Global Accelerated Ventures (GAV), an innovation aggregator that identifies and fosters innovative talent for financial services partners, announced today it would offer upwards of $100,000 (USD) in cash prizes at its inaugural FinTech Challenge.
The Global FinTech Innovation Challenge is GAVs new flagship event designed to create new business opportunities for startups and established market players. This two-day, elimination style event brings together the best and brightest of the startup community addressing blockchain, data analytics, process automation, banking, and payment challenges. Each startup will pitch their solution to a panel of judges spanning large FinTech providers, financial institutions, consultancies, and the media. The winner from each category will compete in a final competition for the honor of being named GAV’s ‘FinTech Startup of the Year’ and the chance to win cash prizes. In addition to the competition, the event will feature keynote and panel sessions exploring topics of mutual interest across the FinTech community.
“The Global FinTech Challenge will showcase the world’s most promising FinTech innovations and provide a clear path to success through our channel partners,” said Thomas Buchar, Managing Partner at Global Accelerated Ventures. “There is a major transformation taking shape in the industry and the startup community has a big role to play.”
GAV plans to feature up to 50 startups at the event, all of which will be required to pitch their solutions to a panel of leading industry professionals. Participating startups must also be nominated by a VC, accelerator or other third party organization and meet the following competition criteria:
• Must qualify as a collaboration partner
• Completed a top-tier accelerator program
• High relevance in one of the five competition categories (blockchain, data analytics, process automation, banking innovation, and payment innovation)
• Generated revenues of 'less than' $2mm
• Participation from C-level team members is required
“We are excited to put the spotlight on today’s innovative FinTech all-stars” adds Christopher Malter, Managing Partner and Founder at Global Accelerated Ventures. “It’s an exciting time to be in financial services with many changes happening across the industry. From our perspective, this change is happening faster outside of organizations, rather than within. We hope that these events can bridge the gap between established players and the startup community, fostering greater collaboration and innovation. There is a lot of innovative talent available and when matched with the right industry partner, can be a major boon for any organization.”
The Global FinTech Innovation Challenge will take place at the Florida Theater in Jacksonville on February 6 and 7, 2019.