Three Bay Area startups seek to shape the future of financial services
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) announced today that it has selected three early
stage companies – Gridspace,
Roostify,
and Splice
Machine – for investments of up to $500,000 for the fall 2015 class
of the Wells
Fargo Startup Accelerator, a semiannual boot camp for innovators who
seek to shape the future of financial services. Companies join Wells
Fargo’s accelerator to refine their potential breakthrough technologies
for financial services and other applications. Wells Fargo also is now
accepting worldwide through Dec. 16 applications for its spring 2016
class at https://accelerator.wellsfargo.com.
“Our Startup Accelerator expands our vision of the future of financial
services beyond the boundaries of Wells Fargo and banking, introducing
us to innovators who want to shape how our customers handle their
financial needs in the future,” said Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargo’s
Innovation Group, a company-wide organization that leverages emerging
technologies to deliver customer-inspired products and services. “Our
business and technology leaders work closely with accelerator members to
test concepts, validate technologies, identify market opportunities, and
guide them through the process of bringing their ideas to market.”
Fall 2015 Class:
-
Gridspace
(@gridspaceinc) of San Francisco – a collaboration between SRI
International, the lab behind Siri, and a multidisciplinary team
of engineers that creates software that harnesses the power of voice
communications by making them searchable, organized, and accessible.
“Connectivity isn't the issue anymore,” said Evan Macmillan, CEO of
Gridspace. “It’s making sure the content contained in each call is
cataloged and analyzed. Working with Wells Fargo allows us to learn
from its leadership in financial services and to discover new use
cases for voice technology."
-
Roostify
(@Roostify) of San Francisco – a developer of automated real estate
transaction technology that seeks to improve the customer experience
and conversion rates. “Technology that automates any lengthy process,
such as the process of purchasing a home, is a welcome addition to
both lenders and consumers who are looking for efficiency in a
daunting process,” said Rajesh Bhat, CEO and co-Founder of Roostify.
“We are thrilled to have been accepted into the Wells Fargo
Accelerator program and look forward to working with the bank to
further enhance our technology platform for lenders and consumers.”
-
Splice
Machine
(@splicemachine) of San Francisco – provides the
Hadoop RDBMS, a next-generation database that is 5-to-10 times faster
at one-fourth the cost of traditional databases. “We are proud to be
selected for the Wells Fargo Accelerator program,” said Monte Zweben,
co-founder and CEO at Splice Machine. “It validates the Splice Machine
RDBMS value proposition to the financial services industry, where the
need to more quickly manage rapid data growth to make more
in-the-moment, data-driven decisions is growing.”
Wells Fargo’s Accelerator looks to explore big ideas with startups that
provide technologies in fintech areas, such as analytics, big data,
credit, deposits, marketing, mobile, payments, security, robotics,
wealth management, and wearables, among others. Since its inception in
2014, the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator has received applications from
innovative companies in 23 countries.
Accelerator participants are paired with a Wells Fargo business leader
that also is a potential customer for the startup. The mentoring
executive introduces the startup to technology leaders inside the bank,
and helps them work through the due diligence that’s required before an
emerging technology results in a purchase order with the company. Wells
Fargo is investing up to $500,000 in each participant in the fall 2015
class.
The newly selected Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator startups follow the
spring 2015 graduates that have completed the program and are growing
rapidly in multiple industries. They are:
-
Bracket
Computing
(@brkt)
of Sunnyvale, California – a company that harnesses the public cloud
to securely and reliably run enterprise applications;
-
Context360
of San Mateo, California – a company that interprets and predicts
mobile application behavior, combining those insights with sensor data
and machine-learning algorithms to power better decisions around when,
where, and how to best engage mobile application users; and
-
MotionSavvy
(@motionsavvy)
of Rochester, New York – a company that has developed the world’s
first two-way communication software for the deaf, utilizing the
latest innovations in gesture and voice technology.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is a nationwide, diversified,
community-based financial services company with $1.8 trillion in assets.
Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides
banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial
finance through 8,700 locations, 12,800 ATMs, the internet
(wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to
support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With
approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three
households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30
on Fortune’s 2015 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells
Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help
them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells
Fargo Blogs and Wells
Fargo Stories.
