Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp. is adding its name to a growing list of financial firms that are joining MaRS Discovery District’s financial technology, or fintech, cluster.
MaRS will house the Toronto location of Manulife’s Lab of Forward Thinking (LOFT), which provides a tangible space in which Manulife employees can collaborate and devise new technological solutions for the firm’s various wealth, asset-management and insurance business lines.
“We’re looking to our employees to solve problems and take risks using their own unique entrepreneurial talents,” says Sebastian Blandizzi, senior vice president, global solutions delivery and chief information officer, investment division, with Manulife, in a statement. “Initiatives like LOFT are critical to our future success as we strive to create innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
The firm begins its partnership with MaRS through a “hackathon” competition at its Toronto LOFT location. The event occurs Dec. 1 and 2 and is open to Manulife employees and external entrepreneurs. Participants are expected to pitch new products and services that would benefit Manulife clients. The winning team would receive $10,000.
Manulife opened a LOFT site in Boston this past July and has plans to expand this innovation platform to its Singapore office. In 2014, the firm launched the RED Lab, a similar innovation space, in Waterloo, Ont.’s Communitech hub, which supports technology startups in that region.
MaRS’s fintech cluster also includes partnerships with TMX Group Ltd., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and PayPal Inc., in addition to other financial services companies.