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Meet the FinTech startups selected for Capital One’s new accelerator programme

Five successful startups that have been awarded a place on the new Capital One Growth Labs accelerator that aims to unearth the next big idea in FinTech have been revealed by the financial firm.

The programme, which will be based out of Capital One’s Nottingham base, has been launched in partnership with accelerator and investment firm L Marks in an attempt to support early stage startups who are beavering away on technological innovations in financial services.

Of the five successful startups, revealed today, London is particularly well represented with no less than three representatives from the capital’s booming FinTech community, underlining the city’s world-leading reputation for FinTech and financial services.

The London-based startups who were handpicked from a pool of 19 promising early-stage firms to take part include East London’s Credit Kudos, TechHub London occupants Pariti and AI investment app WealRo.

The chosen five startups

Credit Kudos has developed an alternative credit scoring platform which it claims is more accurate than traditional credit score systems and does not unfairly penalise those at the lower end of the credit scale.

The startup’s Chief Executive Officer, Freddy Kelly, differentiates his firm from the ‘opaque black box system’ of the likes of Experian and says that Kudos’ platform allows consumers to get more from their credit data.

He added: “As a pioneer in lending, we believe Capital One is the perfect partner for us to bring Credit Kudos to the market.”

Barbican-based Pariti have developed an app that consolidates an individual’s bank accounts and credit cards into one clear picture of their finances, identifying income and bills to help users better manage their financial affairs.

David Kelly, who founded the startup, said he was ‘extremely excited’ about working with Capital One in developing the app and ‘[enhancing] the future of banking’.

The third and final London-based participant in the accelerator is WealRo, developers of an app that utilises AI and machine learning to assist users with their savings and investments.

Owen Haggith-Khonje, WealRo’s founder, said: “Growth Labs presents a fantastic opportunity for WealRo to receive world-class mentoring, with the hope of building a long term relationship with Capital One that positively shapes the financial landscape.”

The remaining two participants include Multisense, developers of voice and facial recognition systems through its secure mobile platform, and Warwick Analytics who specialise in automated predictive analytics that significantly cuts down on the work for data scientists.

What’s in store for the winners?

The five startups will now work closely with Capital One’s software engineering department, developing their innovations with the finance company’s technical experts and benefitting from bespoke workshops and talks around topics including branding, business development and legal advice.

Moving into the firm’s Nottingham headquarters from the 1 August, the programme will culminate with demo day on 6 October, where the startups will be able to pitch their ideas in a bid for investment cash.

Chris Owen, who is leading the programme, said: “Throughout the application process our key objective was not only to diversify our final applicants but to unite some of the most promising technology and finance start-ups.

“We are incredibly excited to be working alongside all of these companies to help them develop their business strategies and innovate further in the technology space.”

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