Wichita, Kan. – September 16, 2021 – Alongside Emprise Bank and Fidelity Bank,
NXTUS, Inc.’s NXTSTAGE Financial Technology Pilot Competition today announced
12 program finalists and its upcoming FinTech Innovation Showcase.
The 2021 FinTech competition attracted 107 competitors (up 65 percent from 2020)
hailing from 27 states and 10 countries, and NXTUS staff partnered with leaders
from founding partners Emprise, Fidelity and INTRUST banks to curate this group of
leading startups to host in Wichita.
The finalists are offering next-generation technology solutions to help regional
banks, credit unions and financial services businesses promote financial literacy,
design hyper-targeted marketing campaigns, improve security and prevent fraud,
link in with their small-business customers’ financial information, and effectively
cultivate customers from underserved community segments.
Similar to ABC’s Shark Tank, the upcoming live-streamed Innovation Showcase will
include three-minute product pitches from each finalist. The event is Wednesday,
October 6 at 4:00 p.m., during Wichita Startup Week, and all are welcome to
register via EventBrite to watch the event.
“Entrepreneurs and technology are powering the financial services industry into the
future,” said Aaron Bastian, President and CEO of Fidelity Bank. “We are proud to
help lead the way, because collaborating with the startups spotlighted by NXTSTAGE
not only helps us better serve our customers, it also fortifies Wichita as a hub for
innovation and a place where young companies can grow and thrive.”
“Being a NXTSTAGE founding program partner and engaging with innovative
startups is critical to fulfill our mission of empowering people to thrive,” said Matt
Michaelis, Chairman, President and CEO of Emprise Bank, which awarded two
pilots in the 2020 competition. “Partnerships with companies like these enable us to
continually develop new ways to deliver more personalized and relevant experiences to our customers. We embrace the collaboration opportunities
NXTSTAGE provides as a valuable model to improve the financial lives of our
customers and build the entrepreneurial ecosystem within our community.”
The competition’s applicant pool was very diverse; of the finalists, 92 percent had
minority or female founders. The finalists hail from Canada and seven states:
Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina and South Dakota.
The banking partners, along with support from the Talent Ecosystem Fund at the
Wichita Community Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, BKD,
the Greater Wichita Partnership and NetWork Kansas, help NXTSTAGE power the
growth of young tech companies and accelerate innovation in Kansas.
2021 NXSTAGE FinTech Pilot Competition Finalists:
- Authenticating.com (Santa Monica, Ca.) helps financial institutions prevent fraud and feel secure about who they aredoing business with by providing global identity verification, low-cost background checks and continuous monitoring.
- Boss Insights (Toronto, Canada) is a leader in open banking, linking fintech and financial institutions to their small and medium-sized business clients’ financial accounting, commerce, payroll and tax data in minutes.
- Cedar Credit Builder (Sioux Falls, S.D.) allows consumers to build credit on Auto-Pilot using an all new Smart Line of Credit that automates utilization and maximizes credit score impact.
- Home Lending Pal (Orlando, Fla.) offers a marketplace that helps consumers shop for a home and the best mortgage, while providing lenders secure data separation designed to promote lending equality.
- Identomat (Champaign, Ill.) provides AI-powered identity verification and compliance services that help enable seamless remote customer onboarding, biometric authentication, and cost-effective fraud prevention.
- Mall IQ (Santa Clara, Ca.) is a location intelligence and AI company offering financial institutions a privacy-first mobileengagement product to grow revenues from their current customers by increasing activation and wallet share.
- My Fondi (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) understands most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and offers them a mobile application to budget One Paycheck at a Time and access tools and banking partners to reach their financial goals.
- The Paidback App (Phoenix, Ariz.) makes paying off debt simple and fun using motivational and accountability tools to keep users on track and equip them with the best loan products.
- SaasIQ (Tempe, Ariz.) empowers community banks with real-time small business accounting data to automate cross selling, underwriting and compliance.
- Swipe Credit (Atlanta, Ga.) is an AI-enabled platform that helps financial institutions grow revenue, enhance customers’ digital experience and deliver personalized offers in real time, backed by Techstars & Western Union.
- VYMO (San Francisco) is an enterprise SAAS startup that uses automation and business intelligence to improve sales outcomes for more than 150,000 salespeople at 50+ leading financial institutions.
- Zogo Finance (Durham, N.C.) offers a gamified financial education application that helps 125+ financial institutions across the United States educate, engage and gain the loyalty of the next generation of financial decision makers.
