Finovate: Outright.com Archives

Finovate Alumni News-- January 10, 2012

By Julie Schicktanz on January 10, 2012 10:05 AM

Wired Magazine UK describes how miiCard is working to help prove online identities.

Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch looks at how LearnVest seeks to shake up financial planning.

Plastyc publishes a fee and feature comparison between its UPside Visa prepaid card and Suze Orman's The Approved Card.

eWise's Secure Vault Payments adds Nebraska Online Child Support website to vendor list.

ThreatMetrix acquires TrustDefender, expands Cybercrime Defender Platform.

Outright releases a widget to help those filing a 1099-K escape possible IRS audits.

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.

Finovate Alumni Website Traffic in September

By Julie Schicktanz on November 2, 2011 1:00 PM

Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of Finovate alums using data from Web-analytics company Compete.

Out of 268 alumni, 80 had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in September 2011 and are included in the tables below. Of those, 33 (41%) had more visitors in September than August. Year-over-year, 42 (52%) had traffic increases.

Private Companies

Seeking Alpha and Cortera had the highest traffic in September with 2.1 and 2.0 million unique visitors, respectively. Cortera also had the highest increase in number of unique year-over-year visits with over 1.5 more visits in 2011 than in 2010.
Kabbage had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, up 280x.
Weemba saw the highest monthly growth percentage with more than 7.5 times the number of unique visitors in September compared to August.
SmartCredit.com had the highest increase in number of unique year-over-year visitors, growing by 126,000.

Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 26, 2011

1) The previous month recorded was August 2011

2) Sears Credit Score is powered by CreditKarma.com

3) Truaxis was formerly BillShrink

4) Kasasa is powered by BancVue

Public companies

CheckFree had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, with over 7 times the number of visitors this year than last year.
Intuit had a notable increase in number of unique, year-over-year visitors, increasing by 300,000 visits.
Check Point had the highest month-over-month percent growth, with 41% more visitors in September than in August.

Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 26, 2011

1) The previous month recorded was July 2011.

_______________________________________________________

Notes:

1. We reviewed 268 Finovate alumni. Only those with at least 10,000 unique visitors in July are listed.

3. NM = not measurable

4. t= tie

5. Compete estimates online visitors based on the 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.

Finovate Alumni Website Traffic in August

By Julie Schicktanz on October 20, 2011 6:30 PM

Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of Finovate alums using data from Web-analytics company Compete.

Out of 268 alumni, 75 had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in August 2011 and are included in the tables below. Of those, 41 (55%) had more visitors in August than July. Year-over-year, 45 (60%) had traffic increases.

Private Companies

Seeking Alpha -- the most-trafficked in August with 2.5 million unique visitors -- also had the highest increase in number of unique month-over-month visits with 300,000 more visits in August than in July.
Budgettracker.com saw the highest monthly growth percentage with more than 6.5 times the number of unique visitors in August compared to July.
Betterment had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, up 88x.
Cortera had the highest number of unique year-over-year visitors, growing by 1.5 million.

Source: Compete.com retrieved week of October 3, 2011

1) The previous month recorded was July 2011

2) Truaxis was formerly BillShrink

3) Sears Credit Score is powered by CreditKarma.com

4) Kasasa is powered by BancVue

5) Checkingfinder.com is powered by BancVue

Public Companies

Fiserv had the highest month-over-month percent growth, with 50% more visitors.
CheckFree had the highest percentage growth year-over-year, with over 5 times the number of visitors.
S1 also had a high percentage growth year-over-year, doubling its visitors.

Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of October 3, 2011

1) The previous month recorded was July 2011.

_______________________________________________________

Notes:

1. We reviewed 268 Finovate alumni. Only those with at least 10,000 unique visitors in July are listed.

3. NM = Not measurable

4. t= Tie

5. Compete estimates online visitors based on the 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.

Outright's Map Functionality Allows Users to View Sales by State

By Julie Schicktanz on September 1, 2011 11:15 AM

Online accounting software startup, Outright, recently improved the way users can visualize sales.

"At a glance, you can determine which states are sending you the most orders. You can click on the individual state to see exactly how many sales you made during that time period. Just go to the Reports tab and click on 'Sales by State.' You can click on the 'Table' link in the upper right to see the same information in a table format."

To learn more about Outright, watch its FinovateFall 2010 demo.

Finovate Alumni Website Traffic in July

By Julie Schicktanz on August 29, 2011 9:48 AM

Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of Finovate alums using data from Web-analytics company Compete.

Out of 255 alumni, 59 (23%) had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in July 2011 (see tables below). Of those, 19 (32%) had more visitors than in the previous month and 25 (42%) were flat. Year-over-year, 26 (44%) had an increase, 10 (17%) were flat, and 23 (39%) were down.

Private Companies

Notable successes:

Seeking Alpha had the most traffic in July with more than 2 million unique visitors.
eToro saw the highest monthly growth percentage with 3 times the number of unique visitors in July compared to June.
Bundle had the highest increase in number of unique month-over-month visits, with 450,000 more visitors in July than in June.
eRollover had the highest percent year-over-year traffic increase, with 260,000 more visitors from last July.

Source: Compete.com retrieved week of August 15, 2011

1. The previous month recorded was May 2011

2. Sears Credit Score is powered by CreditKarma.com

3. Kasasa is powered by BancVue

Public Companies

Notable successes:

PayPal had the highest number of U.S. visitors in July, with more than 30 million visitors.
Jack Henry & Associates saw the highest monthly growth with twice as many visitors in July than June.
Wipro Technologies had the highest year-over-year growth, with 3 times as many visitors this year compared to last year.
FIS Global and Online Resources also doubled their traffic compared to last year.

Source: Compete.com retrieved the week of August 15, 2011

1. The previous month recorded was May 2011.

_______________________________________________________

Notes:

1. We reviewed 255 Finovate alumni. Only those with at least 10,000 unique visitors in July are listed.

3. NM = Not measurable

4. Compete estimates online visitors based on the 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.

PayPal and Cortera Take Charge in May's Web Traffic

By Julie Schicktanz on July 7, 2011 2:07 PM

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:

Cortera saw the highest number of unique U.S. visitors in May, with almost 2 million hits.
HelloWallet experienced the greatest month-over-month growth, with more than four times as many visitors.
Betterment saw its traffic increase an impressive 38 times from May of last year.

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:

PayPal experienced the highest number of U.S. visitors in May, with over 32 million visitors.
TransUnion Interactive saw the highest month-over-month growth with more than two times the number of visitors in May than in April.
Sybase 365 experienced the highest year-over-year growth, with its traffic up almost 80% from last year.

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:

They had been acquired.
They were no longer available online.
They were not covered by Compete for various reasons (including some that were not U.S. domestic companies).
The number of unique visits was too small to be considered accurate.
They were subdomains of larger websites.

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.

Alumni News -- Week of June 27, 2011

By Julie Schicktanz on July 6, 2011 8:51 AM

ActivePath

A top Brazilian card issuer implemented an ActivePath solution. Link

AlphaClone

AlphaClone incorporated new sentiment scores into its stock view pages. Link

Bills.com

Bills.com released the results from its Consumer Money Survey that gauges money attitudes and behaviors. Link

Blaze Mobile

Blaze Mobile was awarded a patent for NFC on stickers. Link

BOKU

BOKU released 1-Tap Mobile Billing for the Android and took it live in 56 countries. Link

Braintree

Braintree received $34M in Series A funding from Accel. Link

Currensee

Reuters outlined the benefits of Currensee. Link

Credit Karma

Credit Karma CEO Ken Lin advised consumers how they should deal with credit card offers. Link

doxo

doxo won the Stevie Award for New Product of the Year for financial services in the 2011 American Business Awards. Link

Dwolla

Dwolla said its Grid payment network is more secure than Visa and MasterCard's card networks. Link

Dynamics

Dynamics raised $35M for computerized smartcards and payment systems. Link

eToro

Reuters outlined the benefits of eToro. Link

eWise

gotoBilling, Inc. added eWise's Secure Vault Payments as another payment platform. Link

Expensify

The Wall Street Journal listed Expensify as a must-have mobile tech tool for entrepreneurs. Link

Fiserv

Fiserv entered into an agreement to acquire CashEdge for $465 million to advance its digital payments and channel strategies. Link

Guardian Analytics

Yahoo! Finance reported that Guardian Analytics' FraudMAP is helping financial institutions meet FFIEC guidelines. Link

HelloWallet

HelloWallet was added to Mercer's Outsourcing business benefits administration. Link

Intuit

Intuit purchased Mobile Money Ventures' web banking technology to augment its mobile banking capabilities. Link

Kony Solutions

The American Business Awards selected Kony Solutions as the Most Innovative Company of the Year. Link

Lendio

The Launch blog highlighted Lendio. Link

Outright

Outright rolled out a new report function allowing clients to view sales by state. Link

PayPal

PayPal reached 100 million active users. Link

Profit Stars

Profit Stars introduced its new Remote Deposit Anywhere solution. Link

Prosper

Former Lending Club director Joseph Toms joined Prosper as its Chief Investment Officer. Link

The San Francisco Times reported on Prosper's growth. Link

Q2ebanking

Q2ebanking was noted as a service to help community financial institutions meet FFIEC Guidance. Link

SimpleTuition

SimpleTuition expanded its student loan payment options by partnering with Discover Card. Link

SmartyPig

SmartyPig was recommended by Mint.com as a way to save for impulse purchases. Link

TradeKing

TradeKing implemented SunGard's MarketMap to deliver market data to its active trading platform. Link

UBank

Mashable highlighted UBank's feedback forum. Link

Voice Commerce

Voice Commerce launched a payment solution for the iPhone. Link

Wikinvest

PC mag reviewed Wikinvest's mobile app. Link

Xero

Tech Day assessed Xero's Debtor Daddy service. Link

Alumni News -- Week of May 16, 2011

By Julie Schicktanz on May 20, 2011 1:06 PM

Bill.com
Practical Ecommerce listed Bill.com as 1 of 19 tools for online bookkeeping and invoicing Link

BrightScope

BrightScope announced the top 10 commodities funds held in America's 401k plans Link

Frazier & Deeter, FD Alliance, BrightScope and SignatureFD conducted a national webinar on BrightScope's tool that rates employee benefit plans. Link

ClairMail

ClairMail reported record growth with a record number of customer acquisitions and a 300% increase in user growth Link

eRollover

eRollover announced its Facebook Early Retirement Vacation Sweepstakes Link

Finantix

Wealth Management 360 highlighted Finantix's Finovate Europe demo Link

Intuit

Intuit reported an increase of internet banking users by 9% and bill pay users by 23% Link

iPay Technologies

iPay Technologies reached 1 Million users of its P2P electronic payment service, with almost 8 million payments processed to date Link

IronKey

IronKey continued hyper growth in Q1 2011, as bookings increased by 90% compared to last year Link

Kapitall

Kapitall implemented an alert system for current news on stocks and funds. These new alerts will keep users informed and will link directly to Kapitall's analytical tools for a quick understanding of changes. Link

Kashoo

Practical Ecommerce listed Kashoo as 1 of 19 tools for online bookkeeping and invoicing Link

Kashoo was selected by IDC as one of Canada's Top 10 cloud companies to watch Link

On Deck Capital

Tech Crunch reported On Deck Capital's announcement of the On Deck Score, a credit score for small businesses. This program seeks to fix the problem of businesses borrowing money as consumers http://tcrn.ch/kNjGX6 Link

Outright.com

Practical Ecommerce listed Outright.com as 1 of 19 tools for online bookkeeping and invoicing Link

SecondMarket
SecondMarket experienced $115M in private stock sales during Q1 Link

TradeKing

TradeKing ranked number four in customer service for the second consecutive year in the Annual Broker Survey by Wall Street Journal's magazine, SmartMoney Link

Wonga

Wired UK mag covered Wonga's disruptive process of making borrowing money completely automatic. Are they transforming personal finance? Link

Wonga should have won of Startup 100 Awards, not Spotify Link

Alumni News, Weeks of February 21st and February 28th, 2011

By Jessica Ward on March 8, 2011 9:51 AM

To see our alumni news feed in real time, visit us on Twitter.

Bank of Internet will use Intuit's FinanceWorks. http://mwne.ws/finovate2241

Betterment reduces fees on retirement accounts. http://bit.ly/finovate224114

Service enhancements at Bill.com. Clone invoices ease automated payments. http://bit.ly/finovate224112

eToro completes $8.3 million funding round led by Spark Capital. eToro has 1.5 million users in 130 countries worldwide. http://bit.ly/f1G99d

eToro launches new user tools, and deposit bonuses. New eToro users can get a bonus of up to $500 to try Forex trading. http://bit.ly/finovate34112

eWise is moving to Denver. The company processes electronic payments and is moving to attract employees. http://bit.ly/finovate22311

Fiserv acquires M-Com to enhance mobile banking and payments capabilities. http://bit.ly/finovate34117

Kiboo got a makeover. The new interface focuses on usability and design. http://bit.ly/finovate34111

Lending Club exceeds $200 million in cumulative peer-to-peer loans. The combined Lending Club and Prosper volume is now approaching the half-billion dollar mark. http://bit.ly/finovate34118

Lodo Software signs thirty more banks for its OurCashFlow PFM platform. http://bit.ly/finovate34113

MiiCard featured as Microsoft's Startup of the Day. http://bit.ly/finovate224113

Outright.com has a new blog. http://bit.ly/finovate34115

Striata adds Iconix Truemark sender recognition technology to electronic communications. The system adds branded visual identity to help identify genuine emails from financial institutions. http://bit.ly/finovate34116

Weekly Updates -- Weeks of Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, 2010

By Jessica Ward on November 9, 2010 1:01 PM

From PayPal X Conference: Bill.com uses PayPal business payments to transform how businesses get paid. http://bit.ly/finovate10273 and gets a makeover. http://bit.ly/finovate10255

From PayPal X Conference: Bling Nation launches "FanConnect" platform. FanConnect helps consumers and businesses to connect at checkout via social media platforms like Facebook. http://bit.ly/finovate10272

Blippy and Sephora work together to spread the word about cosmetic products via Twitter. See TechCrunch's story. http://tcrn.ch/finovate10271

Continuity Control and uMonitor partner for compliance automation. http://bit.ly/finovate11334

TechCrunch recognizes Credit Karma. http://tcrn.ch/finovate10262

Dynamics Inc. is profiled in "the future of credit cards" in the New York Times. http://j.mp/finovate102510

From PayPal X Conference: Expensify announces support for expense reimbursement via PayPal. See a demonstration: http://bit.ly/finovate1142.

How Finsphere is helping to prevent identity theft with geo-location and mobile check-ins. http://rww.to/finovate10281

Ixaris partners with Apigee to create payment application development API platform. -- The new platform will be named Ixaris Opn (pronounced "open"). http://bit.ly/finovate1121

From PayPal X Conference: More on Kabbage's service to provide working capital for eBay Sellers. http://bit.ly/finovate10276

Lending Club welcomes North Carolina and Kansas. Peer-to-peer personal loans are now available in 42 states. http://bit.ly/finovate1141

Mint.com launches MintData to delve into the spending habits of Mint's 4 million users. The data is anonymous and provides insight into the pocketbooks of customers in 300 U.S. cities. http://tcrn.ch/finovate1122

From PayPal X Conference: Outright.com launches free accounting app in PayPal apps marketplace. http://bit.ly/finovate10274

Citi takes CashEdge's Popmoney Service live. FinVentures breaks it down. http://bit.ly/finovate1123

The Receivables Exchange Co-Founder and CEO Justin Brownhill was named one of Silicon Alley Insider's "Silicon Alley 100." The list covers New York's "Coolest Tech People in 2010." http://bit.ly/finovate11335

SafetyPay pioneers new ways to provide micropayments in the gaming industry. http://bit.ly/finovate10277

FinovateFall 2010 Demo Videos Now Available

By Eric Mattson on November 7, 2010 8:38 PM

We're pleased to announce that the demo videos from FinovateFall 2010 are now available for free download (or immediate consumption) from the Finovate archives.

This fall's NYC conference showcased 56 handpicked companies doing 7-minute demonstrations (no slides allowed) of their latest technology innovations to a sold-out audience of 650 financial & banking executives, venture capitalists, press, analysts and entrepreneurs.

Check out these cutting-edge ideas in financial, banking, payments, mobile, lending, investing and security technologies today for inspiration and your next edge on the competition!

(P.S. If you're interested in joining us at the next Finovate event, tickets are now on sale for FinovateEurope (Feb, 1, 2011 in London). It is going to be an amazing showcase of European and global fintech innovation!)

Eric Mattson is CEO of Online Financial Innovations, the parent company of NetBanker, Online Banking Report and the Finovate Conference Series. He can be reached at eric@netbanker.com.

Alumni News -- Weeks of October 11 and 18th, 2010

By Jessica Ward on October 26, 2010 1:16 PM

Third-party Blippy application released. The new application, Blipped, was released by Mindsmack. http://bit.ly/finovate10121

BrightScope launches BrightScope Beacon. Beacon will provide detailed analysis of the Defined Contribution marketplace. http://j.mp/finovate10155

Dynamics Inc. releases "dynamic" cards to prevent credit card skimming and card number theft. http://bit.ly/finovate10213 Also, the company is featured in a flattering page-one business story in Friday's New York Times. http://nyti.ms/finovate10266

Firethorn joins up with Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union to offer mobile banking. PSECU's 370,000 members will now have mobile banking service with Firethorn's mobile application. http://j.mp/finovate10153

Geezeo partners with Ping Identity for secure sign-on. Geezeo users will now have access to secure access via single sign-on. http://j.mp/finovate10154

KaChing gets $100 million under assets and changes name to Wealthfront. Read more at TechCrunch about the company's change in identity. http://tcrn.ch/finovate10211

Kapitall's iPad app makes the top 10 in the iTunes "free finance" category. http://j.mp/finovate10111

Bloomberg.com reviews Kapitall. Bloomberg says Kapitall is "opening the financial services business to a broader range of investors." http://j.mp/finovate10157

mFoundry offers innovative mobile banking "adoption guarantee" to new customers. http://bit.ly/finovate10221

Mint.com launches social media contest. The "Drop Your Debt" challenge offers cash prizes for dropping debt. http://bit.ly/finovate10224

Mint.com unveils new tools including home-value estimates from Zillow and a life-insurance calculator. http://bit.ly/finovate10225

Outright.com now supports Harvest integration for time tracking. Billable hours, payroll and more can be tracked with the Harvest application which now integrates seamlessly with Outright. http://bit.ly/finovate10123

Prosper.com adds one- and five-year terms to its peer-to-peer loan offerings. http://bit.ly/finovate10212

Another innovative social media contest from SmartyPig. SmartyPig's $20,000 gift card giveaway begins Mon., Oct. 25. http://bit.ly/finovate10222

Orange County Credit Union adopts Tyfone Mobile Payments. Orange County Credit Union, founded in 1938, has 79,000 members and $950 million in assets. http://bit.ly/finovate10122

ZashPay and PopMoney profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle as powerful alternatives to PayPal. See the pros and cons of a number of different mobile money-transfer services. http://j.mp/finovate10151

Alumni News -- Week of September 20, 2010

By Jessica Ward on September 27, 2010 7:08 PM

Here are the news updates for the past week. To view our updates in real-time, follow us on Twitter here.

Acculynk partners with JetPay for Internet PIN debit. New system PaySecure allows users to enter their PINs without using the keyboard, providing additional security. Merchants can use the system without changing credit card processors. http://bit.ly/finovate9211

Bling Nation partners with VeriFone for a mobile tap-and-pay initiative. http://bit.ly/finovate9234

Boulevard R is offering retirement advisors a one-year free trial of its new Retiremap product. http://bit.ly/finovate9231

CashEdge launches PopMoney for small business. http://bit.ly/finovate9235

MPowerMobile is on track to provide financial services to 5 million underserved people within 5 years. http://bit.ly/finovate9233

Outright.com launched site improvements including the ability to edit multiple transactions at once, and added support for Harvest, the time-tracking platform. Outright has also added a subscribe option on help boards. http://bit.ly/finovate9236

How (and why) did National Australia Bank (NAB) create its own best competitor, UBank? Read more here: http://bit.ly/finovate9232

Alumni News Week of July 4th, 2010

By Jessica Ward on July 12, 2010 11:12 AM

Here are our news updates for the week of July 4, 2010. To get our updates real-time, follow us here.

Home ATM shifts focus to mobile Merchants. Home ATM isn't abandoning PIN-based transactions at home but is concentrating on what they call "anywhere commerce" such as service companies, flea markets, and market vendors. http://bit.ly/finovate771

Jemstep inks aggregation deal with CashEdge. Aggregation will allow Jemstep users to view all of their investment accounts at once and determine allocation across all of their portfolios. http://bit.ly/finovate761

Outright.com releases improved sales tax collecting features. Two new categories are available to users "Sales Tax Collected" and "Sales Tax Submitted." http://bit.ly/finovate772

Online Banking Report on real-time bank transaction feeds and alerts. Look at Blippy/Swipely. http://bit.ly/OBR_181

Alumni News -- Week of June 6, 2010

By Jessica Ward on June 11, 2010 9:16 PM

Here are the news headlines posted this week on Twitter (follow our feed here).

MoneyAisle appears in Kiplinger's Retirement Report (print only). The story appears in the June issue and explains the new "auto loan search" features at MoneyAisle. More from MoneyAisle at http://bit.ly/FINOVATE671

BBVA Compass Bank replaces West Bank as SmartyPig's banking partner. BBVA Compass is the 15th largest bank in America. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE672

Kapitall unveils "search by brand" feature. The new search helps investors to identify the parent company of their favorite brands. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE681 or www.kapitall.com

SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert interviewed by Dan Rather [vid]. See more on SecondMarket's management of "illiquid assets." http://bit.ly/FINOVATE691

MoneyAisle featured in Wallet Pop. Read more about shopping for an auto loan from MoneyAisle at http://bit.ly/FINOVATE692.

SmartCredit.com featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. See SmartCredit.com at work with Oprah and Jean Chatzky as part of the "Debt Diet" series on the program. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE693

Ebay recognizes Outright.com as most innovative app. Outright.com received an award for most innovative application at the Ebay developer's conference. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6101

MPower Ventures in the running for Business Week's "Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs." Twenty-five companies are finalists. Read more at http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6102 or www.mpowerlabs.com.

Micronotes raises another $1.6 million in funding. Yahoo Business reports on the startup's fund raising success. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6103

TransFS.com helps merchants shop for better credit-card processing. TransFS claims that user merchants can save up to 40% by shopping around for merchant services. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6111

Billeo expands merchant directory. Billeo users can now pay their bills online with more than 10,000 merchants. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6112

Peer-to-Peer lender Prosper.com seeks regulation as a lender to avoid SEC. Prosper has asked to become regulated as a lender to ease the regulatory burden of being regulated as an investment firm. http://bit.ly/FINOVATE6113

Outright.com Surpasses $2 Billion in Tracked Transactions

By Jessica Ward on June 10, 2010 7:02 PM

Just six months after the company broke $1 billion in transactions tracked, Outright.com has reached the $2 billion mark. To coincide with this milestone, Outright has launched a directory of bookkeepers and financial professionals along with simple ways to communicate or hire them (see screen shot below).

The company also implemented a free skills certification for bookkeepers seeking to market their services. Bookkeepers and financial professionals can take a free test and earn an Outright.com certification. Small businesses and financial professionals can earn status/credibility points called "capital" to encourage collaboration and community across the platform.

Also this week, eBay recognized Outright as the most innovative app for sellers and merchants. Outright VP of Marketing Paul O'Brien told us that he was especially excited by the award, given that eBay is used by four million self-employed online sellers, a target market for Outright.

Outright cites Facebook as its inspiration for adding the community platform to its small-business bookkeeping system.

The company has eleven employees and has raised $7.5 million dollars since founding in mid-2008. Outright debuted at Finovate 2009; view their demo video here.

Alumni News - Week of March 29

By Andrew Dolbeck on April 2, 2010 9:02 AM

Here are the news headlines we posted this week on Twitter (follow it here).

Acculynk Provides Debit Service to Sun Country Airlines - Sun Country Airlines has partnered with Acculynk to provide its customers PIN debit service. Acculynk's service allows users to make online purchases using their current debit card and PIN numbers without requiring any additional enrollment with the merchant. http://bit.ly/97u9EE

AlphaClone Adds Funds, History-Viewing Features, and Alerts - AlphaClone, which develops investment portfolios by duplicating the patterns of successful investors, has added 18 new funds to its investment options. The company also added a feature that allows members to view a manager's holdings back to 1999. Finally, AlphaClone is now providing email alerts when fund managers file a Form 13G or 13D with the SEC, indicating that the manager has purchased more than 5% of a public company. http://bit.ly/aKCsIE; http://bit.ly/9Pj1As; http://bit.ly/9q9QB2

DebtGoal Gains Board Member and New COO - Ed Ojdana, the founder of FreeCreditReport.com, has joined DebtGoal's board of directors. Igor Vaks, former CIO of Experian Consumer Direct, has joined as the company's chief operating officer. http://bit.ly/93UWux

Fiserv Launches Bill Payment Widget - Fiserv launched a new bill payment widget that enables consumers to pay bills from within their online banking homepage. The widget is available to financial institutions using Fiserv's online banking solutions. http://bit.ly/aYNFb2

mFoundry Provides Platform to Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union - Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union will offer its 140,000 members mobile banking services supported by mFoundry's mobile platform. Services will include bill payments, fund transfers, and balance checking. http://bit.ly/9k4Q9N

moneyStrands Celebrates First Anniversary of PFM launch - moneyStrands is celebrating the first anniversary of launching its PFM. Highlights of the year include acquiring Expensr and partnering with Savings.com and SouthPointe Digital Technologies. The company also passed 100,000 users in its first seven months. http://bit.ly/aVDXCp

Outright.com Opens Blog for Developers - Online bookkeeping service Outright.com has added a new blog for developers. Outright already hosts a support blog for its users. http://community.outright.com/

Prosper Raising Fourth Round of Funding - Prosper is finalizing its fourth round of funding, seeking to raise $13.3 million to $15.8 million. The company signed a letter of intent with new and existing investors to raise the round, which is expected to close by April 15. http://bit.ly/cqiRr6

ThreatMetrix Provides Fraud Protection to iReel.com - ThreatMetrix is providing fraud detection and prevention services to online movie rental company iReel.com. iReel offers digital movies through an automated process. ThreatMetrix adds a layer of credit card authentication to the system. http://bit.ly/9uFTDI

TradeKing Deploys Recognia's Strategy Builder - TradeKing is making Recognia's Strategy Builder stock-research tools available free to its clients. Strategy Builder allows users to compare the performance of various investment strategies. http://bit.ly/bVzF1z

Alumni News – Week of Feb. 8, 2010

By Andrew Dolbeck on February 11, 2010 8:58 PM

Here are the news headlines we posted recently on our Finovate Twitter feed (follow it here).

AlphaClone Introduces New "Activist Masters" Fund Group - Investment research firm AlphaClone develops "clones" - replications of the investment patterns - of top investors. The company has announced a new clone, which follows the investment performance of 15 renowned activist investors including Carl Icahn and ValueAct Holdings. http://bit.ly/cCHeAw

BancVue Acquires Game Company Skill-Life -- In its first corporate acquisition, BancVue announced on Feb. 9 the purchase of Skill-Life, a software company that develops interactive games designed to teach financial literacy to children between 8 and 12 years old. http://bit.ly/mnqr5

CashEdge Integrates Data Solutions with Neuralus -- Account aggregation service CashEdge and Neuralus, a developer of intelligent financial solutions, have agreed to integrate their technologies to offer automatic updates of banking and credit card transactions for Neuralus clients' Cashflow INSITE accounts. http://bit.ly/aFJLeX

Geezeo to Provide Online Platform to 1^st Mariner Bank -- Geezeo has been selected by 1^st Mariner Bank to provide its online consumer finance platform. Geezeo offers online banking solutions including personal finance management, account access services, and community marketing. 1^st Mariner is a Maryland bank with 24 branches and more than 14,000 ATMs. http://bit.ly/c0ZA6i

iBearSoft Delays Release of Desktop Client iPhone app -- iBearSoft has delayed the release of its previously announced Desktop Client, a support application that will allow users to more easily add data to the company's iBearMoney iPhone app. The delay will allow developers to improve the design and offer simpler functionality. http://bit.ly/aJJ7jY

Jwaala Adds Twitter and Skype Options -- Jwaala has added Twitter and Skype capabilities to its MoneyTracker BOB (Better Online Banking) platform, allowing them to be used to deliver consumer alerts. The alerts allow financial institutions to contact their clients with transaction, credit, and security information. http://bit.ly/b0umqH

Kasasa Adds Atlantic Coast Bank and Security Bank -- Two new banks have agreed to carry Kasasa brand checking account products. Atlantic Coast Bank, which operates in Georgia and Florida, will offer Kasasa Cash and Kasasa Saver accounts. Security Bank will offer all four Kasasa products in Illinois. Atlantic Coast is the first Georgia bank to offer Kasasa branded products. http://bit.ly/daQXk1

Mint.com Offers New Online IRA Center -- Online personal finance service Mint has a new IRA Center website where visitors can compare Roth and traditional IRAs and can link directly to financial institutions that offer retirement accounts. Users of TurboTax software can access the IRA Center from within the application. Mint's new IRA site is located here. http://bit.ly/9eTlD9

Monitise Americas to Launch Android App -- Monitise Americas announced plans to launch a mobile banking app developed for Android phones. The app, which will offer account management, payment, and commerce services, will be available as a free download and will be compatible with all Android phones. http://bit.ly/cCcb3I

Outright.com Adds Editing Feature to its 1099 Tax Filing Service -- Outright.com has added a new feature that allows users to edit the IRS 1099-MISC tax forms generated by its new online 1099 filing service. Users can also edit related company and contractor information. Making changes in the forms does not automatically re-file them with the IRS, but users can do so from the Outright site. http://bit.ly/cPf8i8

Prosper Receives Bridge Financing, Plans Series D Fund Raising -- Prosper has received $2 million in bridge financing from its existing investors: Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Meritech Capital, Omidyar Network, and Volition (formerly Fidelity Ventures). Prosper is preparing its next fund-raising effort and intends to announce its Series D round soon. http://bit.ly/beljVA

SmartyPig to Move Savings Deposits from West Bank -- SmartyPig is a technology company that mixes savings accounts with social networks, allowing users to create an e-savings account for a particular goal. The company is moving its deposits from West Bank, which stated that it would not be able to keep up investing the deposits. Deposits linked to SmartyPig grew $179 million in 2009, and totaled $187 million at the end of the year. SmartyPig expects to transition to a larger bank in 2010. http://bit.ly/9VTC9m

Outright.com Launches New 1099 Tax Filing Service and Tax Information Website

By Andrew Dolbeck on February 3, 2010 8:17 PM

Free online bookkeeping site Outright.com has added its first fee-based service for small business owners.

Outright provides online tools to help small businesses track and manage their finances. The company focuses on single-owner enterprises that require accounting systems that are fast and easy to use. The Outright.com site imports data directly from the user's bank or other financial services provider to populate reports and tax forms. (Finovate 2009 video here.)

The company's new service helps business owners manage 1099 tax forms for contractors. Using data from the W-9 forms that businesses collect from employees, Outright.com automatically fills out the required IRS 1099-MISC forms, electronically files them with the Internal Revenue Service, and sends copies directly to the contractors. (See screenshot #1 below.)

Unlike other services at Outright, the 1099 tax form product isn't free. The company charges $5 per filing. But for each contractor that joins Outright, the company will refund the fee. Outright plans on introducing more fee-based services in the future.

Along with the launch of its 1099 service, Outright also launched a new tax information website, Right Taxes Now. The new site provides tax advice and offers opportunities to sign petitions regarding small-business tax-relief legislation. It also provides links to services offered at Outright.com. (Screenshot #2)

Both the new tax product and the Right Taxes Now website should help bring users to Outright's site. According to traffic data from Compete, Outright.com saw about 54,000 unique visitors in December, down from its 2009 peak of nearly 71,000 in November. The Right Taxes Now site was launched on January 20 and traffic data is not yet available.

Compete.com, January 2010, traffic data here

#1. Outright's 1099 tax service

#2. Links to Outright from Right Taxes Now

#3. Outright.com helps users track income...

#.4 ... and expenses

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