THE INNOVATION LAB — CELEBRATING 17 WEEKS OF COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION
2024-10-10 14:34:08.0
After 17 weeks of collaboration, this year’s Innovation Lab has come to a close but there is a lot more to come!
Back in January, we launched the Innovation Lab with SuperTech WM and STEAMhouse and invited eight fintech organisations to solve real-life data led challenges effecting the financial services sector.
Throughout the programme, the cohort has worked closely with colleagues from BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, SuperTech WM, and STEAMhouse, to develop an innovative solution this year’s business challenge, which was focused on how we can utilise data and insights to provide more value for our customers and partners.
The final showcase
To mark the end of the programme, we invited this year’s cohort to attend a final showcase event which was hosted at STEAMhouse. The eight companies in attendance were Autofile, Inicio, Financial Cloud, Furbnow, CarCloud, Voolu, Paylow and Wyser.
During the event, this year’s cohort had an open platform to demonstrate the solutions which had been developed throughout the programme. This was followed by individual presentations in which each organisation showcased their final solutions to attendees and discussed the journey they’ve been on since joining the Innovation Lab.
The final session of the day was a panel discussion with our CEO, Stephen Hunt, Head of UK Strategy and Chief of Staff at BNP Paribas, Kyle Zheng, SuperTech’s Executive Director, Hilary Smyth-Allen and Head of Service Innovation at STEAMhouse, Patrick Bek in which they discussed the role of innovation in the financial services.
Following a series of inspiring sessions, it was only right that we marked the end of successful programme with some celebratory drinks.
What’s next for the Innovation Lab?
Following the development of these brilliant solutions, we’re pleased to announce we are trialling four of them with our customers via myCreation in our Creation App.
This will include:
- Furbnow’s Home Energy Check Tool which can help make your home energy efficient without the hassle
- CarCloud which provides car insurance, finance, admin and running costs in one place.
- Inicio’s friendly virtual agent, Budgie, which provides customer with the support they require to complete a detailed affordability form.
- Paylow which analyses people’s habits and needs to provide a proactive autopilot for all recurring expenses.
By incorporating these solutions into myCreation, we aim to measure the reception from customers as well as test their potential to deliver significant value in the financial services sector.
Chief Executive Officer of BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, Stephen Hunt shared: “As a leading finance provider serving over 4 million customers, it is essential that BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK remains at the forefront of innovation and is constantly looking for new products and services that can make our customers lives easier.
“Being able to bring some of these innovative solutions to our myCreation customers highlights the benefits and importance of programmes like this and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what further progress is still to come.”
Some key reflections
Executive Director at SuperTech, Hilary Smyth-Allen, shared her thoughts on the programme: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing both the progress made by this year’s cohort and the pivots they’ve taken since the start of the programme.
“As well as furthering the development of these businesses, the Innovation Lab has highlighted the value of collaborating across sectors to generate new ideas and advance the financial services sector as a whole.”
Vita Woods, Innovation Manager at STEAMhouse said: “I’m so proud of the open and honest conversations that have occurred throughout this year’s programme. Through successful collaboration, our fintechs have been able to develop great products and services which will help to transform the financial services sector.”
At BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, we are deeply committed to accelerating innovation within our business and across the financial services sector. We look forward to continuing the Innovation Lab programme and exploring a new business challenge.
Stay tuned to find out more about what’s to come for the Innovation Lab, but until then…
Join us at Birmingham Tech Week
We’re excited to announce that we will be joining forces with SuperTech WM to host a fringe event during Birmingham Tech Week to explore the operational opportunities and benefits of Gen AI!
The interactive event will be held on Tuesday 22nd October, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance colleagues, SMEs and fintechs exploring mutual opportunities to be leveraged from Gen AI adoption for organisations on a business transformation journey.
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in networking, listen to presentations, and have 1-2-1 connection sessions with executives at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK.
Register for the Gen AI event here: BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION, THE OPERATIONAL BENEFITS OF GEN AI — Supertech (supertechwm.com)