This sponsored post is produced by Yodlee Interactive.

A lot of things move fast in the financial industry. Now, innovation can be counted among them.

Tech entrepreneurs have begun to challenge the financial status quo by building products that bring more transparency and consumer advocacy to the world of finance. A tremendous amount of progress has been made over the past couple years — in lending, equity financing, digital payments, accounting, portfolio management, and more — to the point where consumers nowadays are more likely to pull out their smartphone to make a payment or check a balance, rather than pull out their checkbook or consult a bank teller.

Companies like Yodlee Interactive are playing a key role in this transformation. Yodlee Interactive’s incubator program was created or formed to give aspiring entrepreneurs the resources to get their ideas off the ground, with the goal of helping them build products that make handling money easier, faster and better — and to capitalize on the billion-dollar industry of financial technology.

“The FinTech space is booming. Global investments in the industry hit $3 billion last year, which is over three times what it was a decade ago,” said Joe Polverari, General Manager of Yodlee Interactive and Chief Strategy & Development Officer of Yodlee. “As long-standing entrepreneurs ourselves, we are dedicated to finding the next great innovators in this space, and providing them with the opportunities and resources they need to create the products, solutions and businesses that will redefine financial services worldwide.”

A new class of innovators

Yodlee Interactive recently unveiled the second class of its incubator program today, which is helping to fuel the next generation of FinTech entrepreneurs.

This new class consists of Accredify, Bowery Financial, DRAFT, Evolved Accounting, Open Capital Exchange, Roostify, Telito and VOATZ, which cover a range of verticals within finance.

  • Accredify verifies accredited investors and allows for a secure environment to invest in startups.

  • Bowery Financial is providing a more personalized and transparent banking experience for customers.

  • Evolved Accounting provides a cloud-based bookkeeping and outsourcing platform to streamline transaction processing.

  • DRAFT is the first crowd-sourced online investment tool, providing insight and comparisons on investment returns and fees.

  • Open Capital Exchange connects small businesses with capital by providing business loans on simple conditions.

  • Roostify digitizes the home loan experience, making the process easier for borrower and lenders alike.

  • Telito is developing a discovery product that remains in stealth.

  • VOATZ is a next-generation mobile voting platform.

The rewards

Each startup will each receive $20,000 in equity-free funding and free access to the company’s award-winning Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for six months. The cross-platform API will connect this group to thousands of banks worldwide, allowing them to change the way people handle their money. They also receive technical support, strategic guidance, mentorship, and marketing tools to get their products up and running. Furthermore, incubatees will be invited to attend networking events with Yodlee Interactive’s community of industry leaders, press, and investors, and benefit from partnerships with leading accelerators like Y Combinator.

The goal is to create a “virtuous circle” where entrepreneurs have more support and resources at their disposal and are thus more able to succeed. Their success, in turn, will motivate more entrepreneurs to innovate, and more financial institutions to adopt these innovations, elevating the ecosystem as a whole.

The mentors

Yodlee Interactive’s new class will be directed by Jeff Cain, who previously served as Vice President of Rutberg & Co., It will be unveiled at a weeklong program bootcamp starting on November 17th. Cain has invited industry leaders such as Patrick Mork, current entrepreneur at Signia Venture Partners and previously CMO at Google Play; and Deirdre Davi, Director of Business Marketing, North America, for Facebook; to provide their mentorship and expertise throughout the program. They will be joined by many other individuals from incubators, investment firms, technology companies and more – including Vincent Turner (Planwise), Ron Stewart (Transunion Interactive), Brady Forrest (Highway1), Vijay Chattha (VSCpr), Adam Marchick (Kahuna), Marc Weill (TwoSigma) and Ben Narasin (Triple Point Capital).

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