Big CU Energy on Display at FinovateFall

It didn’t take a futurist to predict that artificial intelligence would be the most visible technology on display at FinovateFall. But AI’s progress was not the main story at the annual conference that recently wrapped up in New York City. For me the key takeaways were the healthy cohort of up-and-coming companies, and an apparent tipping point in credit unions’ prominence in the fintech ecosystem.

To be sure, all of the Top 20 US banks were represented in the crowd of roughly 1,200 according to Finovate officials. Over the past few meetings, however, I’ve noted a trend of demoing companies increasingly addressing their pitches to “banks and credit unions” rather than the presumably catch-all “banks.”

The transition now seems complete- it may be my own bias but I noticed more CUs than community banks in attendance. Finovate primed the pump in this regard, adding a Credit Union Spotlight breakout. This standing room session, curated by the Curql Fund, featured “speed dating” rounds with six startups above and beyond those seen on Finovate’s main stage.

The conference’s added jolt of energy may have been attributable in part to the fresh faces on stage. According to Finovate, nearly three-quarters of the demoing companies were Finovate first timers. By my count, two-thirds were founded in 2020 or later.

As Finovate emcee Greg Palmer hypothesized on our recent podcast, this may be a natural byproduct of the startup lifecycle. Despite widespread reports of a fallow period for fintech funding, entrepreneurs are still finding ways to pursue new ideas- and are reaching the stage where they crave the exposure Finovate affords. The fact that CU-focused entities like Curql Fund and TruStage Ventures are actively writing investment checks may also help explain startups’ increased credit union focus.

By my personal barometer, 20 of 66 demoing companies highlighted AI as central to their solution- including nine that made sure no one missed the point by including “AI” or a variation on “GPT” in their names. Interestingly, only one of these companies came away with one of the audience-voted Best of Show Awards- perhaps more the result of ticket splitting more than the quality of their ideas.

A quick rundown of the Best of Show Winners:

Themis, which also took home a trophy in 2022, was founded by a former OCC regulator and provides a collaborative FI compliance platform. Other than AI, compliance was the most frequently addressed category among Finovate presenters.

Illuma delivered a powerfully simple demo of its passive voice recognition technology, showing how it frictionlessly authenticates an inbound caller. Illuma then upped the ante by detecting a quite convincing deepfake.

One of the newest companies on stage (founded this February), CardLift’s serial entrepreneur CEO demoed a browser extension that searches for websites where a user’s card credentials are stored, serving up offers to claim top-of-wallet status.

Credit Mountain focuses on making the best of the challenging situation when an applicant (existing member or prospect) is turned down for a loan, preserving the potential for future engagement.

Eko, an “investments as a service” offering, led with a white label CU-branded demo showing an efficient model for providing digital investing solutions to mass market members.

Bancography was a surprise winner for me- not because of the product’s merits, but because it focuses on the often maligned branch channel. This data-rich analytics tool can inform branch profitability, new site location, and merger economics.

Delfi offers a risk management tool created by Harvard PhDs. Its team demoed a disguised bank liquidity case that it later revealed was Silicon Valley Bank, claiming Delfi’s tool could have helped head off the crisis.

Warsaw-based Nest/efigence was the most seasoned company on the Finovate stage (operating in Poland as a bank since 1995). It’s looking to enter the US market with N!Assistant, its “AI-enhanced,” personalized financial management solution.

I included CardLift and Illuma on my own Best of Show ballot, along with four other standouts: Scamnetic, MoneyKit. Further and Quavo. You can learn more about these companies on our latest episodes of the BIGCast.