MassChallenge’s 2020 Fintech Accelerator Class Features Finovate Alums

MassChallenge’s 2020 Fintech Accelerator Class Features Finovate Alums

Six Finovate alums innovating in fields ranging from life event planning to small business lending are among the 34 startups that will participate in the upcoming 2020 MassChallenge FinTech program. In addition to mentorship from and collaboration with leading enterprise partners, startups will get access to free office space and the opportunity to compete for equity-free cash prizes as part of their six-month engagement.

Calling this year’s cohort part of the “exciting future of fintech,” MassChallenge Fintech Managing Director Devon Sherman said the incoming class “represents a revolutionary approach to financial services” and added that his team was “blown away by the vision of these entrepreneurs.”

Making the cut among Finovate alums are:

See the full roster of incoming startups to the 2020 cohort.

“Thanks for including Hydrogen in MassChallenge 2020,” the company wrote on Twitter. “It is a great honor. We look forward to working with all of the enterprise partners and startups in the program.”

“LendingFront is proud to be participating in the 2020 MassChallenge Fintech program,” the company tweeted. “We will be working with the City of Boston and several New England financial institutions to use our technology to improve how small businesses get access to capital.”

And from InterGen Data, one of our newest alums, company CEO Robert Kirk expressed his enthusiasm for the opportunity as well. “I believe that by working with our enterprise partner, we will be able to redefine the client experience, improve the lives of their clients, and deliver on the promise of how artificial intelligence and machine learning can vastly improve their financial journey,” Kirk said.

The MassChallenge accelerator program is supported by a public-private partnership including founding partners Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, Citizens Bank, John Hancock, and the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), as well as numerous challenge partners.

The program runs from January to June, and focuses on one-on-one “outcome-driven” partnerships between program participants and program partners. Together, the startup and the partnering company work to develop solutions for specific challenges while helping the startup coming scale its business.

Now in its second year, MassChallenge’s fintech program produced a 2019 cohort in which 70% of participants launched a pilot or proof of concept within a year. “Our inaugural year achieved promising results in driving international partnerships between fintech startups and our enterprise partners,” Sherman said. He added that he was excited “to build on that success in 2020.”

Founded in 2010, and offering an accelerator in healthtech as well, MassChallenge has worked with more than 2,000 startups, who have raised collectively more than $5 billion in funding and generated more than $2.7 billion in revenue. MassChallenge is U.S.-based, with offices in Boston, Rhode Island, and Texas, as well as Israel and Mexico.

LendingFront, Veridium, Voca.ai Join Mastercard’s Start Path

LendingFront, Veridium, Voca.ai Join Mastercard’s Start Path

LendingFront, Veridium, and Voca.ai are three of the seven companies recently selected to participate in Mastercard’s startup engagement program, Start Path. The accelerator program works with startups from a variety of fields ranging from banking and biometrics to data intelligence and security. Participating companies will access Mastercard’s worldwide ecosystem and leverage their new relationship with Mastercard and its customers to expand into new markets.

“After searching around its presence in 210 geographies and beyond,” a statement from Mastercard Start Path read, “Mastercard and seven startups are descending upon Dublin this week to ignite their collaboration.”

Start Path begins with a kick-off event that helps the program administrators get to know the companies, define goals and introduce startups to Mastercard’s partners, as well as future channels and customers. The majority of the program consists of a six-month virtual engagement that companies participate in from their home location.

Upon successful completion of the Start Path program, companies that have produced what the program referred to as “tangible value” for Mastercard’s partners will be eligible for potential strategic investment.

“The diverse technologies comprising the latest Start Path wave is a snapshot of the nearly 10,000 startups and fintechs connected to Start Path since its founding in 2014,” the program announcement noted. “It also shows how, through Mastercard Labs, we partner successfully to explore new technologies, accelerate new concepts and deliver transformative growth and change to the commerce landscape.”

The full roster of companies also includes Fligoo, mfarmPay, Monsoon CreditTech, and Segasec.

LendingFront demonstrated its Small Business Platform at FinovateFall 2016. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, the company offers an automated lending platform that consolidates processes typically conducted by disparate systems. The technology features application workflow for loan processing, a data engine, decision engine, offer screens, documentation and booking functionality, as well as servicing. LendingFront raised $4 million in Series A funding at the beginning of the year.

Massachusetts-based identity and access management solution provider Veridium demonstrated its VeridiumID with 4Fingers Touchless ID technology at FinovateEurope 2017. Earlier this month, the company unveiled its InMotion solution that leverages user behavior analytics to help secure online identities and prevent cyberfraud. Also this spring, Veridium partnered with Blue Turtle Technologies to drive adoption of biometric technology in Africa.

Best of Show winner Voca.ai demonstrated its intelligent virtual agent for call centers at FinovateEurope 2019 in February. It was the second Best of Show win for the company, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia last fall. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, the company’s technology provides a flexible, natural-sounding, automated human voice system that improves customer satisfaction, and helps businesses convert and qualify more leads.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • LendingFront, Veridium, Voca.ai Join Mastercard’s Start Path.

Around the web

  • Kinetica releases active analytics platform to simplify architecture and deliver analytical applications at scale
  • Tango Card partners with StatementGames to deliver e-gift cards as a redemption option for StatementGames players.
  • Larky wins big at Finastra’s Innovation Challenge

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

LendingFront Locks in $4 Million in Series A

LendingFront Locks in $4 Million in Series A

In a round led by Information Venture Partners, Newark Venture Partners, Revel Partners, and Contour Venture Partners, SME lending solution provider LendingFront has raised $4 million in funding. The new capital will help the Newark, New Jersey-based company bring its white label underwriting and small business financing technology to more banks and FIs.

“Traditional financial institutions need new tools to serve the evolving needs and expectations of small business owners,” LendingFront co-founder and CEO Jorge Sun explained. “LendingFront allows banks to compete with technology-based lenders and keep up with the changing regulatory environment.”

Newark Venture Partners’ managing partner Dan Borok praised LendingFront’s “sleek” and “streamlined” platform as a significant improvement over the outdated legacy lending technology many banks continue to use. Calling demand for cloud-based lending solutions for SMEs “significant,” Borok pointed to LendingFront’s technology as a way for incumbent FIs to better serve small business clients.

Also participating in the round were existing investors Struck Capital, ValueStream Ventures, and Las Olas VC. The company noted that the new capital will be used to help grow the company’s sales, marketing, and engineering teams, as well.

LendingFront demonstrated its Small Business Platform at FinovateFall 2016. The solution automates lending operations by consolidating processes that are typically conducted by multiple disparate systems. The end-to-end solution provides application workflow for loan processing, a data engine to cull data for underwriting, a decision engine, offer screens, documentation and booking functionality, and servicing. LendingFront notes its solutions have enabled banks to boost loan approvals by 30%, reduce processing time from four weeks to one day, and lower operational costs by 80%.

LendingFront was founded in 2015 by Sun and CTO Dario Vergara, who met as members of OnDeck’s founding management team. The company includes Paynet and fellow Finovate alums Envestnet | Yodlee and Experian among its partners.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • What’s in a Name? New Mastercard Logo Embraces Icon Age.
  • LendingFront Locks in $4 Million in Series A.

Around the web

  • Ledger introduces its Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallet, Ledger Nano X.
  • Matthijs Aler appointed as the new CEO of Ohpen.
  • PaySend launches new money transfer service, PaySendLink.
  • QNB Group to deploy digital cash management solution from iGTB.
  • Klarna teams up with Stripe and Poq to enhance Missguided’s U.K. app.
  • Oliver Weber takes the helm as the new VP of Digital Banking, Switzerland, for Crealogix.
  • Infosys Finacle announces partnership with Qatar National Bank.
  • Benedigo and Adelaide Bank deploys regtech reporting solution from Wolters Kluwer.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: LendingFront

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: LendingFront

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 9.21.10 AM

FF2016-Logo-wdate-largeA look at the companies demoing live to 1,500+ fintech professionals on 8/9 September 2016. Register today.

LendingFront is a highly sophisticated cloud-based platform for lenders that need a faster, more efficient, and automated way to lend to small businesses.

Features:

  • Integrates cash-flow data or any type of data into the lending process
  • Builds and quickly deploys custom loan products
  • Little or no need for heavy legacy system modifications or integrations

Why it’s great
LendingFront operationalizes the lending process into a single, highly automated platform.Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 9.22.10 AM

Presenters

Jorge Sun, CEO
Sun is a founding team member and company director at On Deck Capital. He formerly headed up Capital One Bank’s small business risk team and has held senior leadership roles at JPMorgan Chase and American Express.
LinkedIn  Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 9.22.25 AM

Dario Vergara, CTO
Vergara is the former head of technology at On Deck Capital, and filled the same role for Bonobos.
LinkedIn

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • NCR launches innovation lab at its new global headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • London-based BACB to replace its legacy IT systems with CorporateSuite from Temenos.
  • TransferTo integrates paysafecard as payment option within Safemoni app.
  • Slice launches browser add-on to send an email when the price of an item drops.
  • Kasasa now has 400 community FIs using its rewards account offering.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.