Rob Lee and Wayne Miller
Wednesday, July 18th the third annual gathering of the Venture Center FinTech Accelerator program, sponsored by FIS, was celebrated at the Robinson Auditorium.
The companies within the program were given the chance to give their final pitches to dozens of investors, financial service executives and business leaders.
“Each company we’ve picked is a disruption of something. They each have a fundamentally different approach to what’s getting done today.” said Rob Lee, EVP, Chief Product Officer of Retail Banking and Payments for FIS.
The ten companies in the program were chosen from 281 applicants from 47 countries, 26 states, and six continents. They participated in a rigorous 12-week program designed to accelerate the growth of early stage financial technology ventures. Through rigorous curriculum, mentorship and coaching, The Venture Center and FIS accelerate industry innovation with a focus on cutting costs, driving customer engagement and increasing revenue.
“Each week has a theme and we try to align those themes with the particular gaps in business needs that the companies have. But also that they’re relevant to giving them the capacity to sell their product and services to banks,” said Wayne Miller, Managing Director of the FinTech Accelerator. “We give the companies a chance to interact with the banks. We bring in subject matter experts, these folks come in and are able to interact one on one with the companies and help them resolve problems.”
The companies that committed to complete the accelerator received a $75,000 initial investment with the potential for follow-on investment up to $300,000 at the end of the program. “Companies that demonstrate substantial promise in the development of new tools and technologies that deliver purposeful innovation may receive an invitation to join the FIS HiPo Network,” FinTech states.
The program is sponsored by FIS which is the world’s largest global provider dedicated to banking and payments technologies. FIS is focused on providing banking solutions including software, services and technology outsourcing. The Accelerator Program provides FIS, and the world, with companies that are ready for the market and dedicated to making the financial world a better place. For everyone involved it is a win-win situation.
“Places like Arkansas have been much more relevant in the ecosystem of places to start a business. If we can continue to train up the workforce to support these companies then it’ll be great for Arkansas, great for the companies, and great for the industries.” said Wayne Miller.
The Companies this year are Arcanum Technology, Lex Align, Billon, Pay Your Tuition, Bucket, Sonect, Finvoice, Upperroom Technology, Gas Pos, and Verikai.
Companies chosen for the FinTech Accelerator Program
Read more about the 2018 VC FinTech Accelerator participants here »
