Ten early-stage startups and five growth-stage innovators delivered compelling pitches to an audience of global innovators and investors, venture capitalists and industry experts. The event was held at the Convene Centre on June 5th, and included a preview of the Compliance and Investment Manager Forums to take place at Sibos later this year.

The three early-stage startup finalists are:
• Epiphyte, deploying enterprise software that allows the pre-installed systems of financial institutions to "talk" to crypto-financial networks. Their first product, cBridge, provides banks with the technology for real-time international transactions at reduced costs
• Lending Robot, automating loan selection and investment in Peer Lending by using machine-learning algorithms and real-time scoring to select and fund loans to bring the potential of better returns
• Standard Treasury, building and maintaining API Banking platforms for some of the world's largest banks, enabling their customers to programmatically interface with their accounts.

The two growth-stage innovator finalists are:
• Juntos Finanzas creating automated engagement platforms that help banks and mobile money providers successfully and profitably serve newly banked customers in emerging markets
• Wallaby Financial and their app and intelligent card recommendation systems enabling a dynamic real-time bidding platform for banks to acquire transactional spend for consumers through micro targeting.

Fabian Vandenreydt, Head of Markets Management, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute said: "New York has been one of the fastest-growing fintech startup ecosystems in Americas over the past 10 years and is now ranks second behind Silicon Valley. We were pleased to complete the first round of our competition here, seeing the selection of the five latest startups to join us in the Grand Finale at Sibos. Now into the third full year of the Startup Challengge, we continue to see our network grow, allowing us to provide more startups with even greater opportunities to connect with the financial industry."

The American showcase's top five finalists advance to the Grand Finale to be held at Sibos, SWIFT's annual conference. The event will take place in Boston in October, and the New York finalists will compete against the winners from the London and Singapore showcases.

This Startup Challenge showcase was the third stop of three regional events to be held in 2014 and was sponsored by HP, Level39, and SAP. Next step of the competition will be the Grand Finale in Sibos Boston in October, with the selection of our 2014 winner. We wish all our finalists the best of luck for Sibos.