Here’s your weekly round up of startup competitions, awards, co-working space and accelerator news.
Octopus Labs’ FinTech cohort
Octopus Labs has announced the names of the five startups due to join its first FinTech accelerator programme, which will kick off next month.
The successful teams, selected from more than 80 applicants, took part in a live pitching day last week, presenting to judges including the ex-head of Google UK Dan Cobley.
The selected businesses, which will be showcased at a Demo Day early next year, are:
CityFALCON – a personalised financial news feed for non-institutional traders and investors, powered by machine learning and crowd-curation
MOOLA – an investing platform that allows consumers to invest and save
Squirrel – the financial wellbeing company that works in partnership with employers to empower employees to regain control of their financial lives
Freetrade – the mobile app that lets users invest in the stock market commission free and connects them with a network of professional independent advisers
Advicefront – the support platform for Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs), designed to give them a competitive edge while allowing average investors to access high quality advice
Aggelos Mouzakitis, the accelerator’s programme director, said: “We launched the search for our startups just a few weeks ago, and have been truly overwhelmed by the number and standard of the applications we received in such a short time. Whittling the hopefuls down to our final five was no easy task, but I’m thrilled with the cohort that we’ll be welcoming to Octopus over the next few weeks. The quality of their ideas, and the potential they hold, is truly impressive.”
As part of the programme, participants will receive mentoring from financial industry experts and entrepreneurs such as Nicole Anderson, CEO at FinTech Circle Innovate; Alan Chang, head of operations at Revolut; and Adam Price, founder of VouchedFor.
Dan Cobley, managing partner, FinTech at Blenheim Chalcot and former MD of Google UK, said: “The chosen startups stood out for their experienced, talented and ambitious teams, and for their simple yet powerful products, which hold the potential to add huge value in the marketplace. I’m excited to see what the future has in store for them as they begin their journey with Octopus.”
The startups will also be within a chance of receiving investment from Octopus.
Demo Day in Sheffield
Solutions developed by urban entrepreneurs to re-energise Sheffield and to help its residents to lead independent lives were unveiled during a Demo Day in the city on Thursday.
The event, which took place at Sheffield Hallam University, showcased some innovative ideas developed in the city over the past year as part of Sheffield’s Smart Lab programme.
The winning solutions showcased were:
Helping people to live independently:
- Alcove
- Give & Take Care
- GoodGym
- MindMate
- NANA
Energising the city centre:
- Better Cities
- Movement Strategies (P.S. – Gather, Analyse, Play, Strengthen)
- OverHear
- Situate
As part of the Sheffield Smart Lab Initiative – a partnership between Sheffield City Council, Amey and the Ferrovial Services Centre of Excellence for Cities – entrepreneurs and startups were encouraged to submit innovative ideas that would help address the two aforementioned challenges.
Cllr Leigh Bramall, deputy leader and cabinet member for business, said: “As a council, it is important to us that we drive innovation in Sheffield. There’s an energy and appetite for it in the city and we recognise that in order to do this we need to partner with startups and innovators. That’s what Sheffield Smart Lab is all about and by supporting entrepreneurs and helping them to build on their ideas and making them a reality; we have benefited both them and the city.
Iñigo Jodra, Ferrovial’s director for centre of excellence for cities, added: “This will be an exciting day where people can learn about innovative solutions that could be transformative for Sheffield. Over the past few months, the entrepreneurs have been sharing ideas, while discussing with the council and others how their projects can be best realised. All the solutions, from different perspectives, aim to enhance Sheffield and the lives of its citizens and visitors.”
Barclays FinTech hackathon winners
The ‘Rise Hackathon: Episode II – The Bank Awakens’ saw 547 teams and 1,045 participants compete over 36 hours in Manchester and India last weekend.
The hackhaton was designed to address both the challenges and opportunities presented to the banking industry by the introduction of the Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) – a new European banking regulation that is expected to come into effect in 2018.
The winning teams in Manchester were:
Baringa Partners – A cashflow forecasting and intelligent decisioning tool enabled by Open APIs and Machine Learning. (Manchester, UK)
Nevis – Provides consumers of financial services with a single, secure platform to do all of their banking in one place. (Manchester, UK)
Presciense – Simple and secure voice control and disruptive payment methods for the Utility market, supporting smart gas, electricity and water meters. (Manchester, UK)
Michael Harte, Barclays head of group innovation, said: “Hackathons allow us to dynamically collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the global fintech start-up communities around the world. It’s about our staff co-creating solutions with external teams; coming together for 36 hours to work on specific customer and business solutions – an intense burst of idea storming and experimental hacks to build innovative prototypes and minimum viable products or features for customers. Rapid collaboration through hacks helps fuel and accelerate innovation to benefit customers and clients across the globe.”
The hackathon marked the first time Barclays has released its APIs (application programming interfaces) to external developers via its API store.
Peter Josse, CIO for Barclays UK, added: “We understand the critical importance of digital and data and the role they’re playing in reshaping the financial services industry. We’re passionate about leading the way for open banking and providing our customers and clients with secure, resilient next gen products and services.”
Prizes included £1,500 for the winning teams, who also have the opportunity to be supported by Barclays in developing their prototypes into real life solutions.
BMW FinTech cohort
BMW Group Financial Services today reveals the five startups selected to join its Innovation Lab, the first-ever FinTech business incubator in the automotive sector.
The five Innovation Lab finalists are:
- Divido – a new approach to car financing; consumers split the cost of important purchases over a long period, using their smartphone in a BMW Centre or at home
- Wrisk – a new take on insurance, centred around people, rather than their things. Bringing motor, travel and home cover together, to offer insurance that is more intelligent and flexible while reducing costs and making life easier.
- UKVehicle.com – using big data to identify every car available on the market, to reinvent car sales and make buying vehicles safer and hassle free.
- Drover – a car rental marketplace connecting owners and drivers of licensed cars, for use on ride-sharing platforms
- Warwick Analytics – a new type of predictive analytics, developed at Warwick University, that aims to make BMW Group Financial Services more efficient by automating data analysis
Mike Dennett, CEO BMW group financial services, said: “Despite being vital for many drivers to access vehicles, the auto-finance sector has failed to innovate in the same way that most other areas of the automotive industry have in recent years. Our industry is ripe for disruption and each startup we’ve selected to enter the Innovation Lab offers the potential to change how thousands of consumers gain access to and use vehicles, and I’m confident that our support will help us both work towards this goal.”
… Until next week!