It seems like new #fintech #startups show up daily, all vying for the top slot in the type of financial service they offer: want to find a P2P lending service? There’s dozens of startups for that. Need help with stock options or expenses? Well, there’s a few dozen startups forRead More
Bank Innovation
25 #bitcoin companies plan to #launch #smart #contract federation to support new applications of the #blockchain #technology previously dominated by ethereum.
CoinDesk
When you’re in financial services, it sometimes seems like #fintech #startups are everywhere. They&8217;re on Twitter, LinkedIn, they&8217;re at conferences, they&8217;re in your inbox, they may be waiting outside your office this very minute. But for each one you&8217;ve #heard of, there are ten you #probably haven&8217;t come across yet, andRead More
Bank Innovation
Just like Facebook, Twitter and recently, Snapchat, #Instagram are one of the most active social media platforms which attract millions of users globally.
According to statista.com, Instagram users had increased from 9 millions in 2013 to 500 millions in June 2016, an impressive growth in such a short period of time.
If Facebook is your big community to share interests and stay connected, Twitter is your latest stream of news and updates with simple texts, images and links, Snapchat is your place for live videos, then Instagram is your favourite daily photo album. It’s all about images and just images.
So, social media wise, does Instagram fit for #Fintech #startups, Fintech firms and companies to develop their awareness? The answer is, just like any other social media platform, it depends on what is shared with the community. Several Fintech startups have been picking up the trend and doing quite well on Instagram.
In the list of Top 30 Swiss Fintech Startups, Social Media Ranking by Fintech News Switzerland, 11 out of 30 startups have been running an active Instagram #accounts.
Top 30 Swiss Fintech Startups. See details at http://fintechnews.ch/top-30-fintech-startups-in-switzerland-2/ fintech customerexperience banking digital payments onlinepayment blockchain bitcoin insurtech financial technology cryptocurrency crowdlending crowdfunding Lending finance event startups entrepreneurship entrepreneurs bigdata cryptocurrency lending p2p peertopeer switzerland banking banks innovation insurance roboadvisors
Because of the uniqueness of Instagram, a few #Swiss Fintech startups have been sharing their news and updates in form of images only with their followers in different ways.
Other accounts are Advanon, CreditGate24, Knip, Splendit, Investiere
The post Swiss Fintech Startups Accounts to Follow on Instagram appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
The #Swiss #fintech startup scene has been growing steadily during the past year, expanding from 157 #startups in November 2015 to 185 players in June 2016, according to Swisscom’s Fintech Map.
Image via Wikipedia
Despite the growing industry, Switzerland&8217;s fintech sector is lagging behind the likes of New York and London. Industry observers have pointed out the lack of governmental and institutional support in comparison to these front-runners.
A report released in February by EY and the Swiss Finance + #Technology Association on the Swiss fintech sector argued that there were “clearly some room for improvement regarding governmental support,” adding that Switzerland had yet to leverage its strong position as a financial center in Europe to become a global fintech hub.
Swiss financial regulators have been slow to react to the emergence of the digital economy. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has recently introduced a new ruling to facilitate client on-boarding through digital channels.
At the Swiss International Finance Forum in June, FINMA&8217;s director Mark Branson said:
&8220;The financial revolution is evolving so rapidly that we can’t get bogged down striving for a 100% perfect legislative solution. We are advocating swift action that we can fine tune later.&8221;
That said, there are several reasons to be optimistic about Switzerland&8217;s nascent fintech sector. The country&8217;s strong data protection laws, tax regime and political neutrality have attracted a number of foreign companies and organizations including the Ethereum Foundation and Xapo.
Switzerland has notable competitive advantages as a fintech hub in comparison to the likes of London or Berlin. To mention here the stability and reliability in general (financial, legal, government, and so on), which continues to be a hard value for other locations to match. The existing financial services expertise remains another strong advantage. However, the high salaries in Switzerland is another story.
Today, a number of Swiss fintech startups are standing out. These are covering varied industries and applications ranging from wealth management, #blockchain technology, to insurtech and crowdfunding.
Based in Zurich, DealMarket is a Swiss fintech startup provide three distinct products: a global marketplace for fundraising and deal sourcing, connecting the private equity industry; a browser-based deal flow management and deal exchange tool; and the DealMarket Intelligence which offers affordable access to third-party data, research and services.
Another crowdlending platform is Splendit, which focuses on allowing students to access a fair source of financial their education. The platform matches students and investors in an auction process, issues documents and manages payments.
CreditGate24 is a highly automated platform that connects borrowers with private and institutional investors, offering an efficient and scalable settlement of loans. The company applies a strict credit check based on classic credit assessment methods, Big Data analysis, as well as the insurance and the solidarity arrangement.
Image credit:
Xapo, one of the #bitcoin industry&8217;s best-funded startups, provides bitcoin storage services and a digital wallet. Initially headquartered in California, Xapo relocated to Switzerland in May 2015 in a bid to boost customer privacy protections. The startup has raised US$ 40 million in funding so far.
The Ethereum Foundation is the organization overseeing Ethereum, the open source decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run as programmed without possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. Ethereum&8217;s crowdfunding campaign is one of the most successful campaigns to date, raising over US$ 18 million in bitcoin.
iProtus is a company that provides consulting services on blockchain technology and helps businesses implement new business models with distributed ledgers.
Knip is undoubtedly one of the most visible insurtech ventures in Switzerland. Founded in 2013 by Dennis Just and Christina Kehl, Knip has now over 100 employees based all over Europe. Knip provides users with a digital insurance manager and a mobile app that allows for the management of existing insurance politics, tariffs and services.
Image credit: Pressmaster via Shutterstock
True Wealth is an online wealth management platform and an automated investment solution based in Zurich. True Wealth is an independent asset manager and a member of the Swiss Association of Asset Managers (SAAM).
Qontis is an online personal finance management (PFM) platform that provides users with the ability to document and organize data from all instances of private income and expenditures.
MoneyPark is an independent provider of personalized financial advice on mortgages, providing pension planning and investment guidance. MoneyPark is a financial intermediary that is subordinated to FINMA and holds a license as a distributor of collective investment schemes.
Other ventures worth mentioning include Qumram, a cybersecurity firm; Advanon, an invoice financial platform; CashSentinel, an online platform focused on facilitating the purchase and selling of vehicles; TawiPay, a financial services comparison platform focused on money transfers and remittances; Amnis, an online platform for currency exchange and foreign currency payments; Contovista, a digital banking software company; and Run My Accounts, an automated online accounting platform for SMEs.
See the Full List of all 30 Swiss Fintech Startups to #Watch HERE
The post 30 Swiss Fintech Startups To Watch appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Kickstart, a Swiss #accelerator program based in #Zurich, has announced the ten #fintech #startups selected to join its first batch of the #Kickstart summer program. These ten startups will now begin the acceleration phase and will temporarily relocate their teams to Zurich and prepare for Demo Day set to place on November 04, 2016.
The ten fintech startups are tackling a number of sub-segments composing financial services ranging from mobile payments, insurance, to risk management and stock trading.
via @UBSschweiz, Twitter
Veezoo, a Swiss startup based in Zurich that provides a tool for people to allow them to explore and visualize stock market data efficiently. Veezoo is supported by SIX.
James, owned by New York-based Crowdprocess, is a SaaS for risk departments. James allows risk officers to build, test and validate credit-scoring models, and is equipped with Machine Learning algorithms, techniques and validation methods. Crowdprocess is funded by Seedcamp, top Google executives, Thompson Reuters, the European Central Bank, Quant research funds, among other investors.
Sureify, by California-based Sureify Labs, is a SaaS-based engagement platform that provides a solution to carrier’s ongoing problem of staying connected to their policyholders. Sureify specializes in life insurance products.
Mergims is a Rwandan mobile commerce and payments app that focuses on remittances to African countries. Mergims allows for the payment of mobile topups, utility bills, but also links to critical services such as hospital, medicines, school and transports.
Gatechain is a Zurich-based startup that uses #blockchain #technology for trade finance that allows for the reduction of processing time and the lowering of costs while improving cash-flow in trade.
Zoa, a solution developed by Zurich-based company MyDataMint, is an application and a platform for exchanging personal data between consumers and companies. On Zoa, companies can buy personal data directly from users in exchange for cash.
Lenditapp, a New York-based company, provides a a cloud-based business process and Customer Acquisition Management solution for sales organization and funders catering to the alternative small business lending community.
Nivaura, formerly known as Crowdaura, provides a blockchain-based digital platform for execution and lifecycle management of small financial assets. The company targets investment #banks, asset managers, brokers, reinsurers and exchanges.
Surong 360 is a Chinese startup that provides a platform for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. Targeted at university students and alumni, Surong 360 doesn&8217;t intervene in the transaction, but instead, functions as a social network for P2P lending with flexible interest rates.
BreadWallet is a standalone mobile #bitcoin wallet aimed at providing users with a simple, convenient and secure solution to send and receive bitcoins on their smartphones.
Launched in January this year during the Investor Summit, Kickstart combines the strengths of academia, global corporations, and many successful local startups, to deliver an internationally recognized startup program aimed at giving access to promising startups to Switzerland&8217;s hub of tech and innovation.
The Kickstart Accelerator is operated by Impact Hub Zurich and is an initiative launched in cooperation with DigitalZurich2025, a cross-industry project aimed at turning Switzerland into a leading digital innovation hub in Europe.
The Kickstart Accelerator has four verticals: fintech, smart and connected machines, future and emerging technology and food.
Selected startups are given up to 25,000 CHF in seed funding, a monthly founder stipend of up to 1,500 CHF to support living costs, dedicated mentorship from industry leaders, a shared office space and fast-track access to relevant industry partners and the Swiss startup ecosystem.
Backed by some of Switzerland&8217;s biggest companies including UBS, Credit Suisse, Swisscom, Migros and EY, the Kickstart Accelerator aims at supporting young international entrepreneurs and focuses on launching new products into the market as well as promoting the domestic digital innovation scene.
Featured image via @UBSSchweiz, Twitter.
The post Kickstart Accelerator Zurich Selects 10 Startups for Fintech Category appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Head of corporate strategy at the First International Bank of Israel elaborates on the #fintech-banking crossroad.
FinTech – Finance Magnates | Financial and business news
This is a guest post by Amy Radin. It is a two-parter. The first #part was yesterday. We have also posted it onto the #Fintech Genome to stimulate discussion there. In yesterday’s post, I provided categories within which to organize the #innovation players within #life #insurance.   Both #startups and legacy businesses are pursuing solutions…Read more Life insurance innovation Part II: Startups and #carriers in&160;#pursuit
Bank Innovation
German #engineering #giant #Siemens plans to #invest in #blockchain #startups and projects through a newly created business unit backed by $ 1.1b in capital.
CoinDesk
If my thesis on the growing importance of Corporate Venture Capital, b2b business models and #finserv (banking or insurance) #Incumbents as strategic partners for #fintech #startups – in lending, capital markets, payments, asset management and insurance &8211; then it is of the utmost importance for said startups to know how to #engage with their future investors/customers/partners. To be clear, for the purposes of this exercise I will assume there is a business/#technology rationale and intent to partner.
The most optimal way to know how to engage with someone is to learn how they engage with you.
A finserv Incumbent will engage you along three vectors: a) the venture investing vector, b) the innovation vector, and c) the business vector.
Answering questions around what, how, who and where along these three vectors is paramount to your future success. Answers to many of the questions I am mapping out below will help you gauge not only the mechanics of engagement but the culture of the strategic partner you are dealing with and if that culture fits with your vision.
Your goal is to figure out how difficult the road ahead is and what to do to maximize success. Remember that dealing with a finserv Incumbent is eminently more difficult that dealing with an independent venture investor.
As a rule of thumb the more abstracted, specialized and sophisticated each of these vectors are, the easier it will be to achieve your goals, assuming business alignment and intent are present. Picture a finserv Incumbent where there is no venture or innovation team per se and where all decision will be made on balance sheet by business leaders with little understanding of early stage technology or business models and you will readily understand that your path will be rather arduous.
Here are a few pointers I recommend fintech entrepreneurs pay heed to when interacting with a bank or an insurance company. Answering these questions will lead you to better understand what beast you are dealing with.
1) How does an Incumbent invest in startups: Does the group you are dealing with have a dedicated team specialized in venture investing or a generalist team that takes care of any type of investment? Is the venture team investing on balance sheet or are they organized as a separate entity? How much capital is dedicated to venture investing? Who sits on the Investment Committee, only the venture team, only executives, a mix? What can they invest in and what cannot they invest in? What makes them consider making an investment? Can they invest without a commercial or strategic rationale?
2) How mature is an Incumbent’s venture investing practice: How many investments have they made? What is their due diligence and investment process? How long does it take? How deep is the due diligence process? How much capital is left to make investments in the next 3 years? What is their reputation? Are they specialized enough to know venture investing is as much of an art as it is a science, if not more?
3) How does an Incumbent approach innovation: Do they have an innovation group? Is it centralized or decentralized &8211; especially important if you are dealing with a global incumbent? In case there is a central innovation group and decentralized teams, who is the decision maker when considering innovation projects? Is the innovation group divided into specialized teams?
4) How mature is an Incumbent&8217;s innovation group: How long has the group been in existence? How many projects has the group worked on? How many projects can the group work on simultaneously? Does the group work on projects with early stage startups as well as established service providers? How savvy are they with your technology? What is their reputation in the marketplace? Are they leaders, “me too” players?
5) What is the role of the business group involved: Do they have decision making powers when contemplating an investment, when contemplating a commercial agreement? When do they get involved &8211; early in the process, late? Can they contemplate a commercial agreement without making an investment?
6) How mature are the Incumbent&8217;s business groups when dealing with startups: How many startups have they dealt with? How many commercial agreements have they completed? Where they front line or did they rely on Venture and Innovation? What is their reputation? What is the average time for them to go to market with new projects? How is their incentive, top line or cost wise, with your particular business? Are they urgently in need of your business solution?
7) Interaction between Venture, Innovation and the Business groups: Who leads, who follows, who reports to whom? Is the interest in interacting with your startup initiated by Innovation, by Venture, by the Business group and what are the implications? How will Venture or Innovation help you navigating potential commercial agreements with Business groups? Who has &8220;skin in the game&8221; compared to the others? Who has more &8220;skin in the game&8221; than others?
8) How is the decision making process influenced: Who are the decision makers, the gatekeepers and the champions? Where do they sit in the org chart and among the Venture, Innovation and Business groups.
9) Motivations of each of Venture, Innovation and Business groups: Are the motivations aligned? What are the goals? Pay special attention to how aligned the Business group is with Venture and Innovation. Do commercial imperatives trump innovation imperatives? Do long term strategic imperatives trump short term commercial ones? How do these motivations and imperatives apply to you and your startup?
10) Reporting Structure: Who do Venture and Innovation report to? Directly to the CEO, the CFO, the Board? If not who do they report to? Does Venture report to Innovation? Are both Venture and Innovation hidden within the bowels of an Incumbent or do they have the necessary and required exposure and support from C-level executives?
11) Explore the role of legal, compliance and regulatory: How convoluted will be the legal and compliance process? Will you be dealing directly with legal and compliance or will you be shielded by Venture, Innovation of the Business group? When will legal and compliance be involved? Are they well versed in the legal arts of early stage investing? Will they bring a bazooka to a knife fight? How much of a burden will they impose on you? Will there be a regulatory approval hurdle to clear?
12) Explore the role of procurement: Assuming there is a vendor management or procurement group, will you need to clear that hurdle too? What will it mean to you, how many resources will you have to engage immediately and over time? What type of data will you need to provide? Are they gatekeepers or decision makers too?
13) Explore who will be in charge of a commercial project implementation and integration: Will the Business group be responsible? Will they have the skills and understanding required to fully digest your technology and business model? Will they rely on a separate IT or operations group? If so, how does the IT/Ops group interact with new vendors when implementing and integrating? How mature and sophisticated is the IT/Ops team? Have they engaged startups in the past or are they more of a &8220;we build our own stuff&8221; outfit?
14) Explore how your future finserv Incumbent partner interacts with the broad ecosystem: Are they aligned with independent hackathons, independent accelerators? Who are their natural peer partners &8211; other #banks or insurers they have invested with in the future or entered in JV or commercial agreements with? Who are their natural competitors &8211; those they will not want to deal with or invest with or JV with? Which traditional VC investors have they invested with in the past? Which non-bank companies do they partner with? Does partnering accelerate your chances of additional partnerships?
15) Gauge how you will need to adapt: Inevitably, you will need to adapt based on answers and observations you glean along the way. I do not mean adapting in fundamental ways such as radically changing your business model or your technology, and if that is a requirement then you #should think twice about the costs and benefits before engaging fully. Rather I mean marginal adaptation to clear certain understandable hurdles around technology delivery for example. How much professional services will you need to incorporate? Will you need to localize to a certain geography? Will your partner&8217;s compliance thresholds lead you to tweak your technology? The sooner you get clarity on the need to adapt and how you will need to adapt, the sooner you will be able to quantify and qualify the associated costs.
16) Explore post integration life as a startup partner: Are the rules of engagement well defined? Will there be periodic reviews? How will you be reviewed? Will the relationship be balanced? Who will participate? Will the champions, gatekeepers and decision makers that you identified during the pre commercial phase be the same?
I realize I have mapped many questions. My purpose is not to scare a fintech entrepreneur. Do realize the end goal is a potential prize of investment, referenceable client, commercial agreement and cash flow generation. In other words, the rewards are overwhelmingly worth the pain of discovery and engagement strategy building.
Additionally, even if there is a demonstrable strategic/commercial rationale, answer to the above may lead you to realize you are not ready for that particular finserv Incumbent as a partner, or that they are not ready for you. That type of epiphany may save you form serious heartburns down the road.
More specifically, dealing with a finserv Incumbent is unique from the point of view of regulatory, compliance and legal complexities as well as the type of individuals you will encounter (business leaders may not know how to engage with a startup, IT/Ops may not be up to par knowledge wise). Knowledge will allow you to mitigate more effectively.
Finally, remember that the mature service providers and vendors that sell to banks or insurers are very sophisticated and know how to sell, to whom to sell, how complex it is to sell. As a fintech entrepreneur you are competing with these mature service providers with limited resources. You need the smarts and the framework to close that gap and become a sophisticated &8220;enterprise&8221; focused fintech startup in your own right.
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