Columbia Threadneedle Investments is excited to be a Challenge Partner for the 2020 FinTech program. Columbia Threadneedle is a leading global asset manager, managing $476 billion for institutional and retail clients. We’re based in Boston with more than 2,000 people, including over 450 investment professionals, operating in 17 countries around the world. Our parent company, Ameriprise, is a financial services industry leader with a $18+ billion market cap and 13,000 employees around the world, including nearly 10,000 financial advisors in the U.S.
Columbia Threadneedle’s clients and distribution partners include large public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, leading national, regional and independent banks and wealth managers, high-net-worth individuals and retail investors. Ameriprise supports affiliated independent, employee and call center financial advisors who in turn serve retail investors.
Our team includes investment professionals who manage money on behalf of our clients; sales, client service and relationship management professionals who work with our clients, financial advisors and intermediaries; product specialists; marketers who create compelling content to help explain and distribute our investment and financial solutions; advisors that help their clients meet their goals, as well technology, operations, legal and compliance staff who provide critical support that underlies every aspect of our business. All use technology and data in vital and different ways.
We have a passion to deliver excellent investment results for our clients. We are united by a culture that values collaboration and the free flow of ideas, information and insight.
WHY WE’VE PARTNERED WITH MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH:
The best and most innovative uses of technology and data are vital for the success and growth of our business. Our industry is being transformed by increased regulation, greater demand for transparency into how our products perform and are priced, and the digitization of the sales process and customer experience.
All these forces present us with challenges and opportunities. Our broad range of investment solutions are designed to meet the evolving needs of our clients, whether they are individuals, financial advisors or institutions. We are committed to making the best and most innovative uses of technology and data to ensure we continue providing our clients with first-class service and investment excellence.
OUR CHALLENGES:
We believe collaborating with the FinTech community through MassChallenge FinTech will provide us with fresh perspectives on how we do business and will challenge our organization to think outside of the box.
We seek to partner with the FinTech Community to better utilize new technologies that include, but aren’t limited to, business intelligence, advanced analytics, AI, natural language processing and machine learning to more innovatively and efficiently collect, organize, store and analyze data to drive better business insights. We seek to improve our data environment and platforms to more efficiently and effectively manage our growing data needs.
We approach this work in five broad areas: distribution, investments, wealth management and advice, consumer banking, and regulatory oversight.
1) Enhance Product Distribution and Marketing
Enhance the way we distribute and market our products and services. We want to reach clients, financial advisors and firms with the right solution and the right message, at the right time, by leveraging data, new distribution channels or new approaches.
2) Further Digitize the Client Experience and Interactions
Improve the way we interact with financial advisors, clients, and firms regarding our products and services. We want to further digitize and enhance their overall user experience with us and capture more data on the way our stakeholders interact with our platform.
3) Deliver Differentiated Solutions for Clients
Help clients meet their investment objectives by constructing portfolios and solutions that meet their needs. We want to make use of innovative applications that will help us develop and implement more effective investment/financial decisions, and help financial advisors work better with their clients to meet their goals.
4) Improve Oversight with New Technologies
Utilize new technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of important oversight functions for regulatory, fraud prevention, and other purposes that supports our commitment to protect client assets and enhance our already strong compliance oversight.
5) Enhance Research Capabilities and Knowledge Management
Enhance research capabilities to drive excess return into our portfolios. We are interested in tools that ease the collection of data so that our research team can spend more time analyzing the data.
HOW WE’LL HELP STARTUPS GROW THEIR BUSINESSES:
Why Columbia Threadneedle and Ameriprise? As a global leader in the financial services industry, we are committed to providing best-in-class asset management and wealth management services to our clients. Our goal is to partner with the right FinTech companies to improve upon our already robust efforts to modernize, digitize and support our growth over the next decade and beyond.
Our leadership team is committed to the success of our MassChallenge Partnerships and are eager to team up with enterprise-ready startups this year. Startups will have the opportunity to work across lines of business at both Columbia Threadneedle and Ameriprise.
We want to partner with FinTechs that are enterprise-ready that are already generating revenues from at least several clients.You should be able to demonstrate sound security controls (like SOC2) and other third party verifications. Successful FinTech partners should be capable of demonstrating creativity to meet our mutual goals.
Ideally, we will work collaboratively to create a well-designed proof of concept based on your firm’s strengths. To the extent you need help broadening your use cases, we can provide insights and guidance while collaborating on the proof of concept.
Our experience, passion to innovate, client focus, and strong desire to co-learn make us an ideal partner for start-ups seeking new use cases and insights into our industry. Our leadership team and business line heads can offer you guidance and support as you work on our challenge, as well as valuable experience interacting with a global financial leader.