Swiss financial infrastructure provider SIX Group is to open up its F10 incubator and accelerator as an independent association for Swiss financial firms as it sifts through 120 applications for its next cohort of startups.
SIX has already attracted interest from Julius Bär and PwC as members and is open to collaboration with other Swiss companies from the banking, insurance and consulting sectors.
Says the company: "The aim of the association is to promote Switzerland's fintech ecosystem on a long-term basis, forge global links and strengthen the innovative capacity of the Swiss finance and insurance sectors. This will ensure a lasting contribution to the development of a state-of-the-art, future-fit Swiss financial centre."
The launch of the incubator in 2015 was viewed as a key part of SIX's own IT overhaul programme by nurturing contacts and talent at promising third party startups.
Since opening, SIX says F10 has expanded technology scouting, staged two international hackathons, as well as built over two dozen prototypes.