Over the last few years, a flurry of startups, non-profits and resources in the fintech space have been established in Boston — like the Fintech Sandbox, MIT Fintech, the Boston Fintech Meetup and Insurtech Boston. Recently, the whole industry has been taken by storm by cryptocurrencies, which in the Boston tech scene meant anything between the $3.4 million seed round of Flipside Crypto and the launch of a new crypto-dollar by five-year-old Circle.
However, in this thriving ecosystem, the launch of a new resource that's specific for fintech startups that are past their launch phase could be the missing piece of the puzzle.
MassChallenge, which announced its 2018 cohort of early-stage startups last week, revealed on Tuesday MassChallenge FinTech, a Boston-based accelerator for later-stage startups in the financial technology industry.
The first edition of the program, which is slated to start in January 2019, will be housed in MassChallenge's 30,000 square foot headquarters at the Innovation and Design Building in the Seaport.
"By connecting fintech startups with industry leaders to tackle specific problems, we're giving the startups more opportunities to become enterprise ready, and we're helping the industry leaders harness new concepts, technologies, and services that have the power to transform not only their businesses but also how they meet the needs of their customers," Devon Sherman, program director of MassChallenge FinTech, wrote in an email.
The accelerator, which matches participants with a leading partner and offers free office space in downtown Boston, will include a range of activities from co-development and product validation to strategic investment and advisor introductions. The program is supported by a public-private partnership that includes founding partners Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, Citizens Bank, John Hancock, and the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP).
At the end of the six-month long program, selected companies will have the opportunity to win a portion of $250,000 in zero equity cash prizes.
Of course, such advantages come with a set of requirements to be met before applying. To be eligible, startups must have raised less than $5 million in equity-based funding and generated less than $5 million in revenue in the last 12 months.
The application process will take place between August and October 2018, and winners will be announced in December.
