Booyami

Booyami
Industry e-commerce, computer software
Founded March 14, 2011 (2011-03-14) in Mercer Island, Washington, United States[1][note 1]
Founders James Walter, Corey Ross[1][4]
Headquarters 9725 SE 36th Street Suite 300, Mercer Island, Washington, United States
Brands Finagraph, BBC Easy, Finagraph Academy
Total equity $3.1 million[5] (2016)
Number of employees
 13[1] (2015)
Divisions Finagraph,[6] BBC Easy,[4] Finagraph Academy[7]
Website finagraph.com,
bbceasy.com,
finagraphacademy.com

Booyami Inc. (also often referred by its brand names Finagraph or BBC Easy) is a provider of automation tools and business intelligence solutions for small business accounting. The company was founded in 2011 by a former Microsoft employee James Walter and a former vice-president of Bank of America, Corey Ross.[6][8] The synergy produced BBC Easy and Finagraph — two technological solutions for small business that offer strategic financial intelligence and streamline obtaining business loans.[6] After Moody's acquisition of the stake in Booyami in May 2016, Booyami announced that it now intends to expand its Finagraph service to medium-size businesses.[9][10]

History

Booyami Inc. was founded in March 2011 by two former Seattle area executives James Walter and Corey Ross.[4][note 1] With his seven-year executive experience working on Xbox and Windows 7 at Microsoft, James personified IT world, while Corey, who held titles of vice-president in Banner Bank and in Bank of America, came from the world of banking.[11][12]

Together, the team conceived its first product — ″BBC Easy″ aimed to automate Borrowing base certificate processing for small businesses. By the end of 2011, the company raised over $900,000 of venture capital towards patenting their ideas and towards the new hires needed for the product development.[8] BBC Easy cloud application was launched in November 2012.[13] In April 2013, the first financial institution, Numerica Credit Union, successfully integrated the product into its C&I loan system.[14]

At the same time, Booyami started its second product, Finagraph, designed to assess small businesses for loan eligibility. In 2013, Booyami intended to raise $1 million for the product development, but managed to raise only $195,000.[5] Nevertheless, Finagraph was successfully developed. In 2014, Finagraph was among 20 finalists (out of 870 participants) of Forbes' New Banking and Digital Life Open Talent event.[15] Booyami initially planned to sell Finagraph to small businesses,[16] but changed their business model, offering Finagraph to small business for free, making money of banks and large accounting firms.[1]

Selling Finagraph to US banks was aggravated by "the steep regulations in the industry," and Booyami searched for alternative ways to promote and distribute the product.[7] In September 2014, Booyami raised additional $1.25 million to acquire a 15-year-old Seattle BBI Financial Academy.[7][17] Booyami re-branded it as "Finagraph Academy" and incorporated Finagraph in its training courses.[7]

In October 2015, Puget Sound Business Journal has listed Booyami in the top ten Big Data companies of Puget Sound Area.[18] In May 2016, Moody's purchased a stake in Booyami. The companies announced plans to integrate Finagraph with existing Moody's analytics tools and further developing Finagraph to service medium-sized businesses.[10][19]

Products and Services

BBC Easy

BBC Easy (stands for ″Borrowing Base Certificates made Easy″) is a cloud application that streamlines processing of small business loans. In order to get a loan approval, a small business needs to certify is borrowing base — a metric of the value of its assets, so the lender can determine the size of the loan that can be offered. However, the time required of a loan officer to underwrite a small loan is comparable to the time needed to underwrite a substantial loan which reduces banks' propensity to deal with small borrowers.[20] BBC Easy simplifies underwriting by generating required forms and reports directly from borrower's accounting system, thus reducing errors, fraud, and in turn, lenders' risks.[13][20] BBC Easy turns traditional borrowing base certificate submission into a single click.[8]

After the application launch in November 2012,[13] Booyami focused on credit unions as the primary market for BBC sales.[14] Numerica Credit Union in Spokane, Washington was the first bank that adopted BBC Easy.[14]

Finagraph

Finagraph is a business intelligence application which analyzes current and historical accounting data of a small business, offers strategical financial advice,[21] and provides business owners with an overview of their business from banks' perspective, including relevant financial comparisons with similar organizations within the same industry.[1][6] Finagraph is compatible with major accounting software (such as QuickBooks, Xero, etc.) and does not require any separate data entry.[19] Instead, Finagraph ″replaces hours of work with 1-click.″[21][22]

Furthermore, Finagraph can perform certain functions of BBC Easy by assembling relevant accounting data and generating forms required for a loan application.[1][9][12] Finagraph is currently offered to clients for free, as Booyami seeks to make money of Finagraph licences sold to financial institutions.[1][19] In the effort of disseminating Finagraph, Booyami has purchased BBI Financial Academy and modified its curriculum around Finagraph.[7]

Finagraph also supports complex accounting of crowdfunding ventures.[23] In 2014, Finagraph application was recognized by Forbes as New Banking and Digital Life finalist.[15] After Moody's investment into Booyami in 2016, Booyami announced its intention to expand Finagraph to medium-size businesses market and to feature Finagraph with credit score information based on Moody’s Analytics Risk Quality (MARQ) system.[9][10]

Finagraph Academy

Formerly BBI Financial Academy, Finagraph Academy founded in 1990[24] provides financial education and consulting to business owners and accountants.[25] Booyami purchased the academy on September 18, 2014 and re-branded it as ″Finagraph Academy.″[7][24] The academy retained its original curriculum, while incorporating Finagraph in its courses with the goal to promote Finagraph among accountants and business owners.[6][11]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 The founding date of Booyami is sometimes reported incorrectly as ″August 2011.″ The confusion stems from the fact that the company was incorporated in Delaware on March 14, 2011,[2] but registered for business in Washington state on August 11, 2011.[3]

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Goldsmith, Steven (April 17, 2015). "The Accountant in the Cloud: Finigraph Taps Tech to Analyze Your Business". Puget Sound Business Journal. 35 (52). Seattle: American City Business Journals. p. 19. ISSN 8750-7757. LCCN 99107105. OCLC 11683053.
  2. ↑ "BOOYAMI, INC. Entry Details". icis.corp.delaware.gov. State of Delaware. March 14, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Corporations Division - Registration: BOOYAMI, INC.". www.sos.wa.gov. The Office of the Secretary of State (Washington). August 11, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Company Overview of Booyami, Inc.". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Booyami, Inc. — company filings". sec.gov. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Lamm, Greg (April 1, 2015). "Finance: Lending Made Easy". Seattle Business Monthly. Seattle: Tiger Oak Publications. LCCN 2006252302. OCLC 259466486.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lerman, Rachel (September 18, 2014). "Seattle startup Finagraph acquires 15-year-old Seattle financial firm". Puget Sound Business Journal. Seattle: American City Business Journals. ISSN 8750-7757. LCCN 99107105. OCLC 11683053.
  8. 1 2 3 Cook, John (January 24, 2012). "Ex-Microsoftie looks to transform banking with new startup Booyami". geekwire.com. GeekWire. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 "Moody's Takes Stake in Finigraph". nybizdaily.com. February 27, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 "Moody's Acquires Stake in Finagraph, Expanding Commitment to Small Business Lending Solutions". businesswire.com. Berkshire Hathaway. February 25, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  11. 1 2 Soper, Taylor (September 18, 2014). "Banking startup Booyami raises $1.2M, acquires BBI Financial". geekwire.com. GeekWire. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  12. 1 2 Aitchison, Sarah (October 6, 2014). "TechFlash Cup: Small business finance software startup Finagraph". Puget Sound Business Journal. Seattle: American City Business Journals. ISSN 8750-7757. LCCN 99107105. OCLC 11683053.
  13. 1 2 3 "FinovateSpring 2013 / BBC Easy". finovate.com. May 3, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 Keeton, Ann (April 3, 2013). "Numerica Credit Union Adopts C&I Lending Program". Credit Union Times. ISSN 1058-7764. OCLC 867675674.
  15. 1 2 "Listos, finalistas tecnológicos de BBVA Open Fund 2014". Forbes. Jersey City, New Jersey. August 13, 2014. ISSN 0015-6914. LCCN 76000149. OCLC 671776174.
  16. ↑ Fineberg, Seth (February 22, 2016). "App Watch on Sageworks, Xero, and Finagraph". accountingweb.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Booyami Lands $1,258,385 New Financing". xconomy.com. xconomy. September 10, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Big Data Software Companies". Puget Sound Business Journal. Seattle: American City Business Journals. October 20, 2015. ISSN 8750-7757. LCCN 99107105. OCLC 11683053. (subscription required (help)).
  19. 1 2 3 Penn, David (March 2, 2016). "Finagraph Picks Up Investment from Moody's". finovate.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  20. 1 2 Rosenbaum, David (February 28, 2013). "Sequestration: Growth Juice for Alternative Lenders?". CFO Magazine. Boston: Seguin Partners. ISSN 8756-7113. LCCN 89645505. OCLC 11636011.
  21. 1 2 Bergstein, David (July 22, 2015). "How to "Ubersize" Your Technology". accountants.intuit.com. Intuit. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  22. ↑ Fridman, Adam (December 28, 2014). "Four Business Functions You Should Not SAAS: Even though just about every business function may be replaceable with a SAAS solution, not all should be.". Inc. ISSN 0162-8968. OCLC 906019515.
  23. ↑ M. Darren Root (9 May 2014). The Intentional Accountant: Your Roadmap for Building a Next Generation Accounting Firm. Rootworks, LLC. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-692-20700-0. OCLC 902811518.
  24. 1 2 "Company Overview of BBI Financial". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. September 18, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Finagraph Acquires BBI Financial to Provide Financial Intelligence to Business Owners Nationwide". prweb.com. Vocus. September 18, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
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