Spanish bank BBVA has named the 20 finalists for the European leg of its startup competition, whittling down the chosen few from more than 400 entrants.
The BBVA Open Talent competition sees startups battling in three geographic regions - Central/South America, Europe, North America and other countries. 870 companies entered, trying their luck in one of two categories - 'new banking' or 'digital life'.
Of 402 European entrants, 20 - 10 from each category - have now been picked by a panel of judges to pitch their services to an audience of business executives, entrepreneurs and investors at the Next Bank Europe conference in Barcelona in September.
A winner from each category will get EUR30,000 to develop their project with the support of BBVA and the opportunity to take part in the NYC Crash Acceleration programme.
Reyes Bolumar, BBVA Open Talent, says: added: "We had a staggering range of applications from very diverse disciplines. These included inventive ways to measure credit scores using the power of the crowd, to engage in domestic and cross-border payments using digital technologies and to take control of your investment portfolio online. I look forward to seeing what all the finalists bring to the table in Barcelona!"
The 'new banking' finalists are:
- Cashboard.io - The whole investment world with tailored, diversified and automated portfolios in one free account
- Ininial - The preferred banking and payment platform for the large unbanked - underbanked population in Turkey and the surrounding region
- FinGenius - A global supplier of artificial intelligence to the finance industry
- Aire - An alternative credit score, for all consumers, no matter what your background
- Lendstar - Borrow, collect, prepay, split, send & spend money within one app!
- TransferGo - The leading remittance service for Southern/Central/Eastern European migrant workers to send money home from Western Europe
- Bewa7er - Platform for buying/selling share rights to non-exchange listed companies in Spain
- ClauseMatch - A cloud platform for negotiating trading agreements for derivatives and commodities saving costs and increasing market liquidity
- Pollen - The world's first digital receivables financing platform
- ETFmatic - A simple and cost effective way to put our savings to work through low cost index funds that are highly diversified
The 'digital life' finalists are:
- HeyPlease - A mobile app facilitating order, payment and promotions at bars and restaurants
- Counterest - A platform measuring physical, in-store traffic and behaviour that brings web metrics to brick and mortar stores
- Hand-in-Scan - Reducing hospital infections and associated costs with technology-aided education and objective verification
- Wazoku Ltd - Helps businesses to harness the power of the crowd, providing process and structure to capture, evaluate, and select the best ideas.
- Watcherenterprises - A smart watch for children, connecting them to their parents from anywhere at any time
- Smarp - The ultimate employee advocacy platform that allows all employees to participate in communication efforts
- AudioSnaps - Takes pictures with sound and embeds it in a standard JPEG file viewable in all browsers and devices
- CloudDock - CloudDock is the universal adaptor for cloud storage that makes cloud services compatible
- Sedicii - Used to identify people without exposing their private information
- Hooptap - Web-based gamification platform that helps engage audience and advertisers