Finovate Newcomer Lokyata Integrates its Credit Decisioning Technology with Infinity Software

Finovate Newcomer Lokyata Integrates its Credit Decisioning Technology with Infinity Software
  • Lokyata, a credit decisioning specialist, announced a partnership with Infinity Software.
  • The integration will make Lokyata’s BankAnalyze solution available to Infinity Software’s financial services customers.
  • Lokyata, founded in 2017, made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year.

Just over a month after making its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco, California, credit decision solutions provider Lokyata has announced that its real-time, automated credit decisioning tool, BankAnalyze, is now integrated with Infinity Software’s loan management software platform.

Courtesy of the API-enabled integration with Lokyata, Infinity Solutions will give its customers the ability to access key loan decision information. This includes customer-permissioned bank statement analysis such as average monthly net income, minimum balance, average monthly loan payments, and insufficient funds (NSF) notification histories. The integration will also enable lenders to configure both auto-fund and auto-deny rules to bring additional streamlining to the loan decisioning experience.

“At Lokyata, we are always looking to work with innovators in the market and Infinity Software is demonstrating the value of scalable, modern technology in an evolving lending ecosystem,” Lokyata CTO Steve Bireley said. “Increasingly, lenders are looking for ways to responsibly help more consumers gain access to credit, and through tools like BankAnalyze and Infinity Software’s platform, more lenders are successfully meeting that goal.”

With 20 years of experience providing lending solutions and other tools to direct-to-consumer lenders, Infinity Software has helped more than 700 businesses enhance their lending processes. The company uses a configurable loan product engine that gives lenders access to advanced accounting and reporting, as well as a built-in collections suite and access controls. Infinity Software offers a wide range of services to lenders, ranging from website design to optimized loan agreements to automated underwriting waterfalls, as well as a number of additional consumer loan solutions.

“Infinity has worked with hundreds of vendors to meet the needs of lenders in our space,” Infinity Software Director of Products Shannon Lee said. “Lokyata has proven to have a unique product that helps lenders better meet the needs of underserved borrowers and grow their business in a responsible and innovative way.”

Currently headquartered in Washington, D.C., Lokyata made its Finovate debut last month at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, Lokyata’s Bireley demoed the company’s BankAnalyze solution. The technology assesses the bank statements from a loan applicant and then provides an automated credit decision recommendation based on a combination of a weighted rules and a Lokyata score created in collaboration with the client. The company believes that using borrower-permissioned data is a major boon to the lending process, creating a more accurate, and up-to-date depiction of the borrower’s credit status. Moreover, Lokyata says that this approach “primes” near and subprime borrowers by making it easier for financial institutions to lend to “near prime” borrowers without taking on excessive risk.

Lokyata’s other products include ExcelRate, a lending and lead decision platform, and FraudBlock, a real-time identity verification and fraud intelligence solution for financial transactions. With $1.5 million in funding, Lokyata has scored more than 6.1 million loans impacting more than 240,000 customers. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $1.5 million in funding. Santosh Thiruthi is co-founder and CEO.


Photo by Diana Smykova

Meet the Startups: Investor Meetings at FinovateSpring This Month

New to FinovateSpring this year, we’re connecting startups raising early-stage capital with investors who can make it happen. And there’s still room at the table. If you’re a startup raising pre-seed/seed/series A funding, apply now. Interested investors should reach out to Heather Stowell

To shed a little more light on our Advanced Startup Booster program on May 18, Greg Palmer, VP of Strategy and host of The Finovate Podcast, sat down with one of the investors, Garnet Heraman, who will be meeting these startups.

As Founder and Managing Partner at Aperture Venture Capital, Heraman not only has VC insight into startup funding in the fintech industry, but he also has years of entrepreneur experience, notably as the CEO of three tech companies acquired within years of each other.

“In a general sense, this is such a people business and such a leadership and management business, especially at the early stages of a VC-backed company,” Heraman said. “At the early stages of a startup, I think it’s all about personalities, personal discernment and rapport, leadership, and substance. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Tried and true maxims about what it takes to be a good, bankable person.”

Heraman added, “In our fintech world specifically, what Aperture looks for essentially is what we call ‘fintech adjacent’ or ‘fintech plus.’ We’re looking for those undiscovered intersections between traditional fintech and some compelling lucrative enterprise segment. A company that takes a problem-solving perspective and lives at that intersection.”

Below are some further insights from Heraman from his recent conversation with Finovate VP Greg Palmer.


On building networks and ecosystems

(The) Startup Booster Program looks like an awesome way to get the right companies in front of the right people at the right time. I (think) about where I was when I was a first- and second-time entrepreneur. (We) could have done a much better job of essentially getting out and about into the conferences and building networks and building ecosystems.

On delivering value to pre-seed fintech startups

We feel like there is an immense opportunity to deliver value to these pre-seed companies if you can make that alignment happen proactively. Beyond any kind of capital, things like product and technology support, sales and distribution support, logistics and supply chain guidance and resources (are critical). To the extent that those things can be more readily available to more pre-seed companies, what you’re going to see is . .  . the overall ecosystem for pre-seed companies develop better and rise to the top. 

On the importance of a healthy startup ecosystem

Without young startups being in channels that have them coming into contact with seed and later-stage VCs and/or corporations, a couple of things happen. They don’t get the funding they need and the smart money they need, like access to mission critical operational resources, at a critical time when they are still developing. Without the opportunity to refine, if not pivot, make mistakes and fix them, the overall market is going to be bereft of companies that could otherwise do well for themselves.

On the importance of diversity

If only a tiny portion of all of these billions of dollars in VC capital is going to people of color, you have to ask yourself what is the opportunity cost to the gross national product of this country? By not having more money go into the hands of innovators and entrepreneurs who are people of color and, maybe more importantly, female, what is the opportunity cost?


Advanced Startup Booster meetings take place on May 18 between 5pm to 6pm. For more information on how to get involved, visit our Startup Booster program hub today!

Fintech Startup Showcase: With Ownwell, Proptech Meets Taxtech

Fintech Startup Showcase: With Ownwell, Proptech Meets Taxtech

The convergence between the complexities of property management and property taxation has produced more than its fair share of headaches for commercial and residential property owners alike. Fortunately, fintech innovation in the form of Ownwell exists to help these property owners save money when it comes to paying property taxes.

“Property owners have a lot to consider when deciding to protest (property tax overpayments),” Ownwell CEO Colton Pace explained. Pace cited the costs in time and money, the complexity, and the access to real estate industry expertise as major hurdles for property owners when contesting property value assessments. “Ownwell handles the entire process of appealing on behalf of property owners and charges the lowest fees currently on the market,” Pace said. “We ensure all property owners, regardless of financial status, have access to the tools, resources, and information they need to manage their property taxes with confidence.”

Formerly known as realAppeal, Ownwell combines industry expertise and machine learning to provide property owners with protection against overpaying on their property tax. Ownwell provides owners with a savings estimate based on current sales and valuation data. If the owner decides to challenge their assessment, locally-based property tax experts leverage proprietary software to build the best case possible for the property owner. With a Savings-or-Free guarantee, Ownwell customers only pay if the process saves them money on their property tax assessment. The company said that its customers save an average of $1,457, and that “nearly” nine of 10 of its challenges are successful.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Ownwell earned a spot in the fintech headlines recently with news of its $5.75 million seed funding round. The investment was led by First Round Capital, and featured participation by Wonder Ventures, Founder Colllective, Long Journey Ventures, and Scott Banister, former board member of PayPal. The company said that it will use the additional capital to hire additional talent – from sales to technology to local tax expertise – across the board. The seed funding comes as the Ownwell reports growing its customer base by 40x over the past nine months, with operations in Texas, California, Washington, and Florida.

“Real estate is often the most valuable asset homeowners and investors own, but it’s difficult to track and manage the rising costs of property taxes, insurance, financing, and more,” First Round Capital partner Bill Trenchard said. “Ownwell is building a platform to help property owners reduce their property taxes and manage the other costs of ownership with confidence.”


Photo by David McBee

Youth Investing App EarlyBird Raises $4 Million in New Funding

Youth Investing App EarlyBird Raises $4 Million in New Funding

EarlyBird, a mobile investing app for children and their families, has raised $4 million in seed funding today. Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six led the round, which featured strategic participation from Gemini’s Frontier Fund, Network Ventures, Rarebreed Ventures, and other angel and VC investors. The company will use the capital to continue building its solution, add to its engineering, product, marketing, and operations teams, and introduce new features – including the ability for users to invest and gift assets other than stocks and ETFs, such as cryptocurrencies.

The investment takes the company’s total funding to more than $7 million, having secured funding previously in November and January of last year.

Using a collaborative approach to next-generation wealth building, EarlyBird enables parents to set up an investment account, select from a number of diversified portfolio options, and begin making investments on behalf of their child. The platform also empowers members of a child’s extended network of family, friends, and others to contribute to the account (“gifted capital” EarlyBird calls it). Whether celebrating birthdays, holidays, or other occasions, these contributions are not only unique gift options, they also help young people begin to learn about the importance of investing and building wealth over time. The technology also has a feature that enables contributors to add a video or photo commemorating the gift.

“EarlyBird started with the vision to create an accessible way for all families to begin building wealth for their children, and to do so with the support, love, and contributions of their broader communities,” EarlyBird co-founder and CEO Jordan Wexler said. “Since our launch, we’ve seen incredible growth, adoption, and excitement from families with a wide range of financial knowledge and backgrounds. Seven Seven Six and all of our new partners recognize the importance of financial access and approachability in investing, and we’re thrilled to have them on board as we continue to take flight.”

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and founded in 2019, EarlyBird recently announced a partnership with Benjamin Talks, a youth-oriented financial education platform launched by co-founders Nikki Boulukos and Carissa Jordan last fall. The collaboration will bring Benjamin Talks content to EarlyBird’s newsletter series “The Weekend Worm” which offers stock market news in an approachable way that parents can share with their children. This spring, EarlyBird introduced its Gifts for Good program. Starting this April, EarlyBird selected up to three “extraordinary kids between the ages of 3 and 12 years old to support and invest in.” With an eye toward young people showing achievement in areas such as music and the arts, athletics, academics, and “special acts of kindness,” EarlyBird will provide a gift investment of $250 to each child selected to seed their investment accounts.

“Investing tools are only available to families with investing knowledge and experience building generational wealth,” EarlyBird COO Caleb Frankel said in a statement accompanying today’s investment news. “We have a bold vision to make investing available for everybody. We are driving wealth creation not within the system of today, but for the world of tomorrow.”

Be sure to check out our interview with Jordan Wexler from earlier this year.


Photo by Radovan Zierik from Pexels

Meet The Beans: Financial Wellness for the Caring Class

Meet The Beans: Financial Wellness for the Caring Class

Seeing is believing, goes the old saying. And as far as The Beans is concerned, seeing is key to savings, as well.

At least that’s the thinking behind Atlanta, Georgia-based fintech, The Beans, which leverages Visual Financial Planning in order to power its eponymous, iOS financial planning app.

“The world is rapidly becoming more visual and traditional financial services are too complicated, or so costly that they become inaccessible,” Melissa Pancoast, CEO and founder of The Beans, said. “The Beans is designed to empower all people to make Visual Financial Plans effortlessly, and our growing community in Atlanta is evidence of the widespread need that we are addressing.”

A former math teacher who later became a researcher at the University of Oxford, Pancoast developed Visual Financial Planning as a way for people to create easy-to-follow financial plans that help them manage both their spending and savings – and avoid the high levels of stress that often accompanies financial planning efforts. Features of the app include the ability to create personalized visual financial plans, automated transaction labelling for expense tracking, and real-time support and alerts to inform users of account balances, Safe to Spend amounts, and more. Pancoast has said that she hopes that those working in what she called “the caring class” of teachers, health care workers, and others – people with jobs that often are especially and consistently stressful – will be first among those who take advantage of The Beans’ solution.

The Beans made fintech headlines in recent days on news that the company, which turns four this year, secured its first seed funding last week. The $2 million investment was led by Percursor Ventures and featured participation from Swing Ventures, Relay Ventures, Oxford Angel Fund, and One Planet. The fundraising added to the $1.4 million in pre-seed capital the company has raised over the course of two previous rounds.

In addition to offering an app, The Beans has hosted free financial wellness workshops for more than 30 schools and organizations in the Atlanta area. And organizations like the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the United Nations, have worked to bring the benefits of Visual Financial Planning to millions of families around the world.

“I used The Beans’ recommendations on how to divide up my money and was able to bring my Sheltered expenses (rent, utilities, subscriptions, and savings) down to 60% of my income, including some savings for a big trip I have planned this year,” an Atlanta public school teacher Veronica Karwoski said. “I’m less stressed about everyday expenses and I’m making progress toward the life I want to live.”


Photo by Jessica Lewis from Pexels

Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Meet Five of Finovate’s Newest, Youngest Startups

Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Meet Five of Finovate’s Newest, Youngest Startups

Our New Startup Highlight, launched this spring, gives us an opportunity to showcase lesser known fintech innovators that might otherwise fly under the radar.

This week, we feature five such companies — all of whom are both recent Finovate alums as well as being founded within the past year or so. Special congratulations to Dbilia and Proptee, two startups barely a year old that nevertheless wowed our Finovate audiences this year, earning Best of Show trophies in their Finovate debuts.

FinovateEurope’s Youngest Startups

  • Founded last year and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dbilia leverages blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to provide a digital marketplace for collectables and memorabilia. The company won Best of Show at FinovateEurope for its demo of its marketplace, as well as its demonstration of NFT creation, automatic NFT collection storage, and NFT shop setup. Dbilia was founded by Everett Kohl, who is the company’s CEO.
  • Less than one year old, Proptee made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in March, demonstrating its commission, property stock exchange. Proptee enables investors to buy and sell shares in real estate that is listed by property owners on its platform. The technology, which helped the company earn Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope in March, combines the liquidity and transparency of the stock market with the stability of real estate investment. Proptee was co-founded by Benedek Toth (CEO) and Alexandru Rosianu (CTO) and is based in London, U.K.

Three Startups from FinovateSpring

  • An insights platform that helps financial services companies and other organizations optimize for financial health, Attune demoed its technology at FinovateSpring earlier this month. The company, founded in January 2020 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, offers firms a robust assessment tool that measures the financial health of both individuals and populations over time. The solution then leverages nationally-representative, longitudinal benchmarks to help clients understand and operationalize the results. John Thompson is President.
  • Giving community financial institutions the kind of real-time visibility into client data that larger institutions have is the mission of San Mateo, California-based Finalytics.AI. Launched in January of 2020, Finalytics.AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring. At the conference, the company showed how its platform leverages machine learning dynamic segmentation, and dynamic content creation to help community-based FIs better understand and serve their customers. The technology also helps them compete with the digital prowess of the big banks and digital-only institutions. Craig McLaughlin is CEO.
  • Headquartered in Kirkland, SecureSave demonstrated its workplace savings program at FinovateSpring earlier this month. The company offers a savings app that is designed to help employees build an emergency fund easily and automatically. By partnering with employers, SecureSave makes emergency savings a “high impact new benefit” that companies can use to support the financial wellness of their workers. CEO Devin Miller and CTO Bassam Saliba co-founded the company in the fall of 2020.

New Startup Highlight: MainStreet

New Startup Highlight: MainStreet

Here in the U.S., it’s tax season. And even though the IRS has extended the filing deadline by a few weeks, it’s still a stressful time for both individuals and businesses. In an era of changing benefits, everyone is on the lookout to minimize their tax burden.

Enter MainStreet, a company founded in 2019 that helps qualify tech startups for tax credits that most accountants don’t check for. The California-based company works with startups’ accountants to check for more than 200 potential unclaimed tax credits.

MainStreet works by integrating the startups’ payroll and scanning the data on a monthly basis for potential federal, state, and local tax credits. If MainStreet finds a tax credit, the company will advance 80% of the credit amount to the startup so that they can use the funds right away instead of waiting on their tax refund. The client is responsible for repaying that amount, with no interest incurred, after they receive their credit from the government.

MainStreet does not charge a fee for this monthly service. Instead, the company keeps the remaining 20% of the startups’ tax credit amount. However, MainStreet only receives payment if it successfully finds a refund for the client.

In the event of an audit, MainStreet offers support through the auditing process. And if MainStreet makes an error with the paperwork or credit claim, the client is insured for up to $1 million.

So far, MainStreet has found more than $80 million for over 1,000 startups. The company’s clients include Rally, Newfront Insurance, LedgerX, Pave, and more.

In the long term, MainStreet plans to expand its operations beyond serving tech startups to include small businesses, as well.

MainStreet has received almost $63 million from investors including Gradient Ventures, Sound Ventures, and Signal Fire.


Photo by Liza Rusalskaya on Unsplash

Cracking the Fintech Code: Secrets to Success for Start-ups

FinovateFall welcomed over 70 start-ups to demo exciting new products and ideas, and opened the stage to pioneering thought-leaders to discuss the future of finance, technology and how the two come together to solve real world problems. We sat down with leaders of inspiring start-ups to get their insight on what the recipe for success is this often overcrowded space.

Matt Armstead, Executive Director, Founding Member, Board Member, FintechAccel gives his advice to start-ups and explores why getting a great team behind the idea is critical.

Jon Zanoff,  Managing Director, Techstars on knowing when a start-up is re ready to take a next step and join an accelerator.

Pini Yukeul,  CEO of Optimove, on how AI helps with segmentation, prediction and optimization within marketing and how start-ups and established businesses can leverage it.

Friday Fun: Top 12 U.S. Cities for Fintech Startups

Friday Fun: Top 12 U.S. Cities for Fintech Startups

Yesterday, Bank Innovations named five emerging U.S. fintech hubs (outside NYC, Silicon Valley and Boston). Its up-and-comers were: Atlanta, Austin, Lincoln, Miami and Washington DC. While Austin and Atlanta made sense, I was surprised by Miami, DC and especially Lincoln, Nebraska.

The article didn’t include a methodology, so to test their hypothesis I searched AngelList’s database of fintech and financial services startups (financial technology, financial services, payments, fin tech or insurance). Miami did in fact make the top 12, but Lincoln (7 startups) and Washington DC (9 startups) are pretty far out of the running, at least from a startup perspective. Admittedly, Bank Innovations was considering more than just startup activity.

Here’s the 10 most common U.S. homes of fintech startups outside SF and NYC:
(Note: this is by no means clean data, so consider it a proxy only; also it does not include neighboring cities such as San Jose or Brooklyn.)

HQ/Number of Startups

  1. NYC 1,367
  2. San Francisco 1,241
  3. LA 431
  4. Chicago 267
  5. Boston 246
  6. Austin 226
  7. Atlanta 161
  8. San Diego 156
  9. Palo Alto 136
  10. Seattle 116 (tie)
  11. Dallas 116 (tie)
  12. Miami 107

Source: Angel List, 18 Aug 2017

Enjoy your weekend all!

Author: Jim Bruene is Founder & Senior Advisor to Finovate as well as Principal of BUX Advisors, a financial services user-experience consultancy. 


Photo credit, LA Fintech Meetup Aug 22

 

The 85 Fintech Graduates of Y Combinator (YC): 2005 to 2016

The 85 Fintech Graduates of Y Combinator (YC): 2005 to 2016

yc slogan

Update: See here for full-year 2016.

Y Combinator (YC) continues to be the most important incubator in the general technology space with high-flying alums such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Instacart. YC is less well known, but equally successful in the fintech vertical with Stripe and Zenefits, along with two Finovate alums, ZenPayroll and Coinbase, all in the $500+ million club (based on most recent funding).

Those big wins are all the more impressive, given the smaller universe of fintech companies incubated at YC—less than 10% of its total (see table below). YC has hatched just 85 fintech companies (see list below), most in the past 30 months.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see how well the new crop of specialized fintech incubators does in attracting promising new fintech companies. Does backing from Barclays or Wells Fargo trump the halo effect of a YC investment? We’ll soon find out.

———

Table: YC Fintech Companies by Year

Class Total Companies # Fintech Companies % Fintech
2016 (1st half) 119 13 11%
2015 201 22 11%
2014 109 13 12%
2013 83 9 9%
2012 117 8 7%
2011 89 7 8%
2010 61 6 10%
2009 39 1 3%
2008 43 1 2%
2007 32 2 6%
2006 17 0 0%
2005 8 1 13%
Total 918 85 9.3%

Source: Y-Combinator (yclist.com), Finovate analysis
(see note 1 for Fintech definition)

————

List: YC fintech alums by year
________________________________

2016 (first half)

  • Bonsai: Invoicing and payments tool targted to freelancers
  • AlphaFlow: P2P real estate investment manager for individual investors
  • Cover: Insurance-on-demand using a smartphone camera
  • Emburse: Corporate prepaid cards that enforce spending rules
  • flexReceipts: Digital receipt platform
  • Landed: Crowdfunding platform for mortgage down payments
  • LendEDU: Student loan portal
  • MeterFeeder: Enables all parking meters to accept credit cards
  • PayStack: Online card processer in Nigeria
  • PocketSuite: Small businesses payment, invoicing, bookin and communication application
  • Stilt: Personal loans for international borrowers living in the United States
  • TrueBill: Subscription payment management for consumers
  • WorldCover: Crop insurance for the developing world

2015

2014

  • Abacus: Say good-bye to expense reports
  • BillForward: A highly flexible and unified billing platform; built for high growth and enterprise companies
  • BitAccess: The easiest way to buy and sell bitcoin
  • BlockScore: Real-time identity verification and due diligence
  • ClearTax; The easiest way to e-file income tax returns in India
  • Onename.io: Blockchain ID. A better identity
  • Shift Payments: Shift Payments is changing the way money changes hands
  • Sliced Investing: Sliced provides technology to help financial advisers deploy alternatives
  • TradeBlock: Digital currency data and analysis
  • Two Tap: Users can now order any product directly in your app with Two Tap
  • Zen99: 1099 tax help for rideshare drivers, delivery drivers, housekeepers, and more
  • Zidisha: Online microlending community
  • Zinc: Pay with with Dwolla or Bitcoin, and manage all your orders in one place

2013

2012

  • Airbrite (exited): Cloud-enabled platform for mobile commerce
  • Coinbase: Bitcoin wallet and exchange
  • Crowdtilt: Allows users to pool funds online
  • Eligible: Real-time eligibility checks for health insurance
  • FundersClub: Equity crowdfunding marketplace
  • LendUp: Reinventing the payday-lending industry
  • SmartAsset: Bringing full transparency to the financial decision-making process
  • ZenPayroll: Modern payroll

2011

  • DebtEye: Automated credit-counseling solution
  • Giftrocket: Gift card that works at any location
  • GoCardless: U.K.-based service for merchants to set up interbank transfers for customers
  • Leaky: Helps consumers make better decisions about insurance
  • OrderAhead: Order from local merchants on your phone
  • TrustEgg: Simple way to save for a child’s future
  • SwipeGood: Enroll credit and debit cards to automatically round up every purchase to the nearest dollar for charity

2010

  • CardPool (exited): Gift card exchange marketplace
  • E la Carte: Tablets for restaurant point-of-sale
  • FutureAdvisor (exited): Robo-adviser
  • Indinero: Accounting, taxes and payroll for small business
  • ReadyForZero (exited): Helping people control and reduce debt
  • Stripe: Developer-friendly way to accept payments online

2009

  • WePay: Online payments platform

2008

  • Tipjoy (dead): Social payments engine for digital content

2007

2005

  • TextPayMe (exited): SMS payment service acquired by Amazon

—————————

Notes:
1. We are using a broad definition of fintech including payments, insurance, investing, etc.
2. A few YC companies are in stealth mode, so this list is not complete.

The 40 Fintech Graduates from Y Combinator (YC)

image By most measures, Y Combinator (YC) is far and away the most important incubator in the technology space. Graduating from there is like facing the job market with a resume boasting summer internships at Google, Facebook AND Goldman Sachs. You are almost guaranteed a multi-million funding.

Fintech (note 1) has been part of YC from the beginning. The first class (Summer 2005) included one fintech startup, TextPayMe, among the eight companies. TextPayMe was acquired shortly thereafter by Amazon for a rumored $3 million.

But as YC grew from 2005 to 2009, the number of fintech companies stayed at roughly 1 per year. During those five years, YC graduated 5 fintech companies out of a total of 139 (3.5%). Suddenly in 2010, the fintech number grew dramatically, average of more than 7 per year. During the past 4.5 years, there have been 35 fintech startups out of a total of 406 (8.6%) (see note 2). 

Table: YC Fintech Companies by Year

Class Total Companies # Fintech Companies % Fintech
2014 (half year) 56 5 9%
2013 83 9 9%
2012 117 8 7%
2011 89 7 8%
2010 61 6 10%
2009 39 1 3%
2008 43 1 2%
2007 32 2 6%
2006 17 0 0%
2005 8 1 13%
Total 545 40 7.4%

Source: Y-Combinator (yclist.com), Finovate analysis 
(see note 1 for Fintech definition)

_________________________________________

List of fintech YC alums by year
_________________________________________

2014 (Winter class only)

Abacus
abacus.com
Say goodbye to expense reports.

TradeBlock
http://tradeblock.com
Digital currency data and analysis. TradeBlock’s digital currency tools and research are trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders and enthusiasts across the globe.

Two Tap
http://twotap.com
Users can now order any product directly in your app with Two Tap.

Zidisha
http://www.zidisha.org
We are pioneering the first online microlending community to connect lenders and borrowers directly across international borders – overcoming previously insurmountable barriers of geography, wealth and circumstance.

Zinc
http://www.zincsave.com
Zinc is the best way to buy. Pay with with Dwolla or Bitcoin, and manage all your orders in one place.

2013

Buttercoin
http://buttercoin.com
Trade bitcoin with ease.

PayTango
http://www.paytango.com
PayTango links the cards in your wallet to your fingerprints.

RealCrowd
http://realcrowd.com
Featured investments available for funding.

SimplyInsured
http://www.simplyinsured.com
Simple health insurance for small businesses.

Standard Treasury
http://standardtreasury.com
APIs for commercial banks.

Swish
http://www.swish.com
Swish is a dynamic, specialized mobile payment company that has developed a ground breaking new card reader and application which provides a complete mobile point of sale solution to any size business.

True Link Financial
http://www.truelinkcard.com
We keep a watchful eye out for fraud and spending mishaps so you can spend your time doing what matters.

WeFunder
https://wefunder.com
We aim to give everyone – regardless of wealth – the opportunity to invest in startups.

Zenefits
http://www.zenefits.com
Zenefits runs your benefits, so you can run your business. Get affordable benefits for your company in minutes. Then set and forget them.

2012

Airbrite
http://airbritelabs.com
Exited
Airbrite is a cloud-enabled platform that powers mobile commerce We are the next generation of e-commerce. Our mobile-firs
t API powers modern shopping.

Coinbase
http://coinbase.com
Your Hosted Bitcoin Wallet. Coinbase is the easiest way to get started with Bitcoin.

Crowdtilt
http://www.crowdtilt.com
Crowdtilt allows users to pool funds for objectives in a simple, social, and frictionless way online.

Eligible
eligibleapi.com
Real Time Eligibility Checks for Health Insurance.

FundersClub
thefundersclub.com
FundersClub is a web service that gives investors unprecedented access to investment opportunities and the tools to review and invest online with ease and speed.

LendUp
lendup.com
LendUp is reinventing the payday lending industry

SmartAsset
http://www.smartasset.com
SmartAsset makes life’s biggest decisions easier by bringing full transparency to the financial decision making process.

ZenPayroll
http://zenpayroll.com
We are creating beautiful, modern payroll.

2011

DebtEye
http://www.debteye.com
We are an automated credit counseling solution to help customers get out of debt, a little like a “turbo tax” for those who need debt relief.

Giftrocket
http://www.giftrocket.com
GiftRocket sells a new type of gift card that works at any location.

GoCardless
https://gocardless.com
GoCardless is a UK-based service that allows smaller merchants to easily set up interbank transfers for customers.

Leaky
http://leaky.com
Leaky helps consumers make better decisions about insurance.

OrderAhead
http://orderaheadapp.com
OrderAhead is the easiest way to order from local merchants on your phone.

TrustEgg
http://trustegg.com
The simplest way to save for a child’s future.

SwipeGood
https://swipegood.com
SwipeGood allows users to enroll their credit or debit cards and automatically round up every purchase to the nearest dollar for charity.

2010

CardPool
http://www.cardpool.com
EXITED
Cardpool is a gift card exchange marketplace where anybody can buy, sell, or trade their new or pre-owned gift cards.

E la Carte
http://elacarte.com
E la Carte develops tablets for restaurant tables so guests can order, pay and play games from their seats

FutureAdvisor
https://www.futureadvisor.com
FutureAdvisor was founded in 2010 on the premise that investing for your future does not have to be difficult or expensive.

Indinero
http://indinero.com
Accounting, taxes & payroll. One solution. inDinero is your company’s accounting department.

ReadyForZero
https://www.readyforzero.com
ReadyForZero creates online financial software that helps people control and reduce debt.

Stripe
https://stripe.com
Stripe is a simple, developer-friendly way to accept payments online.

2009

WePay
https://www.wepay.com
WePay is an online payments platform for individuals, organizations, and businesses.

2008

Tipjoy
DEAD
Tipjoy was a simple, social payments engine that allows merchants to sell digital content and features, charities to raise money for causes, and individuals to give money to one another.

2007

Buxfer
http://www.buxfer.com
Buxfer is the next-generation personal finance solution, taking money management to the web.

SocialPicks
http://www.socialpicks.com
EXITED
SocialPicks provides individual investors with a trusted online investing community where they can invest smarter together.

2005

TextPayMe
http://www.textpayme.com
EXITED
TextPayMe was an SMS payment service that lets you send money to other people using cell phone text messaging.

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Note:
1. We are using a broad definition of fintech including payments, insurance, investments, gift cards and even a few that are ecommerce focused such as E la Carte which is an order entry and payments play for restaurants.
2. Some YC companies are in stealth mode, so this public list is not 100% complete.