Cohen Circle

What an incredible Demo Day Showcase for the CAFE cohort! ?? Yesterday CAFE hosted our Fall 2024 Fintech Demo Day Showcase at the University of Delaware’s Fintech Innovation Hub. It was an inspiring afternoon as our six incredible cohort companies, Carvertise, Giving Credit, Kredit Academy, Odynn, Prismm, and Salus, pitched their innovative solutions and connected with attendees. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate and meet these extraordinary founders! CAFE programming for the day included thought-provoking presentations for our founders from industry experts Harry Wang from UD's Data Science Institute on AI for Fintech and Brad A. Molotsky from Duane Morris on Opportunity Zones and their benefits for small businesses and investment strategies. Our cohort traveled from around the country to showcase their products and participate in our Demo Day. Founders pitched their solutions to a room full of industry leaders, banks, investors, and peers. Congratulations to all the fintechs! We’re excited to continue supporting you as you grow your businesses, create meaningful impacts, and advance financial health and wellness for low- to moderate-income (LMI) communities. Greg Star, Ashley Sherwin, David Henderson, Evan Leaphart, Mike Gross, John Taylor Garner, Yohan Mehary, Anuj Patel, Martha Underwood, Shella Sylla, James Chemplavil, Ryan Barrett Thank you to the entire CAFE team and advisors over the course of the entire fall fintech accelerator program! Kristen Castell, Mike Bowman, Charlie Horn Wayne Miller, Tracy Shickel, Matthew Parks, Amy Walls, Pedro Moore, and Breanna Reyes as well as support from Angela Giliberti Thank you to our sponsors of the Fall 2024 Fintech Accelerator Program: Best Egg, American Bankers Association, Delaware Prosperity Partnership, Cohen Circle, Wolf & Company, P.C., Siegfried Advisory, Discover Financial Services, deBanked A huge thank you to everyone who participated, supported, and celebrated the achievements of this talented cohort. We look forward to seeing how they continue to shape the future of fintech! ??

What happened to SPACs? A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a publicly traded company created to acquire or merge with an existing company. Since 2022 the number of SPACs on the market have decreased. Cohen Circle Co-Founder Betsy Z. Cohen explains why. Watch "Wall Street Week" tonight at 6pm ET https://trib.al/u0OG1rq

The Global Pitch Competition: FinTech has come to a close, and we are proud to announce the winners: 1st place - Joseph Ahn, PhD, Delfi 2nd place - Constantin Andry, Aghanim 3rd place - Meghan McCormick, Oze Your visionary solutions impressed us all and demonstrated the true power of innovation in the financial technology space. Thank you to all the participants for your dedication and creativity. We are also grateful to our panel of judges for their thoughtful deliberations and to those who joined us live to witness this exciting event. The journey doesn't end here — we look forward to seeing where these incredible ideas will take the FinTech industry next. #FinTech #GlobalPitchCompetition #Harvard #harvardalumnientrepreneurs

With sincerity and a deep sense of gratitude, Sam Xia and I would like to announce the completion of LendAPI (Techstars '24)'s seed round investment today. We want to first and foremost thank all of our teammates who believed in our mission of helping banks and fintechs launch new products with just a few clicks. The daily engineering tickets, weekly platform releases, and real-time iteration based on client feedback have led us to this moment of celebration. We aren't resting by any means. With Cohen Circle, Great North Ventures, AlleyCorp, Techstars, Plug and Play Tech Center, and our SoCal friends at Interlock Capital, we will grow with intention and serve our clients, employees, and stockholders with a renewed sense of purpose. Sam and I would also like to extend our gratitude to our clients, partners, and supporters. Without you, we are nothing. Without you, we couldn't do what we love. Please expect more from us and hold us to the highest standards of professionalism. We are always here to help. ...and to our families. The nights and weekends we spent building this company came at a cost, and for that, we are deeply sorry. But you also gave us the strength to carry on. We love you all tremendously. To our Lord and Savior, we humbly pray.? https://lnkd.in/gZ6htd72

?? We raised $16 million in our Series B! ?? We're so excited to announce Wildfire's latest round of funding. A huge thank you to our incredible investors for believing in our vision and joining us on this journey. We’re incredibly grateful for your support and confidence in the business we’re building together. This new capital will be used towards innovating on our loyalty platform, which enables financial services organizations and technology companies to provide rewarding online shopping experiences to consumers worldwide. ?? Thank you so much to Intuit Ventures and Mucker Capital for leading the round; to new investors Cohen Circle, Samsung Next, Evolution VC, and Gaingels; and to existing investors TTV Capital, QED Investors, B Capital , DLA Piper, Moonshots Capital, and Citi Ventures, who all participated in the round. ?? https://hubs.la/Q02VZT3F0

Congratulations to the Fold Bitcoin and Cohen Circle teams on the business combination announced last week between FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: EMLD) and Fold! With 1K+ bitcoin in its corporate treasury, Fold is dedicated to expanding access to bitcoin investment opportunities by bringing premium financial products to the market. We are delighted to be partnering with Fold as they democratize wealth building for all with a truly innovative approach to bitcoin financial services. Will Reeves Jonathan Kirkwood MD MBA Grant Gilliam Brace Young Betsy Z. Cohen Daniel Cohen Amanda Abrams Mehar Jagota Max Smeal Nathan Pontician Corinne Bortniker Jeffrey Blomstrom Chris Ferris Andrew Hohns https://lnkd.in/gBHymMpV