BBVA Open Talent, a fintech competition, announced on Monday it will this year mark its tenth anniversary by working with more start-ups than ever before. Organizers revealed that the competition will look to find the very best fintech ideas from anywhere in the world before offering the winners the chance to grow their business with a leading global business.
“BBVA is looking for the fintech ideas that will shape the future of banking, that will support customers to make the most of their money and their data, and that will help customers reduce the stress of money management and financial decision-making. The bank is also seeking out those solutions that will make businesses run more efficiently, operate more effectively, and work in entirely new and innovative ways.”
Organizers also noted that ultimately through Open Talent, BBVA wants to foster and support disruption in the banking sector and to ensure that technology can continue to work as a catalyst for positive change in an ecosystem where industry lines are blurring and great customer and client experience is a key driver for success.
For the tenth anniversary, the competition will be streamlined, with three main prizes on offer, and BBVA will also partner with the best start-ups it sees to help them address three of the biggest challenges facing fintechs, which includes gaining exposure for their business, sourcing investment, and finding customers.
- Fintech for Future: the idea most likely to reshape and disrupt banking in the next decade – Prize fund of €50,000, plus immersion week at the bank, plus exposure at a major global banking conference, plus fast-tracked onto PoC programme, plus a slot at BBVA’s Open Innovation Global Summit in Madrid
- Fintech for People: the idea most likely to improve the customer banking experience and positively change the way people manage their money and data – Prize fund of €50,000, plus immersion week at the bank, plus exposure at a major global banking conference, plus fast-tracked onto PoC programme, plus a slot at BBVA’s Open Innovation Global Summit in Madrid
- Fintech for Business: the idea most likely to transform the way businesses manage the financial or data side of their operations – Prize fund of €50,000, plus immersion week at the bank, plus exposure at a major global banking conference, plus fast-tracked onto PoC programme, plus a slot at BBVA’s Open Innovation Global Summit in Madrid
The prizes for finalists and winners have been designed on feedback from the thousands of businesses that have taken part in the competition over the previous nine years, to support business growth. Along with a €150,000 prize fund for the overall winners, dozens of finalists will get the chance to take part in an immersion week with the bank, learning how to partner with a big corporation, potentially becoming a customer, and finding solutions to their specific business challenges from expertise within the bank and its partners.
