The FINANCIAL — After thirteen weeks of intensive networking, mentoring and development, 11 businesses on October 14 showcased their innovative fintech propositions at a demo day in New York, marking the culmination of the third cohort of the Barclays Accelerator.
“The first New York cohort of the Barclays Accelerator program has been an outstanding success,” said Derek White, Chief Design and Innovation Officer. “Each of the 11 companies that participated in the program has significantly progressed their concept, and has contributed to shaping the future of financial services. Today’s demo day is about celebrating the successes, partnership and an exciting future with some of the leading start-ups in the fintech ecosystem right now. Barclays is proud to be at the forefront of the fintech revolution.”
The Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, is an intensive program for fintech startups designed to help businesses deliver breakthrough innovations, according to Barclays.
An audience of more than 400 industry leaders, serial entrepreneurs, senior executives and corporate partners attended the event to hear from the 11 companies. Each of the companies presented their propositions on how to shape the future of financial services.
At this morning’s event, the startups also highlighted the progress they have made since the start of the Barclays Accelerator program, some developing their technologies from inception and strategy through to product development in just 13 weeks.
A total of 10 companies from the Barclays Accelerator engaged with a variety of Barclays’ businesses to investigate the implementation of new technologies. These include:
• Chainalysis is working to help Barclays transact with companies who are active in the Bitcoin and blockchain space. Barclays’ financial crime and transaction monitoring teams will be using Chainalysis to obtain information from the blockchain about their customer’s financial transactions, giving the bank more effective control in working with this exciting new technology
• LiveOak Technologies has signed a five-year framework contract that enables it to contract with various Barclays business units globally to investigate implementation of their video-conferencing technology that allows in-session eSignature
• RangeForce has agreed to pilot cyber-security competitions in the UK, US and Africa for Barclays’ technology teams
• Wave is experimenting with an electronic, paperless Bills of Lading process using blockchain technology, in conjunction with Barclays’ Corporate Bank
• Wayerz is working with Barclays to see how Wayerz’s solution can help Barclays further enhance the current process of the invoice billing with Barclays’ financial institution partners
“It’s amazing to be part of the burgeoning fintech ecosystem in New York City and play an active part in the transformation of the industry,” said Jenny Fielding, Managing Director of Techstars. “The eleven startups in this class are each tackling a different part of financial services, providing further evidence that the category is a massive market opportunity. Working in unison with Barclays has proven to be a strong partnership for these high growth startups and we’re excited to roll out additional fintech programs worldwide.”
Of note, two companies from the New York Barclays Accelerator cohort are working with other Barclays Accelerator companies on joint projects:
• Logrr is working with Dopay, a company that participated in the first London cohort of the Barclays Accelerator program, to enhance Dopay’s client experience
• Alloy and Liveoak are working together to create a solution for Barclaycard US around fraud detection and prevention
Throughout the New York Barclays Accelerator program, Cisco and Thomson Reuters provided mentoring and strategic assets to the participating start-ups.
The New York cohort of the Barclays Accelerator comes after two prior London cohorts, run during 2015 and 2014. A fourth cohort will start their own 13-week program in London in January 2016. Last week, Barclays announced two further Barclays Accelerator programs that will run in Tel Aviv and in Cape Town in March 2016.
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