The Venture Center, ICBA announce 2022 ThinkTECH Accelerator cohort

The fourth ThinkTECH Accelerator program participants were announced Tuesday (Nov. 30) by the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and The Venture Center. The 11 companies selected for the fintech program included a mix of cybersecurity, lending, and financial wellness firms.

The accelerator program, also supported by the state of Arkansas, kicks off Jan. 11, 2022.

“The Venture Center is honored to produce the only community bank-focused accelerator program in the country with the incredible team at ICBA and with support from the state of Arkansas,” The Venture Center’s Executive Director Wayne Miller said. “The selection process ensures a highly impactful forum for community bankers to explore innovation, test solutions in real-world scenarios, and collaborate with growth-stage fintechs to shape the future of community banking together.”

Participants in the 16-week bootcamp program will work with industry leaders and be provided with an initial investment to help refine their offerings for community bank consumption.

“Community bank innovation requires a tremendous investment of time and resources,” ICBA Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Charles Potts said. “ICBA remains dedicated to fostering community bank-fintech collaborations to help source and cultivate promising fintechs and accelerate their growth as we support our community bank members’ efforts to remain responsive to the evolving needs of their customers.”

The 2022 ICBA ThinkTECH cohort includes:

• Accrue – loan origination/business and consumer account opening, integration-as-a-service
• DocFox – business account opening automation
• KlariVis – data and business intelligence
• LemonadeLXP – learning experience/digital adoption
• Quilo – instant personal lending
• Senso – proactive lead generation for retail mortgages
• Sequretek – cybersecurity
• Signal Intent – next generation financial guidance
• Unifimoney – investing and money management
• Vero Technologies – inventory finance platform for small- to medium-businesses
• WealthStack – small- to medium-business focused financial wellness platform