SixThirty, a St. Louis-based accelerator program that invests in and provides mentoring and connections to financial technology (fintech) startups, announces its Spring 2015 Cohort. To date, SixThirty has made 18 investments in 15 companies, 11 of which are located outside of St. Louis, two of which are international startups.
“Close to 100 companies applied to participate in the Spring 2015 Cohort from all parts of the world’” said Atul Kamra, SixThirty’s Managing Partner. For Spring 2015, SixThirty will invest in six start-ups. Each of those companies receives up to a $100,000 investment in exchange for a negotiated percentage of equity, usually between three percent and ten percent. Three of the six companies in this cohort also participated in the Fall 2014 cohort. “SixThirty invests in later seed-stage fintech startups with working products. Our principal focus is on business development, and the SixThirty directors saw an opportunity to continue to help these three start-ups build and deepen client relationships.”
The 2015 spring cohort includes:
Bandura, St. Louis, MO
Founders – Suzanne Magee (CEO, Co-Founder), David Maestas (CTO, Inventor, Co-Founder)
Bandura is a revenue¬-producing cyber security software company delivering automated IP threat intelligence technologies to stop network cyber attacks and data leakage for Financial Services, Healthcare, Energy, Government.
DAVO Technologies, Portland, ME
Founders – Owen Brown (CEO, Co-Founder), David Joseph (Chairman, Co-Founder)
DAVO Technologies has a patented process that automatically collects, files, and pays sales tax for brick and mortar merchants.
FinLocker, St. Louis, MO
Founders – Peter Esparrago (CEO, Co-Founder), Tim Stern (Co-Founder), Barry Sandweiss (Co-Founder)
FinLocker is a consumer-enabled financial locker, which reduces costs and risks for lenders via actionable financial information throughout the entire loan lifecycle.
New Constructs, Nashville, TN
Founder – David Trainer (CEO, Founder)
Stock, ETF, and mutual fund research based on uniquely thorough review of SEC filings, especially footnotes. New Constructs does the homework their clients do not have time to do.
Public Funds Investment Tracking and Reporting (PFITR), St. Louis, MO
Founder – Jim Koetting (CEO, Founder)
Investment accounting, analytics, and treasury management on fixed income portfolios. PFITR provides the technology for internal controls for compliance and transparency.
Rippleshot, Chicago, IL
Founders – Canh Tran (Co-Founder & CEO), Lucas Ward (Co-Founder & CTO), Yueyu Fu (Co-Founder & CPO), Randal Cox (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist)
Rippleshot detects payment card data breaches, usually long before credit card issuers or merchants have any idea of the breach occurring.
The companies selected to take part in the accelerator program receive hands-on training, mentoring, and networking opportunities with the top financial services companies in the region. The cohort will run from April 14th to July 16th and will be housed in the T-REx startup co-working space in downtown St. Louis. Companies will have a direct pipeline to follow-on funding, as well as opportunities to pitch to business leaders and potential clients.
“The start-ups in SixThirty’s accelerator program get individualized attention,” added Kamra. “The commitment of our mentors and directors to work in-the-trenches with founders on their business models and business development continues to be a difference maker for SixThirty and our start-ups.”