We’ve had a blast following up on the news buzz created by the 68 companies we saw demo at FinovateSpring 2014 last week in San Jose. Now we get to report on a few more details of companies that demoing at Finovate for the first time.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at:
We’ll have further coverage in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
What they do
CUneXus’ Perpetual Loan Approval product gives financial institutions a way to show borrowers a constant view their borrowing power across multiple loan products. It pre-approves the customer instead of simply providing a prediction of what the loan payment and terms may be, if the loan is accepted.
This constant pre-approval can create stickiness by keeping the lending institution in the top of the consumer’s mind when they are ready to make a decision about a loan or credit card. And, since the approval automatically changes with the consumers’ financial standing, it is a more efficient way to customize loan promotions.
Stats
- FI client size ranges from $400 million to $2 billion
- Launched in December 2013
The experience
The web and mobile screenshots below show the variety of offers the end consumer sees. The platform shows everything from credit cards to auto loans, to personal loans. Since the platform is dynamic, it will change the offers depending on the consumers’ financial situation.
For example, if the consumer accepts the offer on the car loan, the platform will automatically rescind the offer on the RV or motorcycle loan.
CUneXus also uses geolocation to target the end user when it matters– at the point of their decision. For example, after a user has been standing at a car lot for longer than 5 minutes, FIs using CUneXus can send them a push notification reminding them of the loan offer for which they are pre-qualified.
Since the system pre-approves users, activating the offer is easy:
After selecting the type of loan and amount, users need only to enter their phone number and when they would like to talk to an agent. To speed the process, they have the option to take a picture of a recent pay stub as proof of income.
Beyond creating more borrower transparency, CUneXus makes loan distribution more efficient for the lending institution. The automation of the loan offer, combined with carefully timed push notifications, can drive more revenue from online and mobile banking.
What they do
ID.me works a bit like PayPal for affiliate groups such as students or veterans. Its network proves that the user is affiliated with the group so that merchants can target these specific groups with discounts and rewards, without the hassle of making them prove their identity.
At FinovateSpring, ID.me showed how its identity verification can be used at the physical point of sale, as well as online.
Stats
- Financing: $16M
- Federal Grants: $2.8M
- Employees: 29
- Revenues (Run Rate): $4M
- Registered Users: 475,000
The experience
The user selects their affiliate group and adds the required information to verify their affiliation. In the screenshot of the web interface below, Blake has already verified his affiliation as an army veteran. ID.me also gives him the option to verify himself as a student or first responder to receive additional merchant benefits.
Once he is verified, he is prompted to link a credit card with his account.
After the user is verified as a member of the affiliate group and has linked their card, they can receive rewards at the physical point of sale, as well as online.
The screenshot below shows the iPad interface of a brick and mortar merchant’s POS system. After swiping the credit card that he previously linked to ID.me, the user (Blake) automatically received the merchant’s discount for veterans.
Since this merchant has card-linked rewards enabled, the transaction was seamless. Blake did not need to know that the merchant offered special discounts for veterans and the merchant did not need to ask Blake for proof that he is a veteran.
Below is a snapshot of some of the more than 70 merchants that ID.me is partnering with. CEO Blake Hall advised me to keep an eye out this summer, when ID.me will release news of a slough of new big-name merchants.
What they do
The Venovate (venture + innovate) platform seeks to make the investing process more transparent, accessible, and efficient. It has a two-pronged approach:
1) For investors
It curates alternative investment opportunities and serves as a broker so accredited investors can directly invest in them. Venovate carefully vets the list to ensure the opportunities are compliant and have a good likelihood of positive returns.
2) For fundraisers
The platform enables alternative investment funds and private companies to raise funds from $200,000 and up on its platform. Venovate verifies the accreditation of investors before allowing them to invest (non-accredited investors can still join, but are in view-only mode; they are not allowed to invest).
The online platform makes it easy for both parties with search capabilities and e-signature functionality.
Stats
- Can reduce the fundraising process from 10 months to 10 weeks
- Launched in April 2014 at FinovateSpring
The experience
When creating their profile, the investor selects the type of investments they are interested in, as well as the dollar range and the number of investments they are willing to make per year. Additionally, the platform shows the investor’s accreditation status and investment history in the upper right hand corner.
This is useful for fundraisers, who are given full visibility to these details before deciding who they will allow to invest in their project.
Venovate’s company directory serves as a resource for investors to search companies seeking investment. It provides high-level information on companies, with an option to drill down into more specific detail.
Each fundraising company has its own profile that provides more details for interested investors. The deal profile below shows relevant information about the deal. It covers basics such as description and minimum investment amount. It also shows the valuation cap, the number of current investors and the number of users currently watching the investment.
Venovate announced its public beta at FinovateSpring, along with an investment from Studio 9+, an accelerator program based in Silicon Valley.
Stay tuned for more behind the scenes features next week.
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