The FinTech Innovation Lab London is a collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions in London, supported by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the City of London Corporation and the Technology Strategy Board. It provides senior level mentoring for entrepreneurs to help them develop and commercialise their innovations, and connect with potential customers at top institutions. Accenture is hosting the 2013 FinTech Innovation Lab London, at Level39, Europe’s largest financial technology accelerator space, based in Canary Wharf.
The seven start-ups -- chosen by industry executives from a large field of applicants from the UK and internationally -- include: BehavioSec, Calltrunk, Digital Shadows, Growth Intelligence, Kiboo, Open Bank Project and Waratek. Their innovations range from cloud development tools and “Big Data” security and analysis applications, to search engines for voice recordings, “behavioural biometric” solutions for fighting fraud, open source technologies, and personal financial management tools for young people.
Richard Lumb, Group Chief Executive-Financial Services at Accenture said: “It was a tough task selecting from such a strong field of applicants but we are delighted with the seven chosen entrepreneurs. We believe these innovations can add significant value to the financial sector, and bring benefits to both businesses and consumers.”
London's Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise, Kit Malthouse, said: “This project has great potential to bring radical new innovations to our financial services industry and strengthen London’s position as one of the world’s leading financial centres. I wish the best of luck to this year’s FinTech Innovation Lab London’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”
The chosen entrepreneurs will be mentored for 12 weeks by leading executives from financial services, venture capital and angel investment firms through a series of panel discussions, workshops, leadership coaching and networking opportunities. At the end of the programme, the entrepreneurs are given an opportunity to present their concepts to potential investors and participating industry executives.
Supporting financial institutions include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, RBS, UBS and VocaLink, the UK national payments infrastructure provider. Other participating organisations include Euclid Opportunities, the Greater London Authority and UK Business Angels Association.
The FinTech Innovation Lab London is modelled on a similar programme that was co-founded by Accenture and the Partnership for New York City Fund, which has already proved highly successful in helping a dozen young financial technology start-ups.