Nordea has every idea for start-ups worldwide
Oslo aglow with start-ups
Nordea’s Oslo office will welcome 35 start-ups as the bank prepares to assist the firms in fintech innovation.
During the week, the best projects (around 20 teams) will be selected to take part in Nordea’s Accelerator programme, which kicks off in the autumn in Stockholm and Helsinki.
In total, over 200 companies applied to the Nordea Start-up Accelerator, which is a 12-week programme providing selected start-ups with the opportunity to develop their ideas alongside Nordea and fintech experts in the Nordics. The 35 start-ups that made it through come from a wide range of countries, including the US, Russia, Singapore, India, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Jan Sirich, head of experimentation and learning at Nordea, says the programme is focusing on ideas in new technology such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain. But it is also interested in other areas, where “new technology can help us offer better services to our customers”.
This is the second Nordea Accelerator programme, In the first event, in the winter of 2015–2016, the start-ups received over €600,000 in new financing, and Nordea has continued to work with two of them (Jenny and Feelingstream).
As with the first programme, Nestholma is Nordea’s facilitation partner. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and IBM will also be present throughout the latest programme, along with other experts.
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Nordea has shown a great interest in start-ups, digital matters and crowdfunding.
Ewan MacLeod is heading to Nordea as co-head of its newly created “Group Digital” unit and is on the lookout for fintech companies, services and ideas to introduce to Nordea.
Nordea also said it will be the “first” bank in Finland to offer its customers an equity-based crowdfunding service.
