Worldpay and Georgia Tech’s ATDC Financial Technology Partnership Yielding Strong Results
Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) April 13, 2016 -- A year after launching an accelerator program focused on helping entrepreneurs in Georgia’s growing financial technology (FinTech) sector succeed, the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech is working with a portfolio of 20 innovative startups — including 8 which have already raised more than $16.8 million in funding.
The ATDC FinTech Program was created through a $1 million gift Georgia Tech received from Worldpay, the global payments technology company.
“A year into building this program with Worldpay, we are already seeing some spectacular results,” said Michelangelo Ho, the ATDC FinTech catalyst. “One example is the Technology Association of Georgia naming three of our companies — Split, Freeing Returns and aFundia — as the top three FinTech startups in Georgia for 2016. Another is Hitachi Capital America announcing it would give up to $100 million to fund the mid-market supply chain through another one of our program companies, TradeRocket, which provides working capital to this segment.”
Companies participating in the ATDC FinTech Program receive many business incubator benefits, including access to early customers, capital, and campus resources. In addition, senior Worldpay executives advise on payments integration into their software and applications, as well as consult on effective go-to-market strategies.
Groundfloor is another company participating in the ATDC FinTech Program that serves as the bridge between real estate development projects and individuals who want to pool their money together to fund loans to property developers.
“The camaraderie and staff at ATDC have been an important element of our company’s evolution since joining the Signature program over a year ago,” said Brian Dally, co-founder and CEO of Groundfloor. “Since then we’ve doubled the size of our team and tripled our business, thanks in no small measure to the constructive environment and resources here. We’re big supporters.”
Added Jen Bonnett, acting general manager of ATDC, “Our mission at ATDC is to help entrepreneurs launch and build successful technology companies in Georgia. With that, we look at industries and sectors such as FinTech that are growing the Georgia economy, attracting new investment to the state, creating new jobs, and bringing new solutions to the marketplace.”
The FinTech focus at ATDC and partnership with Worldpay adds another element to Atlanta’s growing reputation as a global FinTech capital. Some 60 percent of FinTech companies are based in metro Atlanta and 70 percent of the $5.3 trillion in annual U.S. card spending is processed through Georgia’s “transaction alley,” according the American Transaction Processors Coalition.
“We are pleased with the progress of the program in its first year and excited about its future because of the next-generation of financial technology being created by the companies here,” said Worldpay US Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Arvin. “As leaders in modern money and through this partnership with the ATDC, we’re committed to helping more disruptors disrupt and get to market faster.”
About Worldpay
Worldpay is a leading payments company with global reach. We provide an extensive range of technology-led payment products and services to over 400,000 customers, enabling their businesses to grow and prosper. We manage the increasing complexity of the payments landscape for our customers, allowing them to accept the widest range of payment types around the world. Using our network and technology, we are able to process payments from geographies covering 99 percent of global GDP, across 146 countries and 126 currencies. We help our customers to accept more than 300 different payment types.
For more information, visit http://www.worldpay.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @Worldpay_US.
About ATDC:
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is one of the longest-running and largest university-based startup incubators in the country. Founded in 1980, ATDC has graduated more than 160 companies from its ATDC Signature program. To date, those companies have attracted roughly $2 billion in investments. The ATDC Financial Technology (FinTech) Program powered by Worldpay US was established in 2015 to attract and accelerate entrepreneurs and startups in that sector from across the state. ATDC, which also has programs in Savannah, Athens, and Augusta, is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, the chief economic development arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. For additional information about ATDC and the ATDC FinTech Program, visit atdc.org/fintech/.
Michelangelo Ho, Advanced Technology Development Center, http://www.atdc.org, +1 (404) 894-5999, [email protected]
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