FOR INVESTORS
We support investors of early-stage fintech startups focusing on community banks / credit unions.
SUPPORT A GREAT MARKET AT A TIME OF BIG CHANGES
Be a part of a great movement that serves local communities as they turn to fintech for growth.
Community banks and credit unions play a pivotal role in meeting essential financial needs of a diverse population across the US and the world. Their widespread presence and significance make them a crucial target for fintech innovations and solutions. They need your support!
Our target market are community banks and credit unions between $500M and $15B in assets. Together they comprise roughly 20% of all assets in US banks and credit unions. That's $5 trillion in assets.
To better compete against big banks and prepare themselves for the future, they realize they can't develop fintech tools on their own and are focused on fintech partnerships, and they are not shy about spending money on fintech investment.
The Curql fund, a new fund co-owned by credit unions, closed over $250M in 2021 and, as of April 2024, just closed $100M for their second fund. BankTech Ventures, a VC launched in 2021 investing in community bank fintech, raised $115M as of 2022 and has invested $40M of it as of Fall 2023.
INVEST IN EARLY-STAGE FINTECH WITH A BUILT-IN AUDIENCE
Our early-stage fintech startups have better growth prospects by working with their customer base early on.
Instead of developing a product in isolation and launching it into the market with a hope of finding buyers, startups in our coalition make heavy use of industry data and build their products alongside credit unions and community banks from the start.
This approach allows partner financial institutions to gain valuable insights and direct input regarding their genuine pain points, enabling our startups to design their products with a ready-made audience in mind. Â Additionally, this collaboration provides the added benefit of receiving regulatory guidance along the way.
As such, our startups are poised for growth right from the start.
WORK WITHIN A COMMUNITY OF REGIONAL FINTECH INVESTORS
Uncover opportunities within a community.
Collaboration among Midwest fintech investors offers several benefits, including knowledge sharing, resource sharing, networking, risk mitigation, innovation, advocacy, and cross-promotion. Working together helps investors and their startups navigate the industry effectively, reduce costs, and access new opportunities, ultimately contributing to the growth of the regional fintech ecosystem.
WORK WITH INVESTORS FROM OTHER FINTECH-FOCUSED REGIONS
Uncover more opportunities from elsewhere too.
Although we're focused on the Midwest, we're also connected with regions of heavy fintech development such as Delaware (through the Center for Accelerating Tech Equality) and Florida (through the Tampa Bay Wave Tech Accelerator). As such, we'll likely syndicate deals or otherwise forge connections with fintech-focused investors in those regions.