Finovate Alumni News– September 26, 2013

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  • Updated Google Wallet app lets users store loyalty cards.
  • MasterCard teams up with National Bank of Egypt, Egyptian Banks Company, and Fawry to launch m-wallet in Egypt.
  • EBay’s PayPal acquires Braintree in $800M cash deal.
  • The Boston Business Journal features peerTransfer.
  • miiCard presents trends from the innovators at FinovateFall.
  • Lendio raises $4.5 million for small business loan-matching Service.
  • TechCrunch reports: SecondMarket launches a Bitcoin investment trust for accredited investors.
  • Billhighway adds Boys & Girls Club of Troy as client.
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– September 24, 2013

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  • Capital Access Network listed among Information Week’s top U.S. technology innovators in 2013.
  • FIS announces analytics programs for customers.
  • Swipely now managing $1 bil in annual sales, 1 yr. after entering payments market & launched Swipely Partner Network.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions announces Select Mobile Lending, a new mobile app.
  • MasterCard and Entrepreneurial Finance Labs join forces to promote SMB growth in developing nations.
  • TechCrunch reports PayPal, Stripe, & Braintree partner with Facebook to autofill billing info in mobile commerce apps.
  • ERN partners with FICO to embed FICO’s marketing solutions within its real-time Big Data analytics platform Looop.
  • Mountaineer Gas joins doxo to simplify bill delivery, payment, and record keeping for its 220,000 customers.
  • Digital Insight announces new CEO, John O’Malley.
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– August 9, 2013

  • Finovate-F-Logo.jpgThe Economist mentions Holvi as a financial company facing regulation that prevents it from lending.
  • HelloWallet unveils research department.
  • Fast Company lists Braintree as 1 of 10 companies with “developer cred”.
  • Google Wallet to end NFC functionality for storing gift and loyalty cards by the end of the month.
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– July 25, 2013

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  • Silicon Prairie lists Banno and Dwolla as 2 Iowa startups to follow on Twitter.
  • Wakefield reports: Bolstr is navigating the legal complexities of crowdfunding.
  • PlayMoolah working with OCBC Bank for the second year running to teach children about saving.
  • FIS announces new prepaid card technology agreement with KeyBank.
  • WebrazziTV interviews miiCard marketing manager Cassie Anderson at Bitcoin London.
  • Finovate alumni Zopa, TransferWise, miiCard, and LICUOS highlighted in Innotribe co-founder Matteo Rizzi column on banking.
  • Invitations for Google Wallet for Gmail start arriving for registered early adopters.
  • All Things D profiles Motif Investing. See them in action at FinovateFall in September.
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– July 10, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgAuthentify launches security app for mobile devices, replacing passwords with digital images and spoken pass phrases.
  • Google Wallet’s “Buy with Google” promotion provides discounts via Android apps ranging from Airbnb to Uber.
  • IBS Intelligence ranks SAGE SA’s Prospero 2nd in 2013 Sales League Table.
  • Manilla’s activated user base surpasses half million mark.
  • CashStar announces new clients for its digital gifting program.
  • Moven’s beta program expands to add additional testers as company anticipates mobile signup by year’s end.
  • Bank Innovation reviews GoBank’s progress toward customer engagement and mobile centricity.
  • American Banker reports: Mitek Receives Patent for Mobile Card Balance Transfers.
  • SecondMarket launches General Solicitation solution in response to the SEC lifting of the ban on general solicitation by the JOBS Act.
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– June 10, 2013

  • FinovateLOGO.jpgThe Oakland Tribune’s Inside Bay Area profiles OneID founder and CTO Steve Kirsch.
  • EZBOB adds variable lengths, longer periods, lower interest, and loyalty discounts on its loans.
  • Realty Mogul co-founder and CEO Jilliene Helman talks crowdfunding and real estate investing.
  • MicroStrategy business intelligence solution, MicroStrategy Express named a finalist at 2013 American Business Awards.
  • Newfination interviews Jilliene Helman, co-founder and CEO of Realty Mogul.
  • SF Gate blog looks at Personal Capital, Wealthfront, and FutureAdvisor.
  • Newfination interviews Kristoffer Lawson, Holvi CEO, on replacing your bank with Holvi.
  • Mortgagebot launches MortgageMarvel site to help consumers shop for mortgages.
  • CNET interviews Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche on recent funding and future growth.
  • Bloomberg BusinessWeek takes a look at the business of Google Wallet.
  • Money Under 30 reviews TradeKing.
  • Intellaegis’s masterQueue technology helps catch wanted fugitive.
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.

First Look: Google Wallet "Pay by Gmail" (and the Pain of Authentication)

image As you probably already know, last week Google launched P2P payments via Gmail (and through the Google Wallet mobile/online interface). Once authenticated, users simply “attach” funds to an email message (see inset).

Bank transfers (e.g., ACH) are free while card-based payments will cost senders 2.9% of the amount, with a $0.30 minimum. However, all transactions are free for an unspecified time during the launch period.

With an estimated 400 to 500 million global Gmail users, the service has the potential to become an important method of sending money (it’s only available to U.S. users at this point). However, like all U.S.-based P2P services, it’s easy to send money, but not always so easy to receive it.

In my first test, I was able to claim the funds relatively easily with my four-year-old Google Wallet account. There was a short authentication process with a login, name, address, birth date and last four digits of my Social Security Number (SSN). After claiming the funds, I was then able to send money out of the system (note 2).

After sending my two cents over to Larry Page, congratulating him on the launch (see screenshots below), I then sent money to my work email account. While it was deceptively simple to send the money, I was unable to claim the money, despite already having an active Google Wallet associated with that email address.

After receiving the email notification, I went through the same authentication process as above. But after logging in and providing my personal info, I was hit with four additional out-of-wallet authentication questions, apparently pulled from public databases (I think NOT my credit bureau due to the errors..see below).

But apparently there was an error in the out-of-wallet Q&A served to me. The first two questions obviously pertained to me, and I answered them correctly, but the final two did not (note 6), so I answered “none of the above.” But Google didn’t believe me, and I was told my answers were “inconsistent” and that I could not be authenticated online.

I was invited to upload three pieces of documentation since I failed the Q&A (all required):

  • Picture ID (e.g., drivers license)
  • Proof of address (e.g., utility bill)
  • Social Security card

Unfortunately, I haven’t laid eyes on my Social Security card for several decades and haven’t a clue where it is. And in 18 years of testing online account opening, no one has ever asked for it. So I’m stuck. Had someone sent me a real payment, I would be extremely frustrated, and would have to either ask for a check to be sent, or use PayPal.

Bottom line: This is a brilliant play by Google, taking everyone by surprise. However, P2P payments (in the USA anyway) are still a pain to receive the first time which dampens their viral growth (note 7). I understand the reasons for good authentication, though it still seems like overkill given that I was only claiming a one-cent transfer via a pre-existing and active Google Wallet account (used for more than $400 worth of purchases this year). And especially after I provided the correct name, address, birth date, SSN and two additional out-of-wallet questions.

But I know the folks from Mountain View, Calif., will work the risk-procedure kinks out quickly (there is a reason it’s called “beta”). And if they stick with it (RIP Google Reader), Google should be able to build a critical mass of financially authenticated users, making “gpay” as easy as using PayPal.

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How Gmail Pay works

Step 1: Craft email message and click on the “$” icon at the bottom of the compose screen

Step 2: Attach funds via Wallet balance, bank transfers, or card; then add memo if desired

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Step 3: Press send

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Step 4: Final chance to review

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Final: Confirmation copy is placed in your inbox (note 8)

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Notes:
1. During the beta test, you can become a P2P user only by first receiving funds from an existing user.
2. I have two Google Wallet accounts, one set up in 2009 and the other established in January 2013 when I got a Nexus NFC phone with built-in Wallet support. The credit card associated with both accounts was stolen earlier this year, and I had to add a new card to both wallets before I could use them. This could have triggered additional authentication requirements on the second Wallet account.
3. The payment appears as a “card” within a Gmail. There is no indication in the title of the message that it might contain money (user controls the rest of the email).
4. The transaction fee was waived for my Discover Card-based payment. I assume it would be on other card types, but I didn’t test that.
5. Users have the option to add a memo to the payment (in addition to what’s included in the email message).
6. Ironically, if the recipient was mobile-deposit-enabled, it would be easier the first time to send a high-resolution image of a check that the user could take a picture of and then deposit via mobile banking. Or, for Capital One 360 users, the emailed image could simply be
uploaded directly into their account (see post). 
7. Though I suspect the last two questions could have been drawn from online info about my brother, who has a different first name and lives 2,000 miles from me.  
8. Yesterday, confirmation emails went to my inbox when I sent a payment. Tonight, I am not seeing that: It’s only showing in my Sent messages.
9. For more info, see our recent Online Banking Report: Digital & Mobile Wallets (published Feb 2013, subscription).

PFMs Are Top Browser “Money” Plugins for Google Chrome

image While they are overshadowed by the hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, there is a growing eco-system of plugins and apps for use with desktop browsers. I recently poked around in the Money section of Google’s Chrome Web Store.

Not surprisingly, Google Finance was the most popular with almost 300,000 users. Mint was second at about half that (160,000 users). No one else was close (see table below).

Of the top 11 money plugins, six were PFMs: Mint, Finance 41, CashBase, PocketSmith, Easy Envelope Budget, and Toshl. Four were investing related, and Zillow tracks residential real estate (note 1).

One surprise: There was just one U.S. financial in the store. BofA? Fidelity? PayPal? No, it was Mountain America Credit Union (screenshot below). There were several international financial institutions in the store as well (Maybank, BBVA, Bradesco).

Bottom line: With 700,000 total users across the top-11 apps, this is a niche market so far, and could remain that way. But interestingly, it’s another place where Mint dominates.

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Table: 11 Most Popular Chrome Extension
in the “Money” Category

Name Users Type
1. Google Finance 283,000 Investing
2. Mint 161,000 PFM
3. Zillow 49,000 Real estate
4. Finance 41 41,000 PFM
5. Cash Base 35,000 PFM
6t. Pocketsmith 34,000 PFM
6t. Wikinvest 34,000 Investing
8. WealthLift 28,000 Investing
9. Free Stock Charts 20,000 Investing
10. Easy Envelope Budget 18,000 PFM
11. Toshl 15,000 PFM
TOTAL 710,000

Source: Google, 18 Jan 2013

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Mountain American Credit Union extension for Google Chrome browser (link)
Note: The app currently has 127 users

Mountain American Credit Union extension for Google Chrome browser

PFM Toshl featured in the Google Chrome Web Store (link, 18 Jan 2013)
Third-party PFM Toshl was one of the featured apps in the broader Lifestyle Category. They have about 15,000 users, making it the 10th most popular app in the Money category.

PFM Toshl featured in the Google Chrome Web Store  

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Notes:
1. And Finovate alums are well represented. In addition to Mint, Pocketsmith and Wikinvest, BillGuard, FutureAdvisor, Xero, ImpulseSave and SmartyPig (previous post) have plugins.
2. For our take on PFMs, see our May 2010 Online Banking Report (subscription).

Mobile Wallet Providers Woo Retailers at Annual Convention

image Last week I was just at ground zero of the mobile wallet battle, the National Retail Federation annual convention in NYC. It was a great opportunity to see what the folks from MCX, ISIS, PayPal and Google were telling the audience of 25,000+ retailers.

No one has won the war, but a few winners emerged at the skirmishes I witnessed:

  • Best Tradeshow Branding: ISIS absolutely owned the show in terms of branded impressions. They had their name on the bags (inset), on the registration desk, ISIS brand on NRF convention bagat two lounges and at their purple booth. Congrats to its Seattle-based marketing/PR team who made quite a splash with that six-figure buy. 
  • Best Product Launch: Google was the only one of the four which launched a new product, its digital coupon/POS initiative, Zavers. The new service isn’t solely a mobile wallet, and the Google Wallet is a key piece of enabling technology. Although its booth was buried in the back, Google had a lot of traffic when I stopped by on day two.
  • Best Partnering: PayPal was the clear winner, announcing a huge partnership with NCR. (NCR, which owned the front of the show floor, seemed to have a huge buzz going at all times, and I don’t think it was a coincidence that the color scheme of the whole show seemed to revolve around the NCR booth). See the post at our Finovate blog for a summary of the deal making.
  • Retailer BFF award: The MCX panel featured execs from Walmart, Gap Inc., Lowe’s, Dunkin Donuts, and WaWa doing some serious bonding for an hour. It made me want to become a retailer, just so I could join MCX. It was impressive.
  • AWOL award: The bank networks, Visa and MasterCard, had virtually no presence, neither exhibiting nor speaking. Square was not represented either, unless you count the keynote by Howard Schultz of Starbucks, which owns a small chunk of the startup.  

Bottom line: Things are still wide open and it’s impossible to see the winners yet to emerge. Silicon Valley remains enthralled with Square (which is partly owned by Visa), valuing it at around USD3 billion. NFC technology is hotly debated, and so far ignored by Apple, PayPal and MCX. There are 280 mobile payment startups hoping to become relevant. And all eyes are on PayPal and Google to further their partnerships with Discover.  

The Digital Wallet Value Proposition

image There has been more e-ink spilled this year on the subject of mobile/digital wallets than any other financial technology. For good reason. The upcoming shift impacts every major retailer, bank, and card issuer, along with their various supporting technology vendors. 

But there are still those who wonder what all the fuss is about. Doesn’t plastic serve the consumer just fine? It’s fast, ubiquitous, and oh-so much better than the checks and cash it replaced. 

The problem with that reasoning is it only focuses on the “last mile” of payments, the swipe. The swipe is easy. That’s why contactless was slow to catch on. It only converted the physical action from swipe to tap; a tiny benefit hardly worth the trouble. 

imageBut the changes being ushered in now have little to do with hand motions. It’s about simplifying the messy process consumers go through when deciding which card to swipe/tap/insert. Consumers, at least those with the luxury of having multiple payment options, are faced with a fairly complex decision process (albeit repetitive):

  • Do I have my wallet with me?
  • What cards are in it?
  • Debit or credit?
  • Signature debit vs. PIN?
  • What card types are accepted (e.g., Visa/Mastercard vs. Discover or Amex)?
  • What is my balance or available credit?
  • Personal card or company card?
  • Will the card be accepted?
  • Am I in revolving status? If so, what impact will this purchase have on my rate or monthly payment?
  • What are the penalty fees if I go overlimit or am late with my payment?
  • Are they any reward bonuses available on this merchant category with a certain card?
  • Are there any card-linked offers at this particular merchant?
  • Are there any other loyalty perks at the merchant for using their card?
  • What are my rewards balances on various payment options?
  • Do I have any coupons or offers to redeem here?
  • If it’s a joint account, is my spouse making purchases on the card I didn’t know about?
  • Do I trust this merchant, or might I end up with a fraud problem on this card?
  • Do I want the merchant to know anything about me?
  • What is this costing the merchant (if I don’t want to drive up their costs)?
  • Will the merchant give me grief over using this option (e.g., surly cabbies)?
  • Does the merchant have any minimum purchase amounts or surcharges for various purchase methods?
  • For non-revolving credit, when will my grace period be over and I’ll actually have to come up with the money?
  • How easy is it to track the payment for later reimbursement or tax deduction?
  • How hard is it to dispute a charge?
  • Which card did I use here before?
  • Is there more prestige in using one payment card over another?
  • Do I need to curry favor with one issuer vs. another (e.g., to get a better rate or higher line of credit)?
  • What is the foreign exchange rate and are there foreign exchange surcharges?
  • Do I have brand preferences for reasons unrelated to the actual transaction? 

Mobile wallets can use their computing power to instantly resolve these questions and present the user with optimal choice(s). Or the wallet could step in and make the choice automatically which is the key value proposition of the upcoming offering from Wallaby (see notes 1, 2).   

Then there’s the whole issue of receipt management and expense tracking that can be integrated into wallets (see previous post; note 3).

Bottom line: I could go on, but the point is that the digital wallet era is upon us, and consumers are going to love it (eventually). How long it takes to catch on is uncertain, but it should be fun to watch.

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Notes:
1. I was briefed on the Wallaby card, currently in closed beta testing, by its founder Matthew Goldman at Money2020 three weeks ago. Like Google’s rumored wallet 2.0 offering, Wallaby hopes to replace all the plastic in your wallet with a mobile app and decoupled debit card (plastic) for use at the POS. Then after the transaction is made on the Wallaby card, its proprietary algorithm will route transactions to the user’s optimal card based on which offers the highest reward amount for each transaction.
2. For a more thorough analysis, see David Birch’s vision of the “decoupled wallet” future here and Tom Noyes Battle of the Cloud, both published this week. And Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson published this opus on Sep 24.
3. Aite’s Ron Shevlin expanded on that in his blog post last week.

Five of Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Finance are Finovate Alums

Fast Company recently published a list of most innovative companies that contained multiple Finovate alumni. Here’s the breakdown:

Overall top 50 most innovative companies:

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Google
Rank: 3
FinovateFall 2011 demo

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PayPal
Rank: 43
FinovateSpring 2011 demo

Top 10* in finance category:

PayPal
Rank: 4
FinovateSpring 2011 demo

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SecondMarket
Rank: 6
FinovateStarup09 demo

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Dwolla
Rank: 8
FinovateSpring 2011 demo

SimpleLogo.jpg

Simple (formerly BankSimple)
Rank: 9
FinovateFall 2011 demo

StockTwits
Rank: 10StockTwitsLogo4.jpg
FinovateEurope 2011 demo

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*Also included in the finance category are:

2. Starbucks
3. Kickstarter
5. Y Combinator
7. American Express

Finovate Alumni Website Traffic in September

Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of Finovate alums using data from Web-analytics company Compete.
Out of 268 alumni, 80 had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in September 2011 and are included in the tables below. Of those, 33 (41%) had more visitors in September than August. Year-over-year, 42 (52%) had traffic increases.
Private Companies
  • Seeking Alpha and Cortera had the highest traffic in September with 2.1 and 2.0 million unique visitors, respectively. Cortera also had the highest increase in number of unique year-over-year visits with over 1.5 more visits in 2011 than in 2010.
  • Kabbage had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, up 280x.
  • Weemba saw the highest monthly growth percentage with more than 7.5 times the number of unique visitors in September compared to August.
  • SmartCredit.com had the highest increase in number of unique year-over-year visitors, growing by 126,000.
PrivateWebTrafficSeptember2.jpg
Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 26, 2011
 
1) The previous month recorded was August 2011
2) Sears Credit Score is powered by CreditKarma.com
3) Truaxis was formerly BillShrink
4) Kasasa is powered by BancVue
Public companies
 
  • CheckFree had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, with over 7 times the number of visitors this year than last year.
  • Intuit had a notable increase in number of unique, year-over-year visitors, increasing by 300,000 visits.
  • Check Point had the highest month-over-month percent growth, with 41% more visitors in September than in August.
PublicWebTrafficSeptember2.jpgSource: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 26, 2011

1) The previous month recorded was July 2011.
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Notes:
1. We reviewed 268 Finovate alumni. Only those with at least 10,000 unique visitors in July are listed.
3. NM = not measurable
4. t= tie
5. Compete estimates online visitors based on the activity of a panel of more than 2 million U.S. Internet users. It is only an estimate of traffic and may undercount at-work usage.