2012 - Page 30 of 75 - Finovate (2024)

New Zealand-based cloud accounting software company, Xero, recently held its annual meeting where it released some interesting metrics andannounced it has reached 100k paying customers.

Here’s a summary of what it disclosed:

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Hardware and software security solutions company, SecureKey Technologies, announced today it has appointed Charles Walton as new CEO.

Walton, who comes to SecureKey with over thirty years of experiencein the security industry, has served as INSIDE Secure’s General Manager and EVP of the NFC and Secure Payments Business since 2005.

He will begin his new role at SecureKey next month.

To learn more about SecureKey, watch its FinovateEurope 2011 demo.

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Finance startup, Simple (formerly BankSimple), quietly made a couple of announcements today.

First, a few weeks ago it began the process of on-boarding the 125k customers on its wait list. To give you a reference of how long that is expected to take, TechCrunch reports that those who request an invite today can expect to receive their card in the mail sometime this Fall.

In addition to this, it announced one of its co-founders and CTO, Alex Payne, is leaving the company to pursue his interest in programming languages and developer tools. He will, however, fill the role as the startup’s advisor.

To learn more about Simple, watch itsFinovateFall 2011 demo.

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Earlier this week, Forbes featured an article on payment gateway, Braintree. Throughout the two-page piece, the author reveals some interesting facts about the Chicago-based company.

Here are some highlights:

• Customers include OpenTable, Fab.com, Airbnb, Uber, Angry Birds, and Living Social
• The name Braintree comes from a town in Massachusetts that was home to Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams
• By the end of 2012, Braintree will employ at least 100 people
• Braintree’s mobile client libraries are now at nearly $1 billion in mobile volume
• Braintree’s clients are in 30 countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia (its staying out of China and Japan because of regulatory issues)

CEO Bill Ready strives to make Braintree the iOS of payments. Forbes reports:

“He wants Braintree’s technology to be like Apple’s (AAPL) operating system — a way to make all the complexity of the payments infrastructure easier for developers to access without requiring them to know all of its nuts and bolts.”

To learn more about Braintree, watch its FinovateSpring 2011 demo.

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Consumers hate fees, of course. But that doesn’t stop them from paying $1,000 per year for their iPhones. It’s all about perceived value.

No one will ever confuse a bank with Apple. But there are hundreds of value-added services that financial institutions could offer customers for a fee (note 1).

For example, document registration. There couldn’t be a more mundane service than document registration. Yet, it fills a real need for the constantly unorganized, and their heirs.

Four years ago (see May 2008 post), we wrote about FindYourPolicy.com, a startup that had created a service to help people keep better track of their life insurance and beneficiaries. According to the company $1 billion in insurance policies go unclaimed each year due to unknown or lost beneficiaries. Although it sounds simple, tracking down beneficiaries can be a timely and expensive process. Outsourcing some or all of that is an appealing idea.

In 2008, the company was trying to get consumers to pay $25 to $50/year for the service. We didn’t expect that fee to stick and later that year the company abandoned that model. Now they allow users to register life insurance policies free of charge, then assess heirs $9.95 to search the database for potential policies. It would be a good business if it gained a critical mass of users, but that won’t be easy.

However, life insurance recording would be an excellent value-add for online banking. It’s a bit of a stretch to think you’d be able to get a fee for just that. However, if you expand the service to include more document types such as wills, titles, and contracts, it begins to have more potential for fee income.

But to really bring value to the service, you’ll likely want a storage piece as well. Although Wells Fargo shuttered its vSafe service in March (post), several large credit unions are moving into the storage space, including Northwest Federal Credit Union which is providing its 68,000 e-statement users with 100MB of free storage space powered by DigitalMailer (note 2, 3, 4).

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Northwest FCU showcases its new My Virtual Strongbox storage service in a homepage ad (15 July 2012)

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Notes:
1. For info on fee-based financial services, see the Online Banking Report (subscription) on fee-based online services (May 2011); paperless banking and online storage (late 2010); and lifetime statement archives (2005).
2. We looked at DigitalMailer’s new My Virtual StrongBox in our April report (subscription).
3. Members using e-statements get 100 MB free storage and can pay a fee for additional space.
4. DigitalMailer will be demoing VirtualStrongbox at FinovateFall 2012.

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We’re just seven weeks out from FinovateFall 2012 and the show is shaping up to be our best ever.

We have an amazing lineup of presenters committed to demoing their newest fintech innovations via our fast-paced, no-slides-allowed format.

Plus an equally amazing audience that is filling up fast via early-bird tickets with leading executives, investors, press and entrepreneurs.

In case you’re curious who’s in that audience, here is a small sample of the companies that will be joining us on September 12th and 13th in Manhattan:

With so many innovative and influential people coming together under one roof, this is one event you won’t want to miss. Early-bird tickets are on sale through this Friday, July 27th at $100 off of the regular ticket price. Please get yours before it is too late and we’ll see you in September!

FinovateFall 2012 is sponsored by: The Bancorp Inc., the law firm of Hudson Cook, Inter-Atlantic Group & Tier One Partners

FinovateFall 2012 is partners with: American Bankers Association, BankInnovation, BankerStuff, Benzinga, California Bankers Association, Celent, Filene, Finance on Windows & PYMNTS.com

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Social data startup, DemystData, announced yesterday that it and Chexar Networks have implemented their new consumer scoring algorithm with select beta clients.

The two companies have spent a year testing and modeling Chexar’s data on consumer check cashing with the data DemystData has around online, social, and mobile interactions. The intent of the tests is to help Chexar determine the riskiness of a new bank customer by using a map that correlates customer-level characteristics and risk outcomes.

With the map, Chexar is now able to help underbanked consumers coming into the banking world by assessing the data that exists about them online.

To learn more about DemystData, watch its FinovateFall 2011 demo.

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SaveUp, a free rewards program to help consumers get out of debt, announced a $5 million round of financing yesterday, which comes after the initial $2 million seed round from Blue Run Ventures and True Ventures it closed in November of last year.

Existing investors participated in the new round, and the remaining contributors are undisclosed. So far, SaveUp has closed $4 million of the $5 million, and is looking for prominent angel investors to close out the round.

Along with covering the announcement, TechCrunch disclosed the following stats:

• 20% of users sign in daily
• 45% of users sign in weekly
• 68% of users sign in once a month
• Users have registered over half a billion dollars in debt in the system, including:

– $317 million in mortgage debt
– $45 million in credit card debt- $148 million in loan debt

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Earlier this week, dynamic discounting platform, Taulia announced a partnership with Northgate Information Solutions.

Through the partnership, Taulia will provide self-service capabilities to Northgate’s supplier base, including:

• E-invoicing
• Full automation of purchase-to-pay processes
• Comprehensive visibility into the invoice process

To accomodate Northgate’s global supplier base, Taulia’s platform integrates with Northgate’s SAP ERP system to enable invoice compliance across country borders. This allows Northgate to provide the same level of extensive functionality, automation and visibility to its vendors regardless of their country.

To learn more about Taulia, watch its FinovateSpring 2012 demo.

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