Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

“I see financial tech as a growth opportunity in Nashville and across the state,” says David Malone, the new Executive-in-Residence (EIR) for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s (NEC) Project FinTech.

It’s a business sector he knows well, having joined as the fourth employee and a Co-Founder of Confirmation, the Nashville based start-up that was literally launched in 2000 in the garage of Brian Fox’s grandmother.

“We worked in that garage for two years,” Malone said.

Confirmation became a pioneering software solutions provider for the financial industry, serving 16,000 accounting firms and 4,000 financial institutions. The company invented electronic confirmations and reshaped and modernized the audit confirmation process. Today, 1.5 million auditors, bankers, and financial professionals around the world trust the software that the company built to validate data and identify fraud.

In October 2015, the University of Mississippi graduate became the company’s President of International, opening its office in London. When Confirmation was purchased by Thomson Reuters^® and rebranded as Thomson Reuters^® Confirmation four years later, Malone served for the next three years as Senior Director for Global Accounts before leaving two years ago.

In a news release announcing his appointment as Project FinTech’s EIR, the NEC cited the impact that Malone had during his 20-year career with Confirmation and later Thomson Reuters^® Confirmation:

• An increase in global account sales by over 118% from $16 million in 2020 to $35 million in 2022.
• The establishment of a lucrative international business arm generating $40 million annually.
• Expansion of international reseller networks in South Africa and Australia, enhancing revenues by $12 million.

“I was a mentor in the first Project FinTech,” he says. Now, he’s the leader of the second cohort of the 12-week accelerator that begins this month.

“With my experience in helping build a start-up from the ground up, I understand the challenges that emerging fintech companies face in this dynamic industry,” Malone explains. “My goal is to share the insights and strategies that helped propel Confirmation to a half-billion-dollar valuation, and to guide each of the participants in accelerating their innovative solutions.”

Last week, the NEC announced the six companies that will participate in the second cohort of Project FinTech. They and the leaders participating in the program are:

• Ascent Platform Corp, co-founded by Arjun Sahgal of New York City, is a next-generation Point-of-Sale platform that streamlines new product applications for creditunions and community banks, without disrupting existing systems or processes.
• B2B Activate, a platform and service designed for buyers, issuers, and suppliers to facilitate spend for B2B card transactions. “We are transforming the way onboarding of new card programs is done,” says Founder Aaron Smith of Nashville.
• Cache, a two-year old company founded by Liran Eliner of New York City that has introduced a fully-automated artificial intelligence-powered solution for day-to-day finances.
• Express Wages, a Memphis-based company founded by Alfred Milan with an emphasis on wages on demand for companies that struggle with employee turnover and financial insecurity for employees.
• Halitra, based in Vancouver and co-founded by Kamal Singh, works with financial institutions, utilities, government, and building owners to uncover energy saving financing opportunities that can be profitably serviced by stakeholders.
• Phigitals, launched by Lacie Thorne, also based in New York City, and bringing to market a web3-enabled, Business-to-Business Software-as-a-Service solution for sustainable fashion resale. As described in this article, Phigitals will allow eCommerce retail platforms to recapture margin in the circular economy, boosting profits while reducing their carbon footprint by up to 86 percent per transaction.

Curriculum sessions will focus on legal and regulatory matters, customer discovery and product market fit, business-to-business sales, technical product development, building and optimizing financial infrastructure, fundraising in FinTech, and pitching and presenting.

As noted in this article that published two days ago in teknovation.biz, Project FinTech is just one of a half-dozen programs operated by the NEC. Others include:

• PreFlight: An online course guiding first-time entrepreneurs from idea to business plan.
• InFlight: A 12-week accelerator with interactive sessions and ongoing support.
• Twendé: A six-month statewide accelerator for founders of color.
• Project Music & Entertainment: Peer-group program for companies with more than $500,000 in revenue or capital.
• Project Healthcare: A six-month program leveraging Nashville’s healthcare industry for transformation.

Applications for the Spring 2025 cohort of Project FinTech are currently being accepted. The three-month program costs $1,500.

---