Swift Innotribe Challenge London selects European finalists
The five finalists from London will now go head to head against the top five from Singapore and New York
Five finalists have been chosen by Swift’s Innotribe for its Startup Challenge in London, ahead of an international face-off for innovative financial services firms from around the world in Dubai in September.
The Startup Challenge aims to help innovative new companies in financial services to develop their ideas and transform them into working businesses. The finalists consist of early-stage firms Azimo, Kwanzi and Paymandate and growth-stage companies Virtual Piggy and Waratek.
Azimo is a UK-based money transfer tool that markets itself as the cheapest, safest and easiest way to send money, typically to relatives living in the developing world. The service transfers money via computer or via mobile to and from 125 countries. Kwanzi is a similar service for businesses, designed to make it easier for SMEs to send or receive payments internationally.
Paymandate is a company dedicated to removing the administrative burden associated with accepting direct debits. The firm is specifically built with the February 2014 deadline for SEPA, the Single European Payment Area, in mind.
Virtual Piggy is a global payment service and personal financial management tool that is designed for parents and children. The idea is for parents to set the controls for their child’s account, allowing the child to shop using the Virtual Piggy service. If the purchase is parent approved, it is successful.
Waratek is a Dublin-based company that aims to help firms reduce their infrastructure costs by using Java to develop cloud based applications.
“London was a great start to the 2013 Startup Challenge with Level39 acting as the perfect host,” said Matteo Rizzi, co-founder of Innotribe. “All the pitches were of the highest quality and the finalists can be proud of their achievements. We’re now in to the second full year of the Startup Challenge and it’s great that we’re seeing our network of industry professionals grow. It’s a compliment to the Challenge, which I hope will continue to give some great businesses the platform they need in the industry.”
The five finalists from the London challenge will compete against the finalists from New York and Singapore at Sibos in Dubai in September.
Last month, a similar but separate project called the FinTech Innovation Lab London drew to a close with an investor day presentation at London’s City Hall. Like the Innotribe startup challenge, the FinTech Innovation Lab London focused on supporting startup companies with innovative new products in financial services; the initiative earned praise from major global banks, who praised it for helping to energise the development of innovative new products in financial services.
