ING FINTECH VILLAGE : Seven start-ups are working on their Proof-of-concept

As from March 1st ING Fintech Village officially started its activities. The seven selected start-ups are working at the development of their “Proof of Concept”, with the support of their mentors and our partners. In four months, they will have the opportunity to present their achievements in a further developed stage to the broad public.

The coaching program from ING Fintech Village enables the selected candidates to create solutions that will contribute to offer a differentiating client experience or help the bank to innovate in different ways. 

The start-ups were carefully chosen based on several criteria. In addition to having a solid concept and a great team, one of the most important criteria was the identification of senior leaders at the bank, or with our partners, who would personally sponsor the start-ups and devote time and resources to provide mentorship and other support.

Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium, commented:  “ING Fintech Village is the first Belgian accelerator aimed at financial technology. For ING Belgium this is the next step in our strong commitment to innovation and our clients to keep a step ahead in business and in life. We’re very curious to see what those candidates will develop and be able to show as at the end of the project, in June.”

Together with the second inscription period that will be opened in September 2016, another step is taken to raise awareness on Fintech companies: the launch of the first ING Fintech Award.ING Belgium believes that a momentum is there: more startups are entering the fintech domain and they are trying to meet the needs that are emerging in the financial sector. Therefore, they need support, not only by giving them the opportunities to grow and to foster their plans, like is already done at ING Fintech Village. At ING Belgium, innovative start-ups are also supported with specialized innovation bankers and now, she wants to take this one step further, by offering them the spotlight they deserve once they obtained their goals.

David Dab, Chief Innovation Officer ING Belgium:  “Together with our partners, we are very curious to discover the proof-of-concepts the startups will be working on. We are now on the starting blocks and we look forward doing great work with our first cohort of start-ups .“

Visit us on http://fintech-village.be 

For more information:
Press Department ING Belgium + 32 2 547 24 84, tiziana.rizzo@ing.be, pressoffice@ing.be

Deloitte
Evelyne Lekime : +32 (0)2 600 60 12, elekime@deloitte.com

SWIFT Innotribe
Cognito : +44 (0)20 7426 9400, swift@cognitomedia.com

Belcube
Gregoire de Streel : +32 (0) 2 318 01 83, gds@belcube.com

Smartfin Capital
Ellen Thijs : +32 (0)473 26 51 54, ethijs@smartfincapital.com

Eggsplore
Ellen Thijs : +32 (0)473 26 51 54, ethijs@smartfincapital.com

Startups.be
Karen Boers, +32 (0)473 76 42 49, karen.boers@startups.be

IBM 
Yves Van Seters: +32 (0) 478 27 10 33, yvanseters@be.ibm.com

SmartVentures 
Alexandra Gschwind: +32 (0)478 32 06 65, alexandra.gschwind@eggsplore.eu

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About the Fintech Village Partners

ING Belgium NV  offers all customer segments, retail as well as private banking customers, small, medium-sized and large enterprises, a wide range of financial products and services via the distribution channel of their choice. ING Belgium NV employs 8,337 people full time and is a subsidiary of ING Bank N.V. which offers services to 34 million individual, corporate and institutional customers in more than 40 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Australia.

Core partners:

About Deloitte
A leading audit and consulting practice in Belgium, Deloitte offers value added services in audit, accounting, tax and legal, consulting and financial advisory services. In Belgium, Deloitte has more than 2,900 employees in 10 locations across the country, serving national and international companies, from small and middle-sized enterprises, to public sector and non-profit organisations. The turnover reached 370 million euros in the financial year 2014. The Belgian firm is a member of the international group Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, an organisation of independent member firms devoted to excellence in providing professional services and advice.

About SWIFT Innotribe
Launched in 2009, SWIFT Innotribe brings together global innovators and investors, strategists, and influential decision-makers from leading financial institutions across the globe, providing them early insights into innovations that could disrupt current business models and create opportunities for new ones. Through the Startup Challenge programme, Innotribe bridges the gap between the startup ecosystem and the financial service community.
For more information, please visit www.innotribe.com or follow us on Twitter: @innotribe and LinkedIn: Innotribe.

Partners:

About Belcube
« Belcube est une structure qui regroupe Messieurs Jean Guillaume Zurstrassen & Grégoire de Streel (co-fondateurs de Skynet, Keytrade Bank, Tunz.com) et Messieurs Harold Mechelynck & Thierry Pierson (co-fondateurs d’Ogone). Elle se concentre sur le financement de startups technologiques avec une prépondérance marquée pour les entreprises FinTech. Outre le seed capital, Belcube accompagne de près les entrepreneurs et porteurs de projet qu’elle finance. Elle compte aujourd’hui 10 entreprises en portefeuille »

About SmartFin Capital
SmartFin is a lean, independent private equity fund targeting 75 million euros in Smart Technologies with a special focus on Financial Technologies. It is supported by a team of professionals – seasoned entrepreneurs, private equity experts and finance professionals – who have vast experience in founding, developing and growing innovative businesses. SmartFin Capital mainly targets companies offering pioneering technologies that could be of benefit to the financial sector.

About Eggsplore
Eggsplore is an independent and open organization, founded by seasoned entrepreneurs, that acts as catalyst for the European FinTech ecosystem by providing a number of services in collaboration with its partners. It organizes a number of educational and network events, including a yearly FinTech conference, and manages a Brussels based Fintech studio. Eggsplore connects the dots in Fintech.

About Startups.be
Startups.be is the one stop shop for Belgian tech entrepreneurship. Founded in 2013, it offers entrepreneurs easy & qualitative access to all of the supporting instruments, programs and activities throughout Belgium and stimulates collaboration & cross-fertilization between the different tech startup ecosystem stakeholders.  More Information: www.startups.be

About IBM
IBM is a globally integrated enterprise operating in over 170 countries. Entering the Cognitive era, IBM is making a new future for our clients and our industry, by transforming industries and professions with data, remaking enterprise IT for the cloud and enabling systems of engagement for enterprises. IBM's prized research, development and technical talent around the world partner with governments, corporations, thinkers and doers on ground breaking real world problems to help make the world work better and build a smarter planet.

About Smartventures
SmartVentures delivers consulting and operational services to scale-ups, corporate acceleration initiatives and other entrepreneurial initiatives . It was founded by Jurgen Ingels and Wim De Waele and aims at helping successful growth companies become market leaders.