icking off the end of the year, NXTUS and Premier Sponsors — Emprise Bank, INTRUST Bank and Kansas Bankers Association — announced seven winners of the 2023 NXTSTAGE Financial Technology Pilot Competition. Leading fintech startups from five states and Canada pitched at the showcase event, offering their next-generation solutions to help regional banks, credit unions and financial services businesses improve identity verification, offer new digital tools to customers, link in with their small-business clients’ financial information, and expand lending and services to rural and urban underserved community segments. Similar to ABC’s “Shark Tank,” the event included threeminute pitches from each finalist. Then, the Premier Sponsors provided remarks on their innovation goals and revealed which finalists they would continue to work with as prospective technology partners. Emprise Bank praised the whole finalist cohort and announced they are pursuing a project with PitaTech, which offers a targeted solution for lenders needing to search equipment lien records. “Embracing innovation is pivotal to our future growth, and we remain committed to supporting innovators and building the ecosystem,” said Matt Michaelis, Chairman, President and CEO of Emprise Bank. “We take great pride in nurturing the next wave of financial innovators in many ways, including by offering guidance on core capabilities essential for creating a market-ready product that enables us to empower our customers to thrive. We will continue to engage with PitaTech as they build their capabilities, working toward a potential pilot program.” INTRUST Bank announced they will be working with V2verify to potentially implement their voice authentication solution and ForeSight, which enhances banks’ loan evaluations and reduces drop-offs among loan applicants, who can get mired in current processes. “We see fostering innovation as a key to serving our customers and communities NXTSTAGE Financial Technology Pilot Competition K well,” said Steve Castro-Miller, Managing Director of Technology of INTRUST Bank. “The NXTSTAGE program continues to bring great ideas and new approaches to Kansas, and we are pleased to help these entrepreneurs get the exposure to decision-makers that they need to continue to improve their products and approaches.” The Kansas Bankers Association has selected ASA Technologies, Pebble Plan, Railz and V2verify as their organization’s winners. Each of these winning firms receives a feature article in The Kansas Banker magazine, as well as a complimentary one-year associate KBA membership. “Each of the finalists offers relevant tools that can help our member banks innovate and compete, but these four rose to the top as most promising solutions for banks across the state to better serve their clients and promote growth for their communities,” said Doug Wareham, President & CEO of the Kansas Bankers Association. “I want to thank the leaders from these KBA member banks for serving on the task force that helped choose KBA’s winners: Bank of Commerce, Bank of the Plains, First Heritage Bank, NBKC Bank and Union State Bank.” About KBA’s Winners ASA Technologies is revolutionizing banking by offering a new way for community and regional banks to provide fintech experiences directly to retail and business customers without one-to-one fintech integrations. ASA’s flagship offering, the ASA Vault, is a fintech app store specifically designed for banking. With ASA Vault, fintechs no longer take business from banks. ASA sits between banks and fintechs, allowing customers to access, permit and use technology apps without sharing personally identifiable information. This places ASA and its banking partners in a position to comply with regulatory data, privacy and security proposals. Pebble Plan gives banks a low-cost/ high-return opportunity to de-risk their small business loan portfolios while strengthening client relationships, increasing community engagement and providing a unique set of compliance 10
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