Austin
Austin’s motto is “Keep It Weird,” which might make it a less than ideal place for traditional banking players, but that might explain the draw for the fintech startups setting up shop there. The city is a little quirky, a little adventurous, and growing its population of innovators by the day.
The city is home to older fintech residents like banking technology provider Kasasa, mobile trendsetter Malauzai, and digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdings.
Now, Austin is headquarters to newer entrants like Draft, which is using the venture funding it received from Plug and Play and Envestnet Yodlee in order to build insights based on data analytics to help financial advisors avoid poor portfolio performances and to further build trust with clients. Companies like Self Lender are focusing attention on the under-banked, using digital savings plans to help users build up the credit they are missing from lack of access to more traditional financial products. Other startups like Able are focusing on the increasingly competitive small business lending market, aiming to fund SMBs at all stages with help from friends and family: Able users get more capital at lower rates, the more “support” they receive from friends and family.