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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Automation has helped the financial services industry advance rapidly. It not only helps firms save costs and better serve users, but it has also influenced everything from customer service to regulatory compliance. However, as the industry continues to embrace automation, what should financial institutions consider to ensure innovation doesn’t overshadow empathy and trust?
In this Streamly video, Finovate Research Analyst David Penn and ShareFile Director of Sales for Financial Services Matt Geiger speak about the transformative effects of automation on the finance sector. They explore the opportunities, challenges, and the balance required to implement automation effectively while maintaining a human touch.
“In some ways, automation is awesome because we can take these workflows and have our people focus on more specialized activity… The place that we need to find when we’re talking about automation is to find the balance between [automation and manual activity]. What should I automate and what should I have as a personalized customer experience that’s not automated where humans can interact with each other? And we need to have a balance of both of those things.”
ShareFile provides secure document sharing and workflow automation solutions for companies in a range of industries. Founded in 2005, the North Carolina-based company helps its financial services clients document workflow automation, enhance and simplify their client collaboration, and it also aids them in regulatory compliance.
Matt Geiger has been with ShareFile for three years and currently serves as the company’s Director of North American Sales. With over 20 years in tech sales, Matt develops go-to-market strategies that deliver exceptional value. Before ShareFile, he spent 13 years in the partner community, building strategic alliances and driving success. Matt began his career as a teacher and coach, shaping his leadership style and commitment to team development.
One of the latest developments in the payments space, Refunds-as-a-Service, promises to bring innovation to an area of customer experience – refunds – in which more than a trillion dollars of value are exchanged every year.
In today’s Streamly interview, Jeremy Balkin, Founder and CEO of TodayPay, talks with me about his path from a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan to the launch of his refunds-as-a-service startup. Balkin explains the inspiration behind the decision, the company’s progress to date, as well as TodayPay’s upcoming direct-to-consumer product launch.
“We’re the world’s first dedicated refund payment network. It’s an alternative payment method for both merchants and consumers to receive refunds. We’re pioneering a category we like to call refunds-as-a-service, serving merchants, marketplaces, insurers, issuers, and consumers to get a better refund experience.”
A finalist in the “Top Emerging Fintech” category of the 2024 Finovate Awards, TodayPay enables merchants to offer their customers instant refunds over a variety of payment choices, including cashback. A pioneer in the field of Refunds-as-a-Service, TodayPay is part of the Visa Fasttrack program.
Before launching TodayPay, Jeremy Balkin was a Managing Director for J.P. Morgan in New York City where he led fintech innovation and corporate development in the payment space.
Community banks and credit unions have long been the cornerstone of local economies. As technology and consumer preferences evolve, however, so must their revenue strategies.
Today’s Streamly video highlights a conversation I had with Rob Thacher, CEO at BankShift, a banking-as-a-service platform. During our conversation, Thacher and I discussed embedded finance, leveraging data to create personalized products, fintech partnerships, subscription services, and BankShift’s Brand on Banking.
BankShift built a business model all around the credit union space because they give dividends back to their members. And so we built a Brand on Banking ecosystem that enables community banks and credit unions to be different and have a new revenue stream. Financial institutions can embed their own technology inside that brand for revenues, for loyalty, and control.
BankShift creates a digital banking platform that helps community banks and credit unions generate new revenue streams, enforce control, and build loyalty. The company’s SDK provides low-code tools that help financial institutions create a branded, a unified app with a single login and a money transfer tool. The Oregon-based company was founded in 2020.
The idea of a black box has always been unacceptable in financial services. Financial institutions must be able to explain to clients and regulators how decisions are made – are they fair, justified, and sensible?
This is where observability comes in and it can do much more than setting your moral compass right.
In this in-depth discussion, the panel will explore the integration of AI-powered observability and financial services, focusing on how organizations can enhance their operations, ensure data protection, and comply with regulations. The experts will delve into the transformative potential of AI, including Generative AI, in boosting overall productivity and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Why should you attend?
Gain strategic insights: Learn from industry leaders about the latest trends and strategies in AI-powered observability tailored specifically for financial services.
Enhance operational efficiency: Discover how to leverage AI and automation to streamline operations, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.
Real-world applications: See live demonstrations and hear real-life use cases from Dynatrace customers, showcasing practical implementations and outcomes.
Interactive learning: Participate in a live Q&A session with experts, allowing you to get personalized answers to your specific challenges and questions.
Among the panel of experts is Wayne Segar, Field CTO at Dynatrace; Paul Barnhill, Managing Director at Deloitte; and Eric Baran, Principal Segment Leader- DevOps – Global Financial Services at AWS.
In the financial services sector, artificial intelligence (AI) is often heralded as a transformative force capable of revolutionizing everything from customer engagement to fraud detection. However, as the excitement around AI continues to grow, so do the challenges associated with its implementation. According to the latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI, AI adoption is accelerating, with 72% of organizations using AI in at least one business function in 2024, up from 50% in previous years. However, the challenges of achieving tangible business value remain substantial. The survey highlights that organizations need to focus on aligning AI projects with strategic business goals to achieve success (McKinsey, “The State of AI in Early 2024”).
The journey to successful AI implementation in financial services is not about jumping on the latest technology bandwagon; it is about identifying core business challenges, choosing the right AI strategy, and following a robust engagement methodology. Here’s how financial institutions can move beyond the AI hype and achieve real, measurable business value.
1. Start with the business challenge, not the technology
The key to successful AI deployment begins with a comprehensive understanding of the specific business problems that need to be addressed. Too often, organizations are drawn to AI’s potential without a clear roadmap for its application, leading to projects that flounder in development or fail to deliver a return on investment (ROI). McKinsey notes that “the business goal must be paramount,” emphasizing the importance of identifying the most promising business opportunities and working backward to potential AI applications rather than pursuing tech for tech’s sake (McKinsey, “The State of AI in Early 2024”).
For financial institutions, this means asking critical questions: What are the pain points that, if resolved, would yield the most significant benefits? Whether it’s enhancing customer engagement, improving fraud detection, or optimizing operational efficiency, defining the challenge upfront ensures that AI initiatives are grounded in strategic business needs rather than technological fascination.
2. Evaluate: build, buy, or partner
Once the business challenge is identified, the next step is to determine the most effective strategy for deploying AI. This involves a critical decision: whether to build a custom solution, buy an existing one, or partner with an AI expert.
Build: Custom solutions offer the highest degree of specificity and alignment with unique business processes, but they require significant time, resources, and in-house expertise. For institutions with complex, industry-specific needs, building an AI solution may be the most effective approach, but it also carries the highest risk.
Buy: Off-the-shelf solutions provide a faster route to deployment and can be cost-effective for common challenges. However, they may not offer the flexibility needed to adapt to specific business environments. McKinsey’s latest research shows that while 50% of organizations are using off-the-shelf generative AI models, the high performers are increasingly moving toward significant customization or developing proprietary models to meet specific needs (McKinsey, “The State of AI in Early 2024″).
Partner: Partnering with a specialized AI consultancy, like Intelygenz, allows organizations to leverage deep technical expertise and experience while focusing on rapid implementation. A trusted partner can guide institutions through the complexities of AI deployment, ensuring that the solution is tailored to deliver the maximum business impact. This approach combines the benefits of both build and buy strategies, mitigating risks and accelerating time to value.
3. Implement with a proven engagement methodology
The pathway from AI concept to value realization is rarely linear. To navigate this complexity, financial institutions need a structured, end-to-end engagement methodology that enables rapid development and deployment while ensuring alignment with strategic objectives. Accenture’s “Tech Vision 2024” report emphasizes that adopting an agile, iterative approach to AI deployment enables organizations to see faster returns on investment and adjust quickly to evolving business needs (Accenture, “Tech Vision 2024″).
Intelygenz’s “Day Zero Promise” embodies this approach. Our methodology begins with a rigorous scoping session to align AI projects with strategic business outcomes from the very beginning. This is followed by:
Agile Development: An iterative approach that allows for continuous refinement and adaptation of AI solutions to evolving business needs.
Seamless Integration: Close collaboration with internal IT and business teams ensures that AI solutions integrate smoothly with existing systems and workflows.
Accelerated Deployment: Fast-tracking the time to value by deploying AI solutions in a matter of weeks, not months or years.
By maintaining a relentless focus on delivering measurable ROI, Intelygenz helps financial institutions avoid the common pitfalls of AI implementation and ensures that AI initiatives contribute directly to business growth.
4. Focus on flexibility and cost-efficiency
For many financial institutions, one of the barriers to AI adoption is the perceived cost and complexity. However, AI does not have to be prohibitively expensive or rigid. Intelygenz positions itself as a more flexible and cost-efficient alternative to top-tier AI companies. We deliver high-quality AI solutions without the overhead and rigidity often associated with larger providers, making us an ideal partner for organizations looking to innovate while managing costs.
5. A collaborative approach to AI success
AI projects are not just technical endeavors; they are fundamentally business transformations. A collaborative approach between the AI partner and the organization is crucial for success. At Intelygenz, we engage closely with our clients throughout the entire process, ensuring that every AI solution is not only technically robust but also aligned with the organization’s strategic goals. This partnership approach has led to real-world success stories where financial institutions have transformed AI from a buzzword into a business-critical capability.
Learn More at FinovateFall
For financial services leaders looking to leverage AI effectively, the path to success involves a thoughtful strategy that prioritizes business value over technology for technology’s sake. AtFinovateFall, Chris Brown, President of Intelygenz USA, will delve deeper into these themes during his keynote session, ‘Beyond the Hype: Delivering Real Business Value with AI in Financial Services’. Attendees will learn how to identify the right business challenges, evaluate strategic options for AI deployment, and implement solutions that drive tangible ROI.
Join us on day two of FinovateFall to gain actionable insights and see how Intelygenz’s expert consultancy and implementation services can help your institution harness the true potential of AI.
In today’s instant digital economy, providing your customers with a unique experience can translate to a crucial advantage for your firm. Your payments strategy plays a critical role in this.
Join this webinar and discover how to design a customer-centric payments strategy driven by choice, convenience, and speed.
Key takeaways:
Understanding Customer Needs: Learn how to identify and analyze the specific needs and preferences of your customers when it comes to payment options.
Seamless Payment Processes: Explore strategies for creating smooth and frictionless payment experiences that enhance customer satisfaction.
Discover: Find out how to personalize payment experiences to build stronger customer relationships and loyalty.
Fintech leaders, C-suite executives, and investors are facing an epic challenge: How do we adapt our customer acquisition strategies as the landscape becomes more competitive? In this article, we’ll highlight the challenges fintech companies face in customer acquisitions and the benefits of digital experience intelligence (DXI) in understanding your customer behaviors and challenges. Armed with those insights, you’ll be better able to navigate the ever-evolving fintech environment to grow your customer base and nurture your existing customers.
Want to know which of your marketing assets was most viewed by new conversions? Done!
Wondering where the common dropoff points are in your mobile app? No sweat.
Here are ten ways DXI can inform and refine customer acquisition strategies for fintech companies to acquire more of their ideal customers.
1. Identifying Acquisition Opportunities
Digital experience intelligence enables your organization to measure and analyze how users interact with your website or mobile app. Analyzing these journeys provides insight into pain points and areas of high engagement for potential customers. This initial informational process can help you tailor your product offerings and marketing outreach to engage your ideal customers.
Note: Be sure you’re targeting your ideal customers – the ones who truly need and will benefit from your products or services. Understanding who they are, and making that extra effort, will pay off with a client base that is bought in and wants your solutions to work for them.
2. Data-Driven Optimization
Leveraging insights from digital experience intelligence can help identify which marketing channels attract your target audience. In addition, user behavior analysis can measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns to optimize them across different channels.
Personalizing customer experiences is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement and conversion rates, especially during the consideration and decision-making stages. A digital experience intelligence platform like Glassbox is the easiest and most effective way to gain critical insights into how users interact with your platform.
You can then use that data to segment customers by a variety of metrics to provide more relevant, personalized digital experiences. The data gained can also be used to inform product recommendations, web content, and marketing messages, as well as cater to specific preferences, all of which can boost engagement and conversions.
4. Mobile Optimization
Nearly 40% of app uninstallations occur because people are simply not using the app. The best way to understand why customers are abandoning your app is by measuring and monitoring your customer journeys. Armed with that information, you can refine your app to ensure it’s relevant, intuitive, and user-friendly so your users are never tempted to select “Remove app.”
5. A/B Testing for Optimization
Data-driven insights are the holy grail of refining customer acquisition strategies. A/B testing enables companies to understand which versions of websites, apps, and offers perform best in attracting and converting potential customers. The insights you gain can inform continuous improvement of user experience and refine your customer acquisition strategies.
6. Proactively Addressing Customer Pain Points
Technology like Real User Monitoring (RUM) and newer iterations like Real User Experience (RUX) enable fintech companies to quickly detect and resolve technical issues.
The ability to swiftly address user experience pain points and intercept technical snags before they escalate can transform your customer’s journey from one of frustration into a smooth and responsive experience that makes them feel valued. With 80% of consumers reporting that customer experiences need to be improved, proactive engagement is your golden ticket to differentiation.
7. Unlocking More Substantial Customer Feedback with AI
Voice of the Customer (VoC) data captures customer feedback so you can gain a deeper understanding of their digital experiences. However, VoC data only represents the vocal minority—our internal analysis found that only about 4% of users provide feedback.
Fintech companies can now leverage AI to automatically compare these rated interactions to similar interactions across the entire user base. We do this at Glassbox with our Voice of the Silent (VoS) tool, which makes it easier to understand what the majority is experiencing, even when they blow off satisfaction surveys.
8. Building Customer Trust Through Transparency
Building customer trust is the most direct path to loyalty. Digital experience intelligence reveals where users hesitate to provide information or engage, which can reveal areas for improving transparency about data privacy and security measures. Addressing those concerns demonstrates your commitment to user safety, which puts you further along the path to customer trust and loyalty.
9. Clear The Biggest Hurdle: Knowing What Your Customers Want
With fintech products and services flooding the market, customers have an exhausting supply of options if you fall short of their expectations for seamless digital experiences. Understanding how they experience interactions with your website or mobile app is critical to effectively measuring, analyzing, improving, and ultimately ensuring customers feel understood and appreciated.
10. Make Customer Acquisition Everyone’s Business
Customer acquisition should be an all-encompassing, organization-wide effort – not just the job of marketing or product development. Lasting relationships are supported at multiple levels and in diverse ways, and playing that message on repeat is essential to making it stick.
Want to see what DXI actually looks like in action? Click around in Glassbox’s self-guided platform tour.
Today’s customers want personalized experiences, but how can companies drive meaningful one-on-one connections at scale?
Data wins!
Handled correctly, well-orchestrated data reaches customers the way they want to be reached: fast and seamless while facilitating loyalty and trust.
The next generation customer experience is made easier with LeanData, the leading Revenue Orchestration platform. LeanData connects the dots for over 1,000 companies, increasing speed-to-response and aligning go-to-market motions with efficiency.
90% reduction in data duplication
78% decrease in time needed to research records
5 hours per week saved by eliminating manual processes
Time-to-response decreased from 1 to 2 days to less than 1 hour
Moneyhub recently commissioned research into building societies and consumers, which involved interviews with building society leaders from the likes of Nationwide, Skipton, Yorkshire, Coventry, and The Building Societies Association. Additionally, 2,000 British adults were surveyed to find out about the sector’s digital readiness and the opportunities a more data-led proposition might offer.
Here’s what Moneyhub found:
Nearly 1 in 2 building society members report difficulties in engaging with their services.
80% of consumers believe that a good online platform is important when choosing a new financial provider.
66% of 18-34 year olds would like more convenient access to products and services without the need to visit physical bank branches.
Building societies are at a pivotal juncture. Traditionally known for their community focus and customer-centricity, they now face the urgent need to digitize to meet evolving consumer demands.
“Digitize or die”, a senior sector stakeholder said.
Moneyhub’s research highlights a stark reality: there is a gap between consumer expectations and the digital offerings of building societies. The company’s report – Digitize or Die: A Call to Arms for Building Societies – serves as a roadmap for building societies ready to embrace this essential transformation, ensuring they meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s consumers.
2023 is bringing new regulations and transparency requirements to shape the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) marketplace. This guide, Navigating the Path to Data Modernization in the BFSI Industry, explores the practical steps business leaders can take to accomplish their objectives — from identifying suitable technological solutions to effectively implementing them to maximize their influence.
By following these recommendations, you as a business leader can embark on a successful journey of modernization that not only fosters growth, but also enhances the profitability of your business.
Key Highlights
Banking Data Modernization Challenges
Numbers Don’t Lie!
Data Modernization Isn’t a Brand-New Concept
Data Modernization – The Need of the Hour
The Journey of Data Modernization
First Step to Data Modernization
Data Modernization Roadmap: The 8 Pillars of a Winning Strategy
The End Objectives of Data Modernization
No Disruption on the Road to Digitization – Cheat Sheet: Key Tips for Next-Gen BFSI Orgs & How Can Indium Help
Fintech software has become a critical component of the financial services industry, allowing customers to readily access financial products on their own terms while also enhancing operational efficiency. Digital technology continues to revolutionize the way financial institutions operate, and developers work hard to create new applications that can manage workloads previously spread across multiple systems and software.
Document viewing and sharing capabilities are among the most important features for fintech applications. While developers can use a variety of document lifecycle solutions to avoid the difficult task of building those features from scratch, the financial industry faces unique security and compatibility requirements when it comes to selecting integration partners. To fully understand these technical challenges, it’s important to understand the role of Java in the development of today’s fintech applications.
How Java Became So Important to the Financial Industry
Financial institutions were early adopters of computerized workflows. The first electronic communication network that made it possible to trade financial products outside the stock market floor was introduced in 1969. Computerized order flows became more widespread in the 1970s, with most institutions developing their own in-house systems. Digitization really took off in the 1980s and early 1990s following the introduction of the Bloomberg terminal and the Financial Information eXhange (FIX) protocol. In the late 1990s, the Nasdaq made it possible to execute securities trades without manual intervention by adopting Island ECN.
Java burst onto the programming language scene in 1995, and its arrival proved to be well-timed. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw extensive mergers and acquisitions in the financial industry, which left many companies struggling to integrate disparate applications and data. Java programming language, with its ability to support multiple platforms (“Write once, run anywhere” was an early slogan used by Sun Microsystems) proved to be an attractive solution to this challenge, and many financial applications were ported into Java. It also helped that Java was easy to use and orders of magnitude faster than legacy code running on outdated platforms.
Within just a few years, Java became the dominant programming language for the financial services industry. Its popularity only accelerated after the release of OpenJDK, a free and open-source implementation of the language, in 2007. By 2011, an Oracle report estimated that over 80% of electronic trading applications and almost all FIX engines were written using Java. Even now, nearly 30 years after its introduction, Java remains the dominant programming language used by financial services, far outpacing other open-source alternatives.
Why the Financial Industry Loves Java
Developers in the financial sector haven’t just stuck with Java for so long out of habit or inertia; Java’s distinctive features make it uniquely suited for the needs of financial applications, both for longstanding enterprise-grade banking systems and innovative new fintech solutions.
Security
It goes without saying that security is always a top consideration in the financial services industry. Banking and trading applications need to have security measures in place to protect financial data and personally identifiable information from unauthorized access. Java makes it easy to restrict data access and offers a variety of memory safety features that mitigate potential vulnerabilities, especially those caused by common programming errors. Oracle also continues to provide regular updates that patch known vulnerabilities and account for the latest cybersecurity threats.
Portability
As a platform-independent language, Java applications can run on almost any device. This has always been a major advantage in the financial industry, but it has proved even more valuable in the age of cloud computing and mobile applications. Developers can use the same code to deploy software in a virtual environment and make it accessible to end-users from their smartphones, computers, or other devices. Java virtual machines also support other programming languages, which further enhances the language’s flexibility.
Reliability
Since Java has been in continuous use for nearly 30 years and enjoys support from a robust development community, it has become one of the most reliable programming languages in the world. Potential instabilities have long since been addressed and there are many developer tools and documentation available to ensure that software is built upon a strong foundation. This is critically important for banking and financial applications, which require high levels of performance paired with fault tolerance.
The Need for Java-Based Document Viewing & Sharing
As fintech developers continue to build new applications that make life easier for customers and employees within the financial sector, they are increasingly finding that users expect more when it comes to viewing and sharing documents. Nobody wants to waste time and resources processing paper documents by hand, and most organizations want to avoid the security risks that come with relying on external applications for managing digital documents.
Unfortunately, today’s application users expect complex document viewing capabilities that are difficult for most developers to build from scratch. While there are several integrations available that can add document lifecycle features, most of them are not Java based and require additional development work to incorporate them into existing fintech solutions. Without the ability to support viewing, sharing, and editing natively within the Java application, users often turn to workarounds involving external programs, which creates security and version confusion risks.
Implementing Java-based Document Features with VirtualViewer
Accusoft’s VirtualViewer is a powerful HTML5 document viewing solution built from the ground up using Java to ensure maximum compatibility with fintech applications in the financial services industry while also meeting complex functionality and security requirements. With support for diverse document types, such as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, AFP, PCL, and Microsoft Office, VirtualViewer eliminates the need for multiple viewing solutions to create a better user experience within fintech software.
As a Java-based integration, VirtualViewer is compatible with almost any operating system and is both easy to implement and manage. No software needs to be installed on the user’s desktop, which allows fintech developers to roll out a scalable solution that meets their critical security and business continuity requirements within a single, high-speed application. VirtualViewer’s server component quickly renders and delivers individual document pages for local viewing as needed so users can access, view, annotate, redact, and manipulate financial documents on the fly. Since documents are displayed within the web-based viewer, there’s no need to download or transfer files, which enhances both security and efficiency.
When implemented as a replacement for a mortgage lender’s content management system, VirtualViewer made it possible to import and deliver more than half a million documents across the enterprise each day. Documents could be retrieved and viewed in under two seconds, contributing to a 40% improvement in mortgage processing times.
Enhance Your Java Fintech Application with VirtualViewer
Accusoft’s VirtualViewer provides true cross-platform document support for your Java-based applications. Whether you’re deploying your application within the cloud, on-prem, or as part of a hybrid environment, VirtualViewer’s powerful APIs can instantly provide your software with the document viewing and sharing features your customers are looking for. Installing the viewer takes less than ten minutes, and our out-of-the-box connectors make it easy to quickly connect to leading ECM applications, including Alfresco, IBM, and Pegasystems.
A new Discover Bank fund aims to increase financial health throughout Delaware while enriching the state’s innovation ecosystem and enhancing Delaware’s reputation as a hub for banking and financial services.
The Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund will support startups and early-stage technology companies that are developing solutions to improve the financial well-being of low- and moderate-income residents, communities, and small businesses statewide. Discover Bank has made an initial capital commitment of $36 million to the Fund, which was announced in June and launches this month.
“We continually explore innovative ways to support our communities in which we operate, and the initial portfolio companies in the Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund have developed technologies that improve the financial health of people with modest means and provide tools to support small businesses growth,” said Matthew Parks, Vice President of Discover Bank. “It is our expectation that these technologies can both be profitable and beneficial to the community.”
By creating a framework to drive capital investments to fintech startups, the Fund ultimately seeks to ensure that affordable and relevant financial products and services are useful and accessible to unserved and underserved individuals and small businesses. Clients for these offerings include the unbanked and the underbanked and those with low credit scores, low savings rates and/or high borrowing costs.
The mission-driven initiative is a collaboration between Discover Bank, the Financial Health Network, ResilienceVC, and Delaware-based Chartline Capital. The Financial Health Network, a leading authority in its field, will help evaluate startups for their potential impact on financial-health improvement. ResilienceVC, a seed-stage domestically focused venture firm investing in embedded fintech startups, will manage Discover’s earlier-stage investments.
Venture capital firm Chartline Capital Partners was formed under the principle that entrepreneurship and venture capital can be leveraged to improve the world. The firm invests in high-growth business-to-business technology companies serving core industries after they have started scaling their go-to-market and helps founders and management teams accelerate growth. Chartline will manage Discover’s later-stage investments.
“Throughout time, new technologies have made people’s lives better,” said Ben duPont, Chartline co-founder and Managing Director. “Chartline is honored to partner with Discover to invest in companies leveraging new financial technologies to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income people, communities and small businesses.”
The Fund has a priority focus on investing in fintech startups that are willing to operate out of the new Financial Technology Building on the STAR Campus of the University of Delaware in Newark. Fund support will then seek to spread to companies that may be located throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Companies outside the region are still eligible for funding, but the venture must be focused on materially improving financial health for consumers and small businesses throughout the State of Delaware and/or the surrounding mid-Atlantic region. Any venture focused on improving financial health – regardless of its product or service’s delivery format or specific financial topic addressed – may apply for funding.
By boosting individual startups, the Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund also will bolster Delaware’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to Noah Olson, Director of Innovation at statewide economic development organization Delaware Prosperity Partnership, a legacy strength in financial services, coupled with a nurturing environment for business growth, makes Delaware a great place to grow a fintech company.
“Discover, a global company with a major footprint here in Delaware, is leading by example with this new fund,” Olson said. “Adding further investment resources to a growing startup ecosystem will be beneficial for the state, as well as for the portfolio companies who are focused on financial health improvement.”
