Innovative solutions for the financial-banking field, developed at Fintech Accelerator
Enthusiastic and motivated to improve processes and products in the financial-banking sector, several startups in the country participated in the Fintech Moldova 2021 program, launched by Startup Moldova, in partnership with MAIB and Mastercard, with the support of USAID and Sweden, within the Tekwill project.
Mary Nemciuc, entrepreneurial program manager, TEKWILL:
“As the IT industry propels innovation, processes and changes paradigms, the need for new products, which offer viable solutions in the process of technologicalization of services in the financial-banking sphere, also increases considerably. For a better understanding of market needs, we have identified a reliable private partner, interested in such solutions, ready to come with support, piloting and integration. Therefore, we are grateful for the involvement of MAIB and Mastercard partners in the development of the FinTech 2021 Vertical, which detects the problems faced by banking companies and provides relevant IT solutions to solve them”.
Over the course of several months, the young people worked on innovative ideas in the first two stages of the program - Hackathon and Accelerator. The top 11 startups were selected to move to the next level of piloting. For 3 months, within the Accelerator, the participants had mentoring and consulting sessions from mentors and experts in the field, had access to an extensive business network in the financial-banking field, gained new knowledge and interacted with future customers, to benefit from potential investments and information on how corporations can support a local initiative.
Evgeny Frolov, senior startup tracker:
“As a senior tracker, I am proud that, based on the feedback at the end of the program, trackers have been designated as one of the main effective and valuable tools for the accelerator. It was not an easy journey, it always requires investments of emotions, time and knowledge, but it is also an extraordinary experience to support the founders in their journey to success. I am happy to announce that startup trackers are now openly operating on the Moldovan market and can help all local startups to victory!”.
Within the accelerator, 9 solutions were developed, which could be adopted by MAIB to facilitate business processes within the bank and bring value to existing customers, but also to potential ones in the financial-banking sector.
Aliona Stratan, First Vice Chairwoman of MAIB:
“The acceleration program aimed to help startups validate their ideas and create products, as well as to build a supportive relationship between MAIB and each of these startups. The experience was new for us as well, challenging the people in charge of the bank’s products to think differently about how to build partnerships. We count on the fact that this first experience will continue, facilitating the development of the MAIB partnership ecosystem for the benefit of our clients, but also of the fintech ecosystem in the Republic of Moldova”.
At the end of the accelerator, there were two days of Demo Day, in which participants presented their products developed during the program.
The FinTech 2021 program will end with a conference in October, attended by experts, startups and all those associated with the financial industry. The event will discuss industry challenges, consumer needs and the potential of fintech solutions to build new business models through which banks, financial services companies and other market players could provide the best services to customers and business partners.
