MassChallenge FinTech combines the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to advance scalable digital solutions by fostering collaborations between our corporate partners and startups.
By bringing FinTech’s most promising startups together with the financial sector’s strongest brands, we create opportunities that go beyond traditional mentorship, offering strategic advising from our network of corporate partners who bring deep industry knowledge and insights, to innovate and solve some of the industry’s most pressing challenges.
MassChallenge is seeking groundbreaking startups to join us in our efforts to advance the financial sector in Artificial Intelligence, Regtech, data management, financial planning, and more. If you are a startup founder looking to disrupt the status quo and make meaningful change, join our global network to collaboratively solve financial challenges.
2024 MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH PARTNER CHALLENGE STATEMENTS
(click to go to their challenge)
Citizens | KPMG | MassMutual
WHO ARE WE?
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest financial services firms in the United States.
Citizens offers retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions.
With 1,100 branches and total assets of over $220 billion, Citizens is continually innovating and partnering with the world’s most promising FinTechs.
WHAT ARE OUR CHALLENGES?
Artificial Intelligence to Design Improved Customer Experiences
Citizens is interested in exploring how cutting-edge AI can assist with designing, building, and testing effective and engaging online and mobile customer experiences.
Sustainability Conscious Solutions for Economic Value
Citizens is interested in exploring client-centric solutions that can help consumers identify and quantify economic value from green purchases and home improvements. Some economic value examples are reduced electricity/utility cost, government/utility rebates and tax incentives, and home value appreciation.
HOW WILL WE COLLABORATE WITH MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH COHORT STARTUPS?
Our partnership with MassChallenge FinTech is an important part of our enterprise-wide strategy of quickly and efficiently providing access to capabilities that customers need. Citizens has a mindset of continuous improvement, and partnering with FinTech players allows the bank to deliver greater value with speed and agility. Citizens is interested in exploring new technologies and use case solutions, and when value is apparent, the bank is excited about exploring partnership opportunities or providing strategic guidance and feedback to support a startup in perfecting their business model.
WHO ARE WE?
KPMG is a globally recognized professional services firm, and we help large enterprise organizations across industries tackle some of their biggest challenges. At KPMG Ventures, we build relationships with and make investments in startups to help transform the way our clients operate. We are the strategic investor of choice and provide a platform for growth to startups focusing on emerging technologies including AI, Web3, data, cybersecurity, and ESG.
We’re excited to be part of this creative and vibrant community! We started collaborating with MassChallenge in 2019 and we’ve had the opportunity to work alongside many dynamic startups. We’re thrilled to continue our collaboration this year to bring more groundbreaking ideas to our clients.
WHAT ARE OUR CHALLENGES?
Generative Artificial Intelligence
We believe that generative AI has the ability to transform businesses across industries. We’re looking for companies leveraging generative AI to automate or enhance business processes/workflows for large, enterprise organizations.
Space
We’re supporting and advising the Space industry as it grows. We’re excited to hear from companies that are also active in this area, and specifically interested in startups managing unique data gathered from satellites.
Regtech
KPMG supports many of the world’s largest insurance companies and banks as they undergo digital transformation. We’re always looking for new, innovative companies bringing technology to help clients manage regulatory processes (including monitoring, reporting, and compliance).
HOW WILL WE COLLABORATE WITH MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH COHORT STARTUPS?
We aim to create equal working relationships with startups. We’re eager to share our expertise and resources to support startups and, as one of the world’s leading professional services firms with a truly global footprint, we’re well-positioned to help startups drive scale and achieve outsized impact.
WHO ARE WE?
At MassMutual, our unwavering focus is – and will continue to be – helping people secure their future and protect the ones they love. We’re a mutual company, which means we’re owned by our policyowners – so everything we do is focused on our customers. We provide holistic financial solutions, guidance and education in the way our customers want to engage with us, on their terms – whether in person, online, at the workplace or over the phone. We offer a wide range of financial products and services, including life insurance, protection products, retirement, and investment solutions to help people achieve their financial goals.
WHAT ARE OUR CHALLENGES?
Customer Centricity & Digital Enablement
At MassMutual, we are interested in finding ways to create an effortless digital experience to understand and service our clients’ needs.
Enabling customers to have a centralized overview and understanding of their insurance coverage and needs is a large gap in the industry. Whether it’s applying for a new policy, accessing account information, making a payment, or submitting a claim, the interactions between customers and insurers should be seamless. This requires innovating on new products and distribution strategies to provide affordable products and services to all Americans.
Workflow Efficiencies & Administration
How do we promote the use of efficient systems internally to drive operational excellence, provide affordable products and services, and ensure that laws and regulations are adhered to?
The industry-wide problem of companies over-spending to maintain antiquated technology continues to persist. There are outdated systems which are not integrated, as well as complicated and redundant business processes which create inefficiencies. Some of this is due to the fact that we work in a highly regulated industry and there is a complex web of rules that govern the financial services industry. As a result, companies have undertaken complex planning and transformation approaches to determine the right business model to serve their clients.
Financial Planning & Education
It’s critical to provide accessible and easy to understand financial tools, especially as lifetime needs evolve. How can we help deliver this education in a more effective manner that empowers individuals to purchase life insurance and other financial products and receive unbiased guidance?
A lack of financial education continues to be a key challenge preventing many Americans from securing life insurance & other financial products. Many middle-income Americans see life insurance as a top financial need but haven’t yet made a purchase to protect themselves or the ones they love. Further, underrepresented populations, particularly women, Black, Hispanic and LatinX communities face other barriers to obtaining life insurance. While there are many different financial planning tools in the market, a significant gap continues to exist with financial literacy and understanding of personal financial wellness.
Additionally, many Americans do not have the confidence to purchase life insurance fully online without guidance from an advisor. Without this human interaction, options and complexity can lead to hesitancy and fear, making digital sales challenging and expensive. Some companies have explored remote advisors and online financial coaching, but none have cracked the code yet with a successful hybrid experience for life insurance.
Data Management
How can we optimize data management to provide a seamless customer experience and enhance internal operations while adhering to regulatory and MassMutual governance standards?
Effective data management is critical to the customer experience, as well our need to adhere to data protection regulations and privacy standards while making informed business decisions. Data can be unstructured, redundant, unclear and at times not easily accessible. Having the ability to easily access and share clear, trusted, secure and accurate data will help enhance our customers’ experience and provide them with offerings ranging from new sales opportunities to underwriting new policies and adjudicating claims.
AI & Real-Time Intelligence
How can we leverage generative AI in a responsible way that enable effective and fast decision making, builds trust and helps us better understand our customer needs?
Many aspects of our daily lives are impacted by AI & real-time intelligence; with the introduction of generative AI a new world of possibilities is available for internal and external clients. There are many opportunities and challenges in leveraging this new capability, leading with ethics and accountability. Having the ability to obtain real-time, actionable intelligence will allow for timely decision making and provide sound advice to a policyowner throughout his or her lifetime while taking into account meaningful life events. This includes leveraging AI to help enhance internal processes such as contract reviews and analytics.
HOW WILL WE COLLABORATE WITH MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH COHORT STARTUPS?
As a Founding Partner of the MassChallenge FinTech program, we understand that startups are the hub of innovation. We need new ideas and innovation in the financial services industry, and we believe that by creating a platform through MassChallenge’s FinTech program we will help build industry and startup collaboration.
MassMutual is an excellent partner for startups – we are passionate about innovation, have significant knowledgeable resources available and are committed to help startups grow. Our track record over the past five years with the MassChallenge FinTech and HealthTech programs led to more than 45% of our partnerships turning into engagements.
If matched with MassMutual, startups can expect to meet with leaders & associates across the company and engage in use case assessments which will help determine business and technology opportunities.
We look forward to partnering with innovative startups and making Boston the leading FinTech ecosystem to help address our industry’s challenges.
MassChallenge FinTech 2024 applications are now open! Apply here.