How FinTech Sandbox Is Helping Entrepreneurs Scale Sustainable Finance Solutions

FinTech Sandbox, a Boston-based nonprofit promoting fintech innovation, is starting its Week of Virtual FinTech Talks, featuring Demo Day 7.0.

As part of the development, Benzinga chatted with fintech veteran Kelly Fryer, the newly appointed executive director at FinTech Sandbox.

What Happened?

Founded in 2014, FinTech Sandbox is a platform for broad-based innovation in financial services.

As part of a vision to inspire and encourage change in financial services, Fintech Sandbox, alongside its network of over 40 data partners, is providing early-stage fintechs access to critical support. Through FinTech Talks — a series of six events the first of which is a virtual demo day showcasing startups — the organization plans to unlock access to actionable data and better support fintech entrepreneurs.

Given the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Demo Day has gone virtual. Videos of the innovations were revealed in advance, leaving the event itself open to communication.

“We’ve decided to really not give the typical Demo Day,” said Fryer. “The event itself will actually be lightning talks with each of the startups. They’ll be doing Q&A with our FinTech Sandbox partners to get to know the startup and what makes them different.”

Why It Matters?

2020 shook the financial services industry, forcing innovation and adaptation to emerging consumer preferences.

“From a fintech perspective, I think these early startups are really the ones taking on the challenge to fill some of the gaps. We’re going to see a lot of interesting technologies bubble up over the next few months to a year that are really a direct result of some of the issues we’re seeing today.”

As new executive director, Fryer plans to support tech entrepreneurs in making finance more sustainable and inclusive.

“We’re going to be more intentional with what areas of focus we have,” she noted. “This allows us to offer more of the right data, and even easier access to consumption of that data, which then in turn enables startups to develop faster, smarter, and better.”

Slated for today is a fireside chat with Mike Fanning, Head of MassMutual U.S., and Mike Kennealy, Housing and Economic Development Secretary for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The discussion will be focused on solutions to today’s most pressing issues in financial services.

To learn more about the FinTech Talks, click here.