Building on more than a year of unprecedented collaboration among Massachusetts’ financial experts, Fintech leaders, investors, government executives, elected officials, and members of the academic community, the Massachusetts Fintech Working Group, a network of 27 leaders representing key sectors, launched the Mass Fintech Hub, a public-private partnership dedicated to making the Commonwealth a global leader in Fintech.

#Fintech is booming in #MA! We're pleased to officially launch the Mass Fintech Hub, a public-private partnership comprising a network of fintech leaders, financial experts, academics, public sector leaders & VCs who empower fintechs to achieve success. https://t.co/mkJV6ZPTFR

— Mass Fintech Hub (@MassFintechHub) June 4, 2021

Co-chaired by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, and Mike Fanning, Head of MassMutual U.S., the Fintech Working Group established the Mass Fintech Hub, a Massachusetts-based and -led initiative that will strengthen the Commonwealth’s Fintech ecosystem and drive continued success and growth for the industry.

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.  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. The Mass Fintech Hub will be operated by FinTech Sandbox, a Boston-based nonprofit and member of the Fintech Working Group.

“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,” said Secretary Kennealy.  “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, conducted by Ernst & Young, outlined 16 recommendations to support the sustainability and growth of the Fintech and financial services industries in Massachusetts. Based on the findings from “Now, Next and Beyond: Analysis of the FinTech Ecosystem in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” the Mass Fintech Hub was formed to serve as the principal vehicle to meet the state’s challenges and execute on the vision of its leaders.

The new initiative is innovative in terms of public-private sector collaboration that supports entrepreneurial growth. Compared to peer Fintech hubs around the world, it uniquely relies on the strength of a variety of key stakeholders from academia to venture capital and financial services. Leveraging resources from the Mass Fintech Hub, startups will be able to reduce ‘time-to-market’ through education sessions with policymakers and finance leaders on emerging innovations; have early access to academic research; leverage relationships with financial institutions and the investor community to acquire resources such as financial support; and participate in pilots to help drive scalability. The initiative will also be focused on encouraging diversity and retaining talent in the Fintech ecosystem through these programs.

The Mass Fintech Hub will provide numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their companies. Beyond direct access to preeminent stakeholders, career fairs and project-based learning opportunities will also be part of this effort. In the coming months, the Mass Fintech Hub will provide further structure to its programs and events that are designed to connect entrepreneurs to the larger Fintech community, students to job opportunities, state initiatives to economic opportunities, regulators to the financial services industry and more.

“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,” said Fanning. “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:

Brandeis University

Citizens Bank

DCU FinTech Innovation Center

Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development

Fidelity Investments

Finomial

F-Prime

FinTech Sandbox

FiVerity

John Hancock

Massachusetts Competitive Partnership

MassChallenge

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative

Putnam Investments

Reading Cooperation Bank

University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Information and Computer Sciences

Vestigo Ventures

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

For more information please visit: www.massfintechhub.com; stay up to date on recent developments and relevant content on Twitter at @MassFintechHub, and LinkedIn.

Source: Mass Fintech Hub