Swiss fintech incubator Fusion has selected the first ten startups to join a 12-month accelerator scheme, having ploughed through over 100 applications from aspiring companies working in traditional Swiss strongholds such as asset and wealth management, insurance, and commodity trading.
Launched in February this year, Geneva-based Fusion is the creation of Polytech Ventures, a venture capital firm based out of the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL).
The accelerator takes no equity stakes in the companies which come onboard, but instead seeks to offer mentorship from core banking partner Temenos, technology consulting from Capco and access to R&D facilities via IDIAP, an EPFL affiliated research institute.
The start-ups making up the 2015 intake are drawn from seven countries and among others include: AceBanker from China which offers a mobile app to democratise wealth management services in China; Biowatch from Switzerland which is fusing authentication with wearable tech; Fundrs from Holland applies blockchain technology for asynchonous payments; and Edge Laboratories from Switzerland which is developing risk and valuation software for institutional investors.
Guillaume Dubray, partner at Polytech Ventures, comments: “We are delighted with the positive response we have seen to Fusion. Given this is its first year, we were concerned that we might not get that many applications, but the level of interest has been amazing and, in the end, we were spoilt for choice. As a result, we have been able to select 10 really exciting start-ups from all over the world to bring to Geneva next month. And we have been able to choose start-ups in areas where Switzerland is a world leader, such as asset management, data privacy and risk management.”