BillGuard
 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Key people | Yaron Samid (Cofounder, CEO), Raphael Ouzan (Cofounder, CTO) |
| Industry | Computer software, Internet, Personal finance |
| Products | Rich Internet application, Mobile application |
| URL | www |
BillGuard is a personal finance security and productivity company. Its application scans credit card and debit card transactions, alerting users to possible scams, billing errors and hidden fees. [1] [2]
As of July 2013, BillGuard reports it has flagged over $50 million of suspect charges on behalf of its users, drawing from over $1 billion of monitored transactions. [3] [4]
BillGuard was named "one of the top online banking innovations of all time" by Online Banking Report [5] and a “Top 10 Tech Company” by American Banker [6]
Products
BillGuard draws upon a combination of crowdsourced feedback from its users, data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, complaints posted across the Internet, and its own algorithms to determine what charges to bring to users’ attention via email and smartphone push alerts [7] [8]
BillGuard Resolve directly connects merchants with customers who wish to inquire about the merchants’ charges on their cards [9]. BillGuard FI for financial institutions aims to lower those institutions’ transaction inquiry and dispute processing costs. [10]
In July 2013 BillGuard released a free iPhone app that encourages users to take a more active role in monitoring their charges than the company’s previous ‘set and forget’ web application.[11]
History
The company was founded in 2010 by Yaron Samid and Raphael Ouzan, with $3 million in seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Founder Collective, SV Angel, IA Ventures, Social Leverage and Yaron Galai.
BillGuard launched at TechCrunch Disrupt New York in May, 2011, where it won the 2nd place prize.[12] In 2011 the company raised a $10 million financing round from its seed funders plus Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. [13] BillGuard was awarded the "2011 Big-Data Startup of the Year" at the O'Reilly Media Strata Conference
[14], and won ‘Best of Show’ at the Finovate conference in both 2011 and 2012. [15]
Grey Charges Report
In July, 2013 BillGuard and the Aite Group released a comprehensive Grey Charges report (https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.billguard.com/report/BillGuard_-_2013_Grey_Charge_Report.pdf) that found in 2012 U.S. cardholders received over $14.3 billion in deceptive and unwanted credit and debit card charges. According to the report, one in three American card holders receives at least one grey charge each year, at an average of $215 per person per year. [16] [17] [18] [19]
References
- ^ "Personal-Finance Security Firm Raises $10 Million". Wall Stree Journal.
- ^ "BillGuard (iPhone)". PCMag.
- ^ "Analytics Startup BillGuard Has Flagged $50M in Suspect Charges". American Banker.
- ^ "BillGuard Launches iPhone App To Help Credit Card Users Catch And Dispute "Grey Charges"". TechCrunch.
- ^ [BillGuard launches iPhone 'grey charges' app "BillGuard launches iPhone 'grey charges' app"]. Finextra.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Top 10 Tech Companies to Watch". American Banker.
- ^ "Top 10 Tech Companies to Watch".
- ^ "Personal Finance Security Start-up Closes $10 Million Round".
- ^ https://www.billguard.com/merchants.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ https://www.billguard.com/fi.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/25/billguard-iphone-app/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ . TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/and-the-winner-of-techcrunch-disrupt-nyc-is-getaround/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://www.pehub.com/2011/10/18/billguard-gets-10m-from-khosla-ventures-founders-fund-innovation-endeavors-others/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://strataconf.com/strata2011/public/cfp/148.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://finovate.com/2011/09/finovatefall-2011-best-of-show-winners-named.html.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/credit-graycharges-advice-idUSL1N0FV1TI20130726?feedType=RSS&feedName=everything&virtualBrandChannel=11563.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://video.foxnews.com/v/2566768291001/are-gray-charges-draining-your-wallet/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/07/25/consumers-unwanted-charges-in-billions/2568645/.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/six-ways-merchants-fill-your-credit-card-unwanted-gray-charges-1C7481282?franchiseSlug=technolog.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)