Last week in San Francisco, we hosted our largest Finovate event ever with almost 1,200 innovators watching the cutting-edge of fintech debut live.

It was an incredible gathering that showcased new launches in everything from payments to mobile to security to investing to offers and much more (demo videos will be up soon).

Amazingly, based on our initial projections, this September's FinovateFall in New York City promises to beat last week's record attendance and create an unrivaled gathering of the leading entrepreneurs, executives and investors in the financial technology space. 

To lock in your spot in this fall's record-setting audience at the maximum savings, please get your ticket soon. If you buy your ticket before this Friday (May 18th), you'll save $300 via the super early-bird price.

We hope to see you this fall!

FinovateFall 2012 is partners with: BankInnovation, BankerStuff, Benzinga, Celent, Filene, Finance on Windows & PYMNTS.com

After finishing up a Best of Show win at FinovateSpring last week, SoMoLend announced yesterday that it has raised a round of $1.17 million in seed funding.

The round was lead by CincyTech and also included:

Here's a look at press coverage from FinovateSpring 2012 in San Francisco last week. For comprehensive coverage, be sure to check out Erin McCune's live blog on PaymentsViews, which covers all 63 presenting companies:

2 Minute Finance
2MF @ Finovate Spring 2012 Conference
by Bobby Lee
Link

Our fifth annual FinovateSpring in San Francisco concluded a few hours ago. After seeing 63 demos over two packed days, the audience voted for their three favorites each day. The top seven overall were named Best of Show (see notes).

The winners (in alphabetic order):

• BehavioSec for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns
• BillGuard for its card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI
• Dwolla for its FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments
• iQuantifi for its new financial planning & advice tools
• MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and integrated "deals"
• Personal Capital for its iPhone app and interbank funds transfer
• SoMoLend for its P2P lending platform

We'll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate.com as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who presented, attended, tweeted, swapped biz cards, schmoozed and helped push fintech forward. You are the greatest! 

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Notes on methodology: 
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.    
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose three favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day.  
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: "Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted."  
4. The seven companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show. 
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners.

"Balance Street shows consumers how much their debt costs them (as well as the high costs of debt settlement companies), then provides an easy way for them to enter delinquent credit card debt, save money for settlement, and make, accept, and counter offers from creditors. It's a free, secure and easy way for consumers to settle delinquent debt that also provides creditors with critical information to help them recover more debt faster. 

Creditors can also benefit from making large, lump sum settlements with blocks of consumers, saving millions in customer service, mail, fax, email and money transfer costs. Furthermore, Balance Street will introduce and sell diverse metrics to the credit industry, derived from the unique transaction engine it built to help struggling consumers and overburdened creditors."

"InvestorBee puts data at consumers' fingertips so they can make smart, confident investments.

Our users extract wisdom from the crowd to make better, simpler investment decisions - all for free at InvestorBee."

"Access is proud to debut PowerDeals, a micro-redemption rewards engine that increases engagement and loyalty while lowering the cost per point for financial institutions. Studies show that the more frequently consumers transact with rewards programs, the more loyal they become. However, the costs associated with driving this behavior have led many FIs to implement lower earn rates, higher redemption hurdles, and expiration strategies. 

PowerDeals allows consumers to redeem their loyalty currency for deals at thousands of in-store and online merchants for a fraction of the face value. By presenting highly attractive, relevant offers with low redemption hurdles, PowerDeals produces more transactions - thereby boosting the program's impact on loyalty - while the low cost per offer to administrators can help to dramatically reduce program costs and accrual liability."

"Thomson Reuters is pleased to introduce their new App Store solution that enables access to the latest innovative capabilities and tools for use across the digital enterprise. 

The Thomson Reuters solution enables financial institutions and 3rd party developers to effortlessly create pioneering market-monitoring and investing apps. By seamlessly integrating the combination of Thomson Reuters content assets with a firm's customer account data and other data sources, Thomson Reuters is helping institutions leverage the providers of financial insight to deliver a differentiated experience for their customers while lowering both development costs and time to market."

"Smooth and frictionless payment process is the trademark of the Klarna experience. No one approaches payments the way Klarna does. In less than a second, Klarna performs an extensive analysis of the buyer and assesses the specific risk of fraud and default for that transaction."

"SoMoLend is debuting its peer-to-peer lending experience by which business borrowers can raise capital by securing loans from friends and family, customers, and community supporters. 

Simultaneously, lenders can invest in the industries they care about most in their own neighborhood, fueling local economy and doing well by doing good all while earning a return."

"FutureAdvisor is demoing FutureAdvisor 401(k) Advice, which supports more than 100 of the largest 401(k) plans in the country. With company-specific data about which 401(k) Plans have which specific investment options, FutureAdvisor is able to algorithmically give step-by-step investment advice to investors that takes into account their investment goals, their existing investments elsewhere, and their 401(k)'s limited plan options. 

Though other companies have tried to tackle the problem of advising users on their IRA or taxable accounts, no free web service has been available to give specific, actionable advice on investors' 401(k) accounts because of the complexity involved, until now. 

With FutureAdvisor's step-by-step advice that takes an investor's 401(k) and other accounts holistically into consideration, investors will be able to save on hidden fund fees, better diversify, and improve their tax efficiency."

"Pindrop Security's Phone Fraud Call Analyzer is the first technology of its kind to uniquely identify callers, regardless of spoofed Caller ID data or other deception attempts. Pindrop is able to provide a "call thumbprint" based on over 160 characteristics of the call, to provide accurate and actionable information on where the call is coming from and the type of device. In addition, the call is matched against Pindrop's database of over of over 40,000 known fraud callers and matched. This information can allow financial institutions to improve identification of fraud callers, block or reroute calls and save time and money in call centers.

Pindrop Security's Phone Fraud Intelligence Service (PFIS) provides access to the most accurate and complete database of phone numbers associated with fraud. The PFIS is used by fraud investigation teams, law enforcement, and intelligence to quickly evaluate call provenance as part of their anti-fraud decision process, including supporting caller validation, caller investigations and fraud forensics. This allows organizations to look for ongoing attacks from known fraudsters as well as to prevent future attacks.

The data is accessed via the PFIS portal, which provides detailed information both on specific number queries and on the worst offenders on a variety of criteria. PFIS can be accessed via a web-based portal or integrated into your systems through our API."

"The app uses card customization as a new and unique way to leverage Facebook in an exciting and engaging way that can drive real brand value, loyalty, and engagement from a bank's customers. Customers can design a card using an image from one of their Facebook photo galleries. Once the design is approved, it is posted to the user's wall where all their friends can view it and click on the link to design their own card and thus create a viral marketing effect!"

"Clover empowers payment processors and value added resellers to provide merchants with the best customer checkout experiences."

"ZipZap has developed a revolutionary new suite of cash transaction solutions. CashCade provides eCommerce merchants with an automated cascading payment option ensuring every transaction is approved. No more lost revenue from card-based transactions being declined, as CashCade gives consumers the option to pay cash.

CashPayment enables consumers worldwide to make payments for online purchases at offline locations using cash. Easily adapted to fit the needs of any eCommerce merchant, a consumer using the CashPayment option simply confirms the transaction online, prints the payment slip, takes it to the nearest Payment Center listed, and completes the transaction by paying the clerk with cash."

"Launched at CES by DeviceFidelity, Inc., moneto became the world's first commercially available mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) wallet supporting both iPhone and Android platforms for mobile payments using the In2Pay microSD, which enables secure contactless transactions. 

The moneto mobile wallet is powered by MasterCard PayPass technology and linked to a general-purpose reloadable MasterCard prepaid card. The technology enables iPhone and Android users to make purchases with their phone at the hundreds of thousands of merchants that accept MasterCard PayPass."

Product Launched: January 10, 2012

HQ Location: Richardson, TX

Company Founded: 2007

Website: devicefidelity.com

Introducing Youri Bebic (General Manager, NFC Prepaid Services) and Amitaabh Malhotra (COO and Co-Founder)

"On Deck's technology is now available to third parties who want to leverage their own capital to reach small businesses. Third parties can connect their capital to the On Deck Platform to underwrite and service small business loans. 

Our technology will also harness small businesses' digital information - such as online banking and cash flow information - in order to calibrate an appropriate loan amount. With our technology, these organizations will be able to vastly increase the number of small businesses they are able to service, while significantly decreasing the time required of small business owners to obtain capital."

"CoverHound's comparative shopping engine gives users real, instant and actionable rates from leading insurance brands. 

CoverHound tools let partners offer consumers purchasable insurance quotes - supercharging monetization and user experience in new and lucrative ways."

"CSI globalVCard mobile app is a virtual MasterCard application designed for on-the-go businesses of any size. Create secure, single-use MasterCard account numbers from your mobile device. Even create virtual cards in another user's name with options to securely send via email or SMS. Pay Online, On the Phone, Wherever MasterCard is accepted. Safe, secure mobile payments sent to Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime."

"Virtual Piggy is the first e-commerce solution that enables kids to manage and spend money within a parent-controlled environment. The technology company delivers online security platforms designed for the Under-18 age group in the global online market, and also provides online businesses the ability to function in a manner consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar international children's privacy laws. Virtual Piggy enables the Under-18 audience to play, transact and socialize in a secure online environment guided by parental permission, oversight, and control."

"The latest version of Wall Street Survivor appeals to today's passive and active investors. These users are more social, have shorter attention spans, want more guidance and support, and spend more time playing Angry Birds. They want financial education in an easy, rewarding, and unbiased form."

"Portfolio Football is a personal finance and portfolio management application based on the game of American football. Portfolio Football utilizes patent-pending technology and is the first financial management system to fully-integrate the concepts of football (or any team sport) with the concepts of finance. 

Portfolio Football relates a user's personal financial situation to the scoreboard in a football game, thus enabling them to better understand and manage their personal finances. It also provides users with an easy-to-use tool that allows them to build and manage a fully diversified portfolio in the same way one would manage a fantasy football team."

"We've created a gift card that doesn't require merchant participation or point of sale integration, allowing us to focus on the consumer experience. Giftly does this by turning a person's credit or debit card into a gift card.

With that innovation, we've made an iPhone app that makes giving a gift fun and easy. It's been designed to be social, simple, and create great moments of serendipity between friends. Thanks to Facebook, Foursquare, and smart iOS integration, you can send a friend a nice birthday gift or give a drink to a friend when they check in at a bar within moments. To use a Giftly, you simply pay with your credit card and confirm redemption on your smartphone."

"The fundamental concept we need to understand as retail investors is risk. Most financial intermediaries focus on explaining return to their customers, which is only a consequence of the financial risks we are willing to take.

Kuspit offers a strong visual emphasis on the relationship between risk and return, a community where investors can follow each other to gain perspective, and tools for learning and managing risk in an investment framework.

Learning is a cornerstone in Kuspit's offering: each investor needs to learn about each financial product before having the ability to invest in such a product."

"Bazaarvoice Conversations is a SaaS solution that allows highly regulated brands to safely capture, moderate, analyze, and display authentic customer word of mouth in digital and mobile experiences. Bazaarvoice Conversations helps brands propagate a multidimensional social experience resulting in higher sales and customer satisfaction while gathering powerful insights and intelligence. 

With the Conversations platform, brands can capture customer word of mouth content from virtually anywhere and display it in numerous places including websites, branded communities, social extensions, mobile and tablet applications, and display ads using our syndication and media solutions."