FinTech News

XYPN FinTech Competition Announces Six Finalists

Next month, XY Planning Network will host its fourth annual FinTech Competitionn in St. Louis, Missouri. This year’s event drew more than 30 applications from startups looking to improve financial services provided to Gen X and Millennial clients. Now XYPN is announcing that six of these companies have been selected as finalists for the competition.

The FinTechs that will go for the gold are Altruist, Anvil, College Aid Pro, Holistiplan, Knudge, and NEXA Insights. Each of these companies will have the opportunity to demo their tech to both attendees and a panel of judges. The winner of the competition will be featured on #XYPNRadio, various articles, and more. Incidentally this year’s event is being sponsored by Snappy Kraken — a digital marketing firm who just so happened to win the inaugural FinTech competition in 2016.

In a press release announcing the finalists, XYPN co-founder and CEO Alan Moore said of the competition, “The XYPN FinTech Competition is truly an embodiment of the Network’s core mission to support and encourage the innovation of new solutions to help our advisors better serve next gen clients.” Moore went on to say, “It is unbelievably rewarding to support these solutions and we hope to see substantial impact in the industry’s ability to bring real financial planning expertise to the next generation.” Similarly XYPN co-founder and Nerd’s Eye View blog publisher Michael Kitces noted, “This year’s competition at #XYPNLIVE will give these creative advisor FinTech companies the opportunity to showcase their innovations, and get the visibility and early adopters they need to survive and thrive as startups. We’re proud to help advance FinTech innovation in the financial advisor industry by providing XY Planning Network as a launchpad to help new FinTech firms get launched.”

Of course the XYPN FinTech Competition is far from the only such event that’s popped up in recent years. For example last year Global Accelerated Ventures launched their initial FinTech Challenge, which saw more than $100,000 awarded to startups. In the same vein, several startup incubators have also welcomed FinTechs, allowing them to develop and demo their products (with additional investments also a possibility). All of this goes to show that the market for financial technologies is strong and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.