The Fintech 5 with Erika Alter, Director of Marketing at FundGuard

The Fintech 5 is a series of blog posts consisting of questions and answers designed to help you get to know the people in the Fintech Sandbox community. Today, we’re talking to Erika Alter, the head of marketing at FundGuard, where she leads their marketing and brand strategies. Before FundGuard, Erika held marketing leadership roles at IHS Markit, Tradeweb, Thomson Financial, BISAM, and RIMES. Erika is also a certified Financial Information Associate (FISD), a member of 100 Women in Finance, and previously served on the Associate Board of Literacy Partners.

FundGuard is transforming legacy investment operations with an AI-powered, cloud native and multi-asset class SaaS platform for asset managers, asset owners, custodian banks and fund administrators. Their mission is to help investors around the world to accumulate and grow their assets safely and efficiently.

FundGuard is a sponsor of Boston Fintech Week this years and the exclusive sponsor and host of our opening reception.

#1. Erika, What problem does FundGuard solve, and why does it matter now?

At its core, FundGuard solves the limitations of legacy investment accounting platforms. These systems were designed decades ago for a very different market environment, and the workarounds firms have been forced to build on top of them are costly and unsustainable. By rebuilding investment accounting as a truly cloud-native, AI-powered platform, we enable asset managers and servicers to unify books of record, scale seamlessly across asset classes and geographies, and eliminate the operational friction that’s been holding the industry back. The timing matters because the demands on operations are only getting more complex. Regulatory pressure, new asset types and real-time client expectations don’t wait for outdated systems to catch up.

#2. How does FundGuard support operational resilience?

#3. What role do partnerships play in your growth?

They’re critical. The asset management ecosystem is interconnected, and no single platform can transform it in isolation. We’re partnering with leading asset servicers, custodians, implementation consultants, and technology providers to accelerate adoption and make FundGuard’s capabilities available where our clients already operate. The best partnerships are the ones where both sides are aligned on a vision for modernization, where we’re not just plugging into an existing process but rethinking what that process should look like in a cloud-native, real-time world.

#4. What’s next for FundGuard and the industry?

I think we’re at a tipping point. A few years ago, an asset management industry fully powered by cloud-native operations was still viewed as aspirational. Today, it’s an evolving reality and powering some of the world’s largest asset managers and servicers. The conversation has shifted from “if” to “how fast.” What’s next is broader adoption, more collaboration across the ecosystem, and new innovations we haven’t even imagined yet, because once you move off the constraints of legacy systems, the opportunities to transform are limitless.

#5. How does FundGuard engage with the startup ecosystem?

We see ourselves as part of the fintech community that’s challenging the status quo in financial services. FundGuard is a fintech startup and will always carry that DNA: we’re agile, collaborative, and relentlessly focused on solving real problems. We engage with the ecosystem through programs like Fintech Sandbox, through collaborations with other early-stage innovators, and by contributing thought leadership that pushes the industry conversation forward. Most importantly, we serve as proof that fintechs can drive transformation even in the most conservative corners of financial services. If FundGuard can help modernize investment accounting — a function that many thought could never change — that sends a powerful signal about what’s possible.

Bonus Question! What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read recently?

This study, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. I think the premise of the study certainly addresses a valid concern, but subsequent articles I’ve read about the story are mostly framing the findings as “AI is making us lazy,” which is perhaps too reductive. History (and science!) shows that human habits and thinking are ever‑evolving, and I believe our intelligence will successfully adapt to AI and other future‑state tech — as we always have.

Another Bonus Question! What is the best career or life advice you have received?

“There’s no race, there’s only a runner. Just keep one foot in front of the other.” It’s a line from a Lucius song that I’ve adopted as a mantra for both life and business. It’s a reminder to just keep going, whether that means taking a small step on a hard day or staying patient when progress feels slow.

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