Columbia Threadneedle Investments Selects Partners for Boston-based FinTech Start-up Accelerator Program

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the selection of three innovative fintech start-ups as its partners in 2021’s MassChallenge FinTech accelerator program. By partnering with these firms, Columbia Threadneedle and its parent company, Ameriprise Financial, hope to harness new technologies in the areas of data analysis, data privacy and security, and digital client experiences.

The three start-ups are:

• Knomea Corporation developed a data technology platform that helps make global, alternative, subscription and internal data discoverable and useful.
• Manetu, Inc. offers a Consumer Privacy Management platform that provides seamless, dynamic and intelligent end-to-end management of consumer consent and data access.
• WEVO tests concepts and designs of webpages without live traffic to pinpoint why visitors aren’t converting and generates recommendations to improve conversion, before going live.

Jay Leopold, executive sponsor and head of U.S. investment risk at Columbia Threadneedle stated, “Harnessing innovation is vital in supporting business growth and meeting clients’ needs. Our industry is being transformed rapidly 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. These forces present us with critical challenges and important opportunities.”

“We believe collaborating with the fintech community through MassChallenge FinTech provides us with fresh perspectives on how we do business and will enhance our organization’s ability to think creatively,” Leopold added.

Columbia Threadneedle is one of 10 challenge partners in the program, which pairs global financial services enterprises with start-ups to accelerate outcomes-driven partnerships. This year, 30 start-ups were selected to solve challenges presented by the 10 partners. The program runs from January to June 2021.

Columbia Threadneedle and Ameriprise have participated in the MassChallenge FinTech Program since 2019 and have completed successful proofs of concept with several fintech partners, including ForwardLane, Colaese, Cognicor and Alkymi. The partnership between Columbia Threadneedle and Diffeo won MassChallenge’s first place award in 2019 in recognition of the successful collaboration between both firms. In addition, based on work completed during last year’s program, Ameriprise is partnering with a startup to support its digital strategy. Columbia Threadneedle and Ameriprise are also exploring longer-term relationships with other partners.

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,000 people, including over 450 investment advisors based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $498 billion¹ of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP). For more information, please visit columbiathreeedneedleus.com. Follow us on Twitter.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Columbia Threadneedle) is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

¹As of September 30, 2020. Includes all assets managed by entities in the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

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