FF16 Fintech Semi-Finals

I had the pleasure of attending the Next Bank Sydney Semi-Finals  of the FF16 Fintech Semi-Finals at Stone & Chalk on 16th December.

Five organisations at varying stages of development pitched their concepts.  Each had only 5 minutes.

Here’s my brief summary/assessment of each (apologies for any errors).

Swipe

Swipe offers a simple web import processing engine that converts word and PDFs to mobile-optimised websites.

The system clearly works very well, converting content that would otherwise be awkward and cumbersome to read on a mobile device into a format that is clear and easy to use including menus and sections to break up the content.

Macrovue

Macrovue, the ultimate winner of the semi-finals, is trying to make it easy to invest in international shares, which, at the moment can be hard, complex and frustrating.

The core system delivers an online portal which provides ‘vues’ of different investment groups:  categories, baskets or themes.

Investors can invest directly into each basket or customise individual stocks within each portfolio

UlyssesIT

UlyssesIT helps SMEs get access to finance by linking pre-qualified borrows with savers/investors.

SME borrowers can thus pre-qualify and know the cost.  They can also use an app to access instant funding for purchases, etc.

Raincheck

Raincheck has a simple goal: to provide a broad-based wishlist solution that integrates online wish lists with offline purchasing.

Online shopping is now more than common, it’s ubiquitous.  However, online retail has one main ‘Achilles heal’:  up to 80% of shopping carts are typically abandoned.

Currently people most record their abandoned items in personal wishlists:  lists and emails etc.

Raincheck is an online wishlist solution that integrates with all major shopping cart systems an allows users to save items online and then be reminded about them when they go into a store.

What’s more, they can also pay for the goods via the Raincheck app.

Nice.

iDATS

iDATs has formed an alliance with Visa to expand the scope and opportunities associated with credit card rewards systems.

Currently card rewards schemes are generally limited to credit cards and are typically funded by issuing banks.  But competition in the credit card space and reductions in interchange fees are reducing the scope for organisations to provide competitive rewards schemes.

The iDATs system scans card transactions and runs rule checks across each allow rewards to be deliver to the card holder for spend from the merchant – not the issuers.