Kiwibank reveals FinTech Accelerator participants for 2017 – who made the cut?

Kiwibank has announced the winners of its New Zealand Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator 2017. The participants include AccountingPod, Flatfish, HealthyAZ, Insurely, Investful, Liberac and Sharesies.

AccountingPod AccountingPod is a financial literacy platform that provides users with a real-world business and industry to build financial literacy. Judith Cambridge is CEO.

The company was formed by Chartered Accountants in public practice. It sees the role of SMEs in the future of work and business as extremely important, and created a tool to improve financial education.

The company hopes to raise capital, grow in New Zealand, expand into Australia and the US, and in five years the company aims to become the dominant financial education platform in the world.

Flatfish

Described as asset management meets PropTech, Flatfish is an on-demand platform for landlords that offers property management without the cost of a property manager. Tal Meser is CEO. The company was formed after the founders had firsthand experience with the 'disjointed' communication and services that property managers provide.

The company hopes to scale up, build strong relationships, grow their customer base and raise investment on Demo Day. In five years, the company is aiming to be established internationally.

HealthyAZ

HealthyAZ is a lending/health savings programme. It offers a savings and rewards programme that focuses on healthy lifestyles and access to health professionals. Priyesh Tiwari is CEO.

The company was formed after encountering patients who can't afford timely medical care for financial reasons. Almost a quarter of Kiwis can't meet expenses when visiting primary care providers, dentists or getting prescriptions.

The company believes there must be a better way to help disasdvanted people in a way that is not perpetual charity.

Insurely

Insurely is an online insurance platform that uses a robo-advice engine to make SMB insurance a clearer and easily managed processed. Calum MacLeod is CEO.

The company was formed after analysing the drudgery of paperwork, forms, face-to-face meetings, circumstances and complexity in insurance policies. Insurely plans to build an MVP and gain paying customers by the end of the programme so they can raise capital on Demo Day.

Investful

Investful is a wealth management platform and personalised portfolio management platform. Andrew Montague is CEO.

The company was formed after the problem of lagging KiwiSaver funds and difficulty saving became an issue when house hunting. Robo-advisory is a growing scene and Andrew says Kiwis should have access to those offerings.

Liberac

Liberac is a payment platform that uses blockchain tech to lower the cost of sending money overseas. Sulu Fiti is CEO.

The company says it wanted to help the Pacific Island community by lowering remittance fees through blockchain tech that offers transparency, trust, security and decentralisation.

The company also says there aren't enough Pacific Island business leaders in New Zealand, and it's time to change that. The company eventually wants to hope other Pacific Islanders get into the startup scene.

Sharesies

Sharesies is an online wealth management platform that allows New Zealanders to invest small amounts of money. This money is aggregated and invested. Brooke Anderson is CEO.

The company hopes to be a success story that has improved wealth distribution, financial literacy and achieved international growth in five years.