The program also recently doubled the amount of funding companies are eligible to receive, bringing the total potential investment to $1 million per company.

“Collaboration with outside companies plays a critical role in how we will serve our customers and support team members in the future,” said Bipin Sahni, head of innovation R&D in the Innovation Group at Wells Fargo. “We’re committed to continued expansion of the accelerator program as we transform the way the bank reimagines the customer experience.”

Wells Fargo began the accelerator – a virtual, non-exclusive six-month program – nearly four years ago to advance exploration in emerging technologies such as analytics, cybersecurity, payments, artificial intelligence and others, in pursuit of breakthroughs for financial services. Companies are eligible to receive funding, along with guidance from Wells Fargo business and technology leaders in refining the launch of their ideas. To date, the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator has received nearly 1,800 applications from innovative companies in more than 50 countries and now has 19 companies in its portfolio. Applications can be submitted throughout the year at www.wellsfargo.com/accelerator.

Latest Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator Companies:

Alpharank (Redwood Shores, Calif.) builds Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that help companies uncover how customers influence each other’s behavior. The startup uses a financial institution’s anonymized historical transaction data to build a customer graph enriched with transactional attributes.

“We are thrilled to be part of the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator as we continue our mission to humanize transactional data to help financial institutions build stronger connections in their communities,” said Brian Ley, Alpharank CEO and founder. “Word of mouth is often one of the most important components of a company’s client attraction and retention strategy, and we see enormous potential for the application of our technology in the financial space.”

Amicus.io (Charlotte, N.C.) creates a modern, digital platform that supports charitable giving by clients of financial institutions. It has designed the platform from the ground up to integrate easily with existing systems and business processes, bringing charitable giving to products banks already offer, such as online banking, roundups, peer-to-peer payment systems, and donor advised funds.

“Americans today are giving to charity in record numbers, and we see a clear opportunity to create an experience that more easily allows people to align their financial actions with their values,” said Cornelis Hoekstra, CEO of Amicus.io. “Joining the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator gives us a big opportunity to examine new ways to weave generosity into the fabric of customers’ financial lives.”