The Venture Center of Little Rock on Wednesday said 295 entrepreneur and startup teams have applied for its 2017 FinTech Accelerator, twice the number that applied for the inaugural program held last year.
Participants chosen for the program will work on their businesses with senior executives of global banking technology services provider FIS of Jacksonville, Florida, attend an FIS conference and interact with the FIS API Gateway technology.
The Venture Center said applicants came from all over the U.S. and around the world, including India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Nigeria, Columbia and Mexico.
The accelerator, extended until 2018 to the tune of $2 million, is being funded with $500,000 each from FIS and Arkansas discretionary funds. Feb. 6 was the application deadline.
The program begins May 8. A kick-off open to the public is set for May 11, and a demo day is scheduled for July 27.
The Venture Center said that, over the next 60 days, it will be conducting interviews to narrow the applicant field and then begin due diligence on promising companies.
The Venture Center also announced recently that FinTech 2016 Alum, Akouba of Chicago, has been endorsed by the American Bankers Association. The company offers a cloud-based underwriting platform for lending by community and regional banks to small businesses.
