Eight fintechs from the second round of the fintech partnership program Elevator Lab of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) had the opportunity for a presentation on yesterday's Demo Day. They were selected in October 2018 from more than 400 applicants. Now, they presented the results of the proof-of-concept phase to the jury, their mentors and more than 250 other interested persons. The fintechs cover the areas Advanced Analytics (CityFALCON from UK and SESAMm from France), Investing & TradingTech (FINABRO from Austria and Limitless from the Netherlands), New Branch Experience (CopSonic from France, PayKey from Israel, and Pisano from UK), and Open Banking (Cambrist from Ireland).

"My jury colleagues and I are truly impressed by the progress of the pilot projects. We see potential for cooperations that may generate significant added value for both fintechs and above all our customers," commented RBI CEO Johann Strobl on the results of the four-month pilot phase. "At RBI, we value expertise. In the past months, we had the chance to observe how exchange and cooperation with fintechs has led to intensive learning from each other," Strobl continued.

The solutions were validated in so-called sandboxes, i.e. with test customers and real data, and can, as a next step, move on to the roll-out planning phase. In addition, Elevator Ventures, RBI's venture capital vehicle, is available for potential investments to strengthen strategic partnerships.

The fact that RBI's accelerator program is bearing fruit not only in terms of learning progress is evidenced by the cooperation with kompany, a fintech in the RegTech area (improvement of regulatory efficiency) from the first round of Elevator Lab. In June 2018, RBI and kompany signed a contract for the creation of a Know-Your-Customer solution (KYC). Further collaborations with fintechs of the first round exist – contract signings are currently being considered. 

In view of this success, it is not surprising that RBI announced the start of a third round of its fintech partnership program as of the end of April this year. "There will be a third round, of course. Through our local Elevator Lab Challenges, we have even better access to the know-how of the fintech ecosystems in our markets," said Strobl.

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About CopSonic (www.copsonic.com) | France
CopSonic is a communication technology that allows its users to interact or transmit data between electronic devices using ultrasounds. CopSonic is focusing on digital security, smart detection and also IOT connectivity. The patented technology is distributed as an Software Development Kit (SDK) as to enable B2B partners to integrate the solutions inside their existing environment as an alternative or complement to NFC, Bluetooth LE or QR. A huge advantage of the solution is its universality and its capability to be applied cross-platform.

About Cambrist (www.cambrist.com) | Ireland
Cambrist works with banks that want to transform the way their customers experience cross border card payments and in doing so, Cambrist helps its bank partners drive more value for their customers and compete against fintech disrupters in an evolving FX payments market. Cambrist’s services help banks to increase the transparency and control over the cost of cross border payments via enhanced digital propositions.

About CityFALCON (www.cityfalcon.com) | United Kingdom
CityFALCON is redefining how financial news is sourced, curated, distributed and consumed. It transforms unstructured financial content into structured data using natural language processing (NLP) and personalizes data for users and clients using machine learning. Apart from RBI, their clients include BNP Paribas, banks in Asia, IEX Group and several fintech companies. The company has received awards and recognition from Twitter, UBS, IBM, Standard Bank, and NTT Data.

About FINABRO (www.finabro.at) | Austria
FINABRO aims to make saving for retirement and other important life goals easier and more accessible. FINABRO has built a simple wealth management platform with a license from the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). The offerings are life insurance (pension) wrapped products, as well as non-wrapped bank products. The company’s main routes to market are cooperation with financial institutions as well as selling its pension product directly to employers.

About Limitless (www.limitlessapp.io) | Netherlands
Limitless provides a simple and engaging white-label mobile app for spending-based savings and micro-investments to convert savers into investors. Their app helps customers to invest money in an easy way and makes them engage more with their bank.

About PayKey (www.paykey.com) | Israel
PayKey develops a unique social banking solution that enables users to access key financial services – such as P2P transfers, balance checks, credit top ups, and chatbot service – from within a chat on ANY social messaging app, directly from their keyboard. PayKey's solution is based on a smartphone keyboard which is fully integrated with the bank’s apps, transforming the keyboard into a new channel for services, information, and communication.

About Pisano (www.pisano.co) | United Kingdom
Pisano is an omni-channel customer experience management platform that enables businesses to collect customer feedback at all touch-points both online and offline. The platform provides solutions to collect customer feedback, engage with them during their experience and close the loop on their requests. By using this platform, brands decrease their operational costs to manage customers and increase revenue by converting them into brand promoters.

About SESAMm (www.sesamm.com) | France
SESAMm provides tools for the asset management industry, based on proprietary Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. It analyzes in real time millions of web messages, articles, and posts to provide innovative analytics on thousands of financial products (such as stocks, bonds, currencies, indices, commodities or crypto-currencies).

About Elevator Lab
Founded in 2017, the fintech partnership program of RBI focuses on innovative ideas and solutions in the areas of Advanced Analytics, Corporate Banking, Investing & TradingTech, New Branch Experience, Open Banking, and RegTech. The goal of the largest fintech accelerator in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are long-term cooperations with these fintechs.

About Raiffeisen Bank International
RBI regards Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, as well as Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. 13 markets of the region are covered by subsidiary banks. Additionally, the RBI Group comprises numerous other financial service providers, for instance in leasing, asset management or M&A. 

In total, around 47,000 employees service almost 16 million customers through around 2,200 business outlets, the majority thereof in CEE. RBI's shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The Austrian Regional Raiffeisen Banks own around 58.8 per cent of the shares, the remainder is in free float. Within the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, RBI is the central institute of the Regional Raiffeisen Banks and other affiliated credit institutions.

For further information please contact:
Ingrid Krenn-Ditz (+43-1-71 707-6055, ingrid.krenn-ditz@rbinternational.com) or
Christof Danz (+43-1-71 707-1930, christof.danz@rbinternational.com) 
www.rbinternational.com | www.elevator-lab.com