Finovate Day 2 Afternoon Recap and Ratings

Finovate Day 2 Afternoon Recap, Reaction, and Ratings, from Bank Innovation

Curaxian

Curaxian is taking on ecommerce payment fraud. Curaxian analyzes payments data to cut down on manual review costs. Fighting fraud costs time, money and lost orders, so Curaxian is looking to automate it and stop fraud without stopping good orders. The fraud detection rules and its web-based application are constantly updated. Curaxian naturally partners with payment processors. The interface was a bit hard to see on the big screen.

Cool Factor: 2
I want It: 2
Revenue Potential: 4

PayNearMe

Cash is not going away, says PayNearMe, but it’s expensive and risky to process. With a low-tech sandwich board presentation that scored points with the crowd (despite flirting with the no-slides rule) PayNearMe presented a pain point and its solution, which is now being whitelabeled for FIs. It also allows billpay with cash  at retail partners. PayNearMe Express, launched earlier this year, allows small businesses as well as large billers to accept cash payments. PayNearMe makes cash as easy to accept as cards and checks again.

Cool Factor: 4
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 4

Arxan Technologies

Arxan demoed Mobile Application Integrity Protection — at least, we think they did. The security firm looks at devices to see if they’ve been compromised. The demo was, by a long measure, the nerdliest demonstration at Finovate. The room was completely lost by the swirl of code on screen. Protection at the perimeter — the customer’s phone — is more often discussed than security at the core, in the bank. Why outsource security to third parties and customers?

Cool Factor: ?
I want It: ?
Revenue Potential: ?

SeedInvest

SeedInvest is an investor network for crowdfunding. The presenters seemed to refer to their having a role in the passage of the JOBS Act, which affects crowdfunding. SeedInvest claims 9% growth month over month. Investment is in startups. A great feature is hosting investment video meetings within the site – this was demonstrated live.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 2
Revenue Potential: 3

Allied Payment Network

Allied Payment Network showed off its impressive PicturePay, the first-to-market mobile billpay solution. Only 25% of banking customers use online billpay. Meanwhile the adoption rate for PicturePay is 30% higher than traditional billpay on mobile. PicturePay now allows adding payees to biller list, as with traditional billpay, and Allied offers a voice pay solution as well. They’re not doing mind reading — yet.

Cool Factor: 4
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 4

Mortgage Harmony

Mortgage Harmony offers a one-click rate change for mortgages. This is a win for consumers and helps banks with loan retention. There is no closing cost on refinancing as the loan itself doesn’t change with refinancing, just the rate. Consumer happiness with the product might facilitate cross-sell, the presenters said. All refis can be done online. What about mobile?

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 4

Cymonz

New Zealand-based Cymonz offers to address a huge pain point: currency changing and international transfers. Users can send and receive money online using the company’s saas model. Its customer-facing site currency dashboard was less than lovely but functional. Cymonz is available for whitelabeling. Does Cymonz have its own payment rails? The company is seeking investors.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 3

ValidSoft

At the intersection of authentication and telecommunication sits Validsoft. Fraud is coming to the mobile phone — how will banks react? Authentication was a heavy theme at Finovate Spring 2013. ValidSoft employs in-band voice biometrics paired with out-of-band strong authentication to verify users. No call center call means no (or low) cost. The software creates a voice fingerprint using high definition (fidelity?) sound.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 2
Revenue Potential: 3

Bright Funds

Bright Funds enables charitable giving management much as investments are managed. The company touts a holistic and sustainable approach. Givers can pay with credit cards, payroll information, or investment income. Charitable giving, strategically done, can be helpful when tax time comes around. This was another presentation with a conscience, which is great to see. Bright Funds comes out of beta today and is ready to partner with FIs and businesses generally.

Persint

Persint offers consumer analytics for users to compare themselves to peers and plan for the future. Yes, it’s PFM. It uses contextual data and taps public data sources to build a full picture of the consumer’s situation. It offers segmentation of this data to find a closely matching peer group. With a focus on family and family action plans, Persint has the air of grown-up PFM, but PFM is a noisy space with some big players.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 3

Micronotes

Micronotes employed its customer US Federal Credit Union, an $800-million institution, to show off its marketing tool. Good move! The software asks users a question or two or three to generate cross-sell leads. It’s helpful for product opt-ins, followups on dropped processes, and general information-gathering. There is an opt-in for charitable giving as well. Actionable leads reports are presented to FIs. Banner blindness is a big problem for marketers, and this is a creative solution.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 4

Tradeslide Ventures

Tradeslide is a fine-grained analytic tool for traders. Its patented algorithms find successful traders, who participate in a gameified trading environment. The goal is to become an actionable investor.  A leaderboard allows participants to see what the big dogs are doing. That’s a good way for new investors to learn.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 2
Revenue Potential: 2

Gremln

Social media is risky in a regulated industry. Gremln aims to secure your bank’s social media activity. Involvement in social, Gremln says, is essential, not easy and not safe. So how does a bank stay compliant? Regulators look for three things: an approval process, a filtration system looking for keywords and the archiving and capturing of all posts for the audit trail. Executives can see and manage all social media channels with a Hootsuite-like interface. Gremln also says it will generate leads by tracking those in the bank’s market. Curious. A secure message forum and moderation queue are security highlights of this full-featured social portal.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 3

LendUp

LendUp presented the LendUp Ladder, a microloan product with a heart. Small loans are delivered via online or mobile, competing with payday lenders and their often predatory rates. LendUp is currently in beta testing. It offers realtime loan application and decisioning — an application was approved and the money delivered as the audience watched. LendUp is also gameifying (that word came back to Finovate on Day 2) credit building, and educating borrowers about credit. Borrowing behavior is reported to three bureaus to build credit — this is extremely helpful, as prepaid users who often take out payday loans have thin credit files.

Cool Factor: 4
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 4

Adobe

Adobe showed off its Marketing Cloud, which pairs well with its Creative Cloud (formerly Creative Suite) to update the online and mobile experience. The Marketing Cloud helps manage inventory and deliver personalized offers. Marketers can see realtime mockups as data is parsed to deliver relevant, contextualized offers.It also ties in social activity to build a customer picture. Make, manage, monetize and measure marketing campaigns.

Cool Factor: 4
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 4

Zooz

Israeli company Zooz offers in-ad payments — not in-app payments. A complete shopping cart experience launches from within a banner ad. If payment details are already stored on the device, the purchase can be truly seamless. That’s some ROI on your advertising dollars. Merchants control user experience end to end. The company cites a 50% increase in conversions and is looking for partners.

Cool Factor: 4
I want It: 4
Revenue Potential: 4

Plastyc

Plastyc offers a prepaid card management system: Enroll, engage, enhance. Users can create promotions, push notifications to users’ smartphones, and easily customize offers using drag and drop. Plastyc cards, incidentally, are some of the best-regarded prepaid products on the market.

Cool Factor: 2
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 3

Prestadero

Prestadero offers P2P lending for the Mexican market, which has no P2P lenders (we’re told.) The average APR south of the border is north of 50%. The platform offers diversification education for investors. Prest-Express will launch soon to help investors choose loans quicker and diversify. The rate on loans is 8.9%, while returns run 17% in pesos. Prestadero approves only 5% of loans, and has just a 2.1% default rate.

Cool Factor: 3
I want It: 3
Revenue Potential: 4

Day 2 Afternoon Winners: PayNearMe, Allied Payment Network, LendUp, Zooz