Finovate Europe showcased, once more,
the likely up and coming stars of the financial services industry.
We take a look at who is hot and whom you should look out for in
2012.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Tradeshift
Look out for this company around April time –
it is going to launch a B2B social network for e-invoicing. To
understand Tradeshift, think of Facebook and imagine, your
“friends” are your business partners. This B2B social network
connects companies that need to send or receive invoiced and manage
cash flow.
The Tradeshift e-invoicing service is free for
suppliers and each company can connect to their customers, partners
and suppliers just like they would on Facebook would friends.
Applications on the network include, besides e-invoicing,
electronic purchase orders and automated document validation. The
service enables instant payments, something they argue will
particularly appeal to SMEs.
These e-invoices can be approved instantly,
giving the receive access to cash faster and at lower interest
rates than other existing options. The company was founded in May
2010 and is going to launch its instant payments service in April.
It currently has 60 employees and 60,000 signups in 190 countries,
and is backed by a $30m fund.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData
CurrencyFair
CurrencyFair is a Dublin-headquartered P2P
remittance and foreign exchange service provider. It was founded in
2009 and launched its interface in May 2010. Since then, it has
secured €1.65m in funding.
At Finovate, CurrencyFair showcased its new
interface, arguing that its solution is simpler than the existing
money transfer services. It supports 15 currencies and offers lower
fees. Its P2P marketplace allows users to negotiate foreign
exchange rates with those looking to exchange it in the opposite
currency.
The upgraded interface includes a QuickTrade
feature, with which a consumer can receive an instant exchange rate
quote for any amount. This is calculated by taking into account the
weighted average of the best rates of all opposing customer orders,
in addition to CurrencyFair’s liquidity. This creates instant
payments. This, as Electronic Payments International
believes, fits in well with the emerging attraction of faster
payments.
Holvi
Unlike most companies at Finovate, Holvi is a
newborn – it was founded in 2011. It is headquartered in Helsinki,
Finland and has secured €300,000 in seed funding. Its product is
like a personal financial management tool, but neither for
individual consumers, nor for businesses.
It is rather a budget control tool for groups
of people, such as bands, event organisers, sports clubs or student
association, who want to keep track of the group’s spending and
income. Its product can be a merchant account, accounting software
and a group current account in one.
At Finovate, Holvi argued that its product
replaces a bank account, or the need for it. Holvi is already
regulated as a payment service provider in Finland and
Electronic Payments International was told that the
company was now in talks with other European regulators to expand
its network.
Handpoint
Handpoint is an Icelandic company that is
actually headquartered in the UK. It was launched was back in 1999,
but at Finovate, unveiled the Handpoint Headstart, a mobile
chip-and-PIN payment solution for tablets and smartphones. This
Platform-as-a-Service solution enables acquiring banks and MNOs to
offer merchants card payments on smartphones and tablets under
their own brand. The solution supports both chip-and-PIN and
magnetic stripe technology, as well as contactless payments.
Liqpay.com
If you use Twitter, you will have come across
shortened URL links, which are provided by websites like http://www.bit.ly/. Liqpay.com’s offer is
just like that, but for payments. Its service allows recipients to
send their detaisl to the payee in a shortened digital code which
can be accessed via text message or e-mail. The Ukraine-based
company has already signed up the country’s biggest bank,
Privatbank, which uses the service in its online banking portal.
The company has been around since 2007, but its product was
unveiled at Finovate. It is so new that the website currently does
not offer an English version.
Ping Identity
Ping Identity specialises in cloud-based
digital identity solutions. The company was founded back in 2003
and is headquartered in Devner, Colorado. Ping Identity has 200
employees and more than 700 customers globally with a 99% customer
satisfaction rating, including by 42 of the Fortune 100. Its
customer base includes four of the six biggest banks in the US.
Last year in July, it launched its first
commercial cloud identity management (CIM) support for its OAuth
service, which secures identity authentication.
Its growth has been spurred on by the demand
in cloud-based services and in January this year, Ping Identity
said annual revenues grew by 50% year-on-year. It has now secured a
$21m funding.
In 2011, it signed up 200 new business
customers for cloud single sign-on, federated identity management,
mobile identity security, social media identity integration and API
security solutions. It already has key partnerships with Google,
Cisco, Microsoft and Symantac.
Backbase
Dutch software provider Backbase, launched in
2003, was at Finovate Europe last year already and brought its
Backbase Bank 2.0 Portal into the market back in February 2010.
This year at Finovate, it presented new features to its portal,
which included an improved editor for page composition on regular
browsers and mobile devices, advanced segmentation and targeting
for different customer groups and advanced analytical and
performance tools. Its Bank 2.0 Portal is like an app store fore
banks with access to pre-built functionalities.
Backbase’s key customers include ABN Amro,
Bank of America, Barclays, UBS and Visa. At the end of
January, Backbase partnered with Sandstone, an Australian online
banking solutions provider. As open-sourced IT platforms continue
to grow in popularity among banks and other financial service
providers, Backbase is sure to receive more attention.
