Dot-Com Survivor Yodlee Makes E-Banking Pay

When Anil Arora became the chief executive officer of Internet finance startup Yodlee in 2000, data security concerns outweighed the convenience of online money management—and 97 percent of U.S. households lacked broadband connections. Then came the dot-com crash, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and economic hard times that decimated tech startups. In 2008 the financial markets meltdown became Yodlee’s third near-death experience, says Arora, who joined the company from PC maker Gateway. “There were definitely times where we were down to, ‘Are we going to make it through the next couple of months,’ ” he says.

Privately held Yodlee isn’t a household name, but it’s well known in the financial-services industry. The company’s software is used by 600 corporate clients, including 7 of the top 10 U.S. banks, and Arora says 50 million consumers worldwide use it, unawares, to manage checking and investment accounts, pay bills, or track spending via the Web, smartphones, and tablets. Down the road from Oracle’s sprawling campus in Redwood City, Calif., the 750-employee company provides transaction data and account aggregation tools banks can use to personalize customers’ online investment and budget advice. In addition, Yodlee develops cloud-based services that banks can offer their customers to help with tax preparation and credit-history tracking.