Retirement planning app wins Best of Show at VentureTech

by Jenny Jackson, CUNA

Silvur was named Best of Show at VentureTech, the premier fintech showcase event for the credit union industry held in Las Vegas November 10 and 11.

After two days of pitches from 14 fintech companies around the U.S., a panel of accredited investors and a who’s who of credit union industry executives chose Silvur’s retirement planning mobile app as the Best of Show at VentureTech.

When first held in 2018, VentureTech was envisioned as a Shark Tank-like event where early-stage fintechs looking to serve the credit union market made pitches to potential investors. Pitching fintechs were chosen by a diverse vetting committee made up of individuals from credit unions, credit union service organizations, leagues and other industry experts.

The first couple of years resulted in the launch of some new companies into the credit union space—Eltropy, Posh and Zogo—to name a few, but there was little in the way of investment activity directly resulting from the event, with IllumaLabs being an exception.

Even so, VentureTech’s objective of fostering a more collaborative environment between credit unions, system providers, including with leagues, credit union service organizations and fintechs looking to gain traction in the credit union market, was—and continues to be—very successful.

The 2021 VentureTech event expanded on previous years, bringing together not only the 14 fintechs, but also 5 venture capital companies and well over 200 credit union industry executives.

Titanium sponsors include co-founders CUNA Strategic Services and Curql. CUNA Strategic Services connects credit unions and leagues to the industry’s top solution providers. Their alliance relationships drive membership, grow revenue, promote operational excellence and foster collaboration.

Curql is a venture capital fund which bills itself as the gateway for fintech access to credit unions. Curql deploys capital on a faster cycle than traditional investment dollars from individual credit unions.

This year’s pitching companies presented a diverse range of products from financing renovations, instant issuance of digital cards, sweepstakes gamification to an advanced chatbot with built-in member authentication.

Silvur’s Best-of-Show app is designed to support Americans aged 50+ navigating modern retirement, helping users retire confidently using easy-to-understand guides and data-driven calculators to demystify the process of preparing for retirement. It includes a personalized Retirement Score that predicts how long one’s savings will last in retirement and access to Retirement School, designed to educate users on all the topics they need to master as they embark on their retirement journey.

Venture Tech organizers expressed thanks to Silvur and the other presenting companies: AKUVO, Array, Atomic, Ciphertext Solutions, Equipifi, Finalytics.AI, FinGoal, Interface.AI, Long Game, Quatromoney, Renofi, Social Equity and Tax Status.

VentureTech 2022 details will be released when available. Regional “Best of VentureTech 2021” events are being considered for Q2 2022 to continue this strong collaboration propelling the credit union movement forward.