After three months of intensive work, the 11 fintech startups on Barclays' accelerator programme this week pitched their efforts to the great and the good.
The participants beat off competition from more than 300 rivals from around the world for their places on the London-based programme, run by Barclays in conjunction with Techstars, which put in $20,000 - in return for a six percent equity stake in the finished product - to each startup.
The companies, which worked on ideas ranging from credit scoring systems to peer-to-peer lending aimed at the home-buying process, this week showcased their work to around 300 angel investors, venture capitalists, senior executives and corporate partners.
Salvatore Ruocco from participant Vieweet says that "we've got two years' worth of work done in just three months," while another firm, Dopay, is already working with Barclays Egypt to pilot an offering for those who do not currently have a bank account.
Derek White, chief design and digital officer, Barclays, says: "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."
The search will soon be on for the next round of promising startups, with Barclays and Techstars committed to working together to offer up to five different accelerator programmes over the next three years.
The 11 teams in the programme are:
- Aire - Enabling financial access for consumers through a next generation credit scoring algorithm.
- ClauseMatch - Providing a cloud platform for matching and negotiating master agreements for trading over-the-counter derivatives and commodities.
- Crowdestates - Creating a peer-to-peer secured lending platform for residential mortgage deposits.
- DoPay - Providing financial access to people through their corporate payroll service.
- Gust Pay - Making music festivals more cashless using NFC wristbands and smartphone apps.
- Glimr - Providing an in-store experience and payments platform, making it possible to send targeted messages to shoppers based on proximity to products.
- Market IQ - Providing actionable intelligence for investment professionals based on both structured and unstructured datasets.
- NoviCap - Enabling businesses in credit tight markets to quickly access growth financing by auctioning their outstanding invoices to investors.
- Tryum - A 'relationship science' company that helps retailers get closer to their customers. The firm capitalised on the exclusive access to the Barclays Pingit API - looking at how it can integrate it at point of sale into its customer engagement platform.
- Vieweet - Providing augmented reality, together with interactive 360 degree images for social, retail, and commercial use.
- Squirrel - An employer backed savings, budgeting and bill management tool that plugs directly into payroll.