Fintech seems to have lost some appeal at Y Combinator.
Arguably Silicon Valley’s top incubator yesterday hosted Day 1 of its Summer 2016 Demo Day, and the percentage of fintech startups dropped noticably compared to its winter lot. Last March, around 10% of Y Combinator startups focused on fintech. Yesterday, only two of the 44 — or less than 5% — had a fintech bent.
It should be noted that Y Combinator often clusters startups by discipline during its demo events, so more fintech might be showcased among today’s lineup. Until then, the two fintech startups from yesterday’s presentations.
Airfordable – Payment plans for travel
Airfordable offers a payment plan service to support travel for people that have limited credit or limited savings. The service lets travelers create bi-weekly payment plans that push payments off up to three months. Tickets are distributed only when the payment plan is successfully completed. After reaching profitability and booking $500,000 in sales, the company wants to increase spending to push into financing plans for hotels as well. According to TechCrunch, the company has partnered with an insurance company that is accountable for default risk and is growing at 53% month over month.
Simbi – Bartering marketplace
Simbi lets people barter their skills through a credits system. According to TechCrunch, Simbi is growing 95% per month, and $100,000 in services are being traded each month. “The bartering market could be magnitudes bigger than the $14 billion estimate if there was a clearing house like Simbi to make exchanges simple and safe,” according to TechCrunch.