HOW WE’RE ACCELERATING INNOVATION WITH OUR NEW FINTECH INCUBATOR PROGRAMME

2024-05-01 11:58:44.0

Earlier this year, we announced that we would be launching a new fintech incubator programme in the UK — The Innovation Lab.

The Innovation Lab, run in collaboration with SuperTech as well as our delivery partner —STEAMhouse, engages fintech companies across the UK to address real life business challenges in the financial services sector.

Now, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve officially kickstarted this year’s programme and after a competitive application process, have inducted 8 tech businesses into The Innovation Lab.

Getting things started

To formally welcome our new cohort to the programme, we invited our 8 tech businesses to attend a discovery event.

Hosted at STEAMhouse, attendees engaged in a series of activities to discover more about the programme and begin exploring this year’s data-led innovation challenge, which is focused on how harnessing external data and insights can enhance engagement with customers in the financial services sector.

Each organisation was given the opportunity to introduce their business and then attendees took part in a networking session with senior executives from BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK to gain insights into the financial services sector from a financial provider’s perspective.

The tech companies in attendance included: Autofile, Inicio, Financial Cloud, Furbnow, CarCloud, Voolu, Paylow and Wyser.

More exciting things to come

This event follows a successful collaboration between BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK and SuperTech, after which we extended our partnership and launched an incubator programme with ambitions of discovering digital solutions that will help supercharge the wider financial services sector.

In the coming months, our new cohort will collaborate, gain insights into the financial services sector from colleagues at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, and develop tangible solutions to this year’s challenge that will be demonstrated at an upcoming showcase event during our Innovation Week in May.

Commenting on the event, our CEO, Stephen Hunt, said: “For BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK to remain a leader in personal finance, it’s important that we implement new ways of operating, embrace new and emerging technologies, and develop better products and services to support our customers.

“Engaging with tech companies in sectors beyond our own helps us maintain an innovation mindset and this event was a great way to launch the Innovation Lab and begin collaborating on this year’s data-led challenge. I look forward to seeing how the programme progresses in the coming months.”

Hilary Smyth-Allen, SuperTech Executive Director, also commented: “By launching a programme like the Innovation Lab and bringing together expertise from a number of sectors, that’s how we make magic happen.

“Programmes – and events – like these are so important to ensure that tech and Innovation doesn't just happen in the Southeast of England. It's happening right here in the West Midlands and we're shining a lens on the great work being done to advance the financial services sector.”

Keep up to date with all the latest announcements on the Innovation Lab from BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK via our LinkedIn and X.