Hi Michael,
We don't know what the future looks like for FinTech post-Covid-19. Our industry, which was experiencing strong growth and riding a wave of entrepreneurial activity as the year began, has been dramatically impacted by the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Most of our community is now working remotely, and we've altered our daily lives significantly in response to the need for social distancing.
We expect this health crisis will accelerate the digitization of financial services that was already underway. But we suspect that many of the changes we are about to experience will be harder to anticipate. Many of our legacy products, processes, and assumptions are no longer fit for purpose. So with the next edition of Boston FinTech Week, we are planning to explore how we build a Financial Services sector that works for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Let us know if you are interested and sign up here for regular updates on speakers, venues, and more.
We would like to extend a special thanks to our current Boston FinTech Week sponsors: Vestigo Ventures, Mass Mutual, Radius Bank, TransUnion, Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and MassChallenge FinTech. Also to our community partners: Babson University, Blue Dun, Caliber / Financial Revolutionist, Ideometry, and DCU.
In the meantime, our residents and alumni are innovating and adapting to help their customers, staffs, and broader communities during the COVID-19 crisis. Our sponsors and partners are also mobilizing in response the challenges posed by the global pandemic. Here's a brief look at what some of them are up to.
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Several of our alumni are offering free or deeply discounted technology in response to the coronavirus crisis, including Bond.AI, Posh, 7 Chord, Sigma Ratings, Stilt, KapitalWise, Stratyfy, and Boss Insights.
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Pinkaloo Technologies is powering the fundraising portal for the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, administered by Eastern Bank and championed by Massachusetts Governor Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker (here), and are also powering the donor portal for Cape Cod 5's $100k Healthcare Support Challenge, which provides matching funds to seven health charities across their footprint (here). Pinkaloo helps firms recruit and retain customers and employees through a white-label Modern Giving platform.
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Betterfin has created "The Definitive Guide for Small Business Assistance" to explain and provide access to the lending programs designed to help SMEs weather the COVID-19 crisis and is now processing applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans for lenders, including Fountainhead and Radius Bank. Betterfin arms small business owners with education and resources needed to navigate lending products with confidence.
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Edmit has created a guide to the impact of the pandemic on college students, prospective college students, and recent grads. Edmit helps people make smart financial decisions about college with personalized software and advice.
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Boss Insights, working in cooperation with Oracle, is now offering a fully automated end-to-end platform supporting the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program including applications, monitoring and forgiveness calculations. Boss Insights' mission is to get the right businesses funded by arming lenders and investors with the right information.
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Amazon Web Services, which provides highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure to hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world, is offering startups six ways to reduce their bills based on workloads and the usage patterns they are currently seeing.
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EY, which works with clients to build a better world through assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, has created a great deal of excellent content explaining the CARES Act, including articles and webinars.
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Goodwin Procter, a Global 50 law firm serving the innovators and investors in a rapidly changing, technology-driven economy, has published a timely article entitled "Top 10 Compensation and Benefits Issues for Employers in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic".
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Moody's, which helps capital markets and risk management professionals worldwide respond to an evolving marketplace with confidence, has produced much COVID-19 related content, including a free website with Moody's Investor Services and Moody's Analytics research content, webinars, podcasts, and reports.
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As you know, Demo Day 7.0 has been rescheduled for October 15. Our friends at Moody's have agreed again to host and it will still be part of NY FinTech Week. We've chosen to feature the nine startups selected to participate in an ongoing series of blog posts called the New Face of FinTech.
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THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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FinTech Sandbox would not be possible without our amazing sponsors, including those who have committed to sponsoring our next Boston FinTech Week.
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The greatest advantages a startup has are speed and flexibility. 2020 will be hard, but we will get through it. We will adapt, and, to paraphrase William Faulkner, FinTech will not only endure, it will prevail.
We are here to help you. Please reach out if we can be of service.
The FinTech Sandbox Team
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