Businesses reveal new Fintech solutions designed to shape the future of financial services
Eleven entrepreneurs and small businesses have showcased their innovative business propositions, designed to shape the future of financial services, to an audience of more than 300 angel investors, venture capitalists, senior executives and corporate partners at a demo day in London, as the first cohort of the Barclays Accelerator concludes.
The Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, is a three month intensive start-up programme designed to support new businesses deliver their breakthrough innovations in FinTech.
The programme launched in June when the eleven successful start-ups joining the programme were unveiled, picked from hundreds of applicants globally. These businesses have spent the last three months developing and refining their business models, receiving expert mentoring and advice, driving to customer traction. Being based at the London Escalator, they have been given the optimum environment to thrive.
The teams highlighted the progress they have made since being part of the Accelerator programme. Some of the key wins have included:
– Building from a single product to delivering a platform
– Onboarding of new clients
– Job creation, expanding their teams
– Building a network of contacts
Talking about the invaluable experience, Salvatore Ruocco from Vieweet said: “We’ve got two years’ worth of work done in just three months.”
Ideas range from a new credit scoring system to a new peer-to-peer lending platform that will revolutionise the home-buying process. Some of the teams have also joined forces with Barclays, for example:
– Tryum have capitalised on the exclusive access to the Barclays Pingit API – looking at how they can integrate it at point of sale into their customer engagement platform.
– Dopay are working with Barclays Egypt, piloting a banking solution for those who do not currently have a bank account.
Commenting on the conclusion of the programme, Derek White, Barclays chief design and digital officer, said: “Today is about celebrating the successes, partnership and an exciting future with some of the leading start-ups in the entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem right now. These businesses are delivering disruptive technology with fresh solutions to challenges faced within financial services – Barclays is embracing that to ensure we are part of the next generation of banking. We recognise the need to work with start-ups to create amazing products and services for our customers and clients, as we strive to become the go-to bank and the Accelerator is a key part of this.”
Greg Rogers, managing director of Techstars added: “London is quickly becoming the world’s FinTech hub. This program and our partnership with Barclays is a reflection of how excited we are to not only accelerate the growth of our start-ups but also that of the start-up ecosystem here.”
Over the next three years, Barclays and Techstars have committed to working together to offer up to five different accelerator programmes.