Nonprofit Continues to Have High Demand from Early-Stage Startups as it Makes a Positive Impact with its Programming and Community-Led Events

BOSTOM, MA / ACCESSWIRE / January 24, 2023 / Fintech Sandbox, a nonprofit that provides early-stage startups around the world with free access to critical datasets and resources, experienced significant growth in 2022, including global expansion of the organization's Data Access Residency and return to in-person community-led events, including Boston Fintech Week. This momentum positions the organization for further growth and success in the coming year, and further cements its integral role in supporting startups in an uncertain economic environment.

'Despite tightening of funding and economic uncertainty, fintech, especially at the early stages, is alive and vibrant - we're seeing no shortage of new founders coming to Fintech Sandbox for support,' said Kelly Fryer, Executive DIrector, Fintech Sandbox. 'Our mission of providing data access and world-class programming to bring innovation to fintech and financial services is all the more important at this moment. More and more entrepreneurs need our support, data, advice and community - which makes 2023 a more important year than ever.'

Global Reach Continues to Expand with Increase in Data Access Residents

Fintech Sandbox increased its presence on the world map, with a clear emphasis on inclusive and sustainable finance. Some highlights include:

• 38 new startups across five continents added to its Data Access Residency - This represents an increase of over 80 percent from 2021, bringing the total number of startups involved since the organization's founding to over 290. The top sectors and subsectors of the startups are financial services & automation, capital markets and institutional trading, asset management, credit score and analytics, and business lending and financing. The top technologies that the startups focused on are artificial intelligence, automation and big data.
• Four new countries and African presence - Finland, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa each became part of the Fintech Sandbox global representation - with the latter two being the first countries in Africa in which residents have been based. Additional countries that new startups are based in include Canada, India, Israel, the U.K. and the U.S.
• Portfolio tripled the number of startups focused on financial access and ESG - 68 percent of the organization's startups accepted in 2022 have a focus on inclusive and sustainable finance (nearly doubling from 35 percent in 2021).
• Six new data partners - These include: Argyle, Boss Insights, Digital Finance, Financial Information Inc., MSCI and SQX. Fintech Sandbox also expanded its data offering from four of the organization's long-time partners including the Associated Press, Dow Jones, FactSet and Moody's Analytics.
• Critical savings for early-stage startups - Through the organization's Data Access Residency, Fintech Sandbox saved over $5 million in estimated data costs for its startups in 2022.
• Celebrated the key partnership deals or significant funding rounds of 13 past residents - These include: Clarity AI, Cinchy, Intellibonds, Layr, Merkle Science, Narmi, Novo, Petal, Pocketnest, Sandbox Banking, Solidus Labs, Stilt and Surround Insurance - and amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars in value. Highlights include Petal's $140 million Series D funding round, Novo's $125 million Series B funding round, Solidus Labs' $45 Million Series B funding round and Narmi's $35 million Series B funding round.

Boston Fintech Week Returns In-Person to Showcase Fintech's Wide-Ranging Influence on Everyday Life

The fifth-annual Boston Fintech Week was held on September 27-29. Key sessions were held at the iconic Boston Public Library as well as at other locations throughout the city. This year's theme was 'Fintech& - Building Today for an Uncharted Tomorrow', and the event brought together the global fintech community with luminary keynotes, panel discussions, networking receptions, community-led events, and discussions on the latest advancements in financial technology that are impacting our daily lives.

Key highlights included:

• A global attendee roster - Over 675 attendees from 28 countries, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Colombia and Ireland. Over 250 additional people attended community and sponsored events throughout the conference.
• Over 145 speakers took to the stage - Headliners included:
  • Greg Smith - Managing Director, FT Partners
  • Giedrimas Jeglinskas - Assistant Secretary General, Executive Management, NATO
  • Katherine Collins - Head of Sustainable Investing, Putnam
  • Michael Schlein - CEO, Accion
  • Jim Cunha - Senior Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  • Joe Maxwell - Managing Partner, FINTOP Capital
  • Justin Blakes - Co-founder & CEO, Forward Financing
  • Michael Meyer - Managing Partner, Middlegame Ventures
  • Mike Fanning - Head of MassMutual US
  • Rodney Williams - Co-founder and President, SoLo Funds
  • Stephanie Khoo - Partner, Nyca Partners
• An active and wide-reaching events schedule - The event included 56 events in total, with 20 hosted by FinTech Sandbox, 19 by the larger community and 17 by sponsors. Organization partners additionally hosted six highly-attended receptions throughout the week.

The in-person Boston Fintech Week followed Fintech Sandbox's eighth annual Demo Day, which took place virtually on April 22, and gave eight promising startups the opportunity to showcase the technology and products built with the help of Fintech Sandbox and its partners. The event additionally featured a fireside chat with Adrienne Harris, Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, and included two in-person receptions. The organization is eager to soon announce the participating startups and exact dates for the ninth annual Demo Day, scheduled for April 2023.

Fintech Sandbox promotes innovation in the financial sector by making data and infrastructure available to early-stage fintech startups, at the point when access to this typically expensive data is most impactful. Fintech Sandbox startups, in return, collaborate with current and past residents, sharing learnings and advancements that benefit the ecosystem.

For more information on joining as a startup, community member, or as data or infrastructure partner, please contact [email protected], or visit https://fintechsandbox.org.

About Fintech Sandbox

Fintech Sandbox is a nonprofit that provides a leg-up for entrepreneurs around the world by providing free access to critical datasets and resources to build their early-stage fintech products through its Data Access Residency. Fintech Sandbox startups, in return, collaborate with current and past residents, sharing learnings and advancements that benefit the ecosystem. Participating startups - more than 290 thus far - pay no fees and no equity is taken. Boston Fintech Week and Mass Fintech Hub - a public-private partnership dedicated to making the Commonwealth a global leader in fintech - are initiatives under the Fintech Sandbox umbrella. For more information, please visit https://fintechsandbox.org and https://www.twitter.com/FintechSandbox.

Contact Info:

David Yaghutiel
408-449-6971
[email protected]

SOURCE: FinTech Sandbox