Brussels, 8 October 2012 - Innotribe, Swift's initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, has announced the 15 finalists for the 2012 Innotribe Startup Challenge.
The finalists, selected from over 400 applicants by a panel of expert investors and financial industry professionals in Europe, the Americas and Asia, represent the most important products and services for the financial sector. At Sibos, Osaka, the finalists will showcase their innovations to a network of VCs, angels and professionals from the banking industry, who in turn will name the early-stage and growth-stage companies most likely to impact the financial industry, and award a $50,000 prize to the top startup.
This year's finalists are:
Growth-Stage Innovators
- Gust - http://gust.com/
- Lenddo - https://www.lenddo.com/
- OpenGamma - http://www.opengamma.com/
- Pendo Systems - http://www.pendosystems.com/
- The Currency Cloud - http://www.thecurrencycloud.com/
Early-Stage Start-ups
- Claveo Software - http://claveo.com/
- DemystData - https://demystdata.com/
- Digital Shadows - http://www.digitalshadows.com/
- Funding Options Ltd - http://www.fundingoptions.com/
- NestEgg - http://www.nesteggfintech.com/
- P2P Cash Technology - http://p2pcash.com/
- PhotoPay - http://www.photopay.net/
- PlayMoolah - http://www.playmoolah.com/
- Snappay - http://www.snap-pay.com/
- XYverify Corp. - http://www.xyverify.com/
Innotribe is committed to helping Swift member institutions and the wider banking community, identify and address important gaps within the financial technology sector. Matteo Rizzi, co-founder, Innotribe says, "The Startup Challenge provides invaluable exposure and networking opportunities to those competing. One of our main focuses is to facilitate the connection of the most promising innovations with the world's leading financial institutions and this is going to be an excellent event in which to witness that happen."
Digital Shadows won ‘Top Startup' at the Belfast leg of the Startup Challenge and will be at Sibos competing against the other finalists. Alastair Paterson, CEO, 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."
OpenGamma won ‘Top Innovator' at the Belfast leg of Startup Challenge. Kirk Wylie, Co-Founder and CEO, 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 finale will be held on Thursday 1 November at 12pm in the Innotribe space at Sibos. Attendance is open to all at the event. It is one of several streams and workshops within ‘Innotribe@Sibos' taking place in Osaka 29 Oct - 1 Nov. The streams will include a number of unique workshops designed to generate new ideas and tangible solutions to some of the biggest issues being discussed at the conference.
The Innotribe Startup Challenge is sponsored by Swift, Cisco, Sberbank and Invest Northern Ireland.
For further information about the Innotribe Startup Challenge please visit: http://innotribestartup.com/ and http://innotribe.com/startup-challenge/
For further information on the Innotribe sessions at Sibos please visit:
https://www.sibos.com/media/news/innotribe-and-future-fintech-innovation
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 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 our website http://www.swift.com/ or contact:
Cognito Europe
Paul Bowhay / Claudia Coleman
Tel: +44 (0) 207 438 1100
innotribe@cognitomedia.com
