BMO and 1871 Select Participating Companies for 2021 WMN•FINtech Program



BMO Harris Bank and 1871 selected the five participating companies that will join the 2021 WMN•FINtech Program.

WMN•FINtech is a fintech industry program for startups founded and led by women. Launched in 2020 and now returning for its second year, WMN•FINtech was designed to help bridge the gender gap in the startup and tech community and give more women entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring innovative technologies and products forward.

The following five women-led companies were invited to participate in the 2021 cohort of WMN•FINtech:

Arena Pay (Fairfax, VA) – Heather Tuason, Founder and CEO

Arena Pay helps small and medium-sized businesses manage accounts payable, optimize payment timing and pay business expenses. The Arena Platform syncs to accounting software to categorize payments in real time, Arena Pay enables active cash flow optimization and Arena CFO provides a suite of CFO services to U.S. businesses.

Caribou (Boca Raton, FL) – Christine Simone, Co-Founder

Caribou is a healthcare planning and navigation solution for financial advisors to differentiate themselves, build deeper client relationships and be better life planners.

HomeZada (El Dorado Hills, CA) – Elizabeth Dodson, Co-Founder

HomeZada is a digital home management platform that empowers homeowners to manage, maintain, protect, improve and differentiate their home for sale during the entire homeownership journey. It is a platform that combines multiple apps, content and data to manage financial assets and expenses. HomeZada is also a solution that assists businesses and organizations that service homeowners in industries like insurance, mortgage, real estate and home building to retain and engage their existing customers and gain net new customers.

Indie Tech – Sophia Stone, Founder and CEO
Indie Tech is a new startup that aims to improve the way large enterprise clients and external consultants work together. Recognizing the myriad issues that both clients and consultants face in trying to complete projects through third-party sources, Indie Tech is out to overhaul the flawed process by developing an AI-driven software-as-a-service consulting management system.

Trustate (Tampa, FL) – Leah Del Percio, Co-Founder and CEO, Tara Faquir, Co-Founder and COO

Trustate is an end-to-end estate administration service that uses “tech + touch” to help people settle the estate of a deceased loved one. In addition to estate settlement services, Trustate’s digital products include “estate prep” tools to guide families in the creation, management and organization of their estates.

“We are proud to join our longtime partner BMO Harris Bank to welcome the members of the second cohort of WMN•FINtech,” Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871, said. “These five women-led startups are leading the way toward building the future of the financial sector, and through the WMN•FINtech Program, we seek to provide the resources, mentorship and industry insight they need to thrive.”

“We are delighted to shine a light on these fintechs and their founders and to help support and learn from them as they grow,” Hugh McKee, head of BMO Partners of BMO Financial Group, said. “They have all found innovative ways to solve important financial challenges with technology, delivering value for users and helping them make real financial progress. All of us at BMO look forward to following their successes during the WMN•FINtech Program year and beyond.”


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