New York, June 3, 2013 - Innotribe, Swift's initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, is holding the American leg of its annual Startup Challenge in New York on June 13, 2013 at the New York office of Swift. The competition aims to foster innovation in the financial industry by introducing companies delivering new products and services in financial technology and financial services to the wider financial community. The Challenge provides promising entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow their business with consultation and funding from Swift.
Semi-finalists of the Americas Innotribe Startup Challenge will pitch their original business ideas to a panel of the financial industry's leading angels, venture capitalists, and decision-makers. The New York finalists will go on to compete against the winners from London and Singapore at Swift's annual Sibos conference in Dubai this September.
Innotribe focuses on creation and collaboration and has selected 15 semi-finalists whose business ideas identify and address important gaps within the financial technology sector. Matteo Rizzi, co-founder at Innotribe said: "The Innotribe Startup Challenge provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their work by pitching to key financial decision-makers. The U.S. is a critical market and we look forward to continuing the encouragement of innovation in this region."
This year's semi-finalists are:
Early-stage start-ups
AgentPiggy – http://www.agentpiggy.com
Agile Credit – http://www.agilecredit.com
GoodApril – http://www.GoodApril.com
LICUOS – http://www.licuos.com
P2P Cash – http://www.p2pcash.com
PeopleHedge Corp – http://www.peoplehedge.com
QuantConnect – http://www.quantconnect.com
Realty Mogul – http://www.realtymogul.com
V2PAY – http://www.v2pay.com
XYverify – http://www.xyverify.com
Growth-stage innovators
Quantum4d – http://www.quantum4d.com/
The Entrepreneurial Finance Lab – http://www.eflglobal.com
Voicetrust – http://www.voicetrust.com
Yseop – http://www.yseop.com
Zighra – http://www.zighra.com
Dr. Mircea Mihaescu, Director, Sberbank IT Strategy Division, who sat on the judging panel to form the shortlist of start-ups said: "The Innotribe Startup Challenge brings forth the top financial technology innovations year-after-year. The inventive presentation style and interactive productions provide us a real opportunity to examine the innovation and understand the developers' vision. I look forward to seeing what this year's participants have prepared."
Start-ups from last year's Challenge have secured large contracts with global financial services firms. Launched by Swift, the Startup Challenge travels around the world with three regional showcases in the Americas, Asia and Europe. It provides participants with the unique opportunity to get together and create smart company pitches, facilitate insightful discussions on emerging innovations and participate in useful networking events.
The Innotribe Startup Challenge is sponsored by Invest NI, HP, Level39 and Sberbank.
For further information about the Innotribe Startup Challenge please visit: http://innotribestartup.com
About Innotribe
Launched in 2009, Innotribe is Swift's initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services. Innotribe presents an energizing 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 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 212 countries and territories. 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:
Swift
Ashley O'Brien
Tel: +1 212 455 1942
ashley.OBRIEN@Swift.com
Intermarket Communications
Eric Hazard
Tel: +1 212 754 5610
ehazard@intermarket.com
