October 20, 2014

New York FinTech Innovation Lab Calls for Leading-Edge Financial Technology Entrepreneurs to Participate in 2015 Program

NEW YORK; Oct. 20, 2014 – Applications are now being accepted for New York’s fifth annual FinTech Innovation Lab, a 12-week program co-founded by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and the Partnership Fund for New York City that helps early- and growth-stage financial technology (fintech) companies accelerate product and business development by gaining exposure to top bank and venture capital executives. New York is currently the fastest growing fintech cluster in the United States, according to a report issued by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City, with a rapidly emerging ecosystem comprised of startups, capital, talent, educational resources and fintech accelerators. Applications are available at www.fintechinnovationlab.com and are due by December 5, 2014.

“The FinTech Innovation Lab gives select startups unparalleled access to C-suite executives at some of the world’s largest financial institutions, helping them shape their innovations and achieve revenue traction,” said Matt Harris, Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures. “The Lab is a great opportunity for both new and more experienced entrepreneurs looking to accelerate their growth within financial services.”

The Lab is gaining momentum as banks, capital markets firms and insurers continue to drive fintech investment. According to the report, over the last three years, global investment in fintech companies has grown four times faster than venture investing overall. During the first three quarters of 2014, New York’s fintech sector received $472.1 million of venture and private equity investment, which is more than was invested during the full year of 2013 – according to recent data from CB Insights compiled by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City. This provides a growing opportunity for fintech startups that are developing innovative solutions tackling mobile, analytics, cloud, compliance and security challenges.

"Now in its fifth year, the FinTech Innovation Lab has helped generate attention and funding for a tech sector that flew largely under the radar just a short time ago," said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. "The connections made through our program provide the nation’s brightest tech entrepreneurs with the opportunity to engage directly with New York City’s core banks and financial institutions and accelerate the growth of their new company."

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) joins this year’s program as a supporter, providing mentoring and guidance alongside fourteen other major financial institutions, including Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Barclays (LSE: BARC), Capital One (NYSE: COF), Citi (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (VX: CSGN), Deutsche Bank (Xetra: DBK), The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), New York Life, and UBS (VX: UBSN). Supporting venture firms include Bain Capital Ventures, Canaan Partners, Contour Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Nyca Partners, Rho Ventures, RRE Ventures and Warburg Pincus.

“One of the largest hurdles for fintech entrepreneurs is working with financial institutions, which are highly regulated entities with elaborate enterprise technologies,” said Bob Gach, Managing Director of Accenture Strategy Capital Markets. “The FinTech Innovation Lab pairs entrepreneurs with mentor firms to help them understand how to shape their innovation so that it fits into the complex environment of a global financial services firm.”

Since the New York FinTech Innovation Lab was founded in 2010, it has provided entrepreneurs from 24 technology companies with mentoring and access to more than 30 leading bank CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, venture capitalists and technology luminaries. The previous participants have raised a total of almost $100 million in venture financing after participating in the program; one participant was acquired for $175 million. On a global scale, the FinTech Innovation Lab London is approaching its third year and the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific debuted earlier this year in Hong Kong.

“The FinTech Innovation Lab promotes a unique collaboration between financial institutions and startups that ultimately forms strategic partnerships for both parties,” said Cris Conde, former CEO of SunGard, and Executive-in-Residence of the FinTech Innovation Lab. “The program is designed to help these entrepreneurial companies turn their innovations into the products and services that participating banks need the most to address their customers’ challenges and needs.”

2015 FinTech Innovation Lab
The FinTech Innovation Lab is a program for entrepreneurs that are developing cutting-edge technologies for the financial services sector – particularly in the areas of big data and analytics, mobile and wireless, payments, risk management, security, and social media and collaboration technologies. The chief technology officers and senior technology executives from the 15 participating financial institutions will select six entrepreneurs to participate in the Lab through a competitive process.

Applicants must have at least a working beta version of their technology that is ready to be tested for either the institutional or retail market. The Lab begins in April 2015, and will partner the chosen entrepreneurs with senior-level bank executives and leading technology entrepreneurs who will help them fine-tune and develop their technologies and business strategies through a series of workshops, panel discussions, user-group sessions, networking opportunities, one-on-one meetings and presentations. It culminates in June with a Demo Day presentation by all six participants in front of an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.

About the Partnership Fund for New York City
The Partnership Fund for New York City is the $110 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City (www.pfnyc.org). 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 Richard M. Cashin, Managing Partner of One Equity Partners, and Charles “Chip” Kaye, co-chief executive officer of Warburg Pincus. Maria Gotsch serves as President and CEO of the Fund.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 305,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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Contacts:

Melissa Volin
Accenture
+ 267 216 1815
melissa.volin@accenture.com

Farrell Sklerov
Partnership Fund for NYC / Rubenstein Communications
+ 212 843 8289
fsklerov@rubenstein.com