered Mobile App

This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateSpring 2014.

Making their way to the Finovate stage now is the team from LendingTree. The company has facilitated more than 30 million loan request and $214 billion in closed-loan transactions.

“LendingTree’s new mobile app empowers consumers to find the best deal on a home loan. Through LendingTree’s Loan Explorer platform, which tracks real-time loan offers, the mobile app analyzes a user’s current loan offer and compares it to real-time offers being made by lenders on the LendingTree network based on available interest rates, fees, charges, and monthly payments.

The easy-to-use app allows users to submit data found in the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of a consumer’s current loan offer. The tool then analyzes the interest rate, origination fees, and monthly payments to identify possible areas for improvement. Using interactive charts, consumers can see where and how their current offer might be improved and receive negotiating tips for getting a better deal. Additionally, the app displays several real-time offers from lenders that may be able to provide a better deal, compete with contact details and customer ratings and reviews.”

Presenting: Doug Lebda (CEO & Founder) and Nikul Patel (Chief Product Officer)

Product Launch: April 2014

Metrics: Employees: 204; Full Year 2013 Revenue: $136.24 million; unique visitors: approximately 3 million per month; NASDAQ: TREE; Market Cap: $376.4 million

Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C)

HQ: Charlotte, North Carolina

Founded: June 1996

Website: lendingtree.com

Twitter: @LendingTree