Vienna – Following the very successful application phase with 336 submissions from 56 countries, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) today selected those six start-ups that will participate in its group-wide fintech accelerator program “Elevator Lab”.

 

“We are the first banking group in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to launch a fintech accelerator program of this scale and we are more than satisfied with the interest in it. Innovation creates business, and through Elevator Lab we want to enable innovative fintechs to offer real value-added to our 16.5 million customers throughout our 14 CEE markets,” says RBI CEO Johann Strobl.

 

The six selected start-ups work in the fields of Payments & Transactions (MishiPay from the United Kingdom), SME Banking (Asteria from Sweden), RegTech (kompany from Austria), Branch of the Future (Moxtra from the United States and SONECT from Switzerland) and Big Data Analytics (Gauss Algorithmics from the Czech Republic).

 

„It was no easy task to select the six participants, as we have received so many excellent and interesting applications to choose from. Over the next four months, RBI will now invest its expertise, networks and infrastructure to work with the start-ups on pilot projects. The goal is to explore actual business use cases for RBI Group,” explains Michael Hoellerer, RBI plenipotentiary in charge of, amongst other functions, the group’s digitization strategy.

 

* * *

About Asteria (www.asteriainc.se) - Sweden

Asteria is a new and easy way to truly understand business cash flow and make it smart in order to find the easiest opportunities for growth, to make more data driven decisions and to reduce administration. Asteria’s software is integrated into the customer’s and bank’s software. Customers get automated cash flow forecasts and receive an alert when there is a cash flow gap and a suggestion to solve it with their bank. Customers get continuous feedback on how to optimize receivables, cash positions and credits and see how it affects their future cash flow. Asteria visualizes the most important parts of their customer’s business software data to help make more data driven decisions. Through the software, businesses can increase earnings, cut costs and stay one step ahead of their competition.

 

About Gauss Algorithmic (www.gaussalgo.com) - Czech Republic

Gauss Algorithmic is a leader in data integration, advanced analytics and data related research in the CEE region. Its technology expertise ranges from big data integration, processing and enrichment to predictive analytics and cognitive computing. The company’s mission is to help businesses making right decisions and creating a competitive advantage using Gauss Algorithmic’s capability to analyze the past, understand the present and leverage Artificial Intelligence to uncover future outcomes. Its team consists of leading specialists in scientific and commercial applications of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence with a strong focus on the CEE region. Gauss Algorithmic is also a Cloudera certified partner in the CEE region.

 

About kompany (www.kompany.com) - Austria

kompany offers real-time access to authoritative, audit-proof company information covering 100 million companies in over150 jurisdictions powering KYC, AML, and EDD checks. Its service can improve or automate the verification of businesses (cross-border) based on real-time, authoritative and audit-proof company information directly from commercial registers, UBO directories and PEP/sanctions lists, allowing a streamlining of onboarding and compliance processes as well as due diligence processes in various fields. kompany provides both a business KYC web tool for automated retrieval, delivery and storage of authoritative, audit-proof company filings and commercial register reports and an enterprise API which can be integrated into in-house workflow management tools, CRM and ERP systems.

 

About MishiPay (www.mishipay.com) - United Kingdom
MishiPay invented a retail payment technology, which allows shoppers to use their app to simply pick up a product they want to buy in a retail store, scan the barcode with their phone, pay with the phone and just walk out. The app not only reduces the queue at the POS but completely eliminates it. MishiPay creates an “Amazon Go” customer experience for retailers, while maintaining current systems and existing internal infrastructure and enhancing staff-shopper interaction. Theft is prevented, as MishiPay’s patent-pending technology would immediately sound an alarm. MishiPay ensures retailers to get back the money lost due to queuing and brings the best parts of online shopping into the physical world, thus making shopping on the high street just as seamless as shopping online.

 

About Moxtra (www.moxtra.com) - United States

Moxtra, a leader in mobile-first embeddable collaboration services, offers an embeddable, omni-channel client engagement platform for financial services companies. Using Moxtra’s technology, clients and bank agents can collaborate around documents using secure messaging, e-signatures, voice layered-over content and real-time meetings. Moxtra is platform agnostic and built with the mobile user in mind. The platform can be integrated deeply into existing workflows and configured to meet any security or regulatory requirements. Moxtra’s APIs can be embedded quickly and easily into almost any existing vertical solution, such as ERP and CRM, as well as into native mobile apps, to provide built-in collaboration that keeps users engaged and productive.

 

About SONECT (www.sonect.ch) - Switzerland

SONECT converts any shop or individual into a "Virtual ATM" reducing the high "cost of cash" via a location based on-demand service that allows its users to withdraw cash using smartphones. SONECT disrupts the ATM industry by democratising the process of cash distribution. What UBER is to taxis, AirBnB to hotels, SONECT is to ATMs. It is a location-based match making platform that connects those who want to withdraw cash with those who want to deposit cash (e.g. a shop owner). This way, the shop owner not only reduces the cash management efforts but also earns money and increases footfall, consumers can withdraw cash at the click of a button on their smartphone wherever they are, and banks can save up to 50% in running their ATMs while generating new revenue.

 

About RBI

Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) regards Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, as well as Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. 14 markets of the region are covered by subsidiary banks. Additionally, the group comprises numerous other financial service providers, for instance in leasing, asset management or M&A.

 

In total, approximately 50,000 employees service 16.5 million customers through more than 2,400 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 and renders important services in this function.

 

 

For more information, please contact

Ingrid Krenn-Ditz (+43-1-71707-6055, ingrid.krenn-ditz@rbinternational.com) or

Andrea Pelinka-Kinz (+43-1-71707-8787, andrea.pelinka-kinz@rbinternational.com)

www.rbinternational.com / www.elevator-lab.com