Financial messaging network Swift has selected the ten finalists to compete in the 2011 Innotribe start-up challenge at this year's Sibos event in Toronto.
The challenge is open to start-ups and vendors less than three years old with a 'demonstrable' beta' product. The finalists emerged from an initial qualifying round which attracted over one hundred entries, says Swift.
The top 10 will give five minute pitches to an audience of top bankers at Sibos later this month, with two winners walking away with $50,000 each.
In general, the selected vendors are far removed from Swift's core business in wholesale payments, with a clear emphasis on retail and small business pain-points, such as digital identity and authentication.
In their own words:
- BillShrink's StatementRewards creates transaction-based services to deliver a win-win-win scenario for financial institutions, merchants and consumers.
- Cellfony offers the first anti-malware mobile payment and card reader solution that makes a mobile payment wallet and card reader as simple and secure as a chip and PIN.
- ChangeIt automates online charitable giving by offering donors a simple and secure way to donate small change to their favourite charitable causes with every debit and credit transaction.
- Duo Security's two-factor authentication is the simplest and safest way to secure any Internet login or transaction and prevent online fraud and account takeover.
- FaceCash completely replaces plastic payment cards, letting you pay with your phone and sign with your face.
- GuardTime's software generated keyless signatures provide a provable audit trail for electronic data including proof of time, origin and integrity.
- miiCard's user-centric federated identity solution serves as a digital passport, enabling pure online validation that proves "you are who you say you are".
- SynerScope is the fastest, easiest way to visualize relationships in Big Data event records including web traffic, payment transactions, mobile call records, IRC logs.
- TransferWise is a better way of exchanging currency, allowing you to avoid banks and brokers save the 5% commission they usually collect.
- Wave Accounting offers ridiculously easy online accounting for small businesses.
All eligible applicants have been invited to campaign for votes from the financial industry, the global start-up community, and their own social networks. The rankings in the public voting results are used to break any ties resulting from the on-the-spot impressions of the Sibos judging panel.