FIRST DATA CORPORATION SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon Valley Bank, the bank of the world's most innovative companies and their investors, and First Data (NYSE: FDC), a global leader in commerce-enabling technology, have selected five startups to participate in Class 7 of Commerce.Innovated., an accelerator designed to help commerce, payments, and fintech companies grow their businesses. The four-month virtual program provides participants with operational mentorship from Silicon Valley Bank, First Data, and their respective networks.
The five companies selected to participate in the current class come from the U.S., Canada and Europe, and provide a variety of solutions for businesses and consumers:
- FutureFuel: A SaaS company working with employers to offer student loan repayment and refinancing as a benefit of employment, based in Boston
- Roger: An app that lets consumers and businesses pay their bills instantly and fully automates the accounts payables flow, based in San Francisco and Copenhagen
- Teampay: Purchasing software that enables companies to request, approve, pay for, and track employee spending in real-time, based in New York
- Waypay: A SaaS company helping businesses pay and reconcile all of their bills from any bank account or credit card in any currency, based in Burlington, Canada
- Candex: Software that enables large companies to pay small vendors and improve visibility on their spending, based in San Francisco
"We continue to be impressed by the quality of applicants for Commerce.Innovated.," said Reetika Grewal, Head of Payments Strategy and Solutions at Silicon Valley Bank. "As the fintech ecosystem evolves, we are seeing a shift toward companies focusing on solving important business challenges. The group is made up of really strong companies with great leadership and market opportunities in the B2B and B2B2C space."
"We are looking forward to welcoming Class 7 of Commerce.Innovated., especially following the success we saw with our last class of participants," said Christine Larsen, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at First Data. "Each company that was selected for Class 7 tackles a key issue within the fintech space, for both businesses and consumers. These early stage companies are driving the future of the industry, and we can't wait to see what they will accomplish during their time in the virtual program."
Commerce.Innovated. launched in 2014 and has worked with 28 commerce, payments and fintech-focused startups to date, including Alloy, Apostrophe, AppZen, Apruve, Blueprint Registry, CardFlight, Dash, Domuso, Earny, Finix, Float, Footmarks, Gone, Headnote, LaunchKey, LiveApp, Local Maven, Nowsta, Pay By Group, PennyOwl, Slide, SmartGift, SnapUp, Spend Labs, Splitwise, Standard Treasury, Truebill, and Qwil. Since graduating from the program, more than half of the companies in the program have raised funding or been acquired.
Full program details are available at www.commerceinnovated.com.
About Silicon Valley Bank
For 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators. Learn more at svb.com.
About First Data
First Data (NYSE: FDC) is a global leader in commerce-enabling technology, serving approximately six million business locations and 4,000 financial institutions in more than 100 countries around the world. The company's 24,000 owner-associates are dedicated to helping companies, from start-ups to the world's largest corporations, conduct commerce every day by securing and processing more than 2,800 transactions per second and $2.2 trillion per year.
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SOURCE Silicon Valley Bank
