Washington’s largest community credit union, UW CoMotion continue commitment to grow the regional fintech community
From left: Landon Glenn, Asa; Eric Berg, NetGiver; Topiltzin Gomez, Honeycomb Credit; Miriam Ackerman, NetGiver; Lisa Gold Schier, Asa
The BECU FinTech Incubator, now in its fifth year, today officially launches the latest round of its annual competition to support fintech startups and drive growth of the regional fintech ecosystem.
BECU, the largest not-for-profit credit union in Washington, is seeking applications from financial services technology startups in a variety of verticals that are at the pre-seed or seed stage of development. The application deadline is Monday, April 17, 2023 and the next cohort begins July 1.
This year, BECU is interested in engaging startups in verticals including AI/process automation, big data and machine learning, personalized advice platforms, payments and settlements, digital lending and open banking.
Member benefits include:
- A one-year membership to CoMotion Labs co-working space and programs
- Access to University of Washington mentor databases
- Access to BECU mentors and 1:1s with team members
- Opportunity to explore partnering with BECU on conducting user research
- Connections to UW faculty and hiring of UW student interns or graduates
The current BECU FinTech Incubator members, announced in July 2022, include:
- Asa, a collaborative banking service linking institutions and fintech companies
- Honeycomb Credit, a community capital platform for small businesses
- NetGiver, an app which matches credit unions with donors and nonprofits to facilitate charitable giving
- Pocketnest, a financial wellness platform that targets Gen X-ers and millennials
Located at the CoMotion Labs technology incubator space on UW’s Seattle campus, the BECU FinTech Incubator has hosted 15 fintech startups since its inception in fall 2018. This partnership builds on BECU’s expertise in financial services, data analysis and member experiences and CoMotion’s strengths in incubation, partnership, innovation, company formation and technology commercialization. The winners of the 2023 contest will be announced this July.
BECU and CoMotion look forward to receiving application submissions from qualified fintech startups and helping the winning companies advance to the next level of development.
“The BECU Fintech Incubator provided Honeycomb with essential mentorship to help us better position our product to credit unions. The expertise and openness to innovation of the BECU leadership has helped us validate our hypotheses and accelerated our progress with credit union partnerships.”
- George Cook, CEO and founder, Honeycomb Credit
“The BECU Fintech Incubator brings together some of the industry's most forward-thinking leaders and promising fintechs. The program has provided strategic introductions and valuable guidance that is helping us pave a new path forward in financial services — one that empowers credit unions to be the gateway to the technology that members crave.”
- Landon Glenn, CEO and founder, Asa
