The financial health apps CFSI and JPM are backing

The Financial Solutions Lab, a joint initiative of JPMorgan Chase and the Center for Financial Services Innovation, on Thursday announced the winners of its third annual competition. The theme of this year’s competition was financial health.

The eight winners were selected from a pool of 300 applicants. Each will receive $250,000 in capital and resources to research and develop their products. The companies will also receive mentorship from the CFSI, JPMorgan and industry leaders such as Google. The winners were revealed at the CFSI’s annual EMERGE conference in Austin, Texas.

The winners are: Blueprint Income, which creates a pension that is a predetermined income stream backed by insurance companies; Dave, which alerts consumers against overdraft fees; EverSafe, which monitors financial accounts for the elderly; Grove, which delivers personalized financial advice; Nova, the world’s first cross-border credit reporting agency which helps immigrants keep their credit; Point, an alternative to traditional home equity loans; Token Transit, a mobile application that makes it easier for low-income riders to access transit passes; and Tomorrow, which aims to provide long-term financial security to busy consumers.

The companies were evaluated by how novel and effective it was in improving consumers financial health, whether or not the company could be produced at scale and whether or not the partnerships they would get through the CFSI would be beneficial.

FinLab defined solutions to financial health as anything that would help consumers pursue opportunity and be resilient in the long term, Ryan Falvey, managing director of the lab, said in an interview.

In addition to their ability to fulfill the criteria, the companies were chosen based on how they served people of color, low-income women, aging Americans and individuals with disabilities.

“The commitment from the firm starts from the perspective that financially healthy consumers makes for financially healthy communities and ultimately for a healthy economy,” Colleen Briggs, the executive director of community innovation at JPMorgan, said in an interview.

The CFSI and JPMorgan launched their first financial technology innovation competition in 2015 with the intent of finding fintech companies that could help Americans increase savings, improve credit and build assets. Last year’s competition focused on technology that could help people prepare for financial shocks.

“We are encouraged to see so many talented startups and nonprofits focused on finding truly innovative solutions that can help the 57% of Americans who struggle with financial health,” Jennifer Tescher, the innovation center's chief executive and founder, said in a press release.

Rebecca M Ickes