Elevator Lab Is Looking To Accelerate CEE’s Most Innovative FinTech Startups

Launched in the beginning of June, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has high expectations for its newest innovation initiative, its FinTech accelerator Elevator Lab. RBI’s goal is to become the partner of choice for international fintech startups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Long-Term Cooperation With Access To 16.6 mn Customers & More

Five startups will take part in the four months long acceleration program (October 2017 – February 2018) that will take place in Vienna, Austria. The budget for this PoC phase is up to 200.000 Euro. RBI’s CEO Johann Strobl explains: “Our goal is a long-term cooperation in order to extend our own product and services portfolio. 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”.

RBI strongly believes in the power of many, which is why 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. Elevator Lab is looking for FinTech startups with already proven products and technologies in the areas of:

• Big Data Analytics
• SME Banking
• RegTech
• Payment & Transactions
• Branch of Future
• Investing & Trading Tech

 

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.

Kick-Off Boot Camp, Realization Of Pilot Projects, Investor Roadshow

Starting from October 2017, startups will participate in 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 this time, the 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.

The application for Elevator Lab is open until 31 July.

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