Startup Accelerator
We are thrilled to announce that our CAFE Fall 2024 Fintech Accelerator Program, sponsored by Best Egg, will kickoff on Sep 30th 2024 and run for 8 weeks, concluding on Nov 25th. This is a unique opportunity for U.S. based mission-driven tech startups that have products in market to advance financial wellness for low- to moderate- income (LMI) people to receive support with coaching, customers, investors, and community as they accelerate their business and impact.
Announcing Our Fall Cohort Companies:
Carvertise: Places advertisements on high mileage cars in the community that an advertiser wants to stand out in – all with a tech platform that offers GPS tracking, matching of driver routes and advertiser need, experiential activations at events, as well as digital retargeting and attribution studies. To date Carvertise has paid out over $5M dollars to everyday commuters, including LMI people, which increases their passive income.
GivingCredit: Creates access to commercial finance by recognizing and rewarding peer lending in financially excluded communities. Through a web-based social credit network and partnerships with financial institutions, Giving Credit brings transparency to community finance and develops commercial financial products that leverage peer lending data for underwriting, opening up wealth-building pathways.
Kredit Academy: Operates at the intersection of financial education and credit access, offering a dual solution tailored for small to mid-sized financial institutions including a rewards-driven financial education platform, Kredit Quest, and a secured credit card product. Kredit Academy empowers institutions to promote financial wellness by providing accessible credit-building tools to drive deeper member engagement and retention.
Odynn: An embedded fintech, AI/ML, next-gen loyalty optimization program manager. Odynn democratizes access to travel benefits by giving consumers access to easy-to-use tools that build financial equality, health, and knowledge in credit cards and loyalty.
Prismm: Provides a SaaS digital vault that simplifies asset and document management for financial institutions, streamlining wealth transfer processes. By ensuring secure storage and automated asset transfers, Prismm advances financial wellness for LMI individuals by reducing the risk of asset loss or mismanagement during generational wealth transfers, potentially preserving more resources for underserved communities.
Salus: A digital platform focused on expanding access credit to the millions of people under-served by the current financial system. Our innovative digital scoring platform for microloan underwriting has helped over 10,000 subprime borrowers save $1.3 million in interest and fees versus predatory alternative finance providers.
Success from Our Inaugural Spring Cohort:
✨Impactful Startup Accelerator
100% Net Promoter Score. All of the companies that participated in our program are “likely” to recommend CAFE to other companies to grow their business and impact.
✨ Fintech Meetup
Founders were introduced to industry leaders beneficial to building their business, and on average made 9+ meaningful relationships from the program.
✨ Customer Connects
Startups benefited from meeting potential financial institution customers, and on average met 8+ potential enterprise customers they are building a relationship with after the program.
Spring 2024 Inaugural Cohort Company Overview:
Muse Tax: Helps individual taxpayers and SMBs extract data from tax returns, maximize refunds, and get personalized financial insights through an AI-based, tax and financial module. Muse’s mission is to equip LMI and underserved communities with expert financial assistance, without the prohibitive cost, because financial wellness is the way to build generational wealth and their future depends on it. Founders: Colin Horsford and Busayo Ogunsanya (www.musetax.com/)
Nester: The first-ever tool to help homebuyers and homeowners avoid their #1 regret: unexpected costs of repairs and maintenance. These costs disproportionately affect LMI members of our community who are at a greater risk of losing their homes as a result of an unexpected repair. (www.nester.app)
Founder: Brendan Kennealey (CEO); and Alex Walsh (CPO)
Parlay: Works with community banks and credit unions to get more underserved small businesses approved for loans. Parlay is focused on veteran-owned, women-owned, immigrant-owned, and black- and brown-owned small businesses, who disproportionately struggle with affordable access to capital.
Founders: Alex McLeod (CEO) and Jay Long (COO) (www.parlay.finance)
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Stratyfy: Interpretable AI solutions enable financial institutions to make more accurate, efficient, and fair financial decisions in credit risk, fraud, and compliance. Stratyfy is on a mission to accelerate financial inclusion by providing greater transparency and less bias to critical financial decisions that impact millions of people.
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Founder: Laura Kornhauser (CEO); and Liam Kenneally (BD) (www.stratyfy.com)
Sunny Day Fund: Powers workplace emergency savings programs for people-first employers shining the light on financial well-being. By automating and incentivizing savings for workers in sectors like hospitality, manufacturing, and healthcare, Sunny Day Fund removes barriers to banking and equitable wealth building.
Founder: Sid Pailla (CEO); and Rachel Fox (BD) (www.sunnydayfund.com)
Wellthi: Helps people build wealth better together by equipping financial institutions with social community finance technology and payment solutions that foster financial health, credit readiness, and access to affordable capital directly through your mobile banking application. (www.wellthiapp.com)
Founder: Fonta Gilliam (CEO)
Our partners at the Delaware Technology Park GrowthStage Incubator are dedicated to fostering entrepreneurial success through a collaborative and innovative environment. Located in the Fintech Innovation Hub at the University of Delaware, GrowthStage Incubator provides services designed to support diverse business needs. Included in membership are innovative co-working spaces and private offices. Not only do members gain a physical workspace for their business, entrepreneurs are offered support, where companies can thrive through resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities. GrowthStage is not just an incubator, it’s a vibrant hub for success!