Meet the fintechs that participated in ICBA’s 2025 ThinkTECH Accelerator—selected and shaped by community bankers.
Accelerator cohorts are selected based on the most pressing needs that community banks must meet, such as fraud prevention, customer acquisition and enhancing digital platforms with solutions that younger generations in particular are increasingly demanding, says Wayne M. Miller, ICBA’s executive vice president and chief innovation officer.
“We use our bankers’ influence working alongside these companies to help sculpt these solutions very specifically for community banks,” Miller says. “These solutions are shovel-ready that you could put to work in your bank tomorrow.”
Beta Financial Services
Chicago
Offers BetaScore, an AI-powered credit-scoring platform to make more accurate and data-driven lending decisions.
Seke Ballard, founder and CEO
Tell us about your solution.
BetaScore combines a nationwide database of small businesses with a proprietary credit scoring system and AI-driven workflow automation. This allows lenders to identify high-quality leads, risk-assess using standardized financial data and generate credit analyses in minutes rather than days.
How did community banker input improve it?
We started as a scoring engine, but bankers pushed us to go further to help them find leads, streamline analysis and eliminate manual work. Today, BetaScore isn’t just about credit scoring—it’s a full productivity suite.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
They should focus on tools that solve real operational challenges. The best technology makes teams more efficient, decisions more consistent and data more actionable, without disrupting the culture that makes community banking unique.
Clockout
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Provides white-labeled earned wage access infrastructure so banks can offer on-demand pay through their digital banking apps.
Juan Jurado-Blanco, CEO
Tell us about your solution.
It’s an incentive for people to switch their direct deposits to the bank to generate additional noninterest income. It also creates a stickier customer base, and it helps differentiate the bank from competitors.
How did community banker input improve it?
We changed how we communicate our value proposition. We tell bankers how easy it is to both configure and embed our platform within their digital banking. We also take into account each bank’s specific needs.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
Understand what the product is doing. What market opportunity is this bringing? Is this making me more profitable? Is this making me more efficient? Have an open mind in every single discussion you have and be prescriptive when it comes to your needs.
“We use our bankers’ influence working alongside these companies to help sculpt these solutions very specifically for community banks.”
—Wayne M. Miller, ICBA
DeepSee
Draper, Utah
Offers a flexible AI operating system that integrates with bank systems to streamline operations.
Armen Sargsyan, head of strategy
Tell us about your solution.
We start by understanding the unique workflows and business problems within each bank. We then help them thoughtfully roll out AI solutions that align with their goals. This helps free up staff to focus on more meaningful, value-added work, ultimately driving greater efficiency and impact across the organization.
How did community banker input improve it?
We learned that banks are looking for more than a vendor. They want a partner who can guide them through every phase of AI adoption. That’s why we spend time getting to know each bank’s culture, team structure and specific needs.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
Don’t get too focused on immediate ROI when it comes to AI. At this stage, the true value of AI can’t always be measured with traditional metrics, because the most transformative uses are still emerging. Give your teams space to test what works and what doesn’t.
Overwatch Data
Brooklyn, New York
Offers an AI-powered threat intelligence platform to automate and streamline open-source intelligence monitoring across surface, deep and dark web sources.
Arjun Bisen, founder and CEO
Tell us about your solution.
Our AI agents monitor for compromised data, compromised checks, compromised cards, new phishing sites and spoofed social media pages—everything outside of the bank’s ecosystem.
How did community banker input improve it?
More recently, bankers have been using our agents for due diligence and investigation journeys, particularly ACH due diligence. They pushed us to come up with new diligence use cases to help their risk teams process the huge amount of volume of ACH transactions.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
Look beyond the product to try and appreciate the dream, and if that dream resonates with you, then that’s extra reason to partner with a fintech.
“We started as a scoring engine, but bankers pushed us to go further to help them find leads, streamline analysis and eliminate manual work.”
—Seke Ballard, Beta Financial Services
Vertice AI
Athens, Georgia
Offers AI-powered predictive analytics to help banks optimize marketing strategies.
Tyler Brantley, head of community banking
Tell us about your solution.
We give banks the platform to scale not only their data analytics, but also marketing—up to 20 to 30 campaigns a month, perhaps. All of that [is] very highly targeted, and [AI helps] drive that more effectively.
How did community banker input improve it?
Talking to bankers over the course of 10 weeks was invaluable for us. We were able to lean into our existing platform functionality to make sure it also supports their commercial growth.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
Make sure you align tech with your top priorities and do your due diligence well, including talking to references. Then, make sure you’re willing to invest the time and energy to maximize that relationship.
Sardine
San Francisco, California
Sardine offers an AI-driven risk platform that helps community banks prevent fraud, detect money laundering and improve transaction and credit decisioning.
Ravindran Loganathan, general manager, banking
Tell us about your solution.
Our technology is embedded directly into a bank’s digital channels and payment workflows, allowing banks to assess identity and transaction risk in real time before funds move.
How did community banker input improve it?
Community bankers helped shape our approach by emphasizing the need to protect not just the bank but also the broader ecosystem banks enable. That input led us to support fraud prevention across both banks and the fintechs they sponsor.
How should community bankers evaluate new tech?
As customers expect more real-time digital services, community banks should focus on how new technology improves risk assessment at the point of transaction. They should look for solutions that integrate with cores and payment systems, align with regulatory expectations and strengthen risk management across the network, rather than operating in isolation.
Meet fintechs at ICBA LIVE
Past and current members of the Accelerator will be presenting at the ThinkTECH Showcase at ICBA LIVE from March 6 to 9 in San Diego. Make sure you’re there in person by visiting icba.org/live and registering now.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a writer in California.
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