Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator Targets FinTech Innovation

Wells Fargo announced the names of three new FinTech startups, which it has picked for its Fall 2015 accelerator program.

The three startups — Gridspace, Roostify and Splice Machine — will undergo a semi-annual FinTech boot camp led by a Wells Fargo business leader, who will also help them navigate their way to securing a purchase order with the company, and will see an investment of up to $500,000 from Wells Fargo, according to a press release.

While the three companies are directly invested in providing financial services, each of them is working on developing a distinct product. For instance, San Francisco, CA-based Gridspace, cofounded by SRI — the lab behind iPhone’s Siri — and a team of engineers, is working on developing voice communication software that can find utility in financial service use cases.

Roostify, on the other hand, is a Burlingame, CA-based startup that develops real estate transaction technology. The third entrant Splice Machine develops products around Hadoop RDBMS, a five to 10 times faster database that comes at one-fourth the cost of traditionally used databases.

“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. “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.”

Wells Fargo’s accelerator program, which was first launched in 2014, has so far received applications from startups located in 23 countries and is focused on developing ideas from a range of FinTech areas, including Big Data, credit, deposits, marketing, mobile payments, security, wealth management and wearables, among others. The program is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2016 program.

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