NESTER homeowner repair app wins innovation honor
Local startup, NESTER, founded by Brendan Kennealey, won the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce’s Cutting-Edge: Fintech Investor Ready Innovation Showcase.
The event brought together investors, industry experts, founders, and the community to get a glimpse at the future of finance. NESTER aims to help homebuyers avoid the costs of repairs and maintenance.
NESTER competed against five other local and regional fintech startups: Beeline, Equity, FundingFuel, Walkthrough, and SnapRefund. All plan to change how we raise, spend, save, and invest money.
Judges were provided with one million “fake” dollars to invest in the startups based on their five-minute pitches, and the business with the largest amount of investment walked away with the promotional prize package provided by the Chamber.
The panel of judges included Swanlaab USA Ventures’ Managing General Partner, Martin Hunt; Delaware Idea Club Investments’Managing Member, David Liss; Founder of The Mill, Robert Herrera; CEO of Delaware Technology Park, Inc., Michael Bowman; Director of Economic Development for New Castle County, Charuni Patibanda; Executive Director of Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation, Stephanie Johnni; President of SCORE Delaware and Financial Advisor, Mike Profit; and Analyst for Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Anthony George.
The event provided startups with the opportunity to gain exposure and connect with potential investors and customers. Join us for our next Cutting-Edge Series focused onHealthcare and BioTech on Tuesday, June 27 for your chance to get in on the ground floor of the next big thing in fintech.
Other entrants
- Beeline is the financial savings platform providing the 45 million student loan recipients with tools to accelerate paying down / paying off their loans, and to achieve financial wellness.
- Exuity is building a home equity marketplace allowing owners of low-debt, appreciated properties to ”take money off the table” by cashing in some minority percentage of their property by selling it to investors, who compete to offer the best terms.
- FundingFuel is a platform designed to help small businesses raise capital from funding sources. With its micro-private equity marketplace, FundingFuel connects entrepreneurs with investors, lenders, and buyers who possess relevant expertise and can offer resources like capital, mentorship, and introductions.
- SnapRefund empowers insurance businesses with a digital payment platform that sends instant claim payments and improves reconciliation, even reaching insureds without bank accounts. As a no-code web app or an API integration, SnapRefund makes it easier to manage claims teams and offer recipients various payment options; creating new revenue streams, simplifying operations, and vastly improving the customer experience.
- Walkthrough enables first-generation wealth builders to take control of their finances by giving them down-to-earth, personalized, actionable financial advice, just like a human financial planner does, but at AI-powered scale.
