Banks, payment companies invite more techies to their labs

November 23, 2022 10:16 AM

Barclays' chief operating officer, Mark Ashton-Rigby, recently made an open call to out-of-work technology professionals, looking to tap into distinct opportunities borne of the downturn.

"I'm a firm believer that when one door closes, another one opens, and out of adversity can come opportunity," Ashton-Rigby said in his announcement on LinkedIn, which served as a recruitment for new technology workers at the banks and participants in a program for startups.

In both payments and more general digital banking, firms are firing workers after a runup in hiring early in the pandemic. That has produced a new market of available talent that is landing at mature financial firms, but also in development hubs, technology labs, accelerators and other initiatives dedicated to training technology workers or spotting and nurturing new concepts in payments and other fintech.

Capital was overallocated to fintech and valuations inflated, making a correction inevitable, said Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures, adding that a lot of fintech talent, consequently, is being freed up.

Payments

American Express and its rivals are stocking up on tech talent

November 1, 2022 9:30 AM

"Some of that talent will take refuge working for large banks and traditional payment processors and networks," Grover said. "But some or much of it it is likely to look to launch new ventures. It's their idea of the next better mousetrap, which would be good for accelerator/hubs or incubators."

Here's a sample of some accelerators, training hubs and development labs that have recently launched or expanded.

Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Barclays

The bank is recruiting out-of-work or struggling payment and fintech developers for a special edition of Rise Startup Academy, a 20-week program that connects erstwhile developers and entrepreneurs to fintech experts to further their ideas. The most recent program started in September, and Barclays is taking new applications in the wake of recent technology layoffs.

Barclays is additionally hiring more than 3,000 technology workers. The program is focusing on software engineering, architecture, design and other functions. "We're looking for technologists who are passionate about leaving things better than they found them and are excited at the prospect of reimagining financial services for millions of people across the world," Ashton-Rigby said in his post.

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase

Chase is scouting real estate for a new office in Athens featuring a development lab for payments innovation. The Athens center will hire locally to fill a research and development team that will build new payment innovations for Onyx, Chase's blockchain program. Areas of focus will include use cases for distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence and cryptography. In announcing the Athens center, Chase noted the bank has a track record of building technology centers that rely on hiring local staff. Chase will begin hiring immediately and will name a head of the payments innovation efforts in the coming months.

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

Mastercard

Mastercard in late September launched a Sustainability Innovation Lab in Stockholm. The lab is charged with finding ways to help the card network's merchants produce, distribute and purchase supplies and services while reducing their carbon footprints. The Purchase, New York-based card network opened the center in support of the EU Green Deal, which aims to make the zone greenhouse-gas neutral by 2050.

Mastercard will focus on sustainable spending and developing products that will appeal to consumers that want to pay for products that contribute to a reduction in climate change impact. Mastercard is also hiring 500 staffers with expertise in cryptocurrency and open banking, and has more than 1,500 openings altogether. The card network is additionally expanding its development hub in New York.

Visa

Visa, which lists more than 3,000 openings on LinkedIn, has opened an innovation studio in Kenya, the first hub Visa has opened in Africa and its sixth globally. The card network also has hubs in Dubai, London, Miami, Singapore and its hometown of San Francisco.

Developers, Visa employees and corporate partners will have access to the lab, which will build new payment technology and digital commerce products.

This year, Visa partnered with Safaricom to launch a virtual card linked to MPesa, the mobile money service that Safaricom has operated for years to bring digital payments to underserved regions in Africa and elsewhere.

Accenture

Accenture in late October began taking applications for its Fintech Innovation Lab New York. The 12-week program is designed to help early-stage technology companies speed their launch by accessing financial service institutions and venture capital firms.

The innovation lab's 2023 class will focus on data science, flexible work technology, client engagement, inclusion and diversity and payment innovation such as global commerce, foreign exchange, infrastructure and cryptocurrency. The lab will also focus on other topics adjacent to payments such as blockchain, distributed ledgers, smart contract technology and decentralized finance.

Collctiv

Accelerators are also continuing to provide a venue for new companies to develop. Collctiv is part of the new TechStars program in New York, which launched its latest 13-week program for developers in November.

Collctiv is is a London-based group payments app provider, and is the only U.K. company in the latest TechStars class. TechStars did not provide comment.

"The American market was always a plan for us," said Pete Casson, chief technology officer and co-founder of Collctiv. "The whole American experience is very social."

Collctiv was founded about three years ago, and supports payments for activities, sports teams and other cases in which groups of ten or more people may be paying for an event or other purposes together. The company has continued to expand during the recent health and economic crisis, Casson contends, leading to its move into the U.S.

It's a move that would have been much more difficult without access to the accelerator, which Casson said provides access to other developers and mentorships.

"Starting a business is lonely," Casson said. "Having a shared experience is invaluable."

Synechron

This year, Payment fintech Synechron launched its PayTech Accelerator, which is designed to use shared technology to quickly build new services to respond to a challenge or opportunity. The accelerator has been put to use in identifying and guarding against cyber attacks.

In an earlier interview, Sandeep Kumar, managing director and head of Synechron's PayTech Accelerator Program, said that in a case like Russia's war against Ukraine, threats can emerge quickly, necessitating a program in which multiple firms, experts and and startups can share ideas.

Discover

Discover this fall opened AARC@606, a center in Chicago that focuses on analytics, data science and other areas of technology that ties to payment cards.

The center in Chicago is recruiting financial technology workers, then training them or specific products at Discover. After rotating through several products, Discover will place the new staffers in a permanent department.