ING Fintech Village opens its doors for the first participants
This month, the first start-ups were admitted through a selection process that culminated with a pitching day on January 18th at the ING Belgium headquarters.
This month, the first start-ups were admitted through a selection process that culminated with a pitching day on January 18th at the ING Belgium headquarters. 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 startups and devote time and resources to provide mentorship and other support. This commitment is a corner stone of the programme.
The selected start-ups and their dedicated mentors
The following participants will be welcomed at Fintech Village :
1. Addocted/POM (Belgium) : POM works as a personal assistant on your mobile device for all administrative matters. This application makes it possible to receive or scan, pay and archive your paperwork digitally, when & where you feel like it.
2. Anglr (Belgium): Anglr helps companies to increase the productivity of their knowledge workers through automated text processing, searches and analysis. Their trademarked technology assists companies in dealing with the digital information overload through near real-time and intelligent processing of large amounts of unstructured data.
3. Cashforce (Belgium): Cashforce is a smart cash flow management and forecasting platform for large capital intensive businesses. Their technology is helping Finance departments save time and money by offering cash visibility & pro-active cash saving insights.
4. Delio (UK): Delio helps financial institutions democratize private investments for their high net worth clients. Delio's technology helps institutions adapt their proposition to meet the needs of today's wealth creators and differentiate their offering in an increasingly commoditised investment management market.
5. HopOn (Israel): HopOn is a mobile ticketing platform for mass-transportation networks, which uses innovative wireless ticketing that allows seamless and hassle-free payments. Or to keep it simple, with HopOn, mass transit payments where never easier, just take your smartphone with you, and your payments are assured.
6. IsItYou (Israel) : IsItYou face recognition technology authenticates users easily and efficiently, increasing security and convenience for services users. Simply put; your face is your password and all you need to do is take a selfie. With the strongest security levels in mind, IsItYou brings an innovative solution to the complex authentication challenges of banks, payment systems, and other financial institutions.
7. PayKey (Israel): PayKey is the world’s first payment keyboard. PayKey’s technology wants to put banks where their customers are: on all social networks. Customers can thus enjoy the security of their trusted bank within their favorite applications, making everyday banking easier and more efficient than ever before.
The six fintech start-ups will be hosted in Fintech Village, which will be located at Eggsplore nearby Brussels (Diegem). Eggsplore is a large European fintech hub regrouping leading financial institutions, fintech growth companies, investors and other fintech actors. FintechVillage dedicated workplace will be inaugurated at the beginning of March, the day the start-ups are welcomed.
Each start-up will be assigned one or several lead sponsors from the banks and its partners. These sponsors are senior leaders who will devote time and resources to support the startups and help prepare a proof-of-concept. In addition, each startups will have access to dedicated coaches and experts to accelerate their development. These coaches and experts will come from the bank and its partners, each of them bringing their specific background and domain of expertise, as needed to support startups.
ING Fintech Village, the first Belgian accelerator aimed at financial technology, works in collaboration with the following core partners: Deloitte, SWIFT Innotribe; and partners: IBM, Belcube, Smartfin Capital, Eggsplore, SmartVentures and Startups.be. For ING Belgium this is the next step in her strong commitment to innovation and her clients to keep a step ahead in business and in life.
Philippe Bergez appointed head of ING Fintech Village
As from 1st January Philippe Bergez, formerly General Manager of ING Belgium’s Contact Centre (ICC), has taken on a new challenge as Head of ING FinTech Village. Philippe will lead the team of coaches that supports the selected start-ups for the Fintech Village. Setting the conditions for a stimulating environment that nurtures growth, he will guide the start-ups through a successful acceleration period. He will be the point of contact for the internal and external stakeholders, the partners and the participants in this new ecosystem, as well as SmartVentures our partner operator
Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium: “We are proud to announce the start of Fintech Village, a real example of a collaborative ecosystem that has attracted many promising start-ups from the Fintech domain. We are fully committed to support these companies with our coaches. This enables them to accelerate their innovative pace and to stay step ahead in the realization of their business dreams. “
David Dab, Chief Innovation Officer ING Belgium: “The opening of FinTech Village is an important step in our plans to bring the best innovation to our clients and the best of ING to fintech start-ups. Together with our partners, we welcome the first cohort of start-ups and look forward to doing great work with them.“
About the Fintech Village Partners
ING Belgium SA/NV
ING Belgium SA/NV services all banking customers with a wide range of financial products and via the distribution channel of their choice. ING Belgium SA/NV employs 8,558 FTE* and is a full subsidiary of ING Bank N.V. which services 33 million private, business and institutional clients in more than 40 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Australia.
* End June 2015
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.
---
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