Curinos Names 2026 FinTech Incubator Cohort and Expands Mentorship Team and Technical Partnership

Four early-stage startups selected for the program's second year, spanning AI-driven knowledge, embedded lending, community savings and personalized financial guidance.

NEW YORK, July 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Curinos, a provider of decision intelligence for financial institutions, today announced the four startups selected for the second cohort of the Curinos FinTech Incubator, delivered in partnership with CoMotion at the University of Washington. The company also named two new members to the program's mentorship team and deepened its partnership with Databricks.

The 2026 cohort spans the program's focus areas of financial decisioning, financial inclusion, and data- and analytics-driven innovation:

• Centring (Greater Seattle) — an AI platform that captures and operationalizes institutional knowledge within Microsoft 365 for advisory firms.
• Slate (Vancouver / Salt Lake City) — an embedded lending platform enabling Canadian SaaS platforms to offer white-labeled working capital to SMBs.
• JoinSusu (Greater Seattle) — digitizes rotating savings circles for diaspora communities, with multi-currency support across four countries.
• Addition Wealth (New York) — combines technology and human expertise to deliver personalized financial guidance at scale for financial institution partners.

Two new members join the incubator's steering committee and mentoring team. Nate Derby is a startup veteran and co-founder of the North American Fintech Coalition, which connects early-stage fintech startups with community banks, credit unions, and investors. Kushal Shah is Senior Product Manager at Remitly and a mentor at UW CoMotion. Both advise cohort companies on product strategy, go-to-market, and commercial viability during the program.

"This cohort is exactly what we set out to support — founders using data and AI to solve real problems in financial services, from institutional knowledge and embedded lending to community savings and personalized advice," said Olly Downs, Chief Technology, Product, and AI Officer at Curinos. "Pairing Curinos' market insight and proprietary data with CoMotion's incubation model gives these teams a genuine head start, and adding Nate and Kushal to our steering committee deepens the expertise we can put behind them."

"The strongest fintech products come from founders who understand how credit unions and community banks actually operate, and connecting those two worlds is what this program does," said Nate Derby.

"My focus with this cohort is helping founders pressure-test their product and go-to-market decisions against real commercial constraints," said Kushal Shah.

The incubator has also deepened its partnership with Databricks. Building on the collaboration introduced with the 2025 program, 2026 cohort members qualify for up to $50,000 in product credits, technical support, and training resources through Databricks for Startups.

A founder from the inaugural 2025 cohort points to the program's practical, hands-on value. "Going through the incubator changed how we thought about scale," said Reagan Bonlie, Founder and CEO of Nudge Money and a member of the 2025 cohort. "The mentorship was direct and practical, and access to Curinos' industry perspective helped us make sharper decisions at a critical moment."

The incubator launched in 2025 with an inaugural cohort of Nudge Money, AltCred, and Prof of Wall Street.

For more information about the Curinos FinTech Incubator, visit curinos.com/curinos-fintech-incubator-2026.

About Curinos
Curinos empowers financial institutions to make decisions with confidence, turning insight into bottom-line impact, deeper customer relationships, and profitable growth.

Our AI-first platform transforms proprietary data, advanced analytics, and deep financial services expertise into timely, actionable guidance delivered into the flow of work.

Headquartered in New York City, Curinos partners with financial institutions worldwide. Learn more at curinos.com.

About CoMotion
CoMotion at the University of Washington partners with the UW community on their innovation journey, providing tools, connections, and acumen to transform ideas into economic and societal impact. CoMotion Labs, part of CoMotion, serves as a multi-industry incubator for early-stage startups from the greater Seattle area, as well as the UW community. By providing essential infrastructure and opportunities for learning, mentoring, and networking, CoMotion Labs nurtures and enables success. Our Labs operate in four incubators: three located on the UW Seattle campus, each concentrating on a specific industry sector (life sciences, hardware, and technology), and one in downtown Seattle that focuses on climate tech.

Media Contact
Hayley Spalding: [email protected]

SOURCE CURINOS INC