Q2 proved to be a productive time for our team as we were chosen to participate in the inaugural cohort of the ICBA ThinkTech Accelerator, hosted at The Venture Center.

The ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) announced the first community bank-focused fintech accelerator program in October 2018 to provide over 4,700 bank members the unique opportunity to directly engage and partner with fintechs like us. We were thrilled to be selected as one of the eight companies to participate from a pool of over 200 applications.

Connecting daily with prospective community banking customers allowed us to gain the necessary exposure and banking insights to double our revenue in the first quarter of 2019 from the entire year of 2018.

The insights and challenges shared by bankers participating in the program reinforced CRiskCo as a key tool to successfully address the challenges community banks are facing from digital lenders.

One of the key discoveries we found in talking with hundreds of ICBA members during the program was that small and medium business loans is one of the core strategic growth pillars for community banks in the US. 

The primary challenges facing community banks approaching SMB’s are the high costs associated and the length of time required to process the loan requests. Most community banks simply lack tools that aid in automating 90% of the manual effort required.

While visiting with community banks, we were able to showcase CRiskCo’s simple solution for expediting the loan application process, while reducing costs and improving the customer experience.

Alumni Partnerships + Integration

An additional perk of the program was access to The Venture Center fintech alumni and engagement with the other portfolio companies in the ICBA ThinkTech program. We were fortunate to find collaboration opportunities with MK Decision and Teslar and working to explore how we can bring the best value and offers for financial institutions already partnering with MK Decision and Teslar products.

Expertise + Connections

CRiskCo was afforded the opportunity to present at the ICBA ThinkTech Showcase hosted at the ICBA LIVE conference. Lee Wetherington, director of strategic insight at Jack Henry & Associates and one of the country’s foremost thought leaders on banking innovation, kicked off the showcase sharing the role of innovation in community banking. With thousands of community bank members in attendance and the culmination of 12 weeks of intense work, it was the perfect time to celebrate innovation and the rise of fintech solutions like ours in the community banking space. >>>Watch Our Demo.

The inaugural #ICBAThinkTech program was a tremendous success for our team. We look forward to continuing in our partnerships with the ICBA and ICBA Bancard team, Kevin Tweddle and Tina Giorgio as they work with us to pave the way for community bank innovation.