SAS’s new Fintech Incubator

SAS’s new fintech incubator found in London is now giving startups free access to the much needed data technology assets and industry expertise, claiming to reduce the time of gathering informations and test applications by up to 50%.

According to SAS, many fintech startups are designing projects based on open-source software in order to provide a proof-of-concept while saving money, which actually creates the later need of remaking the application altogether  in order to provide the needed scalable growth in a commercial environment.

“While technology is rapidly transforming the financial services industry, many businesses in this sector are focusing on compliance rather than innovation,” says Vincent Kilcoyne, fintech innovation lead at SAS UK & Ireland. “As such, the majority of technology development is happening outside established banks and inside fintech start-up companies, leading to a growing need to validate the viability of these offerings for maximum success rate.”

In order to help preventing this, the incubator is providing access to data science expertise and rapid prototyping environments in order to test innovations without financial struggle.
Daryl Bowden, CEO and Found of Glia Ecosystems, a fintech start-up for finanicial intermediaries and investors, has stated that using $5 million worth of SAS software assets offered a clear advantage.
“I was planning to undertake all my analytical development work using open source tools – largely for cost reasons,” he says. “We had a number of very open and constructive investigation meetings that really opened my eyes to a different way of working. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of analytical functionality that was available to Glia Ecosystems almost ‘out of the box’. I could immediately see how using SAS would slash my development effort and timescales, enabling me to get to market in a much shorter timeframe.”