National Science Foundation Selects Tucson-based Data FinTech for Grant

Clear Core, a Tucson-based data FinTech firm was selected by the National Science Foundation to participate in its National Innovation-Corps Program and will receive a grant to aid in refining product-market fit.

The firm’s new and novel approach to data cleaning and augmentation allows organizations to correct problems with data before it is used in decision making. Clear Core is a residential tenant at the University of Arizona’s Center for Innovation, which allowed the firm to iterate on its technology, earning national interest.

As more organizations use data, they are finding serious problems with the quality of their data that undermines the point of data-driven decision making, according to Ray K. Ragan, technology lead for the Clear Core NSF I-Corps project.

“Data governance is supposed to fix the problem of data quality. The trouble is, what organization has the time and money to go fix twenty years of bad data – the answer is few, and in our experience, none,” said Ragan.

According to T. Buck Strasser, Clear Core’s entrepreneurial lead, bad data slows innovation and leads to bad decision making. Clear Core wanted to address this problem first with Credit Unions and community banks before looking more broadly.

Strasser said they are bringing in university know-how with this project by integrating an intern from the University of Arizona’s top-ranked Management of Information Systems.

“The university’s MIS data science program is cutting edge, and we’re fortunate that we get a draw from that talent pool, while mentoring students on entrepreneurial skills that will lead to future innovation,” he said.

As part of the NSF I-Corps program, Clear Core is seeking to collect input, stories, and ideas to better assess the market needs in community financial institutions. If your institution would like to participate in this research please contact ideateam@clearcore.us.

Clear Core is a FinTech that specializes in data cleaning, augmentation, and visualization for financial institutions. Clear Core’s new technologies allows Credit Unions to have actionable data in under 60 days from contract signature. Clear Core was selected as the University of Arizona’s FinTech of choice for 2020.

The University of Arizona Center for Innovation (UACI) is a startup incubator network with outposts across the Southern Arizona region and a mission to grow scalable startup ventures that fuel the Arizona economy. Since inception in 2003, the program has directly served over 135 companies and impacted thousands of entrepreneurs. This is done through providing access to people, programming and places that help entrepreneurs take their companies from idea to market.