FinovateSpring 2019 / Invest Sou Sou
Presenter Profile:
How they describe themselves: Invest Sou Sou is a smart social banking account designed to help community banks cultivate low-cost deposits and credit-ready borrowers in a secure and cost-efficient way. Our technology leverages the power of social networking, peer accountability, and artificial intelligence (AI) to help people save, build strong credit and invest together, with people they trust, at their local community bank.
How they describe their product/innovation: Invest Sou Sou is a cloud-based platform that banks can license through white-label API or as a standalone product. Using a mobile phone or computer, a customer can open a Sou Sou online, customize their account based upon their financial goal, and invite family, friends, colleagues – people they trust – to join. Everyone agrees to deposit a fixed amount of funds every month into an FDIC-insured account held by one of Invest Sou Sou’s partner banks. The social networking and peer accountability features built into the platform help users hold each other accountable to their financial goals. Invest Sou Sou’s patent-pending algorithm provides smart credit-building tips and product recommendations that connect depositors to their community.
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B), through financial institutions, licensed
Contacts
Bus. Dev. & Press: Fonta Gilliam, CEO & Founder, fonta@investsousou.com, 336-414-8298
Website: investsousou.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/sousou
Twitter: @InvestSouSou
HQ: Washington, DC
Founded: April 2015
Product Demoed: Sou Sou Account
Metrics: Invest Sou Sou has raised $265,000. We are currently pre-revenue with seven employees. Our company maintains active contracts that service 26 community lenders in the United States.
Presenters: Tanya Hiple (COO), Fonta Gilliam (CEO & Founder)
- Key Executives
Fonta Gilliam (CEO & Founder), Tanya Hiple (COO), Ramsey Smith, Ph.D. (CSO), Carnellia Ajasin (CTO)
Key Stats
- Key Board Members
Hamshy Raveendran (Global Business Development Expert for Samsung), Stacey Jackson (Global Business Development Expert for VCs and Startups, Amazon Web Services), Gregory Pickett (Director of the CDFI Disability Coalition), Paul Colin (Head of Audit & Commercial Airplanes & Enterprise IT, Boeing), Eva-Maria Dimitriadis (COO, C5 Accelerate)
- Key Investors
Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), C5 PeaceTech Lab
- Key Advisory Board Members
Hamshy Raveendran (Global Bus. Dev. Expert, Samsung), Stacey Jackson (Global Bus. Dev. Expert for VCs and Startups, Amazon Web Services), Gregory Pickett (Dir., CDFI Disability Coalition), Paul Colin (Head of Audit & Commercial Airplanes & Enterprise IT, Boeing), Eva-Maria Dimitriadis (COO, C5 Accelerate)
- Key Partnerships
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), The Venture Center, Amazon, KKR Investment Firm, Echoing Green, Civic Points of Light Accelerator, C5 PeaceTech Lab.
- Key Customers
Banks