The DCU FinTech Innovation Center, which houses the largest concentration of fintech startups in New England, announced on Tuesday ten new seed-stage ventures in its latest Cohort. The Center stated it is fully funded by Digital Federal Credit Union, better known as DCU. The Center’s mission is to help accelerate the development of new fintech products, and the Boston fintech startup ecosystem. While sharing details about the Center’s program, DCU’s Senior Vice President of Innovation, David Araujo, explained:
“We are energized by our exposure to new products and the opportunity to partner with startups to advance our members’ experiences. This past year, DCU launched several pilots with Center founders that helped advance our learnings and assisted startups accelerate their growth. The entire team is excited to continue this engagement with the new Cohort and to see first-hand the innovative technologies these founders are developing.”
The 2018 Winter Cohort Includes:
- Commonwealth Crypto: Blockchain – Making cryptocurrency trading faster and more secure.
Escrow Mint – Real Estate – Moving money efficiently in real estate deals. - Finnest: Mobile Banking – The secure kids and teens debit card that changes behavior.
- Noble: Payments – A data-driven mobile ordering and payment solution.
- Harbor: Personal Finance – Accessible and free high-quality retirement planning.
- Novo: Mobile Banking for startups powered by AI.
- PeopleHedge Corp: Payments – International payment processing for community banks.
- Project Finance: Personal Finance – Personal finance software to maximize your money.
- StackUp: Financial Health – Financial advisor ratings based on real client data.
- TowerIQ: Insurtech – Competitive intelligence for the insurance market.
The Center accepts seed-stage fintech startups varying from concept to product fit stage that can benefit from the provided fintech ecosystem of mentors, investors, and institutions. DCU executives offer mentorship, assistance, and an open platform for working with the startups. Vasilios Roussos, Managing Director of the Center, added:
“We continue to be impressed by the increasing talent and quality of teams applying to the Center. The growing tide of fintech entrepreneurs working on solving challenging technical problems, improving individuals’ financial well-being, and creating new models of financial engagement is striking.”
Eight startups graduated from the Center in late 2017 after substantially growing their companies. These graduates include Adjoint, Digital Onboarding, Doni, Energetic Insurance, FutureFuel, LearnLux, Perfectosoft, and RateGravity.