ING FinTech Village opens subscription period.

ING FinTech Village goes one step further with the official opening of the application period for participating in the accelerator program.

ING FinTech Village goes one step further with the official opening of the application period for participating in the accelerator program. Located in Diegem, in a unique fintech environment, a solid team of mentors and coaches will be offering their expertise to a select group of startups in the financial technology domain. ING Belgium realizes this in close collaboration with Deloitte and SWIFTInnotribe, as core partners, as well with Belcube, Smartfin, Eggsplore, Startups.be and IBM.


THE TIMEFRAME TO GET STARTED


ING FinTech Village allows startups to go through a mentoring program in an environment aimed to accelerate the preparation of a proof of concept , allowing them to test their FinTech solution in a real-life bank setting. The goal is to foster the development of existing startups and accelerate the pace of innovation, in order to come up with solutions which bring further benefit to customers. For ING Belgium, it is a next step in its strong commitment to innovation, and for her clients to stay one step ahead in life and business.

The startups are invited to apply to our program as from October 14th. The selection period will be closed on January 31th, 2016, when soon after the selected startups will be announced. The first accelerator program will take place from March until June 2016. During this period each startup will benefit from a tailor-made mentoring programme to develop/refine their concept and prepare a proof of concept.

Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium:  “With Fintech Village, ING Belgium continues to strengthen its position in the Fintech space with the ultimate objective of bringing ever more benefits to its customers


AN OUTSTANDING LOCATION AT THE HEARTH OF EUROPE


Fintech Village will be co-located with Eggsplore in Diegem in a building that will also host more mature fintech companies, investors and other fintech stakeholders. An ideal environment where startups can develop.
The location is close to the bank and less than 20 minutes away from other top financial industry players (like SWIFT, Mastercard Europe, Euroclear,…). It is also close to Brussels Airport.  Startups that will successfully graduate will be able to stay longer onsite to conduct a proof of concept.

ACTIVELY WORKING ON SOLUTIONS TO FACE THE CURRENT CHALLENGES


The startup companies will be selected based on their team and the solutions they can bring on the four main challenges selected for this first edition.

  • First we are looking for startups that are working on innovative online or mobile solutions that have the potential to create added value for our customers.
  • Secondly, we are very interested in technologies that enable personalized solutions to empower our customers. Solutions that leverage predictive models and compelling interfaces to generate targeted recommendations for customers are particularly of interest.
  • Thirdly, we are continuously working on creating a differentiated customer experience by offering simple, easy and secure banking. To achieve this goal, we want to support startups that are working on smart security and authentication across multiple channels.
  • Finally, we are always looking for ways to further improve our internal operations. Therefore, we are targeting solutions that can help streamline our customer onboarding process, compliance processes or user identity management.

Fintech Village allows  ING Belgium  to get faster and better access to companies that have great technologies supporting the delivery of ever more benefits to our customers” concludes David Dab, Chief Innovation Officer, ING Belgium


A DEDICATED TEAM OF MENTORS


Startups will be supported by a team of experienced mentors. These mentors come from ING Belgium and her partners. They all have different backgrounds, but without exception a high level of seniority and expertise from which the participants can pour knowledge in order to refine their product vision and prepare a compelling proof of concept for the market place. A cornerstone of the programme is the assignment of a lead mentor/sponsor to each startup. This sponsor will is a senior decision-maker of the bank with a keen interest to conduct a proof of concept with the startup.


A BROAD PARTNERSHIP, AN EVER EXPANDING AREA OF EXPERTISE


We believe in cooperation to foster innovation. Therefore we are open for expanding our initial partnership. This creates a win-win for all parties: the startups benefit from more support and get access to broader networks and the partners get access to a broader and rich set of opportunities.
Innovation has long been at the heart of our strategy, and today more than ever.


For all additional information on Fintech Village, please visit the website: www.fintech-village.com

 

 



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 8,558 people full time and is a subsidiary of ING Bank N.V. which offers services to 33 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 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.
 

For more information:


Press Department ING Belgium + 32 2 547 24 84, [email protected], [email protected]
The press release is also available on www.ing.be/over

Deloitte
Evelyne Lekime : +32 2 600 60 12, [email protected]

Swift Innotribe
Cognito : +44 (0)20 7426 9400, [email protected]

Belcube
Gregoire de Streel : +322 318 01 83, [email protected]

Smartfin Finance
Ellen Thijs : +32 (0)473 26 51 54, [email protected]

Eggsplore
Ellen Thijs : +32 (0)473 26 51 54, [email protected]

Startups.be
Karen Boers, +32 473 76 42 49, [email protected]

IBM 
Yves Van Seters: +32 2 478 27 10 33, [email protected]
      

 

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Vanessa Zwaelens - Head of External Communication

Tiziana Rizzo - Media Relations

Julie Kerremans - Media Relations

Vanessa Zwaelens - Head of External Communication

Tiziana Rizzo - Media Relations

Julie Kerremans - Media Relations