On 10 November, 17 start-ups from five different countries pitched their projects to a Grand Jury composed of BNP Paribas general management plus external Innovation and Fintech sector experts. Six of them have now been selected to take their projects forward into a 4-month incubation phase, during which they will be working to turn their innovative ideas into concrete services and processes designed to improve customer relations.
The theme of the 2015 BNP Paribas International Hackathon is ‘enhancing the customer experience’. In June, following a weekend-long contest held for the very first time simultaneously in Paris, Brussels, Rome, Istanbul and San Francisco, 17 start-ups were chosen among the 58 competing teams to take part in the next stage, a ‘Digital Bootcamp’.
The Bootcamp consisted of a 3-month tutoring phase, during which the teams received mentoring from BNP Paribas experts as they worked to develop their ideas and add greater depth to their projects.
The six start-ups selected at the Demo Day in Paris on 10 November have all been working to develop personalised solutions that provide a better customer experience in various fields, including customer identification/authentication, payments, and data collection & analysis.
The six winning start-ups are:
- BehavioSec: provides a behavioural biometric solution for a multi-layered approach for authentication and verification purposes
- DataSine: offers behavioural analysis using big data
- Heuritech: established a semantic analysis engine able to predict interests and cycle changing in a customer’s life
- LogMote: invented an innovative unified authentication service, which manages both legacy and cloud applications
- SnapCheck: enables clients to transform their paper checks into digital checks with the aim to reduce costs and fraud
- Saldo.mx: developed a cross-border bill payment system
These six selected start-ups will now go forward to the Incubation phase. For a four-month period, they will enjoy unique access to resources provided by the Bank, including financial support, dedicated workspaces, a tailored acceleration programme and introductions to potential partners. BNP Paribas is not only determined to make a long-term commitment to these fledgling companies but will also be acting in an entirely ethical manner: the programme will include regular interactions between BNP Paribas sector experts and the Incubator participants but the start-ups will retain all rights to the intellectual property arising from their work.
Thierry Laborde, BNP Paribas Group Deputy COO and Head of Domestic Markets, explained: “Digital tools are now bringing profound change to our Retail Banking business. By combining the agility of start-ups with the expertise of our own staff and their knowledge of the customers, we’re aiming to improve customer service efficiency and provide our clients with new experiences.”
Jacques d’Estais, BNP Paribas Group Deputy COO and Head of International Financial Services, underlined: “The BNP Paribas International Hackathon constitutes a new step in the Group’s Innovation strategy, illustrating our determination to step up our collaboration with start-ups. We’re delighted to be going forward hand-in-hand with these six talented international teams so as to help them get their innovations up and running at the Bank, to the benefit of our customers.”
The BNP Paribas International Hackathon, a ‘first’ for the Group, proved highly popular in the five cities where it ran under the aegis of six specialist BNP Paribas Group entities operating in the fields of retail banking, lending services and insurance, namely: French Retail Banking, BNL (Italy), BNP Paribas Fortis (Belgium), TEB (Turkey), Bank of the West (United States), BNP Paribas Cardif and BNP Paribas Personal Finance.
BNP Paribas has a presence in 75 countries with more than 185,000 employees, including 145,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its two core activities: Retail Banking & Services (comprised of Domestic Markets and International Financial Services) and Corporate & Institutional Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and International Financial Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia-Pacific.