Katie Palencsar

Katie Palencsar currently leads the Female Innovators Lab in partnership with Barclays that invests in early stage female founded fintech businesses. Previously, she founded and led data SaaS company, Unbound Concepts from ideation to exit. The company’s data services, which were used by global distributors as well as privately owned and publicly traded publishers in addition to providing free software tools to over 40,000+ educators. Upon acquisition she served on the executive team and led Solutioning for Certica Solutions which was acquired by Instructure.

Katie lives in the world of idea to execution. Her work has led to new businesses, products, programs, teams, initiatives, revenue streams and funds within a myriad of industries: from fintech to edtech and data to brand partnerships and managing retired athletes’ business portfolios, just to name a few.

A first generation college graduate, she is committed to mentorship of diverse talent in investment and technology; she continues to be driven by her former colleagues and mentees who continue their professional growth and hold leadership positions in a variety of technology companies. Katie advised on Maryland State legislation for investment in female and minority-owned businesses that was successfully passed in 2019.