Columbia Threadneedle Investments Selects Three Firms for 2022 MassChallenge FinTech’s Start-up Accelerator Program

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the selection of three innovative fintech start-ups for this year’s MassChallenge FinTech accelerator program. In working with these firms, Columbia Threadneedle, and its parent company Ameriprise Financial, hope to utilize new technologies in the areas of data analysis, data collection and automation.

The three start-ups are:

• Util uses cutting-edge technology and a vast evidence base of peer-reviewed academic and scientific articles to map and measure how companies positively and negatively impact the UN Sustainable Development Goals and over 2,000 sustainability themes.
• OnCorps provides intelligent automation solutions to increase efficiency and reduce risk within leading financial services firms.
• Datia offers a data platform for sustainable finance that automates data collection and reporting on ESG for asset managers.

Jay Leopold, executive sponsor and head of North America Investment Risk at Columbia Threadneedle said: “Investment strategies that incorporate responsible investment practices require asset managers to collect and distill much more data into their processes today than in the past. We look to make innovative use of technology to transform this data into actionable investment insights that ensure we provide best-in-class products and services to our clients.”

“As a long-time participant in MassChallenge’s FinTech program, we are energized to collaborate with the fintech community to find new approaches to meet asset management’s ever-evolving challenges,” Leopold added.

Columbia Threadneedle is one of nine challenge partners in the 2022 program, which pairs financial services firms with enterprise-ready start-ups to accelerate outcomes-driven partnerships. This year, 25 start-ups were selected to solve challenges presented by the nine firms. The program runs from January to June 2022.

Columbia Threadneedle and Ameriprise have participated in the MassChallenge FinTech Program since 2019 and have completed successful proofs of concept with several fintechs, including ForwardLane, FiVerity, Cognicor and Alkymi. The collaboration 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 the 2020 program, Ameriprise recently extended its relationship with Cognicor to enhance its client support model through AI chatbots.

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 2,500 people, including over 650 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia¹, we manage $714 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.²

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

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

^1 As of November 8, 2021, Columbia Threadneedle Investments including BMO GAM (EMEA)

^2 As of September 30, 2021. Includes all assets managed by entities in the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies

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