Finovate Podcast Features the Five Best of Show Winners from FinovateSpring 2026

Finovate Podcast Features the Five Best of Show Winners from FinovateSpring 2026

Finovate Podcast host Greg Palmer showcases the winners of Best of Show from FinovateSpring 2026 in his latest series of podcast conversations.

The five companies that won Best of Show represent many of the top trends in fintech today, from embedded finance and stablecoin-powered payments to mainframe modernization and AI-enabled personalization. In these interviews, we learn about the inspiration behind the founding of these innovative companies and the problems they are solving for banks, credit unions, other financial institutions, and their customers.


Finovate podcast host Greg Palmer talks with Caitlyn Truong, CEO and Co-Founder of Zengines.

Palmer and Truong discuss how Zengines addresses the challenge of managing legacy core banking applications written in older programming languages like COBOL, RPG, and PL1. Truong explains how her company is modernizing legacy mainframe applications without losing critical logic, satisfying auditors faster, and making legacy systems searchable so transformation and compliance do not stall.

EP 299: Caitlyn Truong, Zengines


Juan Jurado-Blanco and Armando Quintana, CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of Clockout, respectively, sit down with Greg Palmer in this Finovate podcast conversation.

The trio discuss the benefits of earned wage access as an offering for community banks and credit unions. Clockout’s technology enables users to access their earned wages the same day they work, rather than waiting for traditional biweekly or even monthly pay cycles. The solution embeds seamlessly into existing bank experiences.

EP 298: Juan Jurado-Blanco and Armando Quintana, Clockout


Oren Buskila, CEO and Co-Founder of Cobalt, talks with Finovate podcast host Greg Palmer about the challenge of financial institution system dependencies.

Cobalt offers a technology that automatically maps real system dependencies across complex banking environments, enabling agentic AI, real-time visibility, safer changes, reduced risk, and confident operations. Cobalt enables technical teams to anticipate the consequences of modifications before implementation, preventing failures and ensuring safer deployments.

EP 297: Oren Buskila, Cobalt


Podcast host Greg Palmer catches up with Craig McLaughlin (CEO) and Baron Conway (Chief Strategy Officer) of Finalytics.AI in the wake of the company’s second consecutive Best of Show win at FinovateSpring (2025 and 2026).

Palmer, McLaughlin, and Conway discuss how Finalytics.AI enables community financial institutions to deliver personalized, high-touch experiences through digital channels while leveraging the wealth of customer data these banks and credit unions possess.

EP 296: Craig McLaughlin and Baron Conway, Finalytics.AI


Host Greg Palmer interviews Crebit co-founders Jensen Coonradt (CEO) and Simmi Sen (Chief Product Officer).

In this podcast conversation, Coonradt and Sen explain how their company is modernizing international money transfers by leveraging stablecoin technology to send money across borders as easily as sending a text message. Crebit’s “stablecoin sandwich” approach enables users to on-ramp funds using local payment methods before settling into virtually any currency worldwide in minutes.

EP 295: Jensen Coonradt and Simmi Sen, Crebit

FinovateSpring 2026 Best of Show Winners Announced!

FinovateSpring 2026 Best of Show Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the winners of FinovateSpring 2026’s Best of Show awards!

From solutions that help banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions deliver new, innovative products and services to their customers and members to novel uses of enabling technologies like AI and stablecoins, the companies that won Best of Show at this year’s FinovateSpring reflect many of the most important trends in fintech and financial services today.

This week marks the second time that we’ve brought our annual spring fintech conference to sunny San Diego. And given the success we’ve had, we’re looking forward to bringing the show back to the city affectionately known by some as “Silicon Beach” next year. We want to thank our demoing companies, our sponsors and partners, our outstanding AV team, our staff of conference day assistants, and—of course—our wonderful attendees for their enthusiasm and support.

Next stop? FinovateFall 2026 in Times Square, New York. And tickets are already on sale!


Clockout for its solution that drives member and customer growth, increases direct deposits by 10-25%, generates $16-$50 monthly per-user revenue, and creates competitive differentiation through embedded financial wellness.

Cobalt for its technology that automatically maps real system dependencies across complex banking environments, enabling agentic AI, real-time visibility, safer changes, reduced risk, and confident operations.

Crebit Pay for its stablecoin-powered FX platform enabling low-cost, near-instant global payments for students, while helping credit unions onboard and serve international members.

Finalytics.ai for its technology that enables financial institutions to instantly unleash the power of AI by offering segment-of-one digital experiences for visitors informed by behavioral, transactional, and third-party data.

Zengines for its solution that modernizes off mainframes without losing critical logic, satisfying auditors faster, and making legacy systems searchable so transformation and compliance don’t stall.


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The five companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2026 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022
FinovateFall 2022
FinovateEurope 2023
FinovateSpring 2023
FinovateFall 2023
FinovateEurope 2024
FinovateSpring 2024
FinovateFall 2024
FinovateEurope 2025
FinovateSpring 2025
FinovateFall 2025
FinovateEurope 2026

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash