Silicon Prairie News reports Dwolla rolls out Instant feature.
Fox Business News recommends banking with Simple as a way to counter bank fees.
Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 26, 2011
Credit Karma is giving away free credit-monitoring service to first 12,500 readers.
AlphaClone launches "Alternative Alpha" index.
Reuters advises opening a BankSimple to avoid bank fees.
Mint.com launched a new bill payment reminder feature today that provides one place where users can track upcoming bills. This timeline format lets users see their bills over time and allows them to set customized due date reminders.Mint.com will automatically recognize user's bills based on prior bank statements and monthly patterns."'Juggling due dates and amounts owed, and jumping from websites to paper statements, is tedious and confusing. Busy people have better ways to spend their time and money, such as saving toward a goal,' said Aaron Forth, VP and GM of Intuit's Personal Finance Group"
To learn more about Mint.com, check out its FinovateSpring 2011 demo here.
Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of our alums, using data from Web-analytics company Compete to review the sites they operate.
Out of 255 alumni, 62 (24%) had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in May 2011 (see tables below). Of the 62 reviewed, 25 (40%) had fewer visitors than in the previous month and 28 (45%) saw a decline year-over-year.
Private Companies
The 44 private companies are as follows:
Notable successes:
Private Finovate Alumni With More Than 10,000 Unique Visitors in May 2011
Source: Compete.com retrieved June 29, 2011
Public Companies
The 18 public companies are as follows:
Notable successes:
Public Finovate Alumni With More Than 10,000 Unique Visitors in May 2011
Source: Compete.com retrieved June 29, 2011
_____________________________________________________________________________
Notes:
1. We reviewed 255 unique sites. Data was unavailable or irrelevant for 201 sites because:
2. Numbers have been rounded to three significant digits.
3. The charts include companies that did not have measurable traffic in May 2011, indicated by "N/A."
4. Compete draws its information from the online 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.
Backbase
Backbase will provide TCS Bank in Russia with a website integration solution through Bank 2.0 Portal. Link
Bill.com
Bill.com rolled out Sage Peachtree Sync, software for controlling bill payment and management. Link
BrightScope
BrightScope released its second annual list of the Atlanta-based companies with the best 401k plans. Link
CashEdge
CashEdge expanded Popmoney service by adding Popmoney for Prepaid. It also announced a partnership with TxVia. Link
Check Point Software Technologies
Check Point was listed on Acadian Asset Management's Top 15 Buys list. Link
Cortera
Cortera announced a new version of its PULSE app, a customer monitoring service. The new version will add Growth Clues alert. Link
DebtGoal
DebtGoal hired Igor Vaks, former Experian CIO, as new COO. Link
eToro
eToro emerged as the preferred platform for building forex wealth through web trading. Link
Expensify
Expensify advertised on giant billboard in the Bay Area. Link
Fiserv
Fiserv announced improvements to its Relationship Rewards. Link
ID Analytics
CoreLogic partnered with ID Analytics to integrate ID Network with LoanSafe Fraud Manager. Link
ID Analytics will host Advance 2011, its 9th Consumer Risk Management Conference, this September. Link
IP Commerce
IP Commerce recently raised another round of funding. Link
Lending Club issued a record high of $17.5M loans in April. It is the 4th record month in the past 5. Link
Lending Club won Webby Award for the Banking/ Bill Paying category. Link
Mint
Mint won Webby Awards for the Financial Services category. Link
MoneyAisle
MoneyAisle launched live auctions for unsecured personal loans to help consumers across a wide range of credit scores. Link
PayNearMe
PayNearMe raised $16M in funding from new and current investors. Link
Plastyc
Plastyc won a patent for improved online payment methods. Link
Prosper
Prosper increased loan volume by more than 50% compared to 3 months ago, issuing over $5M in new loans in April. Link
Yodlee
Yodlee is looking into developing mobile apps with new "FinApp Store" strategy. Link
Backbase explores mobile banking in its fall webinar series. http://bit.ly/finovate1293
BlazeMobile creates smart payments sticker.http://bit.ly/finovate12133
BrightScope releases top 30 retirement plans. http://bit.ly/finovate12143
Capital Access special report on "Black Friday" and small business sales data. http://bit.ly/finovate1282
SunTrust has added the "Transfer Now" product suite from CashEdge including person-to-person and me-to-me transfers. http://bit.ly/finovate12165
ClairMail and Cardlytics partner to provide transaction marketing opportunities. http://bit.ly/finovate1281
Expensify is hiring for multiple positions. - The company is currently looking for Web developers and computer engineers at several levels. http://bit.ly/finovate1216
FIS launches innovative new mobile banking product. -- Users can establish mobile account management with their debit card, no online banking signup needed. http://bit.ly/finovate1291
Geezeo selected by University Federal Credit Union as PFM provider. http://bit.ly/finovate12151
GoalMine hosting cash contest via Facebook to spread the word. http://bit.ly/finovate1292
Kapitall closes series A funding round. -- The company did not release funding amounts or sources. http://bit.ly/finovate12163
Congratulations to Mint founder, Aaron Patzer, winner of a TechFellow Award for General Management. http://tcrn.ch/finovate1296
Mozo powering new "Compare, Ditch and Switch" campaign. -- The services allows Australians to shop around for better banking services. http://bit.ly/finovate1283
Just in time for the Holidays, PopMoney gift cards at www.giftcardmall.com.
SmartyPig launches cash rewards card with only a one-time activation fee of $4.95. http://bit.ly/finovate12134
Victrio receives $5 million investment for voice-printing technology. http://bit.ly/finovate12141
3. Tell Mint how to track your goal; manually, or with a linked account. 
Mint revs its advertising engine
Self-funded startup CalendarBudget presented its unique calendar-based personal finance tool at FinovateStartup 2009. The application is a subscription ($4.95/month) service that allows users to track their personal finances on a calendar, rather than the customary charts, tables and spreadsheets that some users may find uncomfortable or intimidating (see the demo at http://www.finovate.com/startup09vid/calendarbudget.html).
Being self-funded, the company's marketing resources are somewhat limited. They've turned this situation into an advantage by making the system easy to "white label." CalendarBudget has leveraged this decision through affiliate marketing--effectively allowing other websites to do their promotion. Affiliates are paid a commission ranging from $1 to $5.25 (USD) per subscriber. The strategy has helped grow the company to 4,500 users, up from 1,100 in the spring of 2009. An example of the affiliate program at work can be found at http://mysuccessbudget.com. Founder Eric Poulin says this newer tenet of guerrilla marketing - using the tools of technology to create buzz - is a core component of the company's strategy.
In addition to affiliate marketing, CalendarBudget works with individual companies. Their largest partnership is with Mortgage Alliance Canada, Canada's largest mortgage broker company, which white-labeled CalendarBudget as RightBudget. It's now available to all 1,200 mortgage agents who, on top of personal use, can offer it to their clients (http://rightbudget.ca).
CalendarBudget has added several new features, and also now includes the ability to import from Mint.com and individual bank accounts. They have also added a collection of video help files to the website.
What's next for Calendar Budget?
By year's end, the company plans to introduce mobile access (iPhone and mobile Web).
A 30-day, post-signup daily video email which will help instill the habit of smart money management and reinforce how CalendarBudget can help.
Founders Eric and Robin Poulin are releasing a book in August called "Power Spending: Getting More for Less," co-authored with a Certified Financial Planner.
Seven Finovate alums have received awards recognizing their innovations in the banking and finance industry, and we'd like to take a moment to congratulate each of them.
Bank Technology News "Innovators of the Year"
Bank Technology News recently released it's ninth annual list of Innovators. This year, of the 20 honored, four are recent Finovate alums: Intuit, Backbase, Segmint and CashEdge. For more information see the American Banker Article. Segmint was honored for its pioneering work helping banks get better at one-on-one marketing, Backbase for online banking widgets, Intuit for online banking and tax-preparation, and CashEdge for its new POPmoney P2P payment service.
The coveted "Webby"
The "Webby" award, established in 1996, has been called by the New York Times,the highest honor that the Internet has to offer. Honorees are selected in nearly seventy categories. Following are this year's winners in the financial services categories:
Banking/Bill Payment: moneyStrands won the Webby in Wonga took home the People's Choice award for the category.
Financial Services: Mint.com won both the Webby and "People's Choice"
For more about the Webby Award, see http://www.webbyawards.com/.
Finovate demo video links:
Backbase--Backbase's Finovate debut was the Spring 2010 show (video coming soon).
CashEdge--The POPmoney demo video from Finovate2009 is online here.
Intuit--View the company's Finovate video demo (fall 2009) online here.
Mint--You can see its first demo video here.
MoneyStrands--View its video demo from Finovate 2009 online here.
Segmint-- Segmint first demonstrated its services at FinovateSpring 2010 and the video can be seen online here.
Wonga--Wonga's Finovate debut was the FinovateStartup2009 conference. Video is not available.
Two-time Finovate Best of Show winner Mint has a couple of new tricks. The online PFM expanded its aggregation capabilities and added a new module for manually entering transactions. (Mint's Finovate video here.)
Mint is now using aggregation software from its parent company Intuit, the maker Quicken and TurboTax. Intuit acquired Mint last year for $170 million. Mint previously received account data through Yodlee (see our recent Yodlee post here).
The change doubles the number of financial institutions from which Mint can receive account information. Through Intuit, Mint can now access customer accounts at more than 16,000 financial institutions.
"Intuit Financial Services directly serve banks, so its aggregations work better than anything else out there," said Aaron Patzer, VP and GM of Intuit's personal finance group (source). Patzer also said that over one-third of all customer requests were for Mint to support more financial institutions.
And the primary missing feature, the ability to enter data manually, was finally added to the platform. Now users can manually add miscellaneous items to those automatically downloaded from financial institutions.
How manual entry works:
1. Click "Add a Transaction" to create a new spending record.
2. In the dialog box, enter the date and set the transaction type to cash or check, as appropriate (see screenshot, below).
3. If cash is selected, Mint will offer to deduct the expense from the last recorded ATM withdrawal. If check is selected, Mint provides a space where the check number can be recorded.
4. Clicking "I'm Done" adds the transaction to the user's transaction list in Mint, where it is automatically categorized and noted on the user's budget. Mint reconciles check transactions when they clear the user's bank account.
Mint also offers an option for pending transactions, such as credit card expenses that the user may want to track before they are processed by the card issuer.
The transition to the new software has not been entirely smooth. There have been a few days when I have been unable to access Mint.com and few points when the site did not display correctly, but things seem to be working fine now. And with unique visitors hitting 1.6 million in March (see our post on March traffic here), Mint is rolling again.
1. The new module for manually adding transactions
2. The module is available on the transaction record page
3. The module opens over the transaction record page
