Startups from Delaware, DC and NYC chosen for the inaugural CAFE Fintech Accelerator

Six mid-Atlantic fintech companies have been selected to participate in the first cohort of The Center for Advancing Financial Equity’s (CAFE) ten-week accelerator.

Founded in 2023 by Charlie Horn and led by managing director Kristen Castell, the CAFE Fintech Accelerator is a nonprofit, equity-free program that aims to address financial wellness for underserved low-to-middle-income (LMI) communities. It will be based at the FinTech Innovation Hub on the University of Delaware’s STAR Campus in Newark, Delaware.

“As the daughter of an immigrant family, I know how important financial security is for all aspects of people’s lives — health, housing, food security, work and families,” New York City-based Castell told Technical.ly in December. “That is why I am so passionate about CAFE’s mission to power fintech innovation to advance financial wellness for underserved communities. The fintech accelerator is the first step of many we will be taking to reach this mission and to transform the financial system to work better for all.”

The six startups were selected from over 60 applicants, Castell told Technical.ly. Finalists were chosen from submissions across the US following a rigorous selection process. The list was narrowed down based on the company’s founding team, mission, product validation, current market traction, future scalability and potential impact.

Ultimately, they all come from the Northeast Corridor, with three from the DC area, two from New York City and one based in Wilmington, Delaware.

The inaugural CAFE startups and their stated missions via CAFE’s announcement are:

• Muse Tax (NYC): Helps individual taxpayers and SMBs extract data from tax returns, maximize refunds, and get personalized financial insights through an AI-based, tax and financial module. Our mission is to equip LMI and underserved communities with expert financial assistance, without the prohibitive cost, because financial wellness is the way to build generational wealth and their future depends on it.
• Nester (Wilmington): The first-ever tool to help homebuyers and homeowners avoid their #1 regret: unexpected costs of repairs and maintenance. These costs disproportionately affect LMI members of our community who are at a greater risk of losing their homes as a result of an unexpected repair.
• Parlay (Alexandria, Virginia): Works with community banks and credit unions to get more underserved small businesses approved for loans. Parlay is focused on veteran-owned, women-owned, immigrant-owned, and black- and brown-owned small businesses who disproportionately struggle with affordable access to capital.
• Stratyfy (NYC): Interpretable AI solutions enable financial institutions to make more accurate, efficient, and fair financial decisions in credit risk, fraud, and compliance. Stratyfy is on a mission to accelerate financial inclusion by providing greater transparency and less bias to critical financial decisions that impact millions of people.
• Sunny Day Fund (Falls Church, Virginia): Powers workplace emergency savings programs for people-first employers shining the light on financial well-being. By automating and incentivizing savings for workers in sectors like hospitality, manufacturing, and healthcare, Sunny Day Fund removes barriers to banking and equitable wealth building.
• Wellthi (Arlington, Virginia): Helps people build wealth better together by equipping financial institutions with social community finance technology and payment solutions that foster financial health, credit readiness, and access to affordable capital directly through your mobile banking application.

The official kickoff will happen on March 27 and 28, when CAFE will host Delaware Bankers, the American Fintech Council, UD Data Science Institute, the Delaware Prosperity Partnership and others. The cohort’s demo day, for which CAFE will welcome business owners, investors, academics and the community to network and see the fintech companies pitch, takes place on May 30.

Mike Bowman, CEO of Delaware Tech Park, said the CAFE Fintech Accelerator represents the mission of the FinTech Innovation Hub, which officially opened in the fall of 2023.

“FinTech Innovation Hub is the result of a five-year journey between Delaware Technology Park, Discover and the University of Delaware,” Bowman said in a press release. “The mission – tackle issues that impede financial equity for vulnerable populations. The pinnacle of this undertaking is the CAFE Accelerator. It is an exciting endeavor to help progress selected companies to commercialize their products and showcase them to investors.”