Fintech Startups And Accelerators Are Going Strong Globally

Fintech labs, accelerators and hackathons are spreading around the world, from New York to London to Asia to Latin America. In New York, where it all started in 2010 with  the FinTech Innovation Lab launched by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City, the latest startup graduates have been announced from the 12-week mentoring program.

Participants were: Digital Asset Holdings, secure distributed settlement and ledger services; EverSafe, protection for older adults from financial abuse and identity theft; MaxMyInterest, cash sweep to a client’s highest yielding account; PierceMatrix, cyber-security third party risk management; Pay Your Tuition, helps high performing students obtain funding; Social Alpha, trading information from social media and news using natural language processing; Ufora, provides answers from large data sets in seconds.

The FinTech Innovation Labs’ 24 alumni companies have raised a total of $176 million in financing after participating in the program, and one alumni company was acquired last year for $175 million.

Accenture’s 2015 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong announced seven startups for this year’s program. They are: Bitspark, a remittance platform that uses bitcoin and blockchain technology to send and receive payments in emerging markets; BondIT, advanced machine-learning algorithms for investment portfolio construction and optimization; Ironfly Technologies, uses neuroscience and cognitive psychology to make data fast, intuitive and visual; Moroku, gamification mobile app for financial literacy and retirement planning; Sparro, uses Ripple protocol to make a cross-border payment as easy as a domestic payment; Sybenetix, enterprise behavioral analytics company that helps hedge funds and asset managers and Uniken, digital security firm with a patented on-demand, software-based scalable digital connectivity and access platform called REL-ID.

In Singapore, Startupbootcamp FinTech,  an accelerator focusing on financial innovation, hosted its first Demo Day last month featuring 11 teams which had complete a three-month program collaborating with leading banks.

The results showed that blockchain and wealth management are the FinTech trends most investors and financial institutions wish to see more of, said organizers.

The companies in the program included Bankguard, with two-factor authentication; Creditseva, an algorithm and integrated online platform for analyzing credit scores, closing bad loans and customizing offers for new loans; Dragon Wealth, an app to help financial advisors in their marketing; Kashmi, real-time payments in communications with friends; KyePot, mobile-centric community savings and lending platform; OnePay,  global payment and loyalty platform on blockchains and digital currency through NFC; Open Trade Docs, certified online identities and documents; Otonomos, a blockchain app, ShereIt, simplifies share trading and lets users follow expert traders; Skolafund, crowdfunding for university students scholarship and TOAST, funds transfer from Filipino workers in Singapore back home without Western Union .

The Bank Innovation newsletter said MasterCard is pursuing startups to acquire. On an earnings call CEO Ajay Banga said the company is looking for companies in loyalty, data analytics, processing, safety and security. Over the last 18 months it acquired C-SAM, a mobile wallet service; Pinpoint, a loyalty provider;  ElectraCard Services, a payment processor;    TNS (Transaction Network Services), a payment gateway service and APT (Applied Predictive Technologies), a cloud-based analytics provider, reported Philip Ryan.

In the UK, reports Finextra, the Open University has teamed up with UK fintech trade body Innovate Finance to launch the world's first introductory course for financial technology. The 50-hour online Fintech 101: Understanding Financial Technology' course will examine the origins of FinTech and its role in transforming the financial services landscape since the economic crash of 2008.