Nordea fintech accelerator wish list: blockchain, AI & sharing economy

Nordic banking group Nordea is kicking off its second fintech accelerator this October, with a particular focus on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and blockchain.

The programme will be split between Helsinki and Stockholm and run between September and December. The bank will select a shortlist of 50 teams to training and selection week, taking place in August, with between 20-30 getting picked for the programme in the Autumn.

Nordea says it is also interested in startups exploring:

  • New approaches to digital life insurance and pensions
  • The bank’s role in the sharing economy
  • Banks’ roles in helping to enable faster contracts and transactions
  • Reg tech to help financial institutions comply with the likes of PSD2, MiFID, plus anti-money laundering and know your customer requirements

Sharing economy of payments

Interestingly the bank is also zeroing in on the fast-growing sharing economy, interested in the role banks could play in quantifying risk, providing new ways to finance houses or potentially handling money exchange.

Meanwhile, Nordea is also interested in the role that banks can play in enabling rapid transactions and helping establish partnerships.

“There should be an easy and fast way to establish trusted partnerships even if these partnerships only last a short time,” says the bank in its explanation of the accelerator’s themes.

“Today many new opportunities are now realised, because forming a trusted relationship is not fast or easy enough. There is no time for heavy due diligence process or other traditional ways to make sure you can trust the other company or person.

“What can banks do to enable better ways of building trusted partnerships and rapid transactions in collaborative ecosystems? This may be between companies, companies and consumers or even between consumers.”

Ease of payment, enabled by platforms like Braintree and Stripe is right at the heart of the success of big sharing economy platforms like Airbnb and Uber and Nordea is keen to play a central role in this highly-touted new economy.

Nordea Startup Accelerator

Nordea is running the programme alongside Nestholma Venture Accelerator and offers the chance for startups to run pilots with the bank’s customers and data.  Each team gets an investment of EUR12,000 and says there is also the opportunity to raise up to EUR150,000 from Netholma.

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