Empowering the Next Wave of Innovators

THE TEN FINALISTS from the Equifax Accelerate Program, a six-month developer program presented in collaboration with 1871 and designed to help technology companies of all sizes tap into the Equifax information ecosystem to build transformative, data-driven solutions that promote financial inclusion, highlighted how they plan to drive positive change with innovation at the conclusion of the 2022 competition. 

Bringing together the best and brightest in the startup community

In the opening video, Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871, summed up the overwhelming sentiment for the finalists when she said, “I’m in awe of each and every one of you and the problems you have dedicated your lives to solving.”

At the final Product Showcase event, each finalist company highlighted how they were able to harness the powerful suite of Equifax Cloud-enabled Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to bring their transformative solutions to life. These solutions have the power to combat homelessness, accelerate infrastructure improvements, protect consumers from wire fraud, empower travel while building credit, and more. 

Here’s how they plan to drive positive change with innovation: 

• Mini City: There are half a million homeless individuals on any given night in the U.S. alone, and without valid identification, those Americans in need are unable to access services meant to provide relief, such as social services benefits. Based in Atlanta and with 20 locations across Georgia, Mini City can further its mission of connecting one of our nation’s most vulnerable groups to much-needed services with the help of Equifax APIs to remove existing barriers in validating end users’ identities.

• Neofin: By utilizing Equifax data and services, Neofin - a disruptive fintech SaaS that brings a Shopify-like experience to the lending business - hopes to bolster what it calls, “the fastest instrument for underwriting and decisioning ever created” with the launch of new onboarding and decision engine capabilities. Helping financial institutions automate their credit and lending operations, as well as provide solutions that fit the needs of consumers.

• Billy: It’s no secret the construction industry plays a vital role in fostering our nation’s economy and infrastructure, but with a lack of liquid assets, obtaining business insurance can be a difficult task for construction companies. By leveraging APIs to automate and expedite the underwriting and quoting process, Billy is working to make digital insurance easier than ever for construction businesses to find the best insurance at the best price.

• VacayHQ: By stacking funds, leveraging credit cards with travel points and more, VacayHQ is working to make travel more accessible to thin-file and unbanked/underbanked consumers today. By partnering with Equifax, VacayHQ wants to help their customers build credit while saving for their next vacation.

• Denim:. Denim helps freight brokers grow faster by automating their back office and providing fast and affordable working capital, when payments are not made for as long as six months. By automating financial operations with the support of Equifax, Denim can enable freight brokers with better lending decisions along the way.

• Dytrix: Fraudulent wire transfers are the last thing any new homebuyer wants to experience when it comes time to close. By tapping Equifax identity services, Dytrix is striving to protect consumers against wire fraud with coverage for lenders and mortgage bankers, ensuring safe business online and mitigating risk with each transaction.

• Clocr: When it comes to planning for the inevitable, no one wants their loved ones left without access to assets after they pass, and in today’s increasingly tech-driven world, digital assets are an often-overlooked component. Clocr, an estate planning platform for digital assets, aims to harness Equifax APIs to help further protect its customers from identity theft and fraud, during what is considered a vulnerable and highly stressful time. 

• EQL Finance: For working class families and first-generation Americans, access to credit and financial literacy are key to climbing the financial ladder. By leveraging Equifax APIs, including OneView and DataX, EQL Finance aims to further its focus of changing the financial outcomes of these families and individuals by improving its underwriting process for small-dollar loans and enabling positive financial journeys for its customers. 

• Bobsled: As organizations continue to embrace cloud technology, they are seeing an increased demand for data providers to meet them where they are, on the cloud platform they prefer. With its new Bobsled Analytics API product, Bobsled is working to solve for this by enabling cloud native delivery across any platform. By harnessing the cloud-native Equifax data fabric, Bobsled hopes to provide data delivery at scale for an easier, faster way to share data to any cloud or platform. The data sharing platform ensures that the data shared is governed and secure, and provides an essential space for collaboration between the provider and consumer.

• Freede Solutions: When it comes to debt, Freede values the importance of looking at both the financial and emotional health of consumers. With its self-service debt resolution capability, Freede hopes to leverage Equifax data to improve their predictive algorithms, with the goal of enhancing consumers’ experiences with creditors and debt collectors.