Financial Venture Studio Announces Largest-Ever Cohort of Seed-Stage FinTech Startups
Majority of selected companies were formed since COVID-19
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Financial Venture Studio (FVS) today announced that it has selected a record nine companies for its Winter 2021 cohort of the nation’s premier program dedicated to seed-stage fintech startups. Following a rigorous vetting process, the companies have received an investment in capital from FVS, and are now participating in a bespoke six-month, virtual program designed to help early stage fintech firms navigate critical elements of the financial services industry, including legal/regulatory, technical, communications, partnerships and capital markets.
“Fintech is changing faster than ever,” said Ryan Falvey, Managing Partner at FVS. “COVID-19 restrictions have encouraged millions of consumers to adopt digital financial tools for the first time. The growth in the sector is incredible. At the same time, the nature of company creation is evolving. With location being less important than before, we’re seeing teams from across the country, and the world, tackling big problems and pursuing ambitious visions. This is a thrilling time to be working in early stage fintech.”
“Building a fintech requires building a massive network of contacts throughout financial services, and that’s practically impossible now with COVID having shut down in-person networking,” said Tyler Griffin, Managing Partner at FVS, who previously founded payments fintech Prism, which was sold to PayNearMe. “At Venture Studio, we are creating those networks for founders, helping them meet the right people at the right organizations to shave months or even years off of their development.”
The FVS Winter 2021 cohort includes one company in stealth mode, as well as eight others:
- Brick, the banking platform for homeowners that makes it easy to plan and pay for high ROI home improvements;
- Daylight, the first and only digital banking platform in the U.S. designed for the LGBT+ community by the LGBT+ community, helps its members achieve fulfilling futures faster;
- DIRO, a technology that instantly verifies the authenticity of digital documents for individuals or businesses from any source globally;
- FairPlay, the world’s first “Fairness as a Service” company, helps lenders make their underwriting and collections decisions fairer and more profitable by debiasing the algorithms in many approval processes
- FarmRaise, a vertical SaaS platform that improves access to farm funding and grows farmer profitability;
- Flannel, a real-time payments API for innovative companies;
- Pakt, an infrastructure service that allows sites to embed bespoke insurance products across the web; and
- SnoutID, a platform that provides online check ins, digitally signed estimates, and upfront payment options for veterinary care, saving vets time and increasing revenue.
FVS has selected three cohorts of startups for its unique founder support model since its inception in 2018. Of the 18 total startups to participate in the FVS program, 16 have raised subsequent funding—with nearly $100 million raised in follow-on capital by participating startups since the FVS program.
One of FVS’ earliest investments, Roger, was recently acquired by public company FLEETCOR, marking FVS’ first public-company exit. “This is probably the most valuable program you can do as an early stage fintech startup anywhere in the world,” said Cathrine Andersen, co-founder and CEO of Roger, of her experience in the FVS program. “Our participation took us where we wanted much quicker than we could have on our own.”
“The FVS team is well-informed about the fintech ecosystem and is always dependable for sound advice on vendors, go-to-market strategies, and help with finance-related partnerships,” said Patrick Mrozowski, founder and CEO of Point.
About Financial Venture Studio
FVS invests in great early stage technology teams launching products that have the ability to transform the financial services industry. FVS prioritizes firms that demonstrate rapid execution, strong initial product growth and user engagement. To learn more about the Financial Venture Studio’s previous cohorts and its investing and development approach, visit www.finventurestudio.com.
Media Contact:
Shannon Austin
Financial Venture Studio
+1 703.338.8813
[email protected]
