Tag: Business & Financial Services

UD, Delaware Technology Park and Discover Bank Partner on New FinTech Building at STAR Campus

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UD, Delaware Technology Park and Discover Bank Partner on new FinTech Building at STAR Campus

25 NOVEMBER, 2019 | PETER BOTHUM | UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Once a nearly blank canvas inviting imagination for what the university of the future may look like, the University of Delaware’s Science Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus is realizing such transformation on a daily basis. Combining top academics and research with industry and community partnerships, a renewed future is shaping in real time at this intersection of discovery, education and innovation, driven by a bold vision for positive impact on the world.

UD, Delaware Technology Park (DTP) and Discover Bank will partner on the construction of a new building that continues the STAR Campus’s march into the future, adding a building block that taps into the evolving world of financial services technology — commonly called FinTech — with an eye on growth for Delaware.

Like the previous construction on STAR Campus, the six-story, 100,000-square feet structure will bring various facets of an industry together under one roof, in this case the academic, business and governmental segments of the financial world.

“Working with DTP and Discover to strengthen Delaware’s growing FinTech sector, the University of Delaware is proud to participate in this public-private partnership, continuing development of knowledge and innovations that help drive our state’s economy,” said UD President Dennis Assanis. “Our University is a national leader in finance, technology and entrepreneurship, so combining our expertise and resources in these complementary fields will yield exciting opportunities for our students and faculty with meaningful impact on society.”

The new FinTech building will add immense value to Delaware’s growing prowess in financial technology. More and more financial services companies are morphing into technology companies. Global investment in FinTech-related companies rose from $18.9 billion in 2013 to $111.8 billion in 2018, according to a recent report by the Delaware Prosperity Partnership.

“We’re working hard in Delaware to support those entrepreneurs and innovators who will keep our state competitive in the 21st century economy, and drive new job creation,” Governor John Carney said. “We’re also good at working together in Delaware, and I am really pleased to see this kind of collaboration between the private sector and the University of Delaware. This partnership at the STAR Campus will help create a pipeline of skilled local talent, support our entrepreneurs, build on our strength in financial technology, and strengthen our economy over the long term.”

By constructing a hub where the financial services industry and academia intersect with technology and innovation, UD, Discover and DTP will contribute to the vitality of Delaware’s economy. UD’s research and instruction in data-related disciplines will create a highly capable workforce to feed the FinTech industry in Delaware, including the start-up businesses that will hatch, grow and spin out of the new facility.

The building will house:

  • Spaces for startups to develop and grow, managed by Delaware Technology Park. Tenants will have onsite access to business development resources and technical assistance.
  • Labs and centers associated within UD’s College of Engineering and Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. These spaces will link strengths and resources from both colleges on topics such as financial analytics, cybersecurity, human-machine learning and data analysis.
  • UD’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships (OEIP) will relocate its offices from the Delaware Technology Park’s Innovation Way location.
  • Delaware’s Small Business Development Center, which will be synergistically located to offer assistance to OEIP’s Spin In program. This program connects UD undergraduate students with community entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to give them an inside look at business innovation in action and a chance to apply what they’re learning in real-life situations.

“Delaware Technology Park is excited to launch a new building project on STAR Campus in conjunction with the University of Delaware and funded by Discover Bank,” said Mike Bowman, president and CEO of DTP. “It will contain faculty, students and entrepreneurs with outstanding data science knowledge and digital management competencies as well as support resources for business development and community education.”

The $38 million project will be funded via a favorable below market interest rate loan by Discover Bank to DTP, the owner of the building. UD will lease space in the building.

Discover Bank is currently exploring ways to partner with UD on research related to the financial technology needs of the bank that may include cyber-related technologies, and consumer data analytics, applications and behaviors. A national nonprofit focused on improving the financial health of communities, has partnered with Discover Bank to work with UD, DTP, entrepreneurs and the community on the utilization and testing of financial technologies to improve consumer financial health.

“Discover Bank is dedicated to building stronger communities, which is why we’ve championed this project with the Delaware Technology Park and the University of Delaware to expand economic opportunities, create jobs in financial services and FinTech, and promote financial health for underserved populations,” said Discover Bank President James J. Roszkowski. “The development at STAR helps us realize our vision of creating brighter financial futures for consumers as well as creating new opportunities for the business community.”

The building, which is scheduled for a 2021 opening, will mark the first sizable presence of Lerner College on the STAR Campus.

“This project will create an excellent opportunity for UD students to explore new frontiers in data-related disciplines including computer and information sciences, computer engineering and financial analytics,” UD Provost Robin Morgan said. “With a focus on setting up our students for success, the UD community will have access to new space for academic growth and the pursuit of employment opportunities in the continuously expanding FinTech industry here in Delaware.”

Potential plans and programs include a cybersecurity leadership center that would link Lerner’s cybersecurity management with the College of Engineering’s cybersecurity engineering and technology, a space for human-machine learning and social media data analysis and a multi-media studio.

Kurt Foreman

PRESIDENT & CEO

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Delaware’s Fintech Boom is Already Here

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Delaware’s Fintech Boom is Already Here

25 JUNE, 2019 

If you’re still waiting for fintech to explode in Delaware, you may be looking at it in terms too narrow.

“It already has,” says John Taylor, director of economic research for the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, who recently completed an in-depth report on fintech in Delaware along with First State Fintech Lab and University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration.

The view that fintech has yet to truly materialize in Delaware is fueled by a definition that hyper-focuses on the startup sector and disregards established financial institutions as not real tech companies.

As we’ve written over the past few years, companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Capital One are tech companies. Once you factor in the evolution of banks — and their large pool of Delaware tech jobs — the Wilmington fintech boom materializes.

(Fun fact: Delaware accounted for 75% of all fintech investment in the Philadelphia region in 2018.)

“We think taking the broad view makes a lot of sense here, particularly from a workforce angle,” said Taylor in an interview with Technical.ly. “A major reason early stage fintech companies are so interested in Delaware is because of our strength in the broader financial services space — they know they can hire folks with talent on the financial services side, the credit risk analysis side and tech talent.”

While several digital-born fintech companies such as Paypal, Acorns and SoFi have bases in Delaware, and homegrown fintech startups like Fair Square Financial and Marlette Funding continue to grow, they’re only half of the picture.

“Just focusing on the startup side of things really misses a big piece of what fintech has become,” said Taylor. “Particularly if you look at the increasing synergy between startups and established firms. We’re seeing more acquisitions in this space, as some of those larger firms look to grow their services.”

How much impact does fintech have in Delaware?

“Right now, we have the most jobs we’ve ever had in Delaware, about 465,000 jobs in the state; unemployment is 3.2%; and financial services is really a significant driver of our economy: We’ve got nearly 48,000 jobs, up from about 41,000 at the bottom of the recession,” said Taylor. “We’ve seen some pretty significant growth, and fintech accounts for about 9% of employment in the state, the highest share of any state in the country — about double the national average.

“And these jobs are at firms of all shapes and sizes,” he said. “One of the rules of our report was to help bring in some clarity and shared understanding to what that means and some of the trends.”

Delaware is #1 in patents issued in the United States. (Screenshot via Delaware Prosperity Partnership report)

And it’s not just jobs: “We’re not just an employment, hub, but really a hub for innovation,” Taylor said.

“One thing I found particularly interesting was that when we looked at some data over the last decade in fintech-related patenting activity, we found almost 200 over that time, which ranked Delaware first nationally on a per capita basis,” he said. “That accounts for where these companies and individuals are based, not necessarily where the patent is created. And even if we look at that, we still rank second.”

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M&T Commits to Tech Jobs, Other Roles in Delaware

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M&T commits to tech jobs, other roles in Delaware

3 APRIL, 2019 | DELAWARE BUSINESS TIMES

M&T Bank and its Wilmington Trust subsidiary will hire hundreds of tech talent over the next few years, including 50 new “technologists” over the next nine months and reinforce its commitment to downtown Wilmington by housing them in a space that will embed technology teams with the people driving the growth of the bank’s business.

In addition, the bank hopes to fill more than 100 open positions in 2019 throughout the state — nearly half in Sussex County — as it continues to grow through all lines of business. It will also be establishing a technology development program at the University of Delaware and University of Maryland for professional positions and internships as well as filling jobs through partnerships with organizations like Zip Code Wilmington, which offers a 12-week coding boot camp with job placement assistance upon completion of the program.

The bank has quietly consolidated 130 employees over the past few months on two floors of the 10-story Wilmington Plaza building at 301 W. 11th St.

We need to be less dependent on outsourcing,” said M&T Chief Information Officer Mike Wisler. “Buying other people’s products mutes your ability to compete and create differentiated experiences.”

Wisler said M&T plans to add 1,000 technologists — software engineers and designers, UI/UX and web developers, database and cybersecurity experts, and technical team leads — over the next five years to its two primary technology centers in the company’s hometown of Buffalo, New York and in Wilmington, with Wilmington expected to get about 200 of those jobs.

The Wilmington Plaza building offers “puts everyone together, creating collisions that will allow us to operate at the speed of our competition,” Wisler said. “The physical environment plays a big role in our efforts to be transformational and agile. We’re trying to create a community [feeling] and align various initiatives with the bank’s mission, purpose, and vision.”

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki praised the decision to locate the new jobs downtown as proof that “M&T believes in the city. It’s important because people look to the future to make financial decisions so when people make decisions like this to invest in the city, it’s great for confidence.”

Purzycki said he likes the idea of more people walking along Market Street shopping and experiencing the “grit, humanity and personality” of the city.

“Generally speaking, people love to be in cities. As long as you don’t scare them away for the wrong reasons, announcements like this demonstrate we can overcome” structural issues like parking and the wage tax, he said. “I want employers to tell their people that Wilmington is a great place to be. The more people who live here, the more things change.”

M&T Delaware Region President Nick Lambrow says the bank is moving toward an “integrated model with lots of initiatives that provide us with different ways to look at and serve our client base.”

M&T retained the Wilmington Trust brand for its wealth and institutional business after acquiring the bank in
2011. Wilmington Trust now employs about 2,000 people in 54 locations with a little more than half in Delaware, according to Executive Vice President Bill Farrell, who oversees the Wealth and Institutional Services Division.

“We’ve developed new products and grown market share across our businesses,” Farrell said, noting as an example that Wilmington Trust’s structured finance (securitization) business has increased its market share over the past five years from 1.3 percent to 16.9 percent to become the third-largest in that market niche.

“Adding these technologists to our team alongside our product managers will enable us to continue developing products like Wilmington Trust FastTrack, which makes it easier for our Merger and Acquisition Escrow business to get people paid more efficiently and WT Connect, which created a new front end for investors to self-serve in the structured-product area,” Farrell said.

“We take pride in operating much like a fintech in accelerating our speed to market,” Lambrow said. “We realize that our competition is no longer just large banks, and we’re of a size where we can act or react like a fintech.”

It’s generally accepted that there is an industrywide shortage of tech jobs, giving rise to organizations like Zip Code Wilmington and Year Up.

“It’s the scarcest resource on the planet with lots of competition. But we feel that our story is an advantage.
One big differentiator for M&T and Wilmington trust is that its size allows employees on both the tech and operations side to have an impact on our business. That may not be the case at a larger institution.

“University programs are not producing the talent we need so we have to create other pipelines while still making a meaningful investment in local universities,” Wisler said, adding that there is a growing opportunity to attract experienced professionals from the traditional big-city tech hot spots. “We are focusing on professional recruiting and relocation as we find lots of people from this area who would like to return.”

“It’s never been more important to create a sense of belonging and inclusion,” Lambrow said. “We still think of ourselves as a community bank and we’re committed to our branch system. But we must provide alternative ways to connect with our customers” who don’t need to come into the branch.

This article was originally posted on the Delaware Business Times at: https://www.delawarebusinesstimes.com/mt-commits-to-tech-jobs-other-roles-in-delaware

Kurt Foreman

PRESIDENT & CEO

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Millennial-centric banking app

Millennial-Centric Banking App to Hire 30-50 Industry Vets to Drive Growth

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Millennial-centric banking app to hire 30-50 industry vets to drive growth

15 MARCH, 2019 | DELAWARE BUSINESS TIMES

Acorns, the company behind a simple investment application with more than 5 million account holders, will add up to 50 technology and operations jobs downtown over the next six months, expecting to find them among longtime Delaware bankers looking to return to the fast-growth days.

The Irvine, California-based company’s core product is a mobile-banking app that rounds up users’ daily purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically puts the difference into investment accounts.

New Chief Technology Officer Hugh Tamassia says the company sees Wilmington as “a powerful financial community that has been depleted over the past few years with people who can help us scale and add products,” he said.

He should know. Both Tamassia and Acorns Chief Operating Officer Manning Field worked for JPMorgan Chase in Wilmington for more than a dozen years.

The new Acorns employees will be housed in The Mill, a co-working space located a block from Rodney Square, in what is another positive piece of news this week for downtown Wilmington.

Tamassia says he’ll be looking for 20 to 30 technologists —developers, testers, program managers, and scrum masters —while the operations side will be looking for 10-20 risk managers and other operations people “with years of doing banking at scale who can bring that experience to an emerging product.”

Tamassia, who joined Acorns on Jan. 11, said he’s been charged with ensuring “that every part of our infrastructure is scaled to meet the demand of a fast-growing customer base.” He’s looking for people like himself who will be attracted by the company’s vision of being a financial wellness system that “puts the tools of wealth-making in everyone’s hands.”

Acorns, which launched in 2014,was one of Fast Company magazine’s Most Innovative Companies of 2019 and counts actor Ashton Kutcher and Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant among its investors.

Perhaps more important, NBC Universal and Comcast Ventures announced an equity investment in the startup in late January that includes a strategic partnership with Comcast-owned CNBC to produce original content with Acorns.

The investment was part of Acorns’ latest $105 million funding round, which put its valuation at $860 million. BlackRock, Bain Capital Ventures, TPG’s Rise Fund, DST and Michael Dell’s MSD Capital also took part in the Series E round. NBCUniversal, which is now Acorns’ biggest shareholder, also received a seat on the startup’s board.

According to the company, the average Acorns customer is around 32 years old with an income of $50,000 to $60,000. The CNBC partnership is designed to reach an “up-and-coming” financial audience that is younger or less financially savvy.

In addition to its retirement-investment product, Acorns users can open an IRA and obtain a checking account and debit card that link to its investment products.

 

Kurt Foreman

PRESIDENT & CEO

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Innovative Fintech Company Expands – Adding More than 200 Jobs in Delaware

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Innovative fintech company expands – adding more than 200 jobs in Delaware

17 DECEMBER, 2018

Marlette Funding, LLC, a leader in the FinTech sector, is adding jobs in Delaware. Marlette Funding, LLC uses the consumer-lending platform Best Egg, which offers a breakthrough frictionless online personal loan platform where qualified applicants can instantly view loan offers with no impact to their credit score and receive funds in as little as one business day.

Marlette leverages technology to create a distinctive customer-centric focus delivering faster, easier and a more personalized experience. The technology platform speeds and improves the customer experience, using machine learning and artificial intelligence to remove friction, reduce credit and fraud losses and create a hassle-free consumer experience.

Marlette’s user-friendly approach has resulted in being named #1 in Customer Satisfaction in Personal Loans from Lending Tree, the nation’s leading online loan marketplace, maintaining their recognition as the #1 Personal Loan Company from Best Company, continuing to hold an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and, most recently, Best Egg was named to the LendEDU list of top personal loan lenders for Q32018.

FinTech is one of the fastest growing disruptive innovations in the country. Delaware, with its bench strength in the business and finance sectors, makes an attractive choice for the fintech sector. During the past five years, employment in Delaware’s finance industry grew by an annual average of 2.4%, twice the national rate and much faster than neighboring states. Delaware has been a magnet for out-of-state direct investment by financial services firms in recent years, with $725 million invested since 2010. Wilmington is the leading destination in our region for this investment.

Bobby Ritterbeck, Marlette’s Chief Marketing Officer, presented Marlette Funding LLC’s plan to add jobs and expand its Delaware facility to the Council on Development Finance’s (CDF) public meeting on November 26 and on December 17. The proposal includes a request for a performance-based grant of up to $2.725M to create 232 new full-time jobs and support its $7.5M capital investment in New Castle County, Delaware.

“We are entering 2019 with strong organizational growth, positive cash flow and an innovation strategy based on big data, smart tools, better technologies, and sophisticated marketing,” said Jeffrey Meiler, CEO of Marlette Funding, LLC. “Delaware has been a great state to grow our business, we expect to hire more than 200 people as we grow and provide additional economic benefits that will contribute to the overall economic development efforts of the first state.”

“We are excited Marlette is choosing Delaware for its continued growth,” said Delaware Governor John Carney. “With Delaware’s strength in finance and business services, we are ideally positioned to foster and support the fintech sector as well as other technology-based ventures. This commitment from Marlette reaffirms that Delaware is a great state for businesses of all sizes to put down roots, grow and create jobs.”

“New Castle County is dedicated to winning the future through sustainable job creation,” said Matt Meyer, New Castle County Executive. “Marlette Funding’s decision confirms that New Castle County is a premier location to grow the financial technologies of tomorrow, adding hundreds of new jobs.”

In a short time, Marlette has developed a reputation for its commitment to a positive and creative employee culture, as reflected in its employee engagement score, which ranks in the top 10 percent of thousands of companies using OfficeVibe, a leading online employee engagement platform, across 90 countries and recognition in 2018 by the American Banker as one of the Top Fintech Places to Work and in the Delaware News Journal Top Workplaces.

Marlette Funding and its employees are also solid corporate citizens volunteering and supporting local Delaware charities including Junior Achievement of Delaware, the Ronald McDonald House, the Food Bank and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

About Marlette Funding

Marlette Funding, LLC, uses the consumer-lending platform Best Egg, which offers a breakthrough frictionless online personal loan platform where qualified applicants can instantly view loan offers with no impact to their credit score and receive funds in as little as one business day. Marlette Funding LLC, a financial technology and service provider for banks, is dedicated to finding better ways to make money accessible to help people achieve their goals and enjoy life. The team blends decades of banking experience with deep customer knowledge and smart technology to deliver digital products, services and experiences in a more relevant way.

Since March 2014, the online loan platform has delivered over $6.7B of prime loans with strong credit performance as a third-party service provider for Cross River Bank under the Best Egg brand. For more information, visit www.MarletteFunding.com or www.bestegg.com.

About Delaware Prosperity Partnership

Created in 2017, Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP) is a nonprofit that leads the state of Delaware’s economic development efforts to attract, grow and retain businesses; to build a stronger entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem; and to support private employers in identifying, recruiting and developing talent in the state of Delaware. For more information, visit www.deprosperitypartnership.com.

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