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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Finovate is returning in-person to Europe this year – yet again, with only the most innovative in fintech demos. It’s been three years since FinovateEurope was last held in London, and we’re excited to be back. Experience the electricity for yourself!
A large (and growing) lineup of must-see companies have launched new ventures, partnerships, and products. FinovateEurope is where you can see all of them in one place.
A virtual kickoff on 15 March opens the demos (and the networking portal), and then the in-person portion of the event kicks off on 22 March. Both portions will give you the chance to see how these new solutions work, how they can benefit your organisation, and how they’ve been pushing the industry forward over the past 2 years.
Check the website here to see the demo roster as it continues to grow with seed-stage startups, fast-growing scale-ups and established public companies.
Last November, I chatted with Siri Børsum, Global VP of Finance Vertical Eco-Development and Partnerships at Huawei, as part of our Women in Fintech series.
At Huawei, Børsum is responsible for building a team that ensures Huawei has all of the financial apps for their mobile ecosystem. Børsum, who recently entered into the fintech industry, gained an interest in the tech arena while working at Google in the early days. The thrill of the new industry and betting on something big excited her about the field.
During our interview, we discussed the evolution of digital transformation and what to expect going forward. Below is a brief summary of our conversation. You can check out the full interview on the Finovate YouTube channel.
How has the digital transformation narrative changed?
Siri Børsum: I think companies are focusing even more on it and, for the first time, we as consumers have actually followed. It’s been one of those chicken-and-egg type of scenarios because we’ve all seen it’s been possible but the users haven’t joined in as much as we in the industry would have hoped for.
I now think that both companies and consumers see the extreme benefit of having better technological tools to do their banking. Consumers have now experienced good customer experience within not just the finance industry but within the tech industry– they’ve seen how apps can help them in their daily lives. This makes them more demanding than ever before and when customers are demanding, we need to step up.
What are your recommendations to help fintechs and banks keep up with changing consumer expectations?
Børsum: Start to focus on it. Have it top of mind. Not just something you say you want to do, but actually something you are measured on and that everyone in any management group or the C-suite talks about all the time. They know what KPIs there are. They know the development. It’s not something that’s left to the developers on the second floor.
Make sure it’s your highest priority. Make sure it’s measured and also don’t think you can do it on your own…. Also, you don’t drive innovation without the right culture. You need to look after your people, you need to make sure they feel safe, that they dare to try new things, and that they come to you with all the ideas. They also need information. They need to know what’s possible and they need to know what’s going on in the company in order to contribute.
What’s next for digital transformation?
Børsum: I’ve tried to bet on the future and I haven’t succeeded many times– I don’t think most people do. For me, I look more at what we see now. What are the current trends and what do I wish for as a customer?
I think embedded finance is obviously the next step and we need to see that work, truly. For me, personally, I would love to see payments disappear, totally. We’ve already seen these things and were moving towards it. It won’t happen straight away, but it’s definitely the direction we’re going.
Siri Børsum will deliver a keynote address titled, “Capturing Your Customers’ Goals & Finding New Revenue StreamsBy Putting Yourself At The Heart Of Their Lives” at FinovateEurope which is taking place March 22 through 23 both in-person in London and digitally.
Even though our annual European conference has moved from February to March, FinovateEurope will always be synonymous with wintertime for many of us. So with the coldest season swiftly approaching, now seems as good a time as any to check in on the latest from some of our most recent FinovateEurope alums.
Paris, France-based Thread recently earned recognition at Catapult: Kickstarter 2021 Fall Edition. As one of the event’s five winners, the company is now eligible for up to $56,360 in subsidies. Thread made its FinovateEurope debut earlier this year, demonstrating its technology that makes complex and critical investment workflows more efficient and collaborative. In doing so, Thread aims to help investors make better investment decisions and reap “consistently higher performance.”
“With the acceleration of digital transformation worldwide, many companies have struggled to personalize their customer journeys online,” Surfly CEO Nicholas Piel said in a statement. “Surfly’s Co-browsing has helped ensure that insurers globally do not lose their personal touch with customers.”
Earlier this month we shared news that Strands had teamed up with carbon tracking company Doconomy. The partnership will enable the Barcelona, Spain-based fintech to offer climate impact and insight-driven engagement tools to their customers. Last month, Strands announced that digital financial solution provider Comviva will use Strands’ smart PFM solution to help its bank and financial services clients offer their customers a better digital banking and payments experience.
FinovateEurope 2021 Best of Show winner Quantum Metric was one of our more recent guests as part of our Finovate Webinar series. In partnership with BMO, the company led a webinar on How BMO is reimagining the Commercial Banking digital client experience using real-time analytics. Available for free on-demand for a limited time, the webinar panelists discuss the importance of quantifying the long-term impact of negative user experiences and how to establish a customer-centric mindset via Continuous Product Design (CPD).
Picking up a variety of fintech awards this year, white-label digital banking solution provider Meniga is another company that is leading the way in helping its customers understand and manage their climate impact – as citizens, consumers, and investors. Meniga, which demonstrated its Carbon Insight solution at FinovateEurope this year, announced that its transaction-based carbon footprint calculator had earned independent assurance from global accounting and professional services company EY.
ITSCREDIT was one of five Portuguese fintechs chosen to participate in a program to help provide Portuguese technology companies with the tools they need in order to “gain a foothold in (their) respective U.S. tech ecosystems” and help drive expansion. The landing pad program, Portugal Tech NYC, is sponsored by AICEP Portugal Global and SOSA, and will also feature the participation of Finovate alums ebankIT and LOQR.
ITSCREDIT demonstrated its Genie Advisor at FinovateEurope this year. The technology predicts customers’ financial conditions and provides insights to banking and finance professionals on how to best support customers that may be facing financial challenges.
To start the week, multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner iProov announced that its partnership with Eurostar, the high speed passenger rail service that links the U.K. with mainland Europe, was now live. Eurostar has launched a trial of a new contactless fast-track service, SmartCheck, at London Pancras International. The service lets passengers use their mobile devices to secure ticket verification and U.K. exit check before they travel. Ticket holders of Eurostar’s Business Premier and Carte Blanche programs will be able to use their iPhones to complete a biometric face scan, which uses iProov’s Geniune Presence Technology, for identity verification that is linked to the traveler’s e-ticket.
“The days of rooting around in your bag for your passport or hoping that your phone battery doesn’t run out before you show your e-ticket at the gate are over,” iProof founder and CEO Andrew Bud said, “(SmartCheck) is effortless and convenient while also delivering the reassurance and security that travelers expect.”
Speaking of companies that have won more than a few Finovate Best of Show trophies, Digital Customer Service innovator Glia has been on an epic partner-making pace since its FinovateEurope appearance earlier this year. Customer engagement solution provider Engageware, Connecticut-based Liberty Bank ($7 billion in assets), digital banking solution provider Apiture, and Conversational AI specialist Posh Technologies are just a few of the companies Glia has collaborated with this fall. In November, the company earned a top 250 spot in the Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for North America.
Stockholm, Sweden-based Dreams, which demoed the savings module of its financial wellbeing platform at FinovateEurope this year, earned recognition at the Banking Tech Awards hosted by Fintech Futures. The company was named “Best Digital Banking Solution Provider.” Learn more about the Best of Show-winning company in our interview with Dreams CCO Lucia Hegenbartova, who sat down with Finovate VP Greg Palmer for an episode of the Finovate podcast over the summer.
CoCoNet Group, a digital banking services provider based in Germany, recently. announced a successful collaboration with Raiffeisen Group. The Swiss banking group leveraged technology from CoCoNet to launch a multibanking solution with integrated cash management and a secure EBICS interface to streamline online banking for corporate customers. CoCoNet made its FinovateEurope debut this March, demonstrating its MULTIVERSA Corporate Customer Onboarding solution.
The company formerly known as Nordic API Gateway has enabled more than 40 financial institutions, and a number of businesses, to integrate financial data and offer A2A (account-to-account payments) via a simple API. Founded in 2017, the company had raised $15 million (€13.5 million) in funding to date.
“For the past decade, we have worked to build Aiia into a leading and quality-driven open banking platform, which has onboarded hundreds of banks and fintechs onto safe and secure open banking rails,” Aiia founder and CEO Rune Mai said. “We have worked closely alongside banks, customers, and local authorities to ensure that our APIs show the true effect of open banking. We’re excited to become a part of Mastercard and progress our journey of empowering people to bring their financial data and accounts into play – safely and transparently.”
FinovateEurope 2022 is right around the corner. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then the time is now and the forum is FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22-23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!
At a time of almost unprecedented financial liquidity, being able to separate the investment-worthy wheat from the chaff may be more important than ever. Additionally, knowledge of where the so-called “smart money” is investing within the growing field of fintech is an invaluable aid for those attempting to better understand where fintech is right now and where it is going. And for those within financial services, or in industries adjacent to it, who are looking to do business with innovative fintech companies, knowing where the most informed investors are putting their capital can be a great guide to identifying where some of the best opportunities to partner and form collaborations may be found.
This is what makes Finovate’s All-Star Investment Panel: Where the Smart Money is Investing in Fintech one of the biggest and most popular attractions at our events. At our upcoming conference in March, FinovateEurope, we’ve put together a star-studded panel of some of fintech’s most informed and accomplished investors to help you gain unique insights into which fintechs the “smart money” is betting on and why. Check out a sneak peek of our All-Star Investment Panel below.
Rana Yared, General Partner, Balderton Capital: Yared joined Balderton Capital in 2020. She previously worked as a Partner at Goldman Sachs in their Principal Strategic Investments Group. Later, as part of GS Growth, Yared oversaw investments in financial technology and enterprise technology. Yared also oversaw the commercialization of Goldman Sachs’ technology assets in New York and London. LinkedIn
Aman Ghei, Partner, Finch Capital: Ghei led Finch’s investment into Twisto (sold to Zip) and sits on the board of AccountsIQ, Symmetrical, Lantum as well as being involved in the firm’s investments in Goodlord, TaxScouts and Squirro. Ghei’s experience ranges from Credit Suisse’s Technology team to Accel Partners in London to Facebook’s content distribution business in Europe. LinkedIn
Luis Valdich, Managing Director, Fintech Investing, Citi Ventures: Joining Citi Ventures in 2015, Valdich is responsible for fintech investing in both the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Latin America and Southeast Asia/India. Before Citi, Valdich founded and ran JPMorgan Chase’s Strategic Investments group for nearly eight years and invested in more than 30 companies. LinkedIn
Jay Wilson, Investment Director, AlbionVC: At AlbionVC, Wilson focuses on all aspects of technology, with a particular focus on how technology is redefining financial services from retail to institutional finance, and at every level of the IT stack including blockchain, AI and machine learning, predictive analytics, robotics, and the cloud. LinkedIn
The FinovateEurope 2022 Investor All-Star panel will be moderated by Sunaina Sinha Haldea, Global Head of Private Capital Advisory with Raymond James. Haldea founded placement agent and secondaries advisor Cebile Capital, which was acquired by Raymond James Financial in 2021. Also a prolific angel investor and non-executive director, Haldea’s leadership of Raymond James / Cebile Capital has enabled the firm to become one of the leading advisors in private equity and real assets.
FinovateEurope 2022 will be held in London, England from March 22 through March 23. Both in-person and digital all-access passes are available with big savings available to those attendees who register by November 19th. For more information, visit our FinovateEurope 2022 hub today.
We are still 143 days away from FinovateEurope— the show is taking place in London on March 22 through 23, 2022– but we’ve been getting ready for Finovate’s first in-person show in Europe since 2020.
Our favorite part of these preparations involves the people. Since Finovate’s first show in 2007, we’ve been building up our relationships in the industry and many of the folks we’ve met have become part of our fintech family. As the industry has grown, so has our network. And while we expect to have stellar thought leaders both on stage and in the audience, we’ve already started curating our speaker lineup for next year.
So far, we’ve secured a list featuring some of the greatest minds in fintech. Here’s a very small taste of the speakers you can expect to see at next year’s event:
Dr. Louise Beaumont, Chair, Open Finance & Payments Working Group at techUK Dr. Beaumont is an expert in innovations surrounding open banking, open finance, open data, lending, and payments. In her role chairing techUK’s Open Finance & Payments working group, she works with legislators and regulators on everything from open banking to open data. LinkedIn
Our FinovateEurope 2022 speakers are coming from a variety of companies across the banking and fintech sector. Some of the companies represented on panels and in discussion sessions include Nasdaq, Morgan Stanley, Forrester, Monzo, Lloyds Banking Group, Aite Group, HSBC, Blackrock, ING, and more.
Two years since the last in-person event, FinovateEurope returns to London over March 22-23, 2022. Book your ticket at early-bird rates or consider these options for joining the 12th annual European event.
New for 2022, there are two demo opportunities for FinovateEurope: digital and physical.
We’ll kick off on Tuesday, March 15 with a digital day featuring a limited number of virtual demos. Attendees will tune in through the ConnectMe event platform for live streaming and networking. Plus, the demos will be available on demand throughout the event.
On March 22, a second lineup of companies will demo in person at the venue. These demos will also be streamed to our virtual audience.
Digital Demo: March 15
– Prerecorded 7-minute demo streamed on March 15 – Event platform and networking app access to chat and schedule meetings with attendees – Lead reports of demo views through the event platform and in the venue’s streaming lounge – 30-minute one-on-one coaching for demo skills and format – Video of your demo for your own use – Demo video hosted on Finovate.com with 380,000+ visitors/year – Chance to win the coveted Best of Show award – And more!
– 7-minute demo at the venue during the general session on March 22 – Physical demo stand in the exhibition hall on March 22-23 + lead report of scanned attendees – Event platform and networking app access to chat and schedule meetings with attendees – Lead reports of digital and physical demo views – Video of your demo for your own use – Demo video hosted on Finovate.com with 380,000+ visitors/year – Chance to win the coveted Best of Show award – And more!
Demo pricing varies by demo type, application date, and company category. Fees range from $2,795 USD to $19,995 USD — more details here.
Not ready to demo, yet? Join the Startup Booster program.
Startup Booster is designed for new startups seeking exposure, insights, and connections at Finovate events, but who are not ready to demo yet. There are two Startup Booster opportunities depending on your company’s goals for FinovateEurope 2022.
Participation in both is for fintech and tech startups who are less than 3 years old and have raised less than $1M USD. The Advanced Booster is limited to founders.
Startup Booster: £499
– Event access at special discounted rate (£499 per ticket) – Event content + networking* – Event attendees with unlimited meetings and chat – Breakfast, lunch and networking refreshments – Startup profile on the event website
Advanced Booster: £1,000
– Startup Booster package plus: – 3-minute pitch video on event platform, marketed and shared with investor attendees – Virtual booth on the event platform for attendees to contact founders – Lead reports from the event platform (pitch video views, virtual booth visitors) – Access to the Investor Networking Reception on March 22
Take advantage of these opportunity to make connections with hundreds of the most influential people in fintech and apply as soon as possible. For questions, email heather@finovate.com.
