The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) showcased a variety of fintech innovations developed for community banks at the fifth annual ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator Demo Day last week.
The two-day event showcased the innovations that were developed over a 10-week intensive boot camp. The event is the first since ICBA brought the accelerator program in-house and the first since the organization moved to Atlanta. This is the first cohort, with a second group slated to present in September.
“ICBA commends the cohort for their dedication and purpose-driven solutions that support community bank innovation and light the pathway for further collaboration with our industry,” ICBA Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Charles Potts said. “We continue to be impressed by these companies and their solutions, which are thoughtfully and purposefully built to address the unique needs and business opportunities of our members in service to their customers and communities.”
The event kicked off with Demo Day, which featured seven-minute pitches from the fintech companies’ founders highlighting their products, followed by a networking reception. Among the presentations provided by the 2023 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator alumni were:
• CNote — an investment platform that earns a better return while investing in the causes and communities that matter;
• Micronotes — a cloud-based marketing automation solution allowing banks to execute on loan, deposit and retention opportunities using data;
• Spiral — an Impact-as-a-Service platform to help banks improve customer engagement and retention through socially conscious spending;
• Finli — a digital back-office solution for invoicing, payment collection, customer relationship management and communications to help banks support small businesses;
• Neural Payments — a payment engine that moves money over traditional debit rails, peer-to-peer payments and real-time payment systems; and
• Pidgin — a platform supporting faster payments via an administration portal, user-centric front-end applications, and developer-friendly application programming interfaces.
Neural Payments received the Audience Choice Award, voted on by attendees as the most promising solution. Spiral was awarded MVP (Most Valuable Participant) for the most-evolved offering based on program engagement and alignment with community bank business priorities.
Day two began with a moderated panel discussion led by ICBA Senior Vice President of Innovation Programs Wayne Miller on using fintech connections to further innovation.
This discussion was followed by the inaugural “ThinkTECH in an Instant” event, which offered 15-minute breakout sessions and office hours with the Accelerator cohort, allowing attendees to learn more about the solutions presented.
“As we grow and evolve the program, we will continue to build on this program’s foundation to foster these critical community bank-fintech partnerships,” Miller said. “True innovation doesn’t end at 10 weeks, and neither does our commitment to grow and strengthen these relationships.”
More information is available on the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator website. ICBA is currently accepting applications through July 15 for the second 2023 cohort, which kicks off in September and focuses on small business solutions and data analytics needs.