Nine Financial Technology Entrepreneurs Focused
on Improving Consumer Financial Health Chosen to Join Lab Created
by CFSI and JPMorgan Chase
Today the Financial Solutions Lab (“FinLab”) at the Center for
Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan
Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) announced nine financial services
innovators as the winners of its second competition, aimed at
identifying solutions that help consumers prepare for – and weather
– financial shocks. FinLab selected the winners based on their
ability to improve consumers’ financial health. Each winner will
receive $250,000 in capital and additional resources to test,
enhance and scale the availability of their products and services.
More information and graphics are available at
bit.ly/FinLabInfo.
“We have been blown away by the quality of applicants in this
year’s class of the Financial Solutions Lab,” said Jennifer
Tescher, CEO of CFSI. “It’s encouraging to see so many startups and
nonprofits innovating around financial health, and offering
solutions that can help the 57 percent of Americans who continue to
struggle financially.”
“Innovation through technology provides an opportunity to
increase access to tools that help people manage the inevitable
financial shocks that negatively impact households, and ultimately
our communities and economy,” said Karen Keogh, Head of Global
Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase. “JPMorgan Chase is proud to use our
expertise to help FinLab winners improve their products and make
financial health a reality for more communities.”
The issue of financial shocks was selected as the challenge
topic for this competition, because research from Pew Charitable
Trusts, CFSI, and the JPMorgan Chase Institute all points to that
fact that financial shocks impact more than half of all Americans,
and that people from across the income spectrum do not have a
financial buffer that can help them to weather such unanticipated
expenses. This year’s winners each offer a solution to tackle this
issue.
The 2016 winners were selected from a pool of over 300
applicants across the United States. They participated in a live
pitch-off in New Orleans at CFSI and Source Media’s annual EMERGE
Conference, which gathers banks, credit unions, fintech innovators
and other financial services providers to generate ideas around the
new era of financial services.
Meet the Winners
- Albert (Los Angeles, CA) – Albert is a
mobile app that improves financial health with practical financial
advice and in-app actions that can be taken. Albert partners with
handpicked financial institutions — like banks, lenders, and
insurers — to seamlessly integrate their services within Albert's
app experience.
- Bee (New York, NY) – Bee partners with
Community Federal Savings Bank to offer alternatives to checking
and savings accounts to its customers in New York and California.
Bee has pioneered an innovative capital-light model using pop-up
kiosks and street teams to sign up customers in-person for
financial services at significantly lower cost than with
traditional brick-and-mortar bank branches.
- EARN (San Francisco, CA) – EARN is a
national nonprofit that gives working families the tools to achieve
life-changing goals like saving for college, buying a first home,
or starting a small business. The EARN Starter Savings Program
helps low-income households manage financial shocks by teaching and
incentivizing regular savings behavior. The program starts a
long-term habit of saving and promotes positive financial behavior
through easy-to-use tools backed by small monetary incentives.
- EarnUp (San Francisco, CA) – EarnUp is
a pro-consumer community dedicated to helping every American
simplify their financial life and save. EarnUp's loan optimization
platform intelligently syncs micropayments with income and
automates real-time savings based on the consumer's personal
lifestyle and finances.
- eCreditHero (New York, NY) – 80 percent
of credit reports contain an error. For the 108 million Americans
whose credit score prevents access to quality credit, the process
to repair these errors can be intimidating and overwhelming.
eCreditHero helps consumers fix their credit for free, helping to
qualify the unqualified and unleash large untapped markets for
financial services.
- Everlance (San Francisco, CA) –
Everlance is an app that allows freelancers to automatically track
their business miles and expenses. Everlance leverages this data to
help freelancers make better financial decisions. Today, more than
10,000 people rely on Everlance.
- Remedy (San Francisco, CA) – Remedy
protects consumers from medical bill errors and overcharges, saving
the average family over $1,000 per year. Acting on behalf of the
patient, Remedy intercepts every bill, resolves any errors directly
with providers, and makes it easy for patients to pay the correct
balance online.
- Scratch
(San Francisco, CA) – Scratch is a modern-day loan servicer that
delivers a borrower-first experience by leveraging technology to
significantly improve the consumers' ability to understand, manage,
and repay their loans while helping transform the servicing
ecosystem for both borrowers and lenders.
- WiseBanyan (New York, NY) – WiseBanyan,
a free financial advisor, builds and manages tailored investment
plans to reach financial milestones, such as retirement, creating a
rainy-day fund, or purchasing a home. Clients simply link a bank
account and WiseBanyan’s end-to-end infrastructure automates the
achievement of their financial goals.
Each company will receive networking and advisory opportunities
to grow and scale their business, $250,000 in capital in a form
suited to their needs, as well as the following benefits:
- National partnership opportunities to
help innovators increase the reach of their products
- Access to the CFSI network
- Mentorship by JPMorgan Chase
executives, and other industry leaders, including FinLab’s own
Entrepreneur-In-Residence and FinLab year-one member Tyler Griffin,
founder and CEO of Prism
- Professional services assistance from
industry leaders, including CFSI, ideas 42, IDEO.org, Paul
Hastings, Promontory Financial and others
- Peer learning opportunities via
in-person retreats throughout the year and regular virtual working
sessions
FinLab’s First Year
The members of FinLab’s first year, which culminated in February
2016 and focused on solutions that help consumers manage cash flow,
have raised nearly $90 million in funding and acquisition deals
over the course of their time in the lab. The group of companies
included Ascend Consumer Finance, Digit, Even, LendStreet, PayGoal
by Neighborhood Trust, Prism, Propel, Puddle and SupportPay. A
profile of FinLab’s first year winners can be found at:
bit.ly/1VNE5th
STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT
“Financial shocks, like an unexpected illness or job loss, can
have a devastating and often long-term impact on a household,” said
Andrea Levere, President, CFED. “I applaud CFSI and JPMorgan
Chase for tackling this issue through the Financial Solutions Lab
and am pleased to see so many mission-oriented innovators targeting
low-income communities. CFED looks forward to working with these
innovators to help expand their reach to those who need it
most.”
“IDEO.org is inspired by this new class of innovators and the
breadth of solutions they’ve created to address this massive
challenge,” said Tim Brown, CEO and President, IDEO. “We
look forward to working with the Financial Solutions Lab class
again to encourage the use of design principles to maximize the
impact of the products for low-income households
"With this most recent batch of winning companies, the FinLab
has once again proven itself as the preeminent program for
entrepreneurs who are working to improve consumer financial health
in the United States,” said Sheel Mohnot, Partner, 500
Startups. “The team at 500 Startups is thrilled to continue to
collaborate with CFSI, JPMorgan Chase and the FinLab to achieve our
shared goal of building 'fintech for the rest of us'."
"I've been thrilled to serve on the FinLab's Advisory Council
and see, firsthand, the impact the Lab has on the companies they
support and on the broader Fintech industry,” said Ann Lamont,
Managing Partner, Oak Investment Partners. “The Lab is playing
an important role in fostering innovation that improves consumer
financial health. I am honored to be part of this important
effort!"
"Lower-income households tend to face many more restrictions on
how they can access their money and manage their finances, which is
the opposite of what they need to cope with the greater levels of
volatility they face," said Ida Rademacher, Executive Director
of the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program. "I commend
the FinLab for recognizing this reality and dedicating its second
year to raising up solutions that will help households become more
resilient in the face of economic shocks."
About the Financial Solutions Lab (FinLab)
The Financial Solutions Lab is a $30 million, five-year
initiative managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation
(CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. to identify,
test and expand the availability of promising innovations that help
Americans increase savings, improve credit, and build assets. The
lab will launch a series of competitions to identify solutions to
specific consumer financial challenges. It will provide incentives
for entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits to enhance financial
products and services that address these challenges and improve
consumers’ financial health. For more information, visit
http://finlab.cfsinnovation.com.
About the Center for Financial Services Innovation
(CFSI)
CFSI is the nation’s authority on consumer financial health.
CFSI leads a network of financial services innovators committed to
building a more robust financial services marketplace with higher
quality products and services. Through its Compass Principles and a
lineup of proprietary research, insights and events, CFSI informs,
advises, and connects members of its network to seed the innovation
that will transform the financial services landscape. For more
on CFSI, go to www.cfsinnovation.com and follow on
Twitter at @CFSInnovation.
About JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is a leading global
financial services firm with assets of $2.4 trillion and operations
worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial
services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking,
financial transaction processing, and asset management. A component
of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the
world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government
clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Information about
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160620005592/en/
Media:Zeno GroupAaron Conn,
312-396-9779Aaron.Conn@zenogroup.comorJPMorgan Chase &
Co.Nicole Kennedy, 609-458-1128Nicole.kennedy@chase.com
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