Alumni News– August 28, 2014

• Pymnts features PayPal’s OneTouch mobile payments app.

• Check out Blooom’s take on 401(k)s…. We can’t stop laughing.

• American Banker considers how banks are looking closely at how BillGuard uses geolocation to prevent fraud.

• Taulia launches SupplierPay.org to help corporations support the White House’s SupplierPay initiative.

• IBM and Monitise expand partnership to combine IBM’s sales and specialist resources with Monitise’s Mobile Money services.

• Pymnts.com feature on lending shares observations on consumer credit from Lending Club.

• Spreedly now serving 70 gateways in 82 countries.

• Forbes column on natural language processing features Narrative Science and Yseop.

• Wired.co.uk profiles BehavioSec in its Stockholm category of “Europe’s hottest startups” in 2014. See BehavioSec at FinDEVr this fall.

• CopSonic joins the FIDO Alliance.

• Markets Media features interview with Avoka CEO Phil Copeland.

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 28, 2014

• PayPal announces partnership with MyOrder to enable PayPal payments at 1,500 locations in the Netherlands.

• SecureKey launches new single-stack API integrations for card-present, card-not-present, and ACH transactions.

• Concur adds gamification features to TripLink, the company’s spend management solution.

• Expensify changes report submission and approval process for those using Expensify outside of an expense policy.

• Concur partners with Airbnb to make it easier for business travelers to file expenses when booking on Airbnb.

• RazorSocial takes a look at simplifying Google Analytics using Quill Engage from Narrative Science.

• Financial Guard featured in Investment News’ review of “robo-advisors” and online investment managers.

• Huffington Post: Pellucid Analytics turns data into content to make lives easier for investment bankers.

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 7, 2014

• American Banker features Tradeshift in a column on startups innovating in the small business bill pay space.

• Credit Union Broadcast interviews Greg Ewald, VP of Marketing for Loop.

• Zighra partners with Toyuma to launch a Kickstarter project to launch PassZweipe, a password manager app.

• Billhighway to provide automated donation processing for The Michigan Humane Society.

• Open Bank Project organizing Hack/Make The Bank hackathon in Berlin. Check out more builder tools at FinDEVr this Fall.

• Bill.com, ZenPayroll, and Expensify earn spots Sqrl blog’s list of 39 apps you didn’t know could grow your business.

• Narrative Science’s Kris Hammond is featured in Business Insider’s Technology section.

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.

Where the Alums Are: A Remembrance of FinovateSpring Past

It is hard to believe that it is almost time for FinovateSpring 2014.

There’s still plenty of time for you to get your tickets to our upcoming event in San Jose, California on April 29 and 30. Our final Sneak Peek preview post is up, all the companies who were prepping under the radar are now out of stealth, and we can’t wait for you to see what this year’s spring crop of fintech entrepreneurs and innovators has in store.

Before we do, however, let’s take a moment to take a look back at last year’s FinovateSpring alums. As we scrolled through blog archives, several themes jumped out: the appetite for startups remains as passionate as ever, with three of our Spring 2013 alums being acquired by such financial sector potentates as Intuit and PayPal. And venture capitalists continue to see innovation in this space as a more than worthwhile investment, with 20 separate fundings for Spring 2013 alums

We’ve grouped the achievements into four categories: Exits, Fundings, Awards, and Acquisitions. Enjoy!

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EXITS

• Jack Henry buys Banno for undisclosed sum
• The rumors are true: eBay’s PayPal acquires Braintree for $800 million in cash
• Intuit buys tax planning/preparation specialist GoodApril
• TaxAct acquires Balance Financial

FUNDINGS

• CardFlight secures $1.6 million in seed funding from ff Venture Capital
• Encap earns seven-figure investment from ProVenture Seed
• EyeVerify earns $2.3 million in Series A funding
• Jemstep raises $4.5 million in Series A round
• Kabbage brings in $270 million in debt financing to provide small businesses with funding of their own
• Kabbage brings in $75 MIllion in debt financing
• Leaf raises $20 million from Heartland Payment Systems
• Alternative lender LendUp raises $14 million in new funding
• D3 Banking creator Lodo Software Brings in $3 million
• Narrative Science secures $11.5 million in Series C funding
• OpenCoin wins investment from Google Ventures, IDG Capital Partners
• P2BInvestor raises $1.2 million in Series A round
• PayNearMe leverages Family Dollar Partnership; raises $20 million
• PayNearMe raises $10 million in Series D funding, launches Express Merchant Onboarding Option
• Prestadero raises 5 million pesos ($400,000 USD) in first round of funding
• Quantopian raises $6.7 million in Series A round
• Realty Mogul raises $9 million in round led by Canaan Partners
• SeedInvest raises $2 million in crowdfunded investment campaign
• SeedInvest Raises $1 million in round Led by Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network
• Zooz Closes $2 million Series A round Led by XSeed Capital

AWARDS

• Arxan Technologies wins in the Products and Services Excellence category of the Infosecurity Global Excellence Awards.
• Banno CEO Wade Arnold wins CEO of the Year Award from Technology Association of Iowa.
• Better ATM Services wins 2013 Paybefore Award for Visa prepaid gift card program.
• EyeVerify wins first place at International Startup Competition.
• Finect provides winning entry for Web Marketing Association’s WebAward 2013.
• IntelliReponse wins bronze in Best in Biz Awards’ Most Innovative Product of the Year category for 2013.
• IntelliResponse wins 2013 CRM Excellence Award from CUSTOMER magazine.
• Kofax Mobile Capture platform wins “Elegant Implementation” category of Housing-Wire magazine’s HW TECH 100.
• LICUOS wins Innotribe Startup Disrupt competition at Next Bank Madrid.
• MoneyDesktop marketing video wins 2013 Telly Award.
• Keith Kelly, Mortgage Harmony CEO, awarded a Tech All-Star Award by Mortgage Banking Magazine.
• NICE Systems makes Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.
• OneID wins 2013 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation.
• Virtual Piggy (Oink) receives Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Best Practices Award.
• Yseop Artificial Intelligence Software honored as French National Champion for European Business Awards.

ACQUISITONS

• OpenCoin acquires SimpleHoney
• Kofax acquires data integration software provider Kapow Technologies
• NICE to acquire Causata to enhance customer experience management

Finovate Alumni News– April 2, 2014

• Bottomline Technologies buys Andera for $48 million.

• Marketing Land takes a look at Narrative Science’s free, Google Analytics app, Quill Engage.

• Saudi Arabian Bank Albilad to deploy FIS’ card management system and switching platform.

• TradeKing promotes Kevin Delo to Chief Information Officer.

• Startups.co.uk interviews Tradeshift CEO, Christian Lanng.

• Atlanta Business Chronicle looks at Pindrop Security’s growth: doubling its workforce and has quadrupled its workspace.

• Check Point Software Technologies launches new ZoneAlarm 2015 security product line.

• Finovate alums raise $600 million in first quarter of 2014.

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– March 20, 2014

• More than 25 banks have signed up for Matchi since its launch in November last year. 

• American Banker looks at how Credit Karma and Credit Sesame provide more than just a credit score.

• Thomson Reuters launches Know-Your-Customer service.

• SecondMarket seeks to open Bitcoin fund to ordinary investors.

• Pymnts features Feedzai’s CEO Nuno Sebastiao.

• Striata unveils new logo, new website.

• Fenergo appoints Oliver White to UK Head of Sales.

• mBank and Orange partner to launch full-service, retail mobile bank in second half of 2014.

• MasterPass from MasterCard now available in Italy.

• Narrative Science launches free app to turn data into readable documents.

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.

Narrative Science Launches Free App to Turn Data Into Readable Documents

There is technology that turns reams of data into natural language reports that are virtually indistinguishable from copy produced by human analysts. And I’ve always felt as if it was some of the most underappreciated technology in fintech.

The new free app from Narrative Science may go some way toward helping change that.

Quill Engage from Narrative Science takes data from Google Analytics and translates it into natural language reports for website owners. The technology is powered by Narrative Science’s Quill platform, which the company demoed at FinovateFall 2013 in New York.

In the words of Narrative Science CEO Stuart Frankel, the technology makes it possible for website users of all kinds to maximize their ability to gather meaningful business intel on their website’s performance. “Quill provides instant analysis in the form of easy-to-read, written reports that empower people to do their jobs better,” he said.

“(It) is a powerful way for any Google Analytics user to experience the speed, scale, and personalization made possible with artificial intelligence.”

Quill Engage processes a number of key metrics and trends from Google Analytics data. This includes content engagement, web traffic, referrals, results of paid search, and audience segmentation.

Download Quill Engage for free at quillengage.com

Narrative Science’s products have been deployed in a number of industries, including financial services, insurance, and marketing. The company was founded in January 2010, and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Finovate Alumni News– March 13, 2014

• Payments News: MasterCard, Fiserv partner on Debit EMV for Accel Network.

• Xero named top choice in the list of “favorite online-based business accounting apps” by both PCWorld and Macworld.

• Tate Design blog features BillGuard.

• Credit Karma brings in $85 million in financing led by Google Capital.

• Compliance Week reports: Actiance’s partnership with Shoutlet provides companies with compliant social marketing.

• Expensify integrates with NetSuite and Stripe, raises maximum expense report amount, and more.

• Cardtronics announces agreement with BBVA Compass for branded ATMs in Texas H-E-B stores.

• PayPal’s Pamela Rice joins OnDeck as SVP of Technology.

• Azimo raises $10 million in round led by Greycroft Partners.

• Freshminds explains how Tink, mBank and BBVA are “redefining customer centricity.”

• Kashoo earns spot on ICT 2014 Ready to Rocket list.

• Smart Data Collective highlights Quill from Narrative Science in a column on the business applications of artificial intelligence.

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 Raise $825 Million in 2013, Up 79%

Cheers to a new year! After ringing in 2014, we wanted take a look back at the capital raised by Finovate alumni in 2013. It was quite a year, with alums pulling in $825 million, $365 million more than in 2012 for an increase of about 80%.

2013 funding summary:

• 62 companies raised $825 million
• Q4 had the most capital, with a total of $294 million raised by 17 companies (more than half by Xero, which landed $150 million). 
• October was the busiest month, with $177 million raised (mostly Xero’s $150 million)
• May was second highest with $91 million raised by 7 companies

2012 comparison

Last year Finovate alums took in almost twice as much as 2012, when 44 Finovate alums collectively raised $460 million. The chart below shows the quarter-by-quarter comparison for both years.

Quarter 1 — blog post
More than $155 million raised by 14 companies

January — $57 million raised by 6 companies

• Azimo: $480,000 — blog post
• BillFloat: $21 million — blog post
• Clover: $3 million — blog post
• PayNearMe: $10 million — blog post
• Prosper: $20 million– blog post
• True Office: $3 million — blog post

February — $56 million raised by 5 companies

• Affinity Solutions: $6.75 million — blog post
• CoverHound: $5.5 million — blog post
• DeviceFidelity: $1 million debt financing — blog post
• On Deck Capital: $42 million — blog post
• Tuition.io: $1 million — blog post

March — $42 million raised by 4 companies

• DeviceFidelity: $470,000 — blog post
• SoMoLend: $2 million — blog post
• Q2 (Q2ebanking): $20 million — blog post
• Wealthfront (formerly KaChing): $20 million — blog post

Quarter 2 — blog post
More than $205 million raised by 15 companies

June — $81.7 million raised by 6 companies

• Affinity Solutions: $21 million — blog post
• Kony Solutions: $18.3 million — blog post
• peerTransfer: $6.4 million — blog post
• Personal Capital: $25 million — blog post
• Receivables Exchange: $10 million — blog post
• SeedInvest: $1 million — blog post

May — $91.5 million raised by 7 companies

• Cardlytics: $40 million — blog post
• Dwolla: $16.5 million — blog post
• On Deck Capital: $17 million — blog post
• OpenCoin: undisclosed — blog post
• SumUp: undisclosed — blog post
• Swipely: $12 million — blog post
• TransferWise: $6 million — blog post

April — $32 million ra
ised by 2 companies

• Credit Karma: $30 million — blog post
• Zooz: $2 million — blog post

Quarter 3 — blog post
More than $171 million raised by 22 companies

July — More than $63 million raised by 8 companies

• FTRANS: $2.1 million — blog post
• SumUp: undisclosed — blog post
• LearnVest: $1.6 million — blog post
• Meniga: $6.5 million — blog post
• Prestadero: $400,000 — blog post
• Ping Identity: $44 million — blog post
• SafetyPay: $7 million — blog post
• ERN Global: $1.6 million — blog post

August — More than $26 million raised by 6 companies

• Lendio: $4.5 million — blog post
• Taulia: $18 million — blog post
• Kofax: $2 million — blog post
• Moven: undisclosed — blog post
• Socure: $1 million 
• ERN Global: $1 million — blog post

September — $82 million raised by 9 companies

• MyHero/TradeHero: $10 million — blog post
• Azimo: $1 million — blog post
• Lendio: $4.5 million — blog post
• Prosper: $25 million — blog post
• P2B Investors: $1.2 million — blog post
• Wipit: $1.1 million — blog post
• Narrative Science: $11.5 million — news story
• Numbrs: $3.8 million — blog post
• Check: $24 million — blog post

Quarter 4
More than $294 million raised by 17 companies

October— $177 raised by 6 companies

• ERN Global: $1 million — blog post
• Fenergo: $5.4 million (4 million Euro) — blog post
• Flint Mobile: $6 million — blog post
• Jemstep: $4.5 million — blog post
• Payfone: $10 million — blog post
• Xero: $150 million — blog post

November — More than $87 million raised by 7 companies

• Apprenda: $16 million — blog post
• Bill.com: $38 million — blog post
• CurrencyFair: $2.5 million — blog post
• FinanceIt: $13 million — blog post
• LendUp: $14 million — blog post
• Ripple Labs: $3.5 million — blog post
• Spreedly: $500,000
  — blog post

December — More than $30 million raised by 6 companies

• doxo: $3.5 million – blog post
• Flint Mobile: $2 million — blog post
• Heckyl Technologies: more than $3.5 million — blog post
• peerTransfer: $6.2 million – blog post
• Tradeshift: $15 million — blog post
• Trustev: $500k — blog post

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Note: Funding that companies received before they first appeared at Finovate was not counted. Questions? Comments? Email us at julie@finovate.com or david@finovate.com.

Finovate Alumni News– December 20, 2013

• TipRanks, Narrative Science, Spreedly, and Fiserv earn “True Innovators Awards” in Bank Innovation’s 2013 GonzoBanker column.

• Jos White of Notion Capital talks about credit card fraud and his firm’s investment in Trustev.

• Braintree CEO Bill Ready discusses the future of online payments on Bloomberg TV.

• Nordea, SEB, and Swedbank announce plans to offer MasterPass-powered digital wallets courtesy of MasterCard.

• FIS launches e-learning suite to help FIs comply with new CFPB regulations.

• Business ETC takes a look at growing interest in Irish start-up, Trustev.

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.