FAQ: the most common questions startups have about our accelerators

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Startups.

While promoting our accelerator programs, we get lots of questions regarding logistics, financing, or other parameters that might influence your decision. Here are some answers to the most common questions:

Do I need to relocate to the program’s location?

The accelerator program is on-site: it requires the founders to be physically present in the corporation partner’s premises. Building a fruitful collaboration takes time (many meetings, involving many people from the corporation, etc). You need to be ready to invest those 3 months in the collaboration.

During that time, we also help you develop your business better in many ways, which in turn helps you structure and define the collaboration. This also requires decision-makers from the startup (the founders and/or anybody that you decide) to be physically present. You need to be able to make strategic decisions quickly during the program.

Of course, we understand time or travel constraints Read more »

Want to get access to a market of 80 million people? Announcing the next global partner in our Global Fintech Accelerator: TEB

Posted by & filed under Banking, Fintech, Global Fintech Accelerator.

Startups: when you apply to any of our accelerators or BankAccess programs, you’ll be exposed to all of our bank partners operating in 20+ countries in addition to TEB. 

Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) is a reputable institution in the Turkish banking sector operating with its more than 500 branches and about 10,000 employees throughout the country. Since its establishment in 1927, with its expanded network of branches and a diversified range of products and services, TEB has pursued operating in various fields of the banking sector.

In 2005, BNP Paribas, one of the strongest banks in the world Read more »

Will CEE surpass China and India as the fintech leader? Here’s why.

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Fintech, Startups.

China has been the number one market in fintech for a while now, and India is right behind it. But will 3rd king of the market be the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)?

At first, saying so might feel a bit surprising, random even. Sure, there are some great success stories like Prezi, Ustream, LogMeIn coming from there, but calling the area the next big fintech market – maybe a bit too much. Except when you dig deeper you can see that it has many similarities with the current fintech leaders; in e.g. consumer mentality and environment, regulations Read more »

Insurance is about to be disrupted. Here’s why.

Posted by & filed under Featured, Guest blog, Insurance, Insurtech.

Guest blogger Petri Ekman Nestholma MentorThis is a guest post from one of our mentors, Petri Ekman. Petri is an experienced executive with a broad and in-depth experience in financing, financial and insurance products and risk management strategies for corporate clients. 

Change Started Later than in Many Other Industries

During my 12 years in insurance, I used to hear numerous times the claims “there have not been any new products in this industry for 100 years” or “this is how we have conducted our business for 120 years, and so far things have been rolling rather nicely.” These arrogant-sounding statements were used to blunt ideas to get some change in, well, most anything.

In reality, a major shift had already taken place then. Many companies had started to drive down their expense ratios to improve the profitability of their insurance operation. Read more »

Why OTP Bank works with Nestholma

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Featured, Fintech, Global Fintech Accelerator, Programs.

Collaboration between startups and corporations is not easy. Most attempts to cooperate actually fail. There is a cultural divide between their two worlds. This why you need a mediator who understands both of those worlds: to make the collaboration a win-win for both the corporation and the startups.

Luckily, our area of expertise at Nestholma is exactly that: collaboration. Turning it into an actual business. Making the magic happen. “Banks and startups speak a different language”, says András Fischer, Head of Retail Innovation. “We need an interpreter”. Tweet this. And we’re proud to say that they have chosen Nestholma as such an interpreter.

But what does Nestholma bring into the mix for the startups and the corporation, as an acceleration partner? Read more »

Why OTP Bank wants to work with startups

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Fintech, Innovation, Startups.

It’s clear that for startups, having a big bank as a partner is crucial. And that OTP Bank is such a partner. It can make it or break it. It makes your startup bank-validated. But collaboration is not a one-way street. Tweet this. You also need to understand your partner and their motives; why they want to collaborate with you. After all, those are the things that will shape how the future collaboration will really be in practice.

We had a chat with key people in OTP Bank to find out and share with you. And let me tell you, startups are in for a treat. Read more »

Taviq signs a deal with Nordea and that’s amazing news for Nordea’s customers!

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Fintech, General, Programs, Startups.

It’s time for more deals and more pilots! Taviq from our second Nordea accelerator has just signed a pilot agreement with Nordea Private Banking, going live now. And that’s awesome news for Taviq and Nordea, but even better for Nordea’s customers!

Juho Isola on a MoneyFintech panel with Nordea's Ewan MacLeod.

Taviq’s Juho Isola on stage with Nordea’s Chief Digital Officer Ewan MacLeod.

In Private Banking and wealth management, too many clients drop off during the first meeting. That’s because the first meeting is like a cold blind date. Except the customer and the wealth advisor know even less about each other. The first meeting is spent figuring each other out; if the wealth advisor even is the right one to handle their money. Read more »

Here’s what I learned from talking with people from 9 countries of OTP Bank

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Fintech, Innovation, Technology.

Digital technologies have transformed the way we do… everything. And it continues to transform it, every day. We often read about new technology that looks like science fiction… but we’ve exploited only a fraction of the technologies available today.

On October 3rd and 4th I was lucky to take part in OTP Group’s Digital Meetup in Kecskemét. Participants included key people from OTP Group, from its 9 different countries. It also included partners that OTP Bank is working with – such as myself from Nestholma.

I got to see very interesting points of view on digitalization. Banking is going to change a lot in the upcoming years. And not only in the obvious ways. Read more »

Ophelia, openness, and readiness for disruption

Posted by & filed under Corporations, Innovation, Organizational learning.

Hurricane Ophelia decided to pay a visit to Ireland at the same time that we were visiting Dublin for an event about collaborating to make the best out of PSD2. And one can learn a lot from seeing how people react to a hurricane. In a way, dealing with a hurricane can be like dealing with changing markets. Change is like the wind, and when it’s fast and sudden, it’s a hurricane. The hurricane of disruption. Tweet this.

Many industries are going through their own “disruption Ophelia” at the moment. Fintech is going through a regulation hurricane. Knowledge-based industries, in general, are bracing for the AI hurricane. All industries deal with the hurricane of digitalization, one way or another.

Read more »

The next big thing in banking, with OTP Bank

Posted by & filed under Accelerator, Banking, Customers, Fintech, Innovation, Programs.

Telling the future is difficult. And even more in banking right now, with so many innovations happening. New fintech startups (like you?) claim to disrupt the industry every day. By collaborating with a big bank you can improve your chances of success. And that makes those banks more ready for the future. But in which areas can we make the biggest changes?

For our upcoming program with OTP Bank, we’ve taken a shot at defining the key areas of banking that need new innovations. Read more »