CENTRAL PAYMENTS ANNOUNCES ADVANCING FALL 2021 FALLS FINTECH COHORT

See what’s coming out of the industry’s only fintech accelerator founded by a full-scale digital payments bank.

November 1, 2021 (Sioux Falls, SD) – Central Payments, the South Dakota-based payments leader and fastest growing issuer of prepaid debit cards in the U.S. since 2015*, today announced the completion of cohort four of its Falls Fintech accelerator program, the only bank-offered business accelerator program designed to bring early-stage financial technology (fintech) companies to market.

“Our fourth cohort consists of five promising early stage fintechs innovating to bring greater transparency and cost savings to financial activities. During the program, they worked with industry leaders and subject matter experts from around the financial services and technology ecosystems to develop their products, capabilities, features and connections in preparation for capital raising and market launch”, says Nikkee Rhody, EVP of Strategy at Central Payments and Co-Founder/Managing Director at Falls Fintech.

The full line-up of impressive Falls Fintech Cohort 4 graduates are:

Leagueswype
CEO: Darius Grandberry
HQ: Chicago, IL
leagueswype.com

Leagueswype is a digital payment platform that serves as the trusted one-stop digital wallet where sports bettors can manage all of their payment activity across all service providers within one single and secure application. A safe and secure way to get them playing the games they love more quickly and paid faster when they win.

TruCard
CEO: Asad Ansari
HQ: Herndon, VA & India
trucard.io

TruCard is an asset backed digital currency platform

Kiddie Kredit
CEO: Evan Leaphart
HQ: Miami, FL.
kiddiekredit.com

Kiddie Kredit is a financial literacy tool that teaches kids about credit by incentivizing productivity and good behavior. The premise of the app is that the better a child performs their duties/activities, the better their score. We do this by creating a “kredit” score that parallels traditional FICO scoring models.

Greetty
CEO: Maximilian Bolzer
Head of Partnerships: Victoria Plekhannova
HQ: Sacramento, CA & Russia
Greetty.io

The Greetty app allows users to create and send unique video messages along with a customized virtual prepaid card as a useful and exciting way to attach money to a virtual congratulations.

FirstRoot
CEO: Luke Hohmann
Head of Product Management: Clint Gossett
HQ: Sunnyvale, CA
firstroot.co

FirstRoot is a Benefit Corp that supports schools using Participatory Budgeting, a democratic process in which students are given real money to collaboratively invest in their school. As the students decide how to invest the money they learn important lessons about financial literacy, design thinking, and civics.

During this session that kicked off on August 16, 2021, Falls Fintech continued to add workshops, venture capital seminars, and additional mentorship opportunities to their already best-in-class curriculum. The program is culminating with a captivating in-person event in Sioux Falls, SD on November 4th. This reinvented Demo Day offers a live panel Q&A from influential market leading experts and concludes with a celebration.

“We are eager to add these five companies to the rapidly growing list of users of our Open*CP Fintech API Marketplace^SM, one of the only true bank-as-a-service payments platforms. Falls Fintech continues to meet the challenge of bridging the gap in bank/fintech partnerships,” commented Trent Sorbe, President and Founder at Central Payments and Co-Founder at Falls Fintech.

To learn more about the fall 2021 Falls Fintech participants, watch a recap of the reinvented demo day event, and keep up with behind-the-scenes looks at unique partnerships and ways to bridge the gap between banking, startups, and the entire fintech industry, subscribe to Central Payments’ Fintech Brews & News podcast.

About Falls Fintech
Falls Fintech is a custom, 12-week program designed to accelerate market readiness for early-stage financial technology startups. The high-intensity curriculum is delivered by a distinguished group of payments, technology, and banking professionals. At the conclusion of Falls Fintech, successful companies will have completed all the necessary steps to come to market with a bank partnership and access to the payments ecosystem through Central Payments and its Open*CP platform.

About Central Payments
Central Payments is the payments subsidiary of Central Bank of Kansas City and is headquartered in Dell Rapids, South Dakota. Central Payments provides payment technology and solutions through its Open*CP Fintech API MarketplaceSM, one of the only true bank-as-a-service payments platforms and the technology responsible for Central Payments’ rise to the fastest growing prepaid card issuer since 2015.* Along with its fintech accelerator program, Falls Fintech, Central Payments produces a podcast called Fintech Brews & News where you can find unique perspectives on how to bridge the gap between banking, startups, and the entire fintech industry.

Visit central-payments.com and fallsfintech.com for more information.

Member FDIC.

^*Source: The Nilson Report, 2015 to 2019.