Five fintech start-ups have booked their place at the Swift Innotribe Start-up Challenge in Boston later this year after battling their way through the European semi-final in London.
Held yesterday at Level39 in Canary Wharf in partnership with the Finextra Future Money conference, the Innotribe challenge saw 10 early-stage startups and five growth-stage innovators pitch to an audience of global investors, venture capitalists and industry experts.
The audience of judges whittled the 10 startups down to three finalists:
- CurrencyTransfer, an online marketplace matching businesses with competitive international payment quotes
- Ensygnia, which creates a trusted environment for users to share a verified identity as well as personal and financial details to enable e-commerce
- And TransferGo, with its platform enabling digital international money transfers without actually transferring the sender's money internationally
The two growth-stage finalists are:
- Mambu, which is a cloud banking platform that enables financial institutions to launch loan and deposit products into untapped markets
- And MatchMove, which offers a wallet aimed at the 500+ million 'uncarded' smartphone users in emerging countries connecting daily to the internet but unable to make purchases
The five will now make their way to Boston for the Grand Finale at Sibos, Swift's annual conference on 1 October. They will be joined by another 10 firms who win through semi-finals in Singapore and New York, which will be held on 15 May and 5 June respectively. The overall winner will receive a $50,000 cash prize.
Fabian Vandenreydt, head, markets management, Innotribe and the Swift Institute, says: "London was a great kick-off to the 2014 Startup Challenge and it was exciting to see so many inspiring companies present their innovations to a packed room. All of the pitches were of the highest standard and these companies can be proud of their achievements!"