TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon Helps Kids Save for College

SASGamesLogo.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2015.

TiViTz showed how its College $avings Game-a-thon helps kids of all ages save for college:

The TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon is a market-disruptive tool that complements existing financial savings vehicles and provides a solution for families to offset potential student-loan debt and to help cover the cost of higher education.

The Game-a-thon—where students solicit pledges online from friends and family for playing TiViTz games—is similar to a Walk-a-thon, only fully automated from pledge solicitation to fund deposit into a savings vehicle. The Game-a-thon can fundamentally change the way families think about affording college and significantly empower children to take responsibility for, and contribute to, their own advanced education, all while improving their math skills and financial literacy.

Presenters: CEO Siobhan Mullen; Director, Technology, Patrick Moore
 
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Product launch: September 2015
Metrics: TiViTz has raised more than $5 million from angel investors. The company has 10 employees to manage tournaments, events, operations, marketing, and promotions, as well as product development with game developers in Europe (Unit9) and with fundraising tool software developers in California (SETA International).
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C) through financial institutions, through other fintech companies and platforms, licensed
HQ: Cocoa, Florida, U.S.A.
Founded: February 2004
Twitter: @tivitz

Finovate Debuts: SAS Games Helps Kids Save for College by Playing Games

The Finovate Debuts series introduces new Finovate alums. Today’s feature is SAS Games, which demonstrated its TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon at FinovateFall 2014.

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SAS Games’ TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon offers a way for kids to save for college tuition by playing fun, math-based games.

The game-a-thon works similar to a walk-a-thon. Kids ages 6 to 18 solicit pledges from friends and family, whose total contribution is based on the child’s performance. To redeem the pledges and add the money to their college savings account, the child is challenged with TiVitz math games online.

Aside from bolstering funds in existing accounts, the games encourage families without a college savings fund to open one.

Stats:

    • $5+ million in funding raised
    • 10 employees
    • 10,000 teachers use TiVitz
    • 400,000 children use TiVitz
    • TiVitz game has won awards from:
      • Parent’s Choice
      • Dr. Toy
      • National Parenting
      • Creative Child

How it works:

1) Kids set up their TiViTz account online
The registration process requires student and parent information, along with a $10 annual registration fee.

2) Link an existing college savings account or establish a new one
Through SAS Games’ partnership with TrustEgg, parents of children without a savings account can open one in minutes (watch TrustEgg’s debut at FinovateSpring 2013).

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3) Request pledges from friends and family
Kids set up their own personalized pledge page and send the link to friends and family. They may also send donation requests via email, text, social media, and printed flyers.

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4) Play the game
In the TiVitz game, kids challenge each other or a computer. The difficulty of the game scales for grade levels 1 to 12.

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Players customize their avatar and choose among 7 themes, such as Safari or Baseball. Once the game has ended, they tally their score by computing the equations on the board.

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5) Collect pledges
When the child finishes the required number of games, TiVitz automatically invoices the friends and family members who pledged. Occasionally, companies and financial institutions match donations to help kids reach their goals faster.

6) Track college savings
The dashboard displays the total amount raised from friends and family, along with matched charity contributions. From the home screen, kids can personalize their pledge page, view the number of pledges requested and received, and more.

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The TiVitz online Game-a-thon is held once a year, around the holidays. Kids play 5 to 16 games each, depending on the amount of their pledges. Other activities around the TiVitz game include:

  • TiVitz Tournaments
    Boeing, Lockheed, NASA, National Hockey League, SeaWorld, and Major League Baseball sponsor tournaments where kids win college scholarships
  • TiVitz Tuesdays
    SAS Games is partnered with McDonald’s in Florida which hosts kids every Tuesday to practice for TiVitz tournaments

Benefits

For families and children:

    • Encourages them to open a new savings account
    • Helps them save more money for college
    • Augments math and critical thinking skills

For banks:

    • Provides access to new clients
    • Has potential to add new savings accounts for existing customers
    • Adds more funds to existing savings accounts
    • Enhances Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) efforts in local communities

SAS Games demonstrated its TiVitz College $avings Game-a-thon at FinovateFall 2014.

Alumni News– December 5, 2014

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgGreater Fort Wayne Business Weekly takes a look at Allied Payment Network and PicturePay.
  • Capital Resorts announces collaboration with Access Development.
  • Bank of Georgia buys Georgian arm of Ukranian-based PrivatBank for $51 million USD.
  • Live Mint features BankBazaar in a column on financial product aggregators.
  • Huffington Post interviews Lisa Pearson, CMO of Bazaarvoice.
  • Dwolla releases new apps for Android, iOS, and Windows.
  • Finovate Debuts: SAS Games Helps Kids Save for College by Playing Games.
  • ThreatMetrix Protected 10 of the Top 20 Online Retailers Against Fraud During Cyber Week.
  • Segmint partners with fan and consumer engagement software company, Phizzle, to deliver 1-to-1 engagements.
  • Credit Karma transitions to the VantageScore 3.0 Score provided by TransUnion.
  • Muthoot Finance picks FIS for ATM managed services, video surveillance, and network connectivity and switching.
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.

SAS Games’ Platform Helps Students and Families Afford College

SAS Games’ Platform Helps Students and Families Afford College
This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateFall 2014.
SASGamesLogo

SAS Games debuted TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon:

“The TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon is a market disruptive tool that complements existing financial savings vehicles and provides a solution for families to offset potential student loan debt and help cover the cost of higher education. The Game-a-thon (where students solicit pledges online from friends and family for playing TiViTz games) is similar to a Walk-a-thon fundraiser, only fully automated from pledge solicitation to fund deposit into a savings vehicle.  
The Game-a-thon is positioned to fundamentally change the way families think about affording college and to significantly empower children to take responsibility for and contribute to their own advanced education . . . all while improving their math skills and financial literacy.”
Presenting: Siobhan Mullen, CEO and Stephen Scully, President
SASGamesHomepage
Product Launch: November 2014
Metrics: SAS Games has raised over $5M from angel investors to develop the various TiViTz products, tournaments, and programs. The company has 10 employees to manage tournaments, events, operations, marketing, and promotions, as well as product development with our game developers in Europe (Unit9) and software tool developers based in California and Japan with programmers in Vietnam (SETA International).
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), through financial institutions, through other fintech companies & platforms, licensed
HQ: Cocoa, FL
Founded: February 2004
Product Demoed: TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon

FinovateFall 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 7

FinovateFall 2014 Sneak Peek: Part 7
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In the final FinovateFall Sneak Peek of our series, we’re showcasing nine companies: eMoney Advisor, Finovera, Luxoft, Minetta Brook, P2Binvestor, SAS Games, SelfScore, Sender, and Top Image Systems

These companies are coming to the Finovate stage in New York from all over the globe to showcase their newest fintech on September 23 and 24. Tickets are going fast; get yours here to be a part of it.
Want to see more of what to expect at FinovateFall? Here are some companies you may have missed:

eMoneyLogo

With eMoney Advisor, if you’re a salesman with a practice selling products, it’s not for you. eMoney is built for advisors running a business based on relationships.

Features:
    • With EMX, you’ll work smarter, not harder
    • Integrations and ease of use are the future
    • eMoney’s latest technology will define advisor success
Why it’s great:
With so many enhancements, it’s easy to focus on eMoney’s features–but it’s more important to remember the benefits: eMoney solidifies the advisor/client relationship.
ChadeMoney

Presenters:

1) Chad Porche, Senior User Interface Designer  
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2) Kyle Wharton, Director of Business Development  


FinoveraLogo

Finovera is transforming Online Bill Pay into holistic personal financial management with eBills and payments at its core designed for banks and credit unions.

Features:
    • Receive, view and pay all bills – on bank site
    • Enables bill pay with credit cards – Banks get paid for offering Bill Pay
    • Great user experience – simple, convenient, attractive and mobile
Why it’s great
Transform your bill pay from cost center into revenue center

PurnaFinovera

Presenters:

1) Purna Pareek, Founder and CEO
Pareek is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of the company. He founded Finovera to bring simplicity, efficiency and convenience to household bill and information management.
2) Amanda Zepeda, Marketing Manager  


LuxoftLogo

Luxoft’s Horizon is a cutting-edge data visualization framework for financial institutions. It enables executives to quickly identify and resolve problems in multiple domains such as risk and regulation.

Features:
    • A fast and intuitive access to data
    • Ability to collaborate across roles and teams
    • Radically shortens the decision-making time
Why it’s great:
Horizon – executive dashboards that give you back control. There is no need to hide.
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Presenters:

1) Przemek Berendt, Global Marketing Vice President
Global Marketing Vice President at Luxoft (NYSE: LXFT) responsible for its B2B, B2E, and CSR strategies. Berendt led Luxoft’s winning presentation at Finovate London 2014.
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2) Fabrice Aresu, Head of Business Support Group

Aresu is Luxoft’s Horizon Product Manager, focusing on Advanced Data Visualization; he worked 15 years in Finance & Risk software, at Thomson Reuters and Oracle.





MinettaBrooklogo

Minetta Brook’s KNEWSAPP allows trading and investment professionals to take advantage of news related market inefficiencies by surfacing tickers, topics, and stories that are currently developing in the news.

Features:
    • Track news, blog & tweet VELOCITY around your portfolio tickers, in real-time
    • Use its linguistics based STORY SCORES to prioritize what you read
    • Get to key active topics quickly, with STORY DNA
Why it’s great:

Track news, blog and twitter stories as they develop, well before they become headlines.
MinettaBrook1

Presenters:

1) DB (Deepak) Bharadwaj, Founder & CEO
Technology pioneer at Microsoft & Sun. Built and ran multiple multi-hundred million dollar businesses. Over 20 years of technology expertise with specialty in operations & turnarounds.
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2) Viplav Nigam, Head of Engineering

Built & ran NASDAQ’s trading system. Developed ultra low latency news feeds for trading at RTT News. Over 20 years of financial technology experience.





P2BinvestorLogo

P2Binvestor (P2Bi) is a crowdlending platform for receivables-backed working capital that is supported by a crowd of accredited investors.

Features:
    • Integrates with QuickBooks Online (API sync)
    • Streamlines the online application and lending process
    • Facilitates better account management and underwriting
Why it’s great:
P2Binvestor makes it really easy for borrowers to apply, get funded, and grow their credit line as their business evolves. Up to $5MM available.
kristaMorganp2bi

Pressenters:

1) G. Krista Morgan, President and Cofounder
Morgan has an extensive background in digital marketing and account leadership for blue-chip brands at some of London’s top interactive agencies. COO for P2Binvestor since 2012.
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2) Clay McIlrath, CTO

McIlrath is a seasoned technologist with more than a decade of experience developing software applications and working with start-up companies. 



SASGamesLogo

SAS Games’ TiViTz College $avings Game-a-thon is a fully automated, easy-to-use, market-disrupting, patent-pending, activity-based fundraising tool for children’s college savings.

Features:
    • Complements existing financial savings vehicles
    • Creates new college savings accounts and relationships
    • Enhances CRA outreach and provides a marketing tool for consumer and business banking 
Why it’s great:
The Game-a-thon provides families a solution to afford higher education by significantly increasing children’s savings, while improving their math skills and financial literacy.
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Presenting:

1) Siobhan Mullen, CEO
Former aerospace executive and Special Adviser to the NASA Administrator, experienced high-tech entrepreneur in launch services, satellite communicatio
ns and data distribution.
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2) Steve Scully, President

Serial entrepreneur and investor with a focus on children’s education through games, inventor of the TiViTz educational games and tournaments.

SelfScorelogo

SelfScore is a disruptive consumer analytics solution that supplements FICO scores and informs a wide array of data-driven decisions.

Features:
    • SelfScore measures consumers in better ways using more information
    • Online profiles, phone data, and questions inform the score
    • Providing insights to users and contextual information to businesses
Why it’s great:

SelfScore uses a proprietary algorithm to attain a more timely and accurate picture of consumer behaviors that benefit both consumers and businesses.
KalpeshScore

Presenters:

1) Kalpesh Kapadia, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Kapadia’s professional career in finance and technology spans 20 years. Before co-founding SelfScore, managed Equanum Capital, a technology fund, from 2007 to 2012 and was the WSJ #1 Analyst in 2005.
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2) Michael Hallinan, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

Hallinan’s professional career spans more than 12 years of strategic innovation. Before co-founding SelfScore, he worked at U.S. CyberCommand and consulted Wall St. firms while at Booz Allen Hamilton.

SenderLogoNew

Sender is the first messenger for businesses, enabling direct chat communication with customers. Sender – like Google’s Search Bar with endless possibilities. Sender – the last and only app.

Features:
  • Creates 2-way communication of business with customers like in usual chat
  • Provides possibility for businesses to create business processes without developers and endless softwareApps updates
Why it’s great
People communicate with each other via chats with similar interfaces. Businesses communicate with people via apps with various unique interfaces and user experiences. 
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Presenters:

1) Kristina Chaiykovskaya, Department Head of E-business in PrivatBank
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2) Maria Gurina, Liqpay Business Development Manager at PrivatBank 

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3) Egor Avetisov, Creative director at Sender 


TopImageSystemsLogo

Top Image Systems’ next-generation mobile image capture and processing solutions, like GlassCapture, are designed to make account opening, bill payment and other mobile-initiated process simple and fun!

Features:
    • Optimal user experience leads to customer loyalty
    • Upfront validation ensures the image is correct 
    • Perfect image capture enables straight-through processing in the backend
Why it’s great:
FIs that establish a reputation for mobile innovation are likely to benefit in the future from greater market share and more loyal customers.