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Apply For Elevator Lab, CEE’s Largest FinTech Accelerator Program, By June 24

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International FinTechs are invited to apply for the second batch of Elevator Lab until 24 June. The equity-free Acceleration Program run by Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) aims to fund mutual projects and give innovative FinTechs the opportunity to compete on an international stage.

Cooperation As The #1 Goal

Experience from the first round of the virtual accelerator program Elevator Lab has shown that the cooperation between startups and RBI benefits both sides. Following the first successful application phase with 336 submissions from 56 countries, RBI has been working intensively with five startups starting from October 2017. During the proof of concept phase, five pilot projects were developed and successfully tested in Austria and four markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). “We will continue the successful cooperation that we started with Elevator Lab. We are now switching from the pilot phase to the implementation phase and are planning to make these innovations permanently available to our 16.5 million customers in Austria and CEE”, outlines Johann Strobl, CEO of RBI, the next steps.

RBI regards startups as partners on an equal level and deliberately foregoes equity participation in this phase. The common goal is to respond even better to the needs of RBI’s 16.5 million customers and to tap new sources of income through the use of new technologies and innovative products.

The benefits for participating FinTechs are many – from expanding their network within the industry to introductions to international investors and over 20 mentoring sessions (either on site in Vienna or remotely) from all fields of RBI’s expertise support FinTechs to build their business model more quickly. Additionally, startups will have access to RBI’s IT sandbox via APIs and, moreover, the Elevator Lab respectively RBI will fund mutual projects out of a budget of up to €200,000.

From Advanced Analytics To Corporate Banking: Six Focus Areas

For the group-wide Elevator Lab, ideas and solutions from Advanced Analytics, Corporate Banking, Investing & Trading Tech, New Branch Experience, Open Banking and RegTech can be submitted to the program. More specifically, this includes the following:

Elevator Lab Kicks Off Batch 2 For International FinTechs

To participate in the kick-off bootcamp, the three co-working weeks in Vienna and the Demo Day apply by June 24 at Elevator Lab’s website.

Additional to the group-wide Elevator Lab program, eight of RBI’s network banks support the program with regional Elevator Lab Challenges – making it the largest FinTech Accelerator Program in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. The aim is to support regional FinTech ecosystems in Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Slovakia. In addition to a startup workshop at a visit to the Elevator Lab in Vienna, the respective winners will also receive a wildcard for the semi-final of the group-wide Elevator Lab and the chance to be invited to Vienna for the final of the TOP 15 in September 2018.

 

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