Westpac Group has announced Richard Kimber, CEO and Founder of artificial intelligence company Daisee, as the winner of the fifth annual Westpac Innovation Challenge.
The Challenge, which was launched in October, asked entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-up businesses to create a technological solution that helps companies comply with regulatory obligations.
Daisee created and pitched a product called ‘Lisa’ which uses natural language processing to improve call centre compliance through an automated quality assurance scorecard, as well as other customer experience and performance insights and recommendations.
"Our fifth Innovation Challenge focused on how technology can enhance compliance and create better customer outcomes. This year’s event attracted a strong calibre of innovations from a range of businesses," Westpac Group Executive, Strategy and Enterprise Services, Gary Thursby, said.
“The Daisee pitch impressed the judging panel with an innovative approach to using artificial intelligence to improve the quality of customer interactions over the phone, with the potential to scale the concept across multiple channels.
“We’re proud to support Australia’s next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs, like Daisee, through the Innovation Challenge. It’s a powerful platform to connect people with big ideas to the opportunities that will turn them into reality.”
Daisee will receive a $40,000 cash prize along with support and mentoring from Westpac to help grow the business.
Daisee will also receive a further $5,000 for being voted the People’s Choice winner at the Challenge, with the final pitch live-streamed in locations across Australia, Singapore and London.
“We’re thrilled to be the winners of this year’s Westpac Innovation Challenge. It’s been an amazing initiative to be a part of with great support and mentorship from across the business and innovation team,” said Richard Kimber, Daisee CEO and Founder.
“We’re proud to have Daisee recognised with this award and look forward to continuing to work with Westpac to build on the success we’ve had to date.”
Global fintech Priviti received the Westpac Chief Product Officer award of $30,000 for its consent management solution and patents, which enable companies to secure consumer consent and control data sharing with greater precision. Priviti allows companies to obtain, verify, match and revoke consent between multiple parties with audit trails for regulatory compliance.
Mr Thursby was on the judging panel, alongside:
Rebecca Lim, Group Executive, Legal & Secretariat, Westpac
Kate Cooper, Head of Innovation, Westpac NEXT
Jim Tate, Chief Product Officer, Westpac
Deborah Young, CEO of The RegTech Association
Alex Scandurra, CEO of Stone & Chalk
Emma Weston, CEO of AgriDigital and winner of BlockHack16.