It’s a busy season for fintech innovation, with new initiatives and conferences shaping the future of financial services from New York to New Delhi. The past few weeks have seen a flurry of announcements, partnerships, and reflections on where the industry is heading—and where it’s not. As startups, banks, and academic institutions double down on technology-driven change, the landscape is evolving in ways both expected and surprising.
On February 18, 2026, Curinos—a decision intelligence provider for financial institutions—announced that applications are now open for the second year of its Curinos FinTech Incubator. Delivered in partnership with CoMotion at the University of Washington, the program aims to support early-stage fintech startups tackling major challenges in consumer and business financial services. The focus? Decision intelligence, finance process and workflow innovation, and, perhaps most crucially, financial inclusion.
The inaugural 2025 cohort set a high bar, selecting three standout companies—Nudge Money, AltCred, and Prof of Wall Street—from a competitive pool. According to Curinos, these startups demonstrated the transformative potential of AI, behavioral science, and alternative data to improve financial access, engagement, and decision-making. Founders enjoyed hands-on support, leveraging Curinos’ proprietary data assets and industry expertise, alongside CoMotion Labs’ entrepreneurial resources and vibrant innovation ecosystem.
“The inaugural cohort showed the power of pairing Curinos’ real-world data, analytics and industry expertise with CoMotion’s proven incubation model,” said Olly Downs, Chief Technology, Product, and AI Officer at Curinos, as reported by PR Newswire. “As we open applications for our second year, we’re excited to support founders building thoughtful, data-driven solutions to some of financial services’ most complex challenges.”
This year’s cohort will again benefit from a structured program designed to accelerate growth and market readiness. Participants will receive mentorship from Curinos leaders, access to exclusive market insights and benchmarking tools, and guidance on technology, product, value proposition, and commercialization strategy. Membership in CoMotion Labs brings coworking space and University of Washington resources, plus opportunities for learning, mentorship, and networking.
There’s also a technological boost: cohort members qualify for the Databricks for Startups program, which includes up to $50,000 in product credits, technical support, and training to help teams build and scale data-driven products. Dan Tobin, Vice President of Startups at Databricks, summed up the advantage: “By building on Databricks through the Curinos FinTech Incubator, founders get the data, tooling, and AI capabilities they need to more quickly turn innovative ideas into production-ready solutions for financial institutions.”
François Baneyx, Director of CoMotion and UW Vice Provost for Innovation, emphasized the unique value of the partnership: “The success of the inaugural cohort underscores the strength of this collaboration. With Curinos’ industry insights, deep AI expertise, and access to a vibrant startup ecosystem, the incubator is uniquely positioned to help founders turn bold ideas into meaningful impact.”
For founders, the impact is tangible. Reagan Bonlie, CEO of Nudge Money, reflected, “The Curinos FinTech Incubator helped us sharpen our product and partner strategies through an inflection point of growth in our target market. The combination of Curinos’ industry-focused mentorship and CoMotion’s founder-first support allowed us to move faster and think bigger about our impact.”
The incubator’s legacy is impressive: from 2018 to 2023, it supported 18 fintech startups that collectively raised over $140 million in venture capital. The 2025 relaunch marked a renewed focus on scalable, responsible innovation aligned with Curinos’ mission to power intelligent financial decisions. Applications for the 2026 cohort are now open, targeting startups focused on financial inclusion, personalization, behavioral finance, and data-driven decisioning.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the FinovateEurope 2026 conference took stock of the rapidly shifting priorities in the fintech world. Held from February 12-14, this year’s event was dominated by discussions of AI and blockchain innovations. Yet, as Finovate’s coverage observed, some notable trends were defined by their absence as much as their presence.
One such absence was sustainability. While previous years had seen companies like Connect Earth (UK), ecolytiq (Germany), and Little Blocks (India) demonstrating climate-focused fintech solutions, this year’s demo stage was devoid of sustainability startups. According to Finovate, this reflects a broader shift: sustainability is now less a standalone theme and more a feature embedded in broader risk and data analytics packages. The reason? AI and blockchain are moving from the experimental to the practical, offering immediate, real-world solutions that are capturing both attention and investment.
That’s not to say climate-related fintech is on the wane. In fact, investment in the sector increased from 2024 to 2025, with Europe accounting for a hefty 56% of the $103 billion raised globally. The U.S. contributed 16%. But as Finovate noted, “sustainability is increasingly being seen less as a standalone solution, and more as a cost-cutting feature to be integrated as in embedded finance or as part of a broader risk and data analytics package.” For sustainability to reclaim center stage, stronger regulatory mandates may be needed—technological innovation alone might not suffice.
Quantum computing also made a subdued appearance, with just one presentation by Amal Nazar of Wultra, who highlighted the need for banks and financial institutions to transition to post-quantum cryptography by 2030. While regulators are urging this shift, practical commercial applications in fintech remain elusive. As Finovate put it, “quantum computing is still significantly ‘pre-commercial,’ meaning that while there is considerable investment interest, practical commercial applications in financial services have yet to materialize.” The technology is where AI and stablecoins were seven to ten years ago: high on promise, short on use cases.
Cloud technology, once a hot topic, has become so ubiquitous in fintech that no company at FinovateEurope 2026 identified itself primarily as a “cloud company.” As Finovate quipped, “they are all ‘cloud companies’ now.” The conversation has shifted instead to the nuances of AI—generative AI, explainable AI, agentic AI, ethical AI—reflecting a more mature understanding of the technology and its responsibilities.
Back in India, innovation is being fostered at the grassroots level. On February 19, 2026, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) announced a partnership with RMK Group of Institutions to conduct a Pan-India Cybersecurity Hackathon. The initiative aims to encourage innovation and technological advancement in banking and finance, with a focus on financial inclusion, digital banking, and solutions for specially abled people. The hackathon will run for several months, culminating in May 2026 at the Global Fintech Festival, where winning prototypes will be showcased.
RMK Group will provide academic support and mentorship to participating college teams across India, helping students develop practical, impactful solutions to real-world challenges. Ajay Kumar Srivastava, MD & CEO of IOB, underscored the bank’s commitment: “At Indian Overseas Bank, we are committed to nurturing young talent and leveraging technology to create innovative banking solutions for the future. This Hackathon strengthens collaboration between academia and the banking sector while enabling students to contribute to the digital transformation of the financial ecosystem.”
As the landscape of fintech continues to evolve, the common thread is clear: from New York’s incubators to London’s conference halls to India’s hackathon stages, the drive to blend technology, inclusion, and responsible innovation is stronger than ever. Whether it’s the next AI breakthrough, a new approach to financial inclusion, or the promise of quantum computing, the future of finance is being shaped by those willing to tackle the industry’s toughest problems—and rethink what’s possible.