Accelerating a culture of innovation
We recognize that our customers operate in a complex and often challenging world. We believe that Moody’s Analytics has a key role to play in helping to catalyze the growing community of startups that are creating the next generation of ideas.
Through the Moody’s Analytics Accelerator, we are partnering with promising startups to help develop a culture of knowledge sharing and engagement within the broader fintech community. Through our work with the nonprofit data provider FinTech Sandbox, we are creating opportunities for startups to connect with established firms to drive innovation.
“We are tapping into the ecosystem of startups and up-and-coming organizations and figuring out new ways to create win-wins,” says Keith Berry, executive director of the Moody’s Analytics Accelerator.
Sparking new ideas in the community — and within our walls
Innovation does not happen in a vacuum. That is why the Accelerator team is passionate about providing opportunities for innovators to meet, collaborate and inspire one another by hosting regular Meetup events. These Meetups are opportunities for the fintech community to learn about new market trends and technologies that could be leveraged to create new ways of doing things.
DataDrivenNYC, one of our most popular Meetups, is a monthly event organized with venture capital firm FirstMark Capital, where hundreds of people gather to hear how technology leaders and innovators are using data in new and exciting ways. And the Accelerator now hosts FinTech Sandbox’s annual NYC Demo Day, which highlights its portfolio of startups.
We are just as dedicated to giving our own technology experts room to flex their skills and grow. In December 2018, the Accelerator hosted Hack Day NYC, an enrichment event where 14 Moody’s engineering, developer and UX teams collaborated on solving problems such as facial recognition and voice command. The hack athon gave participants an opportunity to work with colleagues outside of their teams while experimenting with new technology. More Hack Days are planned for 2019 in Moody’s Analytics offices around the world.
Inside the lab: Bringing AI to the financial world
Our vision has attracted many like-minded startups, including cognaize, which partnered with the Accelerator to create QUIQspread, an intelligent financial spreading solution.
When a bank reviews a single borrower’s financials, the spreading process takes roughly 45 minutes, and a large bank will typically process between 300,000 and 500,000 financials a year. The Accelerator started with the idea that by bringing artificial intelligence and automation to this process our customers can streamline repetitive and highly manual tasks. That idea was the genesis of QUIQspread.
We work hand in hand with our partners to solve problems like these, engaging many of our own software engineers and project managers on these initiatives to ensure that knowledge — and data — transfers smoothly throughout product development.
“Moody’s Analytics has a very good strategy and a good understanding of how to work with startups,” says cognaize CEO, Vahe Andonians.“We are at the forefront of research, trying to do something very difficult,and the Moody’s team is really good at giving us the resources we need to do that.”
QUIQspread launched in December 2018 and is now live with early customers. The Accelerator’s focus on artificial intelligence, combined with the copious amounts of financial data to which Moody’s Analytics has access, has allowed QUIQspread to achieve 60% accuracy in financial statement processing out of the box. And, as more customers use the tool, the accuracy rate increases, making QUIQspread smarter with every spread.
We believe a culture that embraces innovation and knowledge sparks more innovation and deeper knowledge in turn. By continuing to find and support trailblazers like cognaize, we hope to help fuel an ongoing chain of prosperity.
“We are tapping into the ecosystem of startups and up-and-coming organizations and figuring out new ways to create win-wins.”
KEITH BERRY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MOODY’S ANALYTICS ACCELERATOR
“We are at the forefront of research, trying to do something very difficult, and the Moody’s team is really good at giving us the resources we need to do that.”
VAHE ANDONIANS
CEO, COGNAIZE
32
Number of meetups the Accelerator has hosted since inception
