[December 20, 2012]

Deloitte Joins FinCapDev Competition Group

The Financial Capability Development Competition (FinCapDev) - a $100,000 competition facilitating the development of innovative, market friendly mobile apps - announced today select finalists will have access to Deloitte's (News - Alert) Highly Immersive Visual Environment (HIVE) located in Rosslyn, Virginia. Administered by the Center for Financial Services Innovation and the D2D Fund, FinCapDev facilitates the development of mobile apps that increase consumer access to high quality, fairly-priced financial products and services.

"Mobile apps can pose an incredible opportunity for innovation in the personal finance landscape," said Risa Freedman, Director, Deloitte Services LP. "We are excited to help the FinCapDev finalists in their efforts to build the next generation of personal finance apps for consumers."

Other FinCapDev competition participants include Braintree, EachScape, Citi, Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Facebook (News - Alert), H&R Block, ideas42, MasterCard, Women Innovate Mobile, and Yodlee; and financial supporters including the Ford Foundation, the Citi Foundation, and Omidyar Network.

FinCapDev administrators and technical feasibility judges are currently reviewing proposals to develop fully functional, market-ready mobile apps and will announce finalists in early January 2013. From there, the announced finalists will develop and build their apps with the support of an extensive variety of resources offered, including access to Deloitte's HIVE.

The Deloitte HIVE is designed to help accelerate ideation and design thinking for analyzing information and prototyping interventions. The facility provides novel interactive capabilities for relating and better understanding information from literature scans, consumer data, and social media, using unstructured analytics.

"In addition to Deloitte's HIVE, FinCapDev finalists will have access to up to $10,000 in startup cash; licenses to Yodlee's software development kit; the opportunity to access Braintree's payment gateway without fees; the opportunity to access EachScape's drag and drop platform to facilitate the development of Finalists' mobile apps as well as exclusive mentorship from EachScape professionals," said Timothy Flacke, Executive Director of the D2D Fund.

FinCapDev will also provide finalists with access to experienced advisors on topics such as product design, behavioral economics and mobile development from organizations including ideas42, H&R Block, MasterCard (News - Alert) and more. Then, in June 2013, finalists will present their fully functional apps to a panel of high-profile judges at an event hosted by the Center for Financial Services Innovation and the D2D Fund. At this event, finalists will compete for prizes from a $100,000 prize purse, featuring a $50,000 grand prize.

"It truly is incredible to see all these resources coming together in the name of financial capability," said Jennifer Tescher, President and CEO of the Center for Financial Services Innovation. "We can't wait to see what unfolds over the next six months."

About Deloitte's HIVE

From gamification and geo-spatial visualization to hybrid clouds and cyber analytics, Federal agencies are seeking emerging technologies and more creative approaches to tackle new and persistent challenges. The HIVE at the Deloitte Center for Federal Innovation in Rosslyn, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., is where guests can experience the latest technologies and approaches, using their own data and real world scenarios. Learn more.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Services LP and Deloitte Consulting LLP, which are separate subsidiaries of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

About FinCapDev

The Financial Capability Development Competition (FinCapDev, http://fincapdev.com) is a nationwide $100,000 challenge to develop new mobile apps to help working Americans make smart financial choices and get better access to financial services. In addition to bringing approximately six high-impact apps to market and available for consumers use, the competition will create an ecosystem of American innovators, technology companies, software developers, financial service firms, investors, and nonprofits to foster innovation in new mobile financial tools.

About the Center for Financial Services Innovation

The Center for Financial Services Innovation is the nation's leading authority on financial services for under banked consumers. Since 2004, its programs have focused on informing, connecting, and investing - gathering enhanced intelligence, brokering and supporting productive industry relationships, and fostering best-in-class products and strategies. CFSI works with leaders and innovators in the business, government and nonprofit sectors to transform the financial services landscape. For more on CFSI, go to http://cfsinnovation.com or follow on Twitter (News - Alert) at @cfsinnovation.

About the D2D Fund

Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund strengthens the financial opportunity and security of low and moderate income consumers by innovating, incubating, and stimulating new financial products and policies. Operating at the intersection of the private, non-profit and public sectors, D2D incubates and promotes practical applications with social impact that might otherwise lack a champion to nurture and bring them to market. D2D was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization in 2000 and is headquartered in Allston neighborhood of Boston, across the street from Harvard University's recently opened Innovation Lab. For more on D2D, go to www.d2dfund.org.

[ InfoTech Spotlight's Homepage ]