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Bank of America Breakthrough Lab®

Educating and empowering entrepreneurs

Bank of America Breakthrough Lab® is an impact accelerator program with a focus on providing business and economic opportunities to diverse and underrepresented entrepreneurs. Visit our application page to learn more about program eligibility and how it works.

 

Bank of America Breakthrough Lab® Privacy

Photo of Jack David Hunt

"Before joining Breakthrough Labs, I was burnt out and made the decision not to join after we were accepted. I'd had a string of failures and really didn't think I had the energy to commit anymore. I'm grateful that the Breakthrough Lab staff convinced me to stay on pace to join because while in Breakthrough (BTL), I received the mentorship and connections that helped my startup go from 1 to 12 employees, reach self-sustaining revenue levels, and build out the next version of our technology. I am forever grateful."

David Hunt - Founder, FRAMEWRK

Meet the Team

Rodney Gardner | Managing Director, Co-Head — GTS Social & Economic Action Council

Rina Arline | Managing Director, Global Program Director

Linda Haddad | Director, Program Coordinator - Global

Eveanandi Butler | Director, Program Coordinator - Americas

Natalie Floyd | Vice President, Program Coordinator - EMEA 

Jessica Greene | Analyst, Program Analyst - Global

Bank of America Breakthrough Lab’s current cohort

United States

Chama Capital - assesses and connects women-owned businesses to financing options through their Business Grants Directory and funding partner network 

 

ForOurLastNames - a FinTech SaaS that gamifies the gap between investing & education, for first-generation wealth builders

 

Inspirame - a platform that assists users in securing affordable higher education certificates & degrees while simultaneously meeting the enrollment and workforce demands of partner institutions & industry

 

Kaoshi - open finance APIs that democratizes access to industry-leading cross-border payment infrastructure, enabling clients to offer embedded cross-border payments within their existing product offerings

 

KidVestors - a financial curriculum software partnering with schools, districts, and financial services partners to educate K-12 students on finance and investing to close the racial wealth gap

 

KURA - a cross-border fintech and digital payment acceptance platform disrupting the traditional remittances space by providing instant funding and more transparency on all cross-border transactions

 

Need2Say - provides construction workers with real-time, AI-powered safety insights, while removing language barriers between American workers and non-native English-speaking workers

 

ShapYa - a digital ecosystem offered to minority-owned grocery stores and restaurants, comprised of ShapYa’s marketplace app, online ordering, white label app, and a dashboard to control digital inventory and online sales

 

Share Farm - empowering ethical procurement through climate-smart sourcing, carbon traceability, and genuine social impact

 

Shur - a B2B2C Fintech/Insurtech building and deploying financial products, training, and planning tools to move student loan borrowers from debt to wealth creation

 

TecHustle, Inc. - a payment platform for small businesses in the US and Africa to trade seamlessly, securely, and swiftly

 

TRIBE - a mental health platform on a mobile application specially curated for the black experience. TRIBE connects black individuals with black therapists and offers tools and resources tailored to unique experiences.

 

Truffle Health - helps patients save money on their health care by detecting errors and overcharges on medical bills

LATAM

Guaraná Bank - a platform to invest in solar power energy projects in Latam, providing energy producers with competitive rates and positive environmental impact

 

Holacasa – an end-to-end mortgage solution for Real Estate agents in LATAM

 

Nippy – an online platform that connects gig-workers with services, benefits, and opportunities to improve their lives

 

Sommos - digitizes rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCA) to help banks, retailers, and microfinance institutions culturally connect with their users

 

Wupo - a Saas that automates the client journey, payments and data analytics for traditional companies in weeks and without coding

EMEA

IPOXCap - is a financial technology company that leverages generative AI and machine learning to provide analysis and insights based on data, providing a comprehensive view of a company’s financial health and forecasts to empower financial decision-making. Our primary market is financial professionals and investors who require sophisticated, yet user-friendly tools to process, analyze, and generate insights from financial data.

 

Lukango- is a connected platform that uses customer data to offer dynamic insurance products to the underserved small business and sole professional community

 

Millicent Labs Limited- creates modern payment and settlement infrastructures that bridge the gap between the structure and safeguards of today’s financial systems and the exponential advantages of distributed ledger technology.  Improving processes and reducing risks for financial institutions, while lowering fees and frictions for their customers, Millicent aims to help create a world where financial empowerment is within everyone's reach.

 

Social Blox- is on a mission to bring social impact to communities globally. Currently offering a range of services, including a fully digitalised platform to enable non-profits and community groups to amplify their fundraising and build more engaged, resilient communities. Social Blox has also launched free in-school workshops to educate children on climate change and will soon launch an exclusive community group for female founders of colour to come together and drive change.  

 

Snappay Payments Technologies - provides an SDK and API to perform real-time facial recognition authentication for online card transactions and transfers requiring 2FA(two-factor authentication), or payment authentications as are necessary for business accounts that can be integrated into banks or Fintechs.

APAC

Sampatti Card - builds income, employment, and repayment records for informal workers to provide them access to financial services. Sampatti Card is the combination of card and a multilingual voice-based whatsapp financial assistant allowing users to facilitate contracts, salary payments and access formal financial products such as credit, savings, investments, and insurance products.

 

WhatsLoan - a NeoLending Digital Platform offered on LaaS – Loan-as-a-Service - mode to meet the credit needs of Farmers, Consumers and Small Businesses with a micro modular, cloud based platform that is offered to banks & lenders, designed to work seamlessly with their existing systems.

 

CloudBankin - a smart AI, low-code orchestration platform that enables complex workflows, dynamic underwriting processes and pluggable API integrations for efficient banking.

Program alumni

These are the companies that have graduated from the Bank of America Breakthrough Lab:

United States

Latin America

Europe

Bank of America Breakthrough Lab is made possible with support from

Breakthrough Lab is made possible with support from iValley, Staples, Tesorio, Chapman, Real Fun Growth, Zoom and Studio DBC.

Contact us for partnership or investment opportunities.

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In the News

Bank of America Newsroom: 
BofA Surpasses $500 Million in Equity Investments to Support Minority and Women Entrepreneurs (06/15/2023)
Bank of America Announces Accelerator Program that Provides Economic Opportunities to Entrepreneurs from Underrepresented Communities (05/16/2023)

 

Global Finance: Global Finance named Bank of America Breakthrough Lab® as one of the world's best innovation labs of 2023  (05/31/2023)

 

Forbes: Bank Of America’s Launches Program For Underrepresented Entrepreneurs (05/16/2023)

 

Bank of America Newsroom: Bank of America Announces Accelerator Program that Provides Economic Opportunities to Entrepreneurs from Underrepresented Communities (05/16/2023)

 

Treasury Management International: TMI named Bank of America Breakthrough Lab® as Best Social Innovator in the magazine’s 2022 Treasury4Good Awards (01/19/2023)