BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Financial Capability Development Competition (FinCapDev, http://fincapdev.com) has announced 10 finalist teams that will develop new mobile apps to help millions of Americans make smart financial choices and gain better access to financial services. The apps proposed by finalist teams address a variety of challenges, including making smart purchasing decisions, saving for the future, prioritizing bill payment, and fostering positive financial behavior in young adults.
Finalist teams will build their apps over the summer and into the fall, tapping a deep pool of FinCapDev-sourced technical resources (such as app development environments and software development kits); expert advisors from the technology, mobile, and financial services industries; and financial support. At the conclusion of the build phase, FinCapDev finalist teams will participate in the $100K Demo Day in the San Francisco Bay Area. There, they will demo their apps to a live audience and panel of expert judges in pursuit of the $50,000 grand prize. Additional prizes include two (2) $25,000 runner-up prizes, for a total prize purse of $100,000
“This ecosystem has grown significantly since we held the first FinCapDev $100K Demo Day—and continues to grow—dramatically,” said Timothy Flacke, Executive Director of the D2D Fund. “We have more partners on board, offering their expertise and technical resources. We have the continued support of our committed funders: the Citi Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the MetLife Foundation. And most importantly, we have an active, engaged community of socially-minded finalists who will build great apps.”
“This year’s roster of FinCapDev finalist teams is impressive and diverse,” said Jennifer Tescher, President & CEO of Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI). “We are excited to have assembled such great technical and business resources for the finalists as they develop their apps into products that will help consumers improve their financial health.”
The Ten FinCapDev Finalist Teams:
- Alcanza (Mountain View, CA), led by Miri Hutcherson, Juntos Finanzas – Based on a bingo-like Mexican game, Alcanza targets the Latino population and works to lay the foundation of future financial security by reducing the cognitive demands of daily financial decision making and breaking down future goals into a set of achievable tasks.
- BeThrifty (New York, NY), led by Femi King – BeThrifty will facilitate bulk purchases by small groups, allowing individuals to buy staple goods at bulk discount prices, when bulk purchases might otherwise be out of reach.
- Climb (San Francisco, CA), led by Yoni Blumberg - Climb will help families build their financial capability by showing them which bills to prioritize when they don't have enough to pay them all.
- DoLoCo (New York, NY), led by Xin Wang – Leveraging insights from savings and lending circles, DoLoCo will formalize informal giving and fundraising to meet the financial needs of a community and reduce dependence on expensive sources of credit.
- MoneyThink Mobile (Chicago, IL), led by Jennifer Shoop, MoneyThink - Moneythink Mobile is an interactive social platform that will engage youth by challenging them to build financial awareness, skills, and habits.
- Planwise (San Francisco, CA), led by Vincent Turner - Planwise seeks to enable all users to easily understand both their current finances and the future impact of any financial decisions they make through a simple, visual interface.
- Rezzcard (Hayworth, NJ), led by Alex Cooper - Rezzcard will make the process of paying rent easier by pushing rent notifications, providing payment history, and allowing consumers to make payments directly through the app; it also provides access to a prepaid debit card.
- RichFund (San Francisco, CA), led by Brent Lamphier - RichFund is a mobile savings app that will get people excited about their future and motivated to make it a reality. The app will help users open retirement savings accounts and understand how much they need to save today to reach their future goals.
- Trackr (Oakland, CA), led by Trish Powell - Trackr is a mobile app for parents and children that will reward children for completing tasks while instilling sound financial values and mindful spending early in life.
- Union Capital (Boston, MA), led by Eric Leslie, Union Capital Boston - Union Capital is a loyalty program for low-income families that will reward users’ involvement in schools, businesses, health centers, and civic programs.
To learn more about each Finalist Team, visit http://fincapdev.com/2014finalists
The following partners will provide tools and expert resources to the finalist teams, including:
- Alpha Software, which enables developers to rapidly create and deploy robust and secure business applications for mobile devices and personal computers.
- Appsee, a mobile analytics platform that offers a unique visual analytics solution, enabling developers to measure, understand, and optimize the user experience in their apps.
- Arcweb, a product development consultancy that blends agile development and lean startup product management methodologies to build web and mobile applications for the enterprise, with a focus on financial services.
- CAMBA, a nonprofit agency that provides services that connect people with opportunities to enhance their quality of life.
- Charles Schwab, one of the world’s leading financial services firms, will provide access to expert advice.
- Cloud Castle, designs, builds, and operates high quality digital products for a wide selection of clients, from startups such as House Account and JoinU, to larger corporations such as News Corp and LendingTree.
- Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries have 57,000 professionals in the United States with a single focus: serving its clients and helping them solve their toughest problems. Deloitte works in four key business areas — audit, financial advisory, tax, and consulting.
- Intuit, creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Technology for Social Good, which provides opportunities to share the technology talent and expertise of the firm with nonprofit and social good organizations.
- LevelUp, the largest open mobile payment network. Consumers use their LevelUp account to pay with their smart device or web browser and businesses accept transactions for just 1.95% flat, thus enabling dramatic cost savings they can pass along to customers. LevelUp is the largest open mobile payment network.
- MetLife Inc., a leading global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- NYPay, New York’s premier professional organization for payment industry leaders and innovators.
- PayNearMe, the electronic cash-transaction network that enables consumers to conveniently make payments on their own schedule and in their own neighborhood at one of more than 17,000 trusted locations including 7-Eleven, Family Dollar, and ACE Cash Express stores across the United States.
- Social Money, the creators of the goal-based savings app SmartyPig.com, offer CorePro, an API platform that enables alternative financial services companies to build FDIC-insured savings accounts into their apps, PFM tools and prepaid cards with its regulatory-compliant savings account core processing platform.
- Software Nation, which specializes in mobile, web, and game development for clients ranging from start-up to large enterprise.
- UserTesting lets you run on-demand remote usability tests and get actionable insights on your website or app on almost any desktop or mobile device at any stage of development.
- Yodlee Interactive’s Aggregation API is designed for developers who need permission-based access and bank-level security to access their customers’ bank, credit card, investment, and loan accounts. Yodlee is offering free 6-month licenses to winners of the FinCapDev Competition.
To learn more about the partner-provided resources, visit http://www.fincapdev.com/resources/. To follow the progress of FinCapDev Finalist Teams, visit the FinCapDev blog (http://fincapdev.com/blog) or follow on Twitter @FinCapDev.
About FinCapDev
The Financial Capability Development Competition (FinCapDev) is a nationwide $100,000 challenge to develop new mobile apps to help underserved Americans make smart financial choices and get better access to financial services. It is a community of developers, technologists, financial service firms, venture capitalists, engineers, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, students, advisors, marketers, designers, and more working together in ways otherwise unexpected in the pursuit of building new mobile apps that improve financial health of underserved Americans. FinCapDev is made possible through the generous support of the Citi Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the MetLife Foundation. Learn more about FinCapDev at http://fincapdev.com.
About The Doorways to Dreams Fund (D2D Fund)
Doorways to Dreams Fund (D2D Fund) strengthens the financial opportunity and security of low and moderate-income consumers by innovating, incubating, and stimulating new financial products and policies. Operating at the intersection of the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, D2D incubates and promotes practical applications with social impact that might otherwise lack a champion to nurture and bring them to market. D2D was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization in 2000 and is headquartered in Allston neighborhood of Boston, across the street from Harvard University’s recently opened Innovation Lab. For more on D2D, go to www.d2dfund.org.
About the Center for Financial Services Innovation
The Center for Financial Services Innovation (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. CFSI’s Innovation Labs is an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs, financial services institutions, technology firms, venture capitalists, investors, and others harnessing the potential of technology to improve the financial health of consumers. Through CFSI’s 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 http://cfsinnovation.com and follow on Twitter @CFSInnovation.
