Brussels, June 18 2012 - Innotribe, Swift's initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, announced that Digital Shadows and OpenGamma have been awarded "Top Startup" and "Top Innovator" respectively, at the third and final Innotribe Startup Challenge Regional Showcase held on June 14, 2012 in Belfast.
Digital Shadows won the title of "Top Startup" with innovation in cyber security. Digital Shadows has developed a B2B cyber monitoring service that continually assesses an organisation's attack service. This includes the monitoring of social media, technology and informational footprints. Spanning over 45 million sources in 19 languages, the service delivers an up to the minute "hacker's eye view" of an organisation and identifies risks that can help clients to mitigate.
OpenGamma won the title of "Top Innovator" with innovation in technology for financial institutions to improve analytics calculation and delivery to front-office and risk users. The OpenGamma Platform creates complete transparency into everything the risk system is doing allowing firms to focus their IT spend on what really differentiates them from their competition, gain a better understanding of their investment risk, and meet new regulatory demands.
As "Top Startup" and "Top Innovator" for the European Showcase, Digital Shadows and OpenGamma will now advance to the Innotribe Startup Challenge finals to be held at Sibos - Swift's annual conference - in Osaka in October 2012.
Alastair Paterson, CEO, Digital Shadows said: "We are thrilled to be selected by the financial services industry for our cyber monitoring service that protects organisations from the risks to their security and reputation posed by the information they expose online. The ability to reach out to so many top-tier companies has been invaluable for us and we are excited to be competing again in Osaka."
Kirk Wylie, Co-Founder and CEO, OpenGamma said: "We're extremely excited to be named winner of the Innovator category at the Innotribe Startup Challenge Belfast, and humbled by the quality of the other semi-finalists. This was a fabulous experience for OpenGamma, and our win in Belfast, coupled with our opportunity to now move on to the final stage of competition at Sibos in Osaka, gives us fantastic exposure to the entire Swift community. As every Swift member firm needs to focus on their market risk technology in an environment of changing regulations and increased scrutiny on cost and transparency, we are confident that the OpenGamma Platform can deliver tremendous value to the majority of Swift participants."
The Innotribe Startup Challenge saw 14 of the region's most promising FinTech and Financial Services startups present their businesses to an audience of dozens of the financial industry's most influential innovation executives, early-stage investors and press.
Kosta Peric, Head of Innovation at Swift and Co-Founder of Innotribe said: "Another excellent event in an amazing venue, with great pitches to close the Startup Challenge semi-finals before we head to Sibos in Osaka later this year. The winners, Digital Shadows and OpenGamma can be proud as there was some incredible competition! It's a testament to the Challenges, which have given some great businesses the stage they need in the industry."
The Belfast Startup Challenge was the final of three regional challenges held in 2012 and was sponsored by Sberbank, Invest Northern Ireland, Cisco and Guidewire Group. Semi-finalists from all three regions, New York, Singapore and Belfast, will now have the opportunity to present to key business professionals at Sibos in October.
More information about the Startup Challenge, including the Belfast semi-finalists, is available at http://www.innotribestartup.com/.
About Innotribe
Launched in 2009, Innotribe is Swift's initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services. Innotribe presents an energising mix of education, new perspectives, collaboration, facilitation and incubation to professionals and entrepreneurs who are willing to drive change within their industry. It fosters creative thinking in financial services, through debating the options (at Innotribe events) and supporting the creation of innovative new solutions (through the Incubator, Startup Challenge and Proof of Concepts (POCs). It is through this approach, the Innotribe team at Swift is able to generate a platform that enables innovation across Swift and the financial community. For more information, please visit http://www.innotribe.com/.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, please refer to http://www.swift.com/ or contact:
Cognito Europe
Paul Bowhay / Claudia Coleman
Tel: +44 (0) 207 438 1100
innotribe@cognitomedia.com
