For Founders
Investor database
Access the ultimate investor list with 12,000+ VCs, angels, and more.
Fundraising CRM
Keep your raise organized with a smart CRM that keeps you on track.
Pitch deck tracking
Securely share, track & manage your pitch deck with investors
For Investors
Startup deal flow
Access top 1% rounds before they close - no commission, no equity.
LP database
Search our private base of 10,000+ HNWI, FoF, FOs, and more
LP/GP Events
Meet your next LPs at 400+ curated events
Featured for founders
Masterclass
Master the art of fundraising with our series of 24 videos
$2M perks
Get $2M+ worth of credits on AWS, Stripe, Airtable, Fin, and more
Deck template
The pitch deck template that raised $100M+ for our founders
Learn & grow
Raise & build
Community & company
All investor lists > Incubators & Accelerators,Fintech
Browse OpenVC's list of accelerators and incubators supporting fintech startups. Find programs offering capital, mentorship, and network access to help you scale.
Last update: August 21, 2026
List author: Devon Wood
Shortlist investors, submit pitch decks, and get replies
Use code "OpenVC". Conditions apply.
Fundraising for a fintech startup is a completely different beast compared to standard software. You aren't just selling a SaaS product to businesses; you are navigating heavy regulatory frameworks, battling massive incumbents, and balancing complex unit economics. If your prospective investors do not understand banking infrastructure or compliance requirements, your pitch will fall flat before you even get to your go-to-market strategy.
Because of this inherent friction, joining top fintech accelerators and incubators can provide a massive shortcut for early-stage founders. These programs offer capital, but more importantly, they provide the regulatory cover, initial banking partnerships, and specialized mentorship you actually need to get a financial product off the ground. A strong accelerator program gives you immediate credibility and a network of potential early adopters.
This guide covers exactly what you need to organize your raise. We will walk through a vetted list of the top 10 fintech accelerators and incubators globally, highlight alternative investor lists you should explore, and provide a practical framework for running your fundraising process without the usual chaos.
Finding investors who actually understand payment infrastructure, DeFi, or RegTech is half the battle. We’ve pulled together 10 of the best programs that have a history of backing category-defining fintechs. If you are building in this space, these are the targets to research.
HQ: Mountain View, CA (Global) Focus: Broad Tech, but roughly 20-25% of recent batches focus heavily on Fintech and AI-native infrastructure. Notable Portfolio: Stripe, Brex, Coinbase, GoCardless.
Y Combinator remains the gold standard for early-stage startups. While they are industry-agnostic, their fintech track record is unmatched. They offer a standard deal of $500k ($125k for 7% equity plus a $375k uncapped SAFE). For a fintech founder, the real value of YC is the unparalleled alumni network. That network often serves as your first batch of B2B clients, allowing you to test your payment or compliance infrastructure on other well-funded startups. A term sheet from YC is a massive signaling mechanism that opens doors to top-tier institutional capital later on.
HQ: Boulder, CO (Programs globally, including London, New York, and Lagos) Focus: FinTech, Future of Finance, African payment infrastructure. Notable Portfolio: Chainalysis, Remitly, Alloy.
Techstars runs highly specialized fintech programs, often in partnership with major financial institutions like ABN AMRO. Under their updated deal terms for upcoming cohorts, they invest $120k for a 6% equity stake, alongside an optional $100k convertible note. Techstars is hyper-focused on mentorship. They force you to spend weeks doing back-to-back meetings with industry experts. If your fintech requires deep partner integration with legacy banks or established financial networks, the Techstars ecosystem can cut months off your business development timeline.
HQ: Sunnyvale, CA (with 30+ global hubs) Focus: Embedded finance, institutional DeFi, AI-driven fraud prevention. Notable Portfolio: PayPal, N26, Dropbox.
Plug and Play operates more like a massive business development engine than a traditional accelerator. They do not always take equity upfront during the acceleration phase. Instead, they focus on bringing massive corporate partners—think Visa, BNP Paribas, and major insurance conglomerates—right to your table. For a B2B fintech startup, getting a pilot program with a tier-one bank is often more valuable than a seed check. Plug and Play is designed to facilitate those exact corporate engagements.
HQ: London, UK (with global reach) Focus: FinTech, Insurtech, Climate Finance. Notable Portfolio: ClearGlass, Acre, Feedr.
Founders Factory operates as a venture studio and accelerator, partnering with heavyweights like Aviva and Mediobanca. They provide cash alongside deep operational support to either co-create a startup from scratch or scale an existing product. This model works exceptionally well for fintechs that need specialized talent early on—such as compliance officers or financial engineers—that are otherwise too expensive to hire. They physically embed their experts into your team for a few months to ensure you hit your operational milestones.
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Programs globally including Australia) Focus: Sustainable finance, ESG data infrastructure, general FinTech. Notable Portfolio: SendCloud, Kuda.
Startupbootcamp has a long history of running dedicated fintech and DeFi accelerators across the globe. They typically invest around €15k for an 8% equity stake, but they shine in their ability to position startups at the intersection of environmental impact and traditional banking infrastructure. Their programs heavily emphasize pilot projects and proof-of-concept deployments with their corporate sponsors. If you are building ESG reporting tools for financial institutions or sustainable payment rails, their network is highly relevant.
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland (Hubs in Singapore and London) Focus: Wealth management, Insurtech, AI accounting. Notable Portfolio: Keyless, Yokoy.
Formerly known as the F10 Incubator, Tenity is deeply embedded in the Swiss and global financial ecosystems. They invest up to CHF/SGD 300,000 and offer direct access to high-net-worth client bases through deep partnerships with entities like Julius Baer and the SIX Swiss Exchange. If your startup handles wealth tech, private banking software, or sophisticated AI accounting tools, Tenity places you directly in front of the exact institutions that will eventually buy or license your product.
HQ: New York, NY & London, UK Focus: Enterprise process automation, privacy-preserving analytics. Notable Portfolio: Enigma, Digital Asset, Pymetrics.
This is a zero-equity program run by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City. You do not give up any ownership to participate. Instead, you get 12 weeks of direct feedback from CTOs and senior executives from massive institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley. This program is highly competitive and generally targets companies that already have a working product. It is specifically designed to help founders navigate the brutal procurement processes of Wall Street banks.
HQ: San Francisco, CA (Regional funds in LatAm, MENA, Southeast Asia) Focus: FinTech, Web3, Super-app economies. Notable Portfolio: Credit Karma, Canva, Grab.
Formerly known as 500 Startups, 500 Global invests $150k for a 6% stake in their flagship accelerator programs. They run a curriculum famous for its intensive marketing, growth hacking, and sales training. While many fintech accelerators focus purely on compliance and banking partnerships, 500 Global excels at teaching B2C and SMB-focused fintechs how to acquire users cheaply and scale rapidly. If you are building a consumer neo-bank or a retail trading app, their growth frameworks are invaluable.
HQ: Global (Virtual) Focus: Circular commerce, SME payment digitization, institutional DeFi. Notable Portfolio: Save Your Wardrobe, Kulipa.
Mastercard Start Path operates on a zero-equity model tailored for slightly later-stage startups (typically Seed to Series B). The real value of this program is distribution. Startups gain access to Mastercard's massive global network of banks, merchants, and digital players. They help you navigate their APIs, co-create solutions, and scale your technology across borders. For companies focused on payments, digital identity, or blockchain infrastructure, Start Path provides commercial access that money simply cannot buy.
HQ: Global (Europe, Africa, etc.) Focus: AI-enhanced payments, cross-border money movement. Notable Portfolio: Paywerk, Hackquarters (Partner).
Similar to Mastercard, the Visa Innovation Program is a zero-equity model centered heavily on proof-of-concept deployments. The program connects fintechs directly with Visa’s partner banks and payment processors. Their regional tracks, specifically in Europe and Africa, simplify the incredibly difficult pathway to becoming a Visa card issuer or processor. If your business model relies on issuing physical or virtual cards, working directly with Visa through this program removes massive operational bottlenecks.
Fintech overlaps heavily with other massive industries. If your product touches on e-commerce checkout flows, real estate tokenization, or consumer finance, you shouldn't limit yourself to just one narrow category.
These additional investor lists from OpenVC are great places to continue building your top-of-funnel pipeline and find funds that specialize in your specific niche:
By expanding your search across adjacent sectors, you increase your chances of finding an investor who understands the specific problem you are solving, even if they don't classify themselves strictly as a fintech fund.
Fundraising for a fintech startup requires an airtight organization. VCs will test your diligence early and often. If your outreach process is messy, they will naturally assume your compliance protocols and codebase are messy, too. You need to identify the right targets, track your conversations accurately, and know exactly how investors interact with your materials.
Here is how OpenVC helps founders run a tighter, more systematic process:
Browse our verified database: Stop relying on outdated spreadsheets passed around founder WhatsApp groups. Filter thousands of active early-stage investors by stage, check size, and tags like "FinTech" or "DeFi." You can see exactly what they invest in and how they prefer to be contacted.
Build a structured pipeline: Move your shortlisted investors directly into the native OpenVC Fundraising CRM. Keep your notes, tasks, and follow-ups centralized in one place. Forget hacking a generic sales CRM to fit a fundraise. Our pipeline is built specifically for the nuances of raising capital.
Share your deck intelligently: Use our Pitch Deck Tracking tool to send unique, trackable links to partners at YC, Techstars, or specialized seed funds. Get AI feedback on your slides before you hit send, and see exactly which slides the partners lingered on before you jump into your introductory call.
Getting into top fintech accelerators and incubators, or securing a lead VC for your seed round, is a numbers game mixed with high relevance. You have to speak to a lot of people, but they have to be the right people.
Preparation and a tight workflow are what separate the startups that get funded from those that burn out after three months of chaotic email threads. You have a limited runway, so make every investor interaction count.
Start building your investor list today and run your raise with structure. Sign up for free on OpenVC and take control of your fundraising process.
Save investors, manage outreach, and run your fundraising in one platform.
OpenVC is a free startup fundraising platform that helps founders find the right investors and manage their entire raise. Search 20,000+ verified investors, including venture capitalists, angel investors, family offices, accelerators, and more. Build your target list, send your pitch deck, and track your pipeline all in one place.
Founders raise with OpenVC because it is designed to cut through the noise and get founders in front of the right investors, fast. With built-in tools for CRM, analytics, and warm intros, it helps you stay organized and improve your chances of getting a reply.
OpenVC is for early-stage startup founders who want to raise capital efficiently. Find investors from dozens of industries including SaaS, AI, fintech, biotech, and more. Whether you’re pre-seed, seed, or Series A, OpenVC helps you find and pitch aligned investors without paying intro fees, aimlessly cold-emailing, or scraping databases.
To start pitching investors on OpenVC, create a free account and submit your pitch deck directly through our startup funding platform. Investors receive a unique link to view your deck, and you get analytics on who opens it and how long they spend on it. No cold emails, no guesswork. For more info, check out our complete guide to fundraising on OpenVC.
Absolutely, OpenVC is designed for early-stage fundraising. You’ll find thousands of angel investors, pre-seed VCs, accelerators, incubators, and family offices who are actively backing startups across sectors and geographies. Use OpenVC’s filters to narrow your search and find the right investors for your startup.
Some examples of startups that successfully secured funding through OpenVC include Mobly (2.5M seed), Paxum ($1.2M seed), and Laennec AI ($400k pre-seed). OpenVC startups have gone on to raise more than $1 billion from top venture capital firms like YC, Sequoia, Google Ventures, and M12.
OpenVC was created by Stephane Nasser and Lucas Roquilly—two founders building tools to make startup fundraising more transparent and accessible. We launched OpenVC to help founders find investors, get replies, and raise smarter. The platform is bootstrapped, community-driven, and built with a lot of heart.
To find investors for a startup, begin by narrowing down the types of investors that align with your stage, industry, and traction, whether that’s angels, pre-seed VCs, or incubators. Startup investors typically look for fit across market, timing, and founder expertise, so it’s important to be targeted rather than spray-and-pray. Networking through warm intros, pitch events, and alumni networks can help, but these opportunities are slow and inconsistent.
If you’re wondering where to find investors for your startup more efficiently, OpenVC gives you access to a database of 20,000+ startup investors you can filter by stage, sector, geography, and more. It’s fast, free, and built specifically to help founders find investors streamline their raise.
Are you a VC firm, angel, or accelerator?
Join OpenVC's database to increase your visibility with startup founders, or update your profile to keep your information current.