After a successful year of launching new event programming geared towards advancing Fintech in the Commonwealth, the Mass Fintech Hub, a public-private partnership dedicated to making the state a global leader in fintech, announced an expansion of its membership.
Led by M&T Bank, the newest class features academic institutions and some emerging fintech startups that are “driving innovation in various industries.”
M&T Bank’s goal is to be a “locally-focused, digitally forward” bank for communities.
A key component of this strategy is “to build high-quality partnerships – fintechs among them – that help its customers achieve their financial goals and align with its values as a community-first organization.”
As a result of M&T Bank’s recent acquisition of People’s United Bank, it is now highly engaged and focused “on supporting the communities in its New England footprint, including the fintech community in Boston and greater Massachusetts.”
Claire Verville, Senior Vice President and Ventures Development Manager at M&T Bank, said:
“Massachusetts offers a rich ecosystem of peers, startups, and academic institutions to engage in key trends, technological developments, and market forces that are likely to impact banking in the future. We know we’re in good company in Massachusetts to learn from others and position our bank for the future. We also see great potential to have access to talent and new technologies that are helping to shape the future of banking.”
As noted in the update, Massachusetts has “a high concentration of world-leading higher learning institutions especially in the fields of technology, business and financial services.”
With the addition of Babson College, Stonehill College and UMass Amherst, Mass Fintech Hub and these institutions will “benefit from supporting event programming, such as career fairs, mentorship programs and bootcamps that helps students build skills and make connections in fintech leading to pathways to careers in these areas.”
They also “provide a valuable reservoir of talent to the fintech and financial services industries who are looking for savvy college graduates to build their companies.”
The universities “see great opportunity to promote their schools offerings and benefit from the network effect in marketing through social media and other means with Mass Fintech Hub.”
As mentioned in the announcement, Massachusetts has “no shortage of homegrown talent and startups, but in recent years, having established Mass Fintech Hub, it is becoming a stronger magnet for fintechs coming from other regions as far away as the UK and from other hot fintech areas, such as Silicon Alley.”
The startup members also see “an opportunity to be part of an emerging fintech community and facilitate connections with industry leaders and leading investors.”
The new fintechs that have joined Mass Fintech Hub include:
- AlphaStream: The UK-based company personalizes experiences for financial platforms to empower and inform investors with information that’s relevant and timely. Its US headquarters are in Boston, which offers it access to an extensive network of professionals, students, and fintech ecosystem in the Commonwealth.
- B4B Payments: Also based in the UK, this global embedded payments and instant card issuing fintech has established an office in Wellesley, which has benefited the organization and its growth through the office’s proximity to talent, research, established financial services companies, and investors.
- DocFox: Originally a South African company, this fintech expanded to the US and established its home office in Boston. DocFox is now growing its US-based team out of a new office space in Beacon Hill, providing banks, credit unions, crypto companies, and B2B fintechs with automated business account opening solutions.
- TomorrowX: This UK-based software company provides an open digital delivery system, which supports enterprises with heritage tech estates in highly regulated industries and startups that are building out their tech stacks.
Pat Larkin, Director of the Innovation Institute at MassTech, a public economic development agency for Massachusetts, said:
“The Mass Fintech Hub is driving collaborative work around issues critical to the sector, from workforce development, training, investment, to research. The new members include a leading national bank, three of our top universities from across the state, and several global startups, which shows the range of interest in this work. The strength of the Hub’s mission is to grow an inclusive, collaborative, and cutting-edge fintech sector statewide.”