Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab London, the accelerator and mentorship programme which unites top European fintech startups with global financial services institutions, announced today that the 20 innovative startups chosen from over 300 global fintech entrepreneurs who applied represent the largest class in the Lab’s five-year history.
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Increased Interest
It was also reported that this year saw the highest number of applicants, with increased interest registered from startups in the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Scandinavia and North America.
As part of the 12-week programme, the startups are partnered with senior bank and insurance executives to help them fine-tune and develop their technologies and business models. Eight of the shortlisted startups will be selected to present to a group of venture capitalists and financial-industry executives.
Innovation must continue.
Fintech firms offering artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain and gamification technology for banks and insurers are among the selected startups in this year’s programme, which aims to address a number of societal issues, including financial literacy and money management challenges among UK consumers.
Tom Graham, programme director of Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab London, said: “The transformation requirements that the financial services industry must undertake to remain relevant arguably pose a bigger challenge than the immediate geo-political uncertainty casting a shadow over the industry. Innovation must continue. The FinTech Innovation Lab London is helping startups forge ties to thrive at home and abroad.”
Leading Financial Institutions
Mentors in the programme come from 28 financial institutions including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Lloyds Banking Group and Morgan Stanley.
The FinTech Innovation Lab London, launched by Accenture in 2012, is a collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions. Accenture launched two other Labs in 2014: the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong and the FinTech Innovation Lab Dublin in Ireland. Globally, the Labs’ alumni companies have raised more than US$386 million in venture financing after participating in the programme.
US Model
The 20 startups are taking part in a programme modelled on a similar one that was co-founded in 2010 by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City, the US$150 million investment arm of the Partnership for New York City.
With an ever-growing focus on the fintech scene, the White House has also announced that it has published a Whitepaper following last June’s White House FinTech Summit in which industry and other stakeholders conveyed the need for a framework that articulates the US government’s perspective on fintech.
The document puts forward a series of objectives that reflect widely-shared values and practical expectations for the financial services sector and the US government entities that interact with the sector.
It sets out principles that constitute a framework that policymakers and regulators can use to think about, engage with, and assess the fintech ecosystem in order to meet these policy objectives, encouraging stakeholders to promote safe financial inclusion and financial health, maximise transparency, increase efficiency and effectiveness in financial infrastructure and protect financial stability.
The white paper is a product of ongoing public-private cooperation and a roadmap for future collaboration concerning the potential for fintech to further myriad policy goals, including small business access to capital, financial inclusion and health, domestic growth, and international development.
