May 2, 2014 – Discerning Technologist

This week was Finovate, the Disneyland of Fintech™.

My hats off to the dozen-strong Finovate team. Jim Breune and Eric Mattson really know how to put on a great show. It’s an amazing effort. Well done.

Last night I was fortunate to take part in a great panel discussing what was demo’d this week (thanks to Billy Robins of PayNearMe and Vincent Turner of Planwise for planning such a great monthly fintech meetup in San Francisco, and to Rocket Studio for hosting).

I thought I would share my notes for the panel (below). We had some great questions from the audience, and we met some cool new friends.

I also have some links to Finovate related posts at the end of my notes, and you can see the result of my live blogging on MoneyDesktop’s new Money Summit Blog alongside industry veteran Eric Dunstan.

Together we wrote eight posts about Finovate (Eric’s were far more interesting, so start with the content from the bottom of this link).

http://www.moneysummit.com/the-summit?tag=Finovate

Have a great weekend everyone.

@leimer

Finovate Panel Information

FinovateSpring (Panel/SF/May 1, 2014)

Spring Finovate: First Reactions (aka MMQB)

Rocket Studio 180 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 6 – 8:30 PM

http://www.meetup.com/fin-tech-org-sf/events/176480452/

Panel Moderator

Ari Levy, Bloomberg

Panel Members

Dan Ewing (McKinsey), Walt Cox (mFoundry/FIS), Matt Wreford (Vernier Partners), Brad Leimer (Mechanics Bank)

Themes

Crowdfunding, Private Equity Investment, Social Investment, Authentication/Security, Extended Data/Validations, Automation/APIs

Finovate Best of Show

Almost Winners

CUNeXus (Perpetual Credit Offers/FI, Fintech Partnered with Digital Insight, others on the way; great demo showing VIN scan of a Jeep onstage and immediate loan; full disclosure (I am an advisor), more at cunexusonline.com);

Qapital (Personalized Goal Setting/PFM/Arsenal Example/Images and Personalization);

Coinbase (29,000 BTC merchants on the platform? Come on!).

Very Interesting Too

Radius B2B prospecting and targeting solution software (stop subscribing to lists). D3 Banking has pivoted from PFM provider Lodo Software, now has open-architecture online/mobile suite (just like how far they have come). TD Ameritrade & LikeFolio Leverage Social Media to Generate – and Test – Investment Ideas. Realty Mogul is crowdfunding for real estate, the world’s largest online marketplace for real estate lending.

Missing In Action (aka I wish they were there)

MoneyDesktop, Backbase

Always Interesting

Personal Capital (showed their advisor dashboard and client interaction through one click proposals); ZenPayroll shows payday is a special moment; it’s a chance for business owners to thank people for their contributions and for employees to feel appreciated. LendingTree has facilitated more than 30 million loan request and $214 billion in closed-loan transactions; demo’s their home loan product.

Surprises

Ukrainian ATMs from PrivatBank; Fiserv demoing Google Glass and wearable payments (and not their real time P2P with US Bank); Almost zero wearable, Glass demos; Very little mention of crypto-currency/BTC (only one demo, Coinbase); Less focus on payments than is present in overall fintech landscape; Almost zero-PFM (more PFM 2.0/Savings focus like through Qapital). Fair Lending Analytics from Visible Equity ensuring your lending practices aren’t discriminating. TrueLink’s prepaid card protecting seniors from fraud and gray charges. Rippleshot protecting both the integrity of consumer credit data and the merchant payment network (merchant focus and visualization was interesting). Market Prophit, WePay and TD/LikeFolio the only demos to focus on consumer/social sentiment and it was investment focused. mShift launched AnywhereMobile payment network (weren’t they sold?). SelfPay helps merchants engage each shopper in-aisle, item in hand and on their mobile device (uses iBeacon).

Kind of Confusing (or I was not paying enough attention)

Pixeliris Clinkle-like audio/sonic authentication for P2P payments. Id.ME ties affiliate groups to retail and authenticates ID across network. Tacfi, a website that helps borrowers select a mortgage provider (just a lead gen?). OnBudget (PFM envelope budgeting tool) just not a good showing. Jumio has great technology (that is awful close to Mitek) but showed a better demo/use case with Endeavor/Zoot. CREALOGIX has seamlessly integrated an e-learning management system into its online banking suite (Swiss based, confusing). Quisk digitizes cash and empowers financial institutions and others to prosper in the new, mobile economy. Kofax is demonstrating how its new Mobile Capture Platform can help customers automate the process of checking balances on their retail gift cards. TextKey is the next-generation authentication system that turns common SMS-based authentication models upside down. Roostify offers a web and mobile service designed to enhance home financing, making it easier for buyers and lenders to navigate the frustrating and time-consuming process to apply for and close a mortgage (just a lead gen?).

Financial Institution Focused

Security/Controls/Authentication

OnDot (any card) and Red Giant (pre-paid card) – Card Control, spending management tools through geo-fencing, category control (really liked OnDot). Zumigo ties phone to payment mechanism (card+) and secures geo-fenced transactions. Encap Fair Lending Analytics from Visible Equity ensuring your lending practices aren’t discriminating. Vorstack‘s VFS solution for financial services is a distributed analytics and correlation platform for multi-party coordinated cyber defense.

Lending/Savings/Traditional Account Opening/Insurance/Digital Banking/Payments/Infrastructure

CUNeXus (Perpetual Credit Offers/FI, Fintech Partnered); LendUp leverage the first RESTful API Lending Platform. Custom integration for consumer lending with a focus on market solutions to subprime or payday lending. Endeavor/Jumio and Zoot for their digital on-boarding tool (also gets the award for most condescending lead presenter). Digital Insight demoing Promotion Suite for Mobile, an enhancement to Digital Insight’s current Promotion Suite that brings highly personalized, relevant, cross-sell offers from financial institutions to their customers – showed geo-fenced auto loan generator and notifications. Verde’s Aurora sets itself apart from the limited decision-making capability of today’s loan origination systems. Sureify launches its Unbiased, Simple-to-Understand, Life Insurance Education Solution. D3 Banking has pivoted from PFM provider Lodo Software, now has open-architecture online/mobile suite. Insuritas Launches SmartCART Technology to Show Bank Clients Insurance Options. SmartAsset stepped up to demo its new mobile app that empowers users with personal finance knowledge. Loop is apparently looking for FI partners for distribution.

Bank Rewards/Offers/Savings Engagement

StrategyCorp brings non-banking benefits to consumers using checking products; merchant and service marketplace in mobile; also seen in past Finovate’s from Intuition Intelligence, Cardytics, Bankons, and more. Idea to generate more engagement, loyalty to checking account, driving debit card usage and interchange income. SaveUp rewards savings related activity and gives credits/rewards for good behavior.

Targeting

Radius B2B prospecting and targeting solution software (stop subscribing to lists). ChiaraMail‘s Envelope-Content Splitting Technology Authenticates the Email Sender and Receiver Without Extra Friction

Rise of the API/Automation Ecosystem

LendUp (custom integration for consumer lending with a focus on market solutions to subprime or payday lending), Speedly (an industry API for consuming card data (hotel, ticketing, restaurant, and transportation). LendingRobot helps investors get the best returns by scanning investment opportunities. Yseop automates investment reporting (and anything you throw at it). Interactions (fantastic demo, similar to Personetics, Nuance). Dealstruck online investor API specifically catered to the institutional investor, allowing them to access all data for individual borrowers and to tailor investment decision-making criteria for whole loan and fractional loan investment flexibility. WePay, launching their Veda Risk Engine and Risk API for online marketplaces, crowdfunding websites, and small business software companies. FlexScore gives you total financial clarity wrapped up in a single score. Until now, there has never been a product or service that truly meets the needs of both the financial advising community and your average everyday household.

Side note…Any thoughts on Plaid?