Mass Fintech Hub, a new Massachusetts-based public-private partnership, has launched to help provide resources to the state’s financial technology startups and make Massachusetts “a global leader in Fintech.”
The Mass Fintech Hub was created after a yearlong initiative by the Massachusetts Fintech Working Group, Mass Fintech Hub said in a statement on Friday.
The Massachusetts Fintech Working Group was co-chaired by Massachusetts Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy and Mike Fanning, head of MassMutual U.S. The Fintech Working Group has 27 members from different sectors, including business, nonprofits, government and academia. The group established the Mass Fintech Hub to “strengthen the Commonwealth’s Fintech ecosystem and drive continued success and growth for the industry,” the statement said.
“The Mass Fintech Hub is positioned to capitalize on Massachusetts’ natural advantages in areas such as depth of talent and its established innovation economy to support Fintech,” the statement said. “In addition to building on those strengths, the Mass Fintech Hub will assist in addressing key challenges, which include increasing access to capital, and enhancing collaboration among the state’s largest financial institutions, startups, investors, nonprofits and academia.”
FinTech Sandbox, a Boston-based nonprofit and member of the Fintech Working Group, will operate the Mass Fintech Hub.
“The Mass Fintech Hub will serve as the central platform for Massachusetts to embrace bold thinking, drive innovation, and provide necessary support to build a strong, stable foundation in Massachusetts for this key industry for the long term,” Kennealy said in the statement. “Throughout the COVID-19 public health crisis, our Fintech community stepped up, providing new tools that allowed consumers to continue interacting with businesses as safely as possible, which in turn, went a long way to support our local economy. I look forward to Mass Fintech Hub’s efforts to harness that potential and to sustain growth in the Fintech ecosystem, attract more talent to our state, as well as the new ideas that will follow.”
A 2020 study commissioned by the Fintech Working Group and conducted by Ernst & Young outlined 16 recommendations to support the fintech and financial services industries in Massachusetts, and the Mass Fintech Hub was formed, the statement said, “to serve as the principal vehicle to meet the state’s challenges and execute on the vision of its leaders.”
The public-private sector collaboration will help startups reduce ‘time-to-market’ through education sessions with policymakers and finance leaders on emerging innovations, get early access to academic research, leverage relationships with financial institutions and the investor community, and participate in pilots. The initiative will also focus on encouraging diversity and retaining talent in the fintech ecosystem, the statement said.
The Mass Fintech Hub will provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their companies by giving them access to stakeholders, career fairs and project-based learning opportunities. More information about Mass Fintech Hub’s programs and events will be available in coming months, the statement said.
“There is a massive opportunity within the Massachusetts FinTech ecosystem, and launching the Mass Fintech Hub will help us put a coordinated and focused effort against this with the backing of relevant ecosystem leaders,” Fanning said. “The new effort will put considerable investment into this collaborative effort in terms of time, resources, connections and beyond. It is well positioned to make the Commonwealth a leading market for Fintech and can empower entrepreneurs to build their businesses – and therefore bolster the economy – in the Bay State.”
Organizations supporting the Mass Fintech Hub include Reading Cooperative Bank, Citizens Bank and DCU FinTech Innovation Center.
