In January 2018, we issued a call to the marketplace of entrepreneurs in America, seeking a broad range of solutions to improve the outcomes of people in America struggling with their finances. Applicants were strongly encouraged to support diversity in solutions, customer focus, and founding teams. For the fourth year in a row, the Financial Solutions Lab received more than 300 applications–and over many weeks and in-depth review and diligence–eight winners were selected.
As in years past, each of the winning companies will receive $250,000 in capital, access to the Financial Health Network and JPMorgan Chase mentorship, industry expertise, and other incredible resources throughout an intense eight-month journey that begins in Los Angeles with the on-stage announcement of their new class at the Financial Health Network’s annual EMERGE Forum on June 7, 2018.
After culmination of the program in January 2019, each of the winning startups will become part of a distinguished group of alumni–including startups selected for the prestigious Financial Solutions Lab over the last three years–as well as part of the extended family and friends of the Financial Health Network.
Here are the companies selected for the 2018 class of the Financial Solutions Lab:
Alice (New York, NY) is software for employers that allows employees to automate pre-tax spending on things they already pay for like commuting, childcare, and healthcare, making paychecks go up and paperwork go away. For employees, it’s a tax refund every payday that they can’t get at tax time.
FutureFuel.io (Boston, MA) is an enterprise SaaS platform designed to make debt repayment, roundup, and refinancing easy, helping users crush student debt. FutureFuel.io utilizes machine learning, technology, financial innovation, and data science to deliver an experience that is actionable, authentic, and intuitive for users, leading them to improved financial health.
Goalsetter (New York, NY) is a goal-based savings and gifting platform that lets kids and families redirect money typically spent on excess consumer goods towards three big categories instead: saving for the future, sharing with others, and spending on things or experiences that truly matter to them.
Resolve (Oakland, CA) is a free platform designed to guide financially distressed people back to financial health by creating a custom debt relief plan and connecting them with an integrated network of honest and affordable debt relief partners. Resolve’s platform automates many steps of the debt relief process, so consumers can find help 24/7 at reduced cost.
Mason Finance Inc. (San Francisco, CA) is an online financial services platform designed to improve the financial health of Americans over the age of 65. While half of all seniors are economically insecure, over one million of them lose $112 billion each year in life insurance wealth by allowing unaffordable policies to lapse instead of selling them. Mason Finance’s goal is to turn one of America’s largest wealth losses into one of its largest wealth gains.
Petal (New York, NY) pioneers cash flow underwriting to expand credit access for new-to-credit consumers, leveraging intuitive design and insights from behavioral economics to offer a safe, affordable, no-fee credit card that doesn’t require a credit score.
Sixup (San Francisco, CA) is reinventing student lending with an outcomes-based system that funds and incubates high-achieving, low-income students through the lifecycle of social mobility: upmatching to colleges with better outcomes, performing academically, graduating on time, getting jobs, and building wealth.
WinWin (New York, NY) uses the excitement of winning to encourage young Americans to save. Users link their bank accounts and set up auto deposits into an FDIC-insured savings account, and then get to play a daily game with chances to win thousands of instant cash prizes. The more money they save, the bigger the prizes they can win.
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