Future Of Fintech 2016 Startups: Where Are They Now?

With the Future of Fintech 2017 coming up in June, it’s the perfect time for a look back at some of the game-changing startups we featured at last summer’s Future of Fintech 2016 conference. Of the many great companies who participated, the ones below all raised funding or reached a notable milestone over the last year, be it a product launch, partnership, or award. Take a look in this “where are they now” rundown.

Remitly
Funding at FoF: $34.7M
Current funding: $100M

At FoF2016, Remitly took to the stage to share its vision for the future of mobile wallets with the world. The best part: no one will call them mobile wallets. While they were already making huge strides in the payments space at the time, they’ve since expanded to all 50 states, Canada, and over 10,000 locations across Latin America, in addition to their presence in India and the Philippines. Remitly’s convenient and secure alternative to traditional banking apps has attracted the attention of International Finance Corporation, Silicon Valley Bank, Bezos Expeditions, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Stripes Group, and others to help fuel their next wave of development and growth.

Socure
Funding at FoF: $6.3M
Current funding: $19.4M

Social is the future. Well, it’s actually already here, but more secure social identities are definitely needed as the world becomes more interconnected. Socure’s systems specialize in verifying new users’ social IDs, keeping them free from fraud, and evaluating fraud risk levels in transactions. Since last year, they’ve partnered with Varo and The Bankcorp to provide digital identity verification services and launched their innovative ID+ platform, which has increased compliance with know-your-customer/customer ID program (KYC/CIP) guidelines and reduced fraud rates and manual reviews for their clients.

Embroker
Total funding: $14.3M

With all this talk of digital native insurance and other fintech services, few mention business insurance. Except Embroker, that is. Their solution aims to deliver the right insurance to companies of all shapes and sizes through a cloud-based platform that uses Embroker’s vast amounts of insurance data to help users determine the right coverage for them. Since appearing at FoF2016, they opened an office in Chicago’s historic Monroe Building and had the official launch of their platform.

Blooom
Funding at FoF: $4.75
Current funding: $13.9M

It’s hard to paint 401Ks as sexy or cool, but they are necessary for many folks to enjoy a more comfortable retirement and that’s something we can get behind. That’s why we picked Blooom for FoF2016. Blooom exists to help people manage and get the most out of their 401ks. Before Future of Fintech, Blooom already controlled over $300M in assets and at time of writing is up to $500M. Investors Commerce Ventures, Industry Ventures, Nationwide Ventures put $9M+ more into the company in November of 2016.

Kasisto
Funding at FoF: $2.27M
Current funding: $11.5M

Future of Fintech and AI100 double-threat Kasisto was a great early pick, as AI and chatbots are taking off and disrupting pretty much every industry they touch. Kasisto’s system allows clients to integrate AI assistants into almost any platform and let users access information about their accounts through natural language conversations. Now, sure, Kasisto came from SRI International, creators of Apple’s uber-chatbot Siri, but since FoF2016, DBS Bank subsidiary POSB integrated their tech to allow users to get the same experience through Facebook Messenger. Varo’s Val chatbot is also powered by Kasisto technology, as is Mastercard’s Kai.

DriveWealth
Total funding: $9.87M

Investing online has been huge ever since the internet started catching on. Stock trading, though, hasn’t fundamentally changed that much. Until DriveWealth came along. Their innovative dollar-based investing allows users to invest whatever amounts they want, regardless of share prices. This novel approach has attracted three substantial partnership deals since they presented at FoF, including with India-focused Boon Investments, Latin America-focused Alkanza, and China’s Haitou.

Bento for Business
Total funding: $9.5M

Bento for Business’ goal is to help small businesses manage their expense accounts more easily. We know the future of fintech is in finding new ways to solve age-old problems like expense account loss and misuse, so we found Bento’s approach a natural fit. Investors did too, putting $7M into the company right around the time of the conference. Since then, Bento has launched its smartphone app, which allows users to get insights into their financial activity and simplify expense reporting.

Sure, Inc
Funding at FoF: $2.62M
Current funding: $8.93M

A running theme throughout FoF2016 was changing user habits around legacy products and verticals like banking, lending, and insurance. According to Sure, customers, especially millennials, want new, online and increasingly mobile ways to handle their financial needs. Enter Sure, Inc. and their on-demand renter’s insurance, available via app and with the help of an AI robo-broker. The company received $6.31M from ff Venture Capital and IA Capital Group since last year. Nationwide Insurance also saw potential in the Sure model, partnering with them to allow users to get a quote and pay for their policy smoothly via the app.

Cambridge Blockchain, LLC
Funding at FoF: $1.81M
Current funding: $3.8M

Blockchain is disrupting a wide array of industries and is positioned to impact countless others. We identified Cambridge Blockchain early on as a company to watch in the vital financial security space. Cambridge’s technology helps financial institutions easily create rules for the use of client data, keep everyone at the institution on the same page, and double-check new user data against a trusted source, all backed by the dependability of a blockchain register. In fact, its system is so innovative that it won the “distributed ledger” division of the BBVA Open Talent Challenge.

Life.io
Funding at FoF: $1.56M
Current funding: $2.2M

The new breed of fintech companies and apps do far more than just fulfill traditional banking and insurance needs. They can also help users make better decisions and give insurers more data to help them provide customers with the products and services they really want. This is the intersection where Life.io lives. Policyholders can use the app to help make healthier life choices and long-term plans. Companies providing services for insurance companies, like Majesco and CalcFocus, have recognized the unique insights that the Life.io system can provide and have partnered with the company to deliver further analysis to major insurers.

Insurify
Total funding: $2M

Despite a drop in car ownership among millennials and coming changes to the very notion of car ownership, Insurify is a digital native car insurance company that knows that if consumers have a car at all, they want to insure it as easily as possible. The Insurify app allows users to compare quotes, sign up for coverage, and even get a personal virtual insurance agent. This virtual agent won Insurify the 2016 ACORD Insurance Innovation Challenge Startup Disruptor award.

Everlance
Total funding: $250K

The future is gig-based, so freelancers need better ways to track their expenses and make smarter financial moves. That’s where Everlance comes in, giving hard-working freelancers an easier way to track miles, classify trips, and generate reports. If this kind of detailed reporting sounds like it would be great for tax preparers, H&R Block agrees, rolling out their new TaxEdge tax preparation app exclusively to users of Everlance and Hurdlr, another financial info tracker.

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