While the 12-week program with FinTech Innovation Lab has come to an end, our journey to reskill the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors has only just begun. Through the program, SkyHive connected with leading financial firms to collaboratively solve some of the toughest challenges facing the financial industry. SkyHive is now a part of the lab’s alumni network, joining more than 250 world-leading businesses contributing to economic development in the BFSI industry through innovative technologies.
What is the FinTech Innovation Lab?
Before we get into the key takeaways and exclusive insights from the program, let us familiarize you with the FinTech Innovation Lab. The lab is an annual program run by the Partnership Fund for New York City and Accenture for early and growth-stage companies that are developing leading technologies targeted at financial service and insurance customers.
Through a highly-competitive process, 10 startups were selected out of hundreds of applicants from across the globe by 43 participating financial institutions and venture capitalist firms for the 2020 cohort.
Over the 12 weeks, companies validate their value propositions, business models, and gain important insights into the financial industry. From mentorship opportunities to panel discussions, mini-conferences, and workshops to insights from user groups, the FinTech Innovation Lab has a lot to offer.
The program culminates on Demo Day, where the companies showcase their technology to financial service executives, investors, and media.
Demo Day
Due to the current state of the world, Demo Day took place virtually this year. All companies showcased their technologies and products through a virtual demo.
One of those technologies being SkyHive.
SkyHive is a platform that unlocks human and workforce capability.
Inventing and commercializing an emerging methodology, Quantum Labour Analysis, SkyHive’s artificial intelligence analyze workforces at their most granular level - skills. With world-leading technology, SkyHive captures real-time labor market information and applies those insights to rapidly assess the current capabilities of a workforce, identify future and emerging skills, and facilitate workforce reskilling.
Founded with the mission of reducing global unemployment and driving economic empowerment, SkyHive is industry-agnostic and active across four continents.
Industry Insights
One of the most valuable outcomes from the program was the profound industry insights on the BFSI sector. Due to digital transformation, the BFSI industry has been significantly affected. Only 25% of insurance leaders believe their workforce has the skills for the new digital landscape. As people are traveling and driving less given the current situation, 80% of manual claim processing will be automated by technology. Insurers are shifting displaced call center and claims employees to support areas of the business with increasing demand such as cyber and business interruption. SkyHive’s reskilling technology is key for facilitating this shift and helping to equip workers with the skills needed to support changing business demands.
Another massive industry-wide trend is moving from on-premise to cloud infrastructure. This shift provides increased visibility and control of IT usage while reducing costs. 56% of insurers are transitioning to the cloud but only half of their employees possess the skills needed to build their cloud strategy. Through Quantum Labour Analysis, we are able to identify and address these skill gaps and connect workers to relevant training. Therefore, companies are able to effectively and efficiently build their cloud strategy internally.
Key Takeaways
The program provided many actionable and crucial takeaways that we will be able to implement in our business going forward.
- Exposure: The breadth of departments and business units that we had the opportunity to meet with from the financial institutions was pivotal. With 8 program mentors, we were able to connect with multiple departments within those financial institutions to discuss and address how our technology can be applied to facilitate workforce reskilling.
- Procurement: The procurement process when working with financial institutions can be complex. Through the lab, we were able to meet with stakeholders who handle this process, which allowed us to better understand the overall process, requirements, and timelines. The information shared was relevant and timely, particularly as we discussed proofs of concepts with a number of mentoring institutions.
- Security & Compliance: Cyber and information security is one of the top concerns for financial institutions. During the program, one of our mentors provided us with a redacted assessment and questionnaire they give to all vendors on security and compliance. The visibility this provided us was invaluable and immediately made an impact on our readiness to respond to compliance and risk assessments.
- New Business Opportunities: We are excited about the number of financial institutions moving forward with proof of concept projects as well as establishing larger partnerships.
Conclusion
The FinTech Innovation Lab was an immensely valuable experience, to say the least. The program marked a significant milestone in SkyHive’s journey as it provided us with valuable insights, advice, and lessons and the opportunity to align our products with the financial industry. As a result, we were able to make indispensable connections and partnerships with executives across the industry. We look forward to collaborating with FinTech Innovation Lab’s extensive alumni network to drive real-time labour market analysis, future skill identification, and workforce reskilling in the financial industry.
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