💳 FEATURE: Fintech Focus — Montana Has Been Building This Longer Than You Think
Most people don’t associate Montana with financial technology. They should.
Zoot Enterprises is the original proof point. Founded by Chris Nelson out of his Bozeman basement in 1990, Zoot quietly became one of the most important decisioning technology companies in global financial services — powering real-time credit origination and lending decisions for the world’s largest banks, payment providers, and auto manufacturers. Today Zoot employs 350+ people across Bozeman and Billings and has been running at the center of institutional lending infrastructure for over 35 years. It’s one of the most successful tech companies in Montana history, and most people outside the industry have never heard of it.
Then came the next wave. Figure Technologies (founded by SoFi’s Mike Cagney) opened engineering offices in Helena and Bozeman in 2018, bringing blockchain-powered lending infrastructure to the state. Governor Gianforte signed legislation in 2025 creating the Montana Blockchain and Digital Innovation Task Force — a formal signal that the state sees fintech as a strategic priority.
Now two Bozeman startups are writing the next chapter….
WillowPays — Small Business Advances, Big Momentum
WillowPays provides short-term cash advances to small businesses — solving the cash flow gap that kills otherwise healthy companies. Since securing a $2M credit facility in June 2025, monthly advance volume has grown from $35K to $250K in under a year. Their debt provider exercised its equity option ahead of schedule, effectively closing their pre-seed round. They now have a path to $8M in capital and are targeting $500K/month within 60–90 days, with $1M/month by year-end. Quietly one of the fastest-growing early-stage fintechs in Montana right now.
Founder: Ray Resnick | willowpays.com
PandoAlts — Fixing Private Markets from Bozeman
PandoAlts is building the infrastructure layer for alternative investments — helping wealth managers, RIAs, and family offices source, evaluate, and execute private market deals without the fragmentation and opacity that defines the space today. In March 2026, they announced a major partnership with tZERO, routing real-time indications of interest from allocators directly into tZERO’s broker-dealer infrastructure — covering private equity, private credit, real assets, and tokenized offerings. As founder Cash Lafferty put it: “If allocators are limited to a single dealer’s platform, they’re effectively operating with blinders on.” Institutional-grade fintech, built in Bozeman.
Founder: Cash Lafferty | COO: Elisabeth MacKnight | pandoalts.com
🚀 Montana in Space
Two Montana-raised engineers — Jeremiah Hall and Daniel Baca — are playing key roles in NASA’s Artemis II Moon mission, alongside astronaut Christina Koch, who called Livingston home when she was selected for the program. Montana’s fingerprints are on the next chapter of human space exploration.
🏗️ The Data Center Debate Heats Up
Montana is becoming a serious destination for large-scale data centers — and communities are pushing back. Projects proposed for Bonner, Butte, and Yellowstone County are drawing scrutiny over energy demand, water use, and transparency. Missoula County is applying its old crypto-mine regulations to the Bonner facility. NorthWestern Energy is seeking new rate structures for high-load users. One Flathead Beacon column called for a four-year moratorium until full transparency is provided.
☁️ Akamai Wins Montana State Contract
Cloud security giant Akamai secured a pre-competed contract vehicle with the State of Montana, giving state agencies, local governments, and K-12/higher ed institutions streamlined access to enterprise cybersecurity tools — without lengthy bidding processes.
🐮 Agtech Goes Mainstream in Montana
Governor Gianforte and agriculture leaders are backing virtual fencing technology — GPS and cellular systems that manage cattle without physical barriers. Montana is among the first states to formally embrace this at the policy level. Precision livestock tech is real, and Montana’s ranching community is opening the door.
🎓 MSU & UM: Quietly Building the Pipeline
University of Montana landed a $1.3M NIH grant to connect high schoolers with neuroscience faculty research — creating paid placements and building the next generation of Montana STEM talent.
Montana State was named the #1 military-friendly university in the country — strengthening its ties to defense research and veteran entrepreneurship.
Both UM and MSU rank among the top public universities for producing small business founders, per a new Ondeck.com study.
MSU hosted a daylong AI symposium in March on AI in higher education.
📍 Billings on the Map
Three Billings companies made a statewide “startups to watch” list — a signal that the tech and startup conversation is spreading beyond Bozeman and Missoula.
🤝 Montana AI Goes Live on Marriott.com
Line (withline.io), a Bozeman-based startup, helps hotels and venues respond instantly to group booking inquiries — events, weddings, room blocks — by automating the end-to-end workflow so guests get answers in seconds instead of days. This month they grew from 2 to 7 live deployments, hit 132 AI-driven qualification conversations, and went live on Marriott.com under the Moxy DC umbrella. One Montana deployment stands out: Chateau Event Center, where owner Whitney said: “This gave a non-technical person the ability to actually put an AI agent to work for me.”
Co-Founder & CEO: Kyle Mann | withline.io
💡 What We’re Watching
The data center story isn’t going away. Montana has cheap land, cold air, and available power — but communities want a seat at the table. How the state handles the next 12–18 months of infrastructure decisions will shape whether Montana becomes a genuine tech hub or watches the opportunity pass.
And fintech? Zoot proved it could be done here. Figure proved outside capital would come. WillowPays and PandoAlts are proving the next generation is homegrown.
What’s Next?! Montana is published by Frontier Angels — Montana’s premier angel investor community. Subscribe at news.frontierangels.com