FinTech+GeoInt synergies driving development in St. Louis

Earlier this year, Geospatial World Magazine highlighted the development and place-making effects of a new “urban insight district in St. Louis at the Heart of America”, the Downtown North Insight District.

This technology-focused downtown Innovation District is unique in several ways: first, its technology focus includes both Geospatial Intelligence and FinTech anchors, along with several other key technology institutions; and, second, its downtown location spans most of the entire northern portion of St. Louis’ central business district.

The district is also near two anchor public institutions—the now under construction 3,100-job, $1.75 billion, 1 million square foot, 100-acre National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) western headquarters, as well as the now expanding 500,000-sq.-ft. America’s Center Convention Complex (home of the 2021 and 2023 GEOINT Symposia).

The focus of previous 2022 Geospatial World Magazine features on St. Louis has been on the continued growth of Geospatial Intelligence firms and institutions and the geospatial intelligence ecosystem in the new district. This article focuses on the consequent growth of the FinTech sector and its unique relationship to geospatial growth in the St. Louis ecosystem.

Malou Damgaard of Denmark-based MapsPeople describes the relationship between FinTech and Location, “These days FinTech is a buzzword. Already used by over 50% of financial customers worldwide, the sector is growing rapidly.” She concludes, “It’s not just a trend anymore, it’s an innovative industry…it’s a global movement.”

In a June 2022 article in Forbes, Enterprise Tech, “The Rise of Spatial Finance”, Brian Cross of ESRI described “Spatial Finance” as the ability to quantify and analyze the effects of business on nature, and nature on business as a competitive advantage in corporate finance. He observes, “Spatial finance relies on innovative geospatial technologies, including a modern geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing and artificial intelligence.”

He concluded: “The growth of the practice is magnified by the abundance of near-real-time images and information generated by satellites, drones and IoT sensors – and the use of machine learning algorithms that rapidly process images and sensor readings for insights, anomalies, or patterns.”

The September 27, 2022 issue of Financial IT was headlined “How Geospatial Data Is Expected to Revolutionize Fintech & Banking”.

One of the co-founders of the Downtown North District is St. Louis-based global FinTech entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, who also co-founded Square (now BLOCK) with Jack Dorsey.

Jim recently spoke about the rationale for FinTech and Geospatial Intelligence combining to drive innovation: “Larger banks and financial institutions are heavily regulated, which limits their ability to explore new ideas and innovation. These institutions partner with younger and more flexible technology companies to gain access to new markets and to better understand their customers. This allows suppliers to create products and services that meet their needs.”

It is in this context of innovation that McKelvey also pursues yet another combination of disciplines; namely downtown revitalization, technological innovation and real estate.

Two and a half years ago, Berglund and McKelvey, along with their real estate partner John Berglund, co-founder and managing partner of their real estate development firm, The StarWood Group, announced that they had purchased the then-headquarters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, and had signed a 15-year lease with San Francisco-based Square (now BLOCK) and moved all 500 St. Louis employees at Square to the completely renovated nearly quarter-million-square-foot Post-Dispatch Building, creating high-tech space for an eventual 1,400 employees in the building.

At the same time, the seeds were planted for the development of a multi-block downtown Innovation District, originally called the “NOW Innovation District”, referring to the north of Washington, St. Louis’ first Washington Avenue tech corridor, from which both the Square and The Globe Building are 2 blocks north.

In announcing Square, McKelvey and Berglund indicated that they “wanted more than just the Post-Dispatch building.” As the St. Louis Business Journal chronicled StarWood Group’s intentions: “Ultimately, it came down to wanting more. They wanted more people. They wanted more growth. They wanted more life in a forgotten corner of the city centre.”

John Berglund has observed, “we knew the interest had to be more than just a building. We thought the north side was an untapped opportunity.”

The decision by BLOCK/Square to locate in St Louis follows a national trend of decentralizing tech jobs outside of Silicon Valley to communities that provide more cost-effective ways to deliver services. A prime example is MasterCard’s decision a few years ago to locate its global headquarters and 3,500 jobs in St. Louis. Today, virtually every MasterCard transaction in the world is processed 24/7, every day of the year through St. Louis.

Speaking about the unique synergies of FinTech and GEOINT in the district, Berglund notes: “Integrating geospatial and fintech is a natural evolution of two rapidly expanding industries. It is estimated that the global Fintech market will hit north of $300 billion in five years. Geographic and location data is collected daily and mined for retail benefits, climate risk, location of competitors and so on. This allows them to track foot traffic, demographic data and customer preferences based on habits.”

He continued, “Banks are competing to offer an increased level of personal service that customers see as standard. Intuitive customer interface while maintaining necessary security protocols is important on a mobile platform. Location of nearest ATM is only assumed. Location data plays a part of this.”

St. Louis’ goal is to continue to ride this trend to showcase how St. Louis continues to be the choice for other FinTech and GEOINT companies.

The STL 2030 Jobs Plan, completed last year, provides context here: noting that the St. Louis region of 2.8 million people already includes 22 global headquarters established there; has a cost of living that is only 88% of the US average; and that there are currently over 275,000 jobs in the GEONT, FinTech and Digital Transformation sectors. Meanwhile, on the GEOINT front itself, as NGA’s new western headquarters continues to progress toward a first quarter 2026 opening just several blocks from the Downtown North District,

Geospatial Intelligence firms and specialized intelligence facilities also continue to expand in The Globe Building. The recent placement of General Dynamics at The Globe – along with MAXAR, T-Kartor, Ball Aerospace and Geospatial World – underscores The Globe as “the destination of choice for GEOINT firms in St. Louis.”

In this regard, The Globe Building was recently named “St. Louis Development of the Year for 2022” by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.

“The District has quickly become the core of St. Louis’ efforts to achieve its vision of being a global geospatial intelligence hub,” said GEOINT expert Keith Masback, currently Plum Run, LLC. “The unique combination of a startup ecosystem, world-class workplaces and a massive multi-tenant classified area – all in close proximity to Next NGA West – is unparalleled, and is clearly the strategic differentiator for GEOINT in St. Louis.” Masback served as executive director of the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) for over a decade.

Planning for a community improvement district is underway, along with both long-term plans for the overall district by The StarWood Group and their community partners.

Today, this unique synergy between Fintech and GEOINT is helping to chart a new north for St. Louis.