Leading FinTech Accelerator Elevator Lab Closes Application On July 31st

Elevator Lab, the FinTech accelerator brought to life by Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), aims to become the partner of choice for international FinTech startups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). To achieve this goal, the innovation unit strongly promotes the exchange of know-how and access to an immense mentor network.

Stronger Together: The Power Of Many

RBI regards Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, as well as CEE as its home market. 14 markets of the region are covered by subsidiary banks. Additionally, the group comprises numerous other financial service providers, for instance in leasing, asset management or M&A. In total, more than 50,000 employees service 16.6 million customers through 2,500 business outlets, the majority thereof in CEE. RBI’s shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

RBI’s success as a corporate and investment bank is precisely what innovative FinTechs will benefit from during the four months long acceleration program (October 2017 – February 2018) that will take place in Vienna, Austria. Because of the strong belief in the power of many, Elevator Lab puts its focus on collaboration and mentoring. Over 20 mentor sessions – on site or remotely – will be held during the program, to jointly inspire and convince their customers of the disruptive products and services FinTechs offer. As RBI’s CEO Johann Strobl adds: “With our decades of experience, we support startups to further develop their ideas and innovations. As a cooperation partner and through pilot projects we offer FinTechs access to our know-how and our network in 14 CEE markets including 16.6 million customers”.

Highly Skilled & Experienced Mentors Confirmed

The acceleration program will bring together five selected startups with a number of leading industry experts from startup development, technology, or marketing to name a few. During this PoC phase, the goal is to identify new opportunities, improve business models and create innovative customer solutions. The promise of Elevator Lab is to support startups with personal instructions and tailored advice to enhance performance, gain deep insights into the banking sector, and build their network.

Elevator Lab’s team at Pioneers Festival 2017.

Among the mentors are Valerie Brunner (Chief Risk Officer & Chief Financial Officer at Raiffeisen Centrobank), Slavoljub Dordevic (Head of International Consumer & Small Business Banking at RBI), Joseph Eberle (Head of Corporate Customers at RBI), Robert Fritz (Head of Group IT & Group CIO at RBI), Klemens Haller (Head of Group Corporate Business Strategy and Steering at RBI), Susanne Höllinger (CEO of Kathrein Privatbank), Markus Kirchmair (Head of International Retail Strategy & Products at RBI), Harald Kröger (Head of Financial Institutions, Country and Portfolio Risk Management at RBI), Christoph Lehner (Head of Group Compliance at RBI), Michal Liday (CEO Tatra Banka at RBI), Hannes Mösenbacher (Chief Risk Officer of RBI), Fabian Stenzel (Head of International & Private Banking at RBI), Igor Vida (CEO of Raiffeisen Bank CZ).

Looking For Proven FinTech Products To Enable International Growth

Elevator Lab is looking for FinTech startups with already proven products and technologies in the areas of:

Though international applications are welcome, a strong focus is put on smaller startups hubs such as Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

Kick-Off Boot Camp & Investor Roadshow

From October 2017, startups will join the kick-off boot camp, three weeks of co-working in Vienna, followed by the Investors Roadshow to three European hubs in January 2018 and the International Demo Day in February 2018.

During the acceleration program, startups can capitalize on the experience of international experts, who will personally coach them to further enhance and scale their FinTech products, and have access to RBI’s IT sandbox via APIs. The clear goal of RBI’s accelerator program is to fund co-developed FinTech projects that can ideally be introduced to several of the group’s markets.

Apply for Elevator Lab until July 31st.

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