The New York FinTech Innovation Lab, founded by Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and the Partnership Fund for New York City, celebrates seven years as it kicks off its annual Demo Day, hosted at the Bank of America Tower at Bryant Park. Eight startups will debut the innovations that came out ahead from this year’s applicants, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and fraud detection technologies.
The FinTech Innovation Lab accelerates market access for early- and growth-stage fintech companies to the world’s leading financial institutions. Alumni from across the globe have raised $530 million in venture capital financing since participating in the Lab; New York participants alone have raised more than $460 million. In 2010, Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City collaborated to create the Lab to make New York City a leader in fintech and grow technology jobs by leveraging the concentration of large financial services institutions and deep domain expertise that exists in the city. The FinTech Innovation Lab is now a leading venue for introducing financial services firms to breakthrough technologies that improve efficiency, security and customer experience.
“The concentration of large financial services firms actively looking for new technology coupled with a deep bench of talent that has financial services expertise gives New York City a competitive advantage in fostering fintech growth,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. “The FinTech Innovation Lab has successfully tapped into both of these strengths to grow fintech locally—in terms of jobs, investment and number of companies. With fintech flourishing here, New York has also become a magnet for international companies looking to be a part of this vibrant ecosystem.”
The eight companies that participated in this year’s lab, which were selected by senior technology executives from 16 of the 35 participating financial institutions, have spent the last 12 weeks receiving intensive product and business-development advice as well as mentoring from senior financial industry, technology and venture capital executives.
“Over the past seven years, we’ve seen a seismic shift in the willingness of financial institutions to experiment with, and in many cases adopt, cutting edge technologies to support their digital transformation and a better customer experience,” said Robert Gach, managing director of Accenture Strategy Capital Markets and co-founder of the FinTech Innovation Lab. “In many ways, the innovations we’ve seen come through the Lab have predicted the technology trends that banks have gravitated towards over the years, such as cloud, blockchain, big data and analytics. We expect this year’s innovations will experience a similar trajectory.”
The following 2017 FinTech Innovation Lab participants will present their innovations to an audience of more than 250 financial services executives and venture capitalists:
- Alloy – API/software that optimizes and automates customer on-boarding and AML/KYC checks. Through its dashboard and API, Alloy helps financial institutions integrate multiple sources of data increasing the speed and transparency of customer onboarding.
- BehavioSec – Multi-layered behavioral biometrics security solution that verify users’ identity by analyzing the unique patterns in how they type, click, hold and swipe on their devices to help combat fraud and improve user experience.
- Cutting Edge – Provider of NetAbstraction, a patented cloud-based cybersecurity solution that obscures and varies a company’s network path and location to prevent cyber-attacks. It protects networks, communications, applications and data that flow between the enterprise, the Internet and the cloud while maintaining carrier grade performance.
- DemystData – Cloud-based platform that allows financial institutions to explore and integrate new data more rapidly and gain a 360-degree view of data usage within their organizations.
- Detectica – AI-integrated system to uncover regulatory and reputation risk from employee misconduct by enabling in-depth investigation of electronic communications and employee activity.
- dMetrics – Places AI-driven, high-precision, adaptive reading platform (Minsky) in the hands of every business professional to reveal valuable insights from a wide range of unstructured data.
- Modelshop – Modelshop is the only technology on the market today that allows financial institutions to move mission critical financial analysis from spreadsheets into a collaborative, secure and real-time environment without coding.
- Nova Credit –The world’s premier cross-border Consumer Reporting Agency. Nova delivers instant overseas credit data to lenders so they can underwrite the millions of immigrants in the USA.
The selection committee for the New York FinTech Innovation Lab is comprised of the following 16 financial institutions: Ally Financial; American Express; American International Group, Inc.; Bank of America; Barclays; BlackRock; Capital One; Citi; Credit Suisse; Deutsche Bank; Goldman Sachs; The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America; JPMorgan Chase & Co; Morgan Stanley; New York Life; and Wells Fargo. Supporting venture-capital firms include Bain Capital Ventures, Canaan Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Nyca Partners, Rho Ventures, RRE Ventures and Warburg Pincus.
“We have been a proud partner of the FinTech Innovation Lab for all seven years, and our relationship with this program and the New York City fintech community is a critical part of our innovation strategy,” said David Reilly, Bank of America Global Banking & Markets CIO. “We are continually impressed by the quality of the talent pool and the Lab’s participating companies. As a result, this program helps Bank of America gain early insight into paradigm shifts that enable us to take proactive action now to serve Bank of America’s customers of tomorrow.”
“Citi is proud to be a founding sponsor of the New York FinTech Innovation Lab and to mentor the start-ups participating in this year’s Demo Day,” said Motti Finkelstein, Chief Technology Officer – Global Strategy Planning and Americas – Managing Director at Citi. “We recognize the important role FinTech plays in our industry and value the opportunity to collaborate with our peers and the start-ups to find innovative solutions for our clients.”
“Ally is pleased to support the FinTech Innovation Lab for the fifth consecutive year,” said Michael Baresich, Chief Information Officer at Ally. “Part of our commitment to do right by our customers is to stay on the forefront of the new technologies that will drive better products, services and experiences now and in the future. Our involvement with the FinTech Innovation Lab allows us to explore exciting technologies and help support the early-stage companies that are behind them.”
“Credit Suisse has a long history of supporting entrepreneurs, and in this context, the FinTech Innovation Lab represents a win-win,” said Steve Hook, Credit Suisse Global Markets Chief Information Officer. “Our firm is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to deliver the best possible services to our clients. The FinTech Innovation Lab affords us an opportunity to both help young start-ups get a leg-up within financial services firms and helps us deliver innovation and value to our clients. Whether exploring new ways to leverage Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning algorithms or finding unique mechanisms to defend against cyber threats, this year’s FIL class continues to validate the value of this program and reaffirms our commitment to its success.”
“We are pleased to partner with Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City to accelerate companies and technology that will make businesses more efficient and secure so we can focus on what’s most important, our customers,” said Daniel Johnson, Chief Technology Officer at Guardian. “The winners selected represent top Fintech startups focused on innovative products for Financial and Insurance Services.”
“The FinTech Innovation Lab continues to foster innovation in New York City. JPMorgan Chase is pleased to support the lab and mentor startups in areas of innovation that are important to us, including Big Data, cyber and emerging tech,” said Larry Feinsmith, Managing Director and Head of Technology Innovation, Strategy & Partnerships, JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We’re pleased to see the breakthrough technologies from this year’s lab, which will help to drive businesses forward in a variety of ways.”
“Staying at the leading-edge of technology is a key driver of Morgan Stanley’s continuous innovation in a marketplace of rapidly evolving client needs and industry challenges,” said Shawn Melamed, Managing Director, Technology Business Development at Morgan Stanley. “Participating in the FinTech Innovation Lab program not only allows us to give back to the technology community, fostering the next generation of technology disruptors, but also allows us to engage in rewarding dialogue with young companies drawing great energy from their ideas and aspirations.”
“As a long-time supporter of the Lab, I’ve seen first-hand the unprecedented access and exposure it offers entrepreneurs who are looking to accelerate growth within financial services,” said Matt Harris, managing director at Bain Capital Ventures. “Bain Capital Ventures is committed to funding and strengthening fintech entrepreneurship, so we are thrilled to be part of this initiative that continues to do so much to connect promising startups and leading financial institutions to advance the sector overall.”
“Close collaboration between fintech startups and financial services has never been more important. Both cohorts understand that market-moving innovation requires participation from legacy institutions and Canaan is thrilled to be a part of bringing those groups together again this year,” said Dan Ciporin, General Partner at Canaan.
“We are proud and excited to be working with the FinTech Innovation Lab, Accenture and the Partnership Fund and to have observed firsthand the deep and consistent value that the program brings to its companies year in and year out. The access, mentoring and resources that the lab provides has played an important part in cultivating and growing the fintech ecosystem in New York City,” said Matt Gorin, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Contour Venture Partners
“Almost all fintech companies these days are greatly helped by in-depth mentoring from leading banks and other financial institutions. At Nyca we think of participating in the New York FinTech Innovation Lab as a receiving a graduate degree for even very experienced entrepreneurs. We are very happy to be part of it,” said Hans Morris, Managing Partner at Nyca Partners.
“The FinTech lab has proven to be a significant program for engagement between entrepreneurial technology companies and New York’s financial industry,” said James D. Robinson III, General Partner and Co-founder of RRE Ventures. “By introducing small tech companies to senior level executives in major financial institutions in New York, the Lab is win-win for all participants.”
The success of the FinTech Innovation Lab in New York has led to the founding of three other FinTech Innovation Labs around the world by Accenture — the FinTech Innovation Lab London, which was founded in 2012, and the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong and the FinTech Innovation Lab Dublin, which were both established in 2014.
About the Partnership Fund for New York City
The Partnership Fund for New York City is the $150 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City, New York’s leading business organization. The Fund’s mission is to engage the City’s business leaders to identify and support promising NYC-based entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors to create jobs, spur new business and expand opportunities for New Yorkers to participate in the City’s economy. The Fund is governed by a Board of Directors co-chaired by Charles “Chip” Kaye, co-chief executive officer of Warburg Pincus, and Tarek Sherif, Chairman and CEO of Medidata. Maria Gotsch serves as President and CEO of the Fund. More information about the Fund can be found at www.pfnyc.org.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 401,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.