LendIt USA 2016 is back with an increased focus on startups in fintech. Our annual competition, PitchIt @ LendIt, is an unparalleled platform for early stage fintech startups to move to the center of the industry and stand out among competitors.
PitchIt at LendIt Success Stories
Last year’s PitchIt competition at LendIt USA attracted hundreds of investors, asset managers, funds and entrepreneurs — many of whom were seen intently taking notes as the startups interacted with the judges. The judging panel included Phin Upham of Thiel Capital, Gil Penchina of AngelList Syndicates, Charles Moldow of Foundation Capital, Geoffrey Miller of GLI Finance and Santo Politi of Spark Capital.
Many of these startups were just months old at the time and went on to gain significant traction:
- Sharestates had $2.6M in origination at the time of LendIt USA in April 2015 and closed 2015 with $81.4 million, noting “The tables turned for Sharestates soon after LendIt USA 2015.”
- Kickfurther has crowdfunded $4M in inventory and has grown to 13 employees.
- Able Lending landed $6M in venture capital funding from Blumberg Capital and RPM Ventures.
- Loan Hero completed a $4.2M Seed Financing backed by Alsop Louie Partners and Mucker Capital.
- Crediyo established itself as the first mover in non-elective deductible financing and secured financing.
- Ascend was selected into the Financial Solutions Lab, sponsored by JP Morgan Chase and CFSI, closed a follow on seed round, secured a debt financing source and is actively originating loans in multiple states.
- Cashforce completed the Barclays Techstars Accelerator, has 150 users across 30 countries and has just raised a $1.1M seed round.
Taking it to the Next Level
This year, PitchIt moves to the conference’s main stage. We’ve lined up a mentoring program for the finalists leading up to the conference and expect to continue supporting our alumni thereafter. Our headline judges are again a top notch group, including:
- Frank Rotman, QED Investors
- David Wieden, Khosla Ventures
- Chris Bishko, Omidyar Technology Partners
- Nick Shalek, Ribbit Capital
We expect to see startups representing the next wave of innovation in the industry as the infrastructure continues to develop and particularly around data analytics, credit reporting, aggregation, bank interaction, payments and compliance infrastructure and continued innovation around new products (including in areas like insurance and blockchain).
The deadline for startups to apply for PitchIt is February 21: click here to apply. If you are interested in participating as a mentor or investor, we would love to hear from you directly – please contact us at pitchit@lendit.com.
