ZayZoon Proudly A Part of Finance Forward US 2019

Village Capital has announced the class of 2019 in its Financial Forward US Series. The event, described as a “multi-year global coalition led by founding partners MetLife Foundation, PayPal, and Village Capital to support entrepreneurs on four continents who are building tech-enabled solutions to place-based challenges around financial health, economic mobility, and community resilience.”, has been named Best Fintech Accelerator by Finovate. 

The two-part event, which takes place in Miami and New York City during the fall of 2019, will host 11 Startups. A diverse advisory board of over 40 people which included investors, entrepreneurs, and financial industry leaders were accompanied by activists and academics to review over 100 applicants and evaluate each startup on criteria including team, business model, and product-market fit. 

Only 28% of Americans are considered to be “Financially Healthy”. The goal of this event is to support companies looking to improve this percentage by offering intensive feedback by both mentors and peers, as well as, the opportunity to make connections with investors, potential customers, and industry experts. The startups will also receive targeted, skills-based support from experts at MetLife and PayPal on topics like product development, strategic partnerships, and more. 

The Eleven Startups Improving Financial Health in the United States

Bond.ai (Little Rock, AR) is an AI platform for banks whose Empathy Engine™ helps banks intimately understand user behavior and nudge customers towards improved financial health.

Edquity (Brooklyn, NY) supports students through every financial obstacle on the road to college graduation with its cash-flow management, emergency resource referral and emergency aid platform for college students, and an emergency aid management platform for higher education institutions.

EnrichHER (Atlanta, GA) is a lending platform that connects revenue-generating women-led businesses and ventures with up to $250K in non-dilutive capital.

Everyday Life (Boston, MA) uses technology to make it easy for everyday people to get personalized insurance that is more effective and less expensive than traditional, one-size-fits-all solutions.

Flourish Savings (Berkeley, CA) helps financially excluded people establish savings habits and achieve financial security by making saving money feel like play.

Qoins (Atlanta, GA) is a financial wellness app that helps consumers pay off their debt faster, by combining financial education and automation.

SendMi (Lehi, UT) is a global flex-pay solution that integrates with employer’s payroll system, allowing employees to send money back to their home countries, top-up phones and pay international bills.

Uulala (Ontario, CA) is a mobile blockchain-powered Fintech company and neo bank in Mexico seeking to provide a complete financial ecosystem designed to serve underbanked communities.

Worthy Financial (Boca Raton, FL) is a platform that helps customers grow wealth through community-based investments.

Xendoo (Fort Lauderdale, FL) is a cloud-based, flat-rate, monthly subscription providing bookkeeping and accounting to small businesses with fewer than 20 employees.

ZayZoon (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is an HRTech company that partners and integrates with payroll companies to provide employees with financial wellness tools such as wages-on-demand, financial literacy, and responsible banking solutions.

We feel extremely honored to be a part of such an innovative group of startups.

For more information on the event, see the full press release at https://bit.ly/2IOzPJI