Learn more about the advantages of participating in the FinTech Innovation Lab New York
NEW YORK; Sep. 22, 2025 – Applications are now open for the FinTech Innovation Lab New York, a 12-week program co-founded by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City that connects early- and growth-stage fintech and insurtech companies with top financial services and venture capital firms to accelerate product and business development through in-depth collaboration.
The FinTech Innovation Lab is designed for entrepreneurs developing disruptive enterprise technologies for the financial services industry, including the banking, payments, insurance, and capital markets sectors. The Lab has helped establish New York City as a fintech hub for enterprise technology innovation and its graduates have raised over $3 billion and have had 32 acquisitions in the program’s 15 years.
Applications for the 2026 class are open and available here. Companies are encouraged to apply early, with limited space available before applications close on November 21st. The Lab will host an in-person information session on November 4th, and a virtual information session on November 14th for those interested in applying.
Based on feedback from senior executives at participating financial institutions, this year’s Lab is searching for promising early- and growth-stage companies developing solutions in 10 major areas:
- Agentic Infrastructure that embeds into existing infrastructure to orchestrate AI agents across an organization to act autonomously, speed up workflows, and reduce repetitive manual tasks;
- AI Estate Management tools that oversee enterprise AI applications and usage, ensuring compliance and efficiency through governance, explainable AI, and AIOps;
- Front-Office AI Enablement leveraging AI to drive growth through supporting customer-facing teams, delivering hyper-personalized client experiences, and enhancing marketing activities;
- Next-Gen Processing that applies AI and automation to reinvent manual processes within specific business disciplines, enhancing employee efficiency and streamlining routine workflows across niche operations;
- Talent Transformation platforms that support HR teams as they adapt to an AI-enabled workforce, with a focus on collaboration and productivity tools, hiring and retention, and employee training powered by AI;
- Data Architecture and Infrastructure tools that accelerate enterprise data modernization through optimized cataloging, taxonomy, and governance, enabling organizations to gain meaningful business insights and power AI use cases;
- Cybersecurity Solutions that defend against advanced threats while embedding compliance into operations, including post-quantum cryptography, fraud prevention, and AI data-sharing protection;
- Compliance and RegTech tools that help financial institutions stay ahead of regulations, simplify compliance, and prevent fraud through process automation in Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML), digital identity management, and audit assistance;
- Blockchain and Digital Asset platforms that create new value opportunities through tokenization, smart contracts, and distributed ledgers with a focus on cross-border payments, alternative asset management, and AI intersection;
- Research & Insights platforms that collect and organize external data sources, delivering actionable insights to improve advisory and investment decisions in asset and wealth management.
Maria Gotsch, co-founder of the FinTech Innovation Lab and President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City, said, “The rapid development of AI has the potential to transform how financial institutions serve their customers. The FinTech Innovation Lab is more important than ever, offering a place for entrepreneurs and financial services executives to come together to explore how to apply this technology in practice, whether through more seamless service, faster access to information, or greater personalization. The Lab ensures that new technology isn’t only innovative, but impactful, helping solidify New York City’s position as a global leader of innovation in financial services.”
Steve Murphy, Accenture’s Financial Services industry solutions lead and executive sponsor of the FinTech Innovation Lab New York, said, “At Accenture, we’re helping financial institutions solve how they approach automation and workforce evolution with the adoption of agentic AI. The Fintech ecosystem will also play a valuable role in building the agentic infrastructure and reskilling employees to work effectively alongside increasingly capable digital colleagues. By bringing together human ingenuity and advanced technology, the Lab provides startups with the mentorship and experience needed to deploy their solutions in large enterprise environments, ultimately enabling the financial services industry to scale agentic AI responsibly.”
The final class of companies will be selected through a competitive process where senior technology executives from more than 40 participating financial institutions will determine the 2026 class. The Lab will then partner the selected fintechs with senior-level executives from the participating institutions, who will help them develop and enhance their technologies and business strategies through a series of one-on-one meetings, panel discussions, user-group sessions and networking opportunities, including with leading technology and corporate luminaries. The program will begin in March and culminate in June 2026 with a Demo Day, where the class will present to an audience of venture capitalists and financial industry executives.
Since its founding in 2010, the FinTech Innovation Lab New York has assisted entrepreneurs from 130 technology companies. These program graduates have created more than 3,000 jobs and raised more than $3 billion in venture financing, and 32 of them have been acquired.
The full list of participating financial institutions and venture capital partners can be found here.
# # #
Contact:
FIL NYC