The Financial Services Specialists

FinovateEurope 2011 - sell out event showcases financial innovation

Bluerock was pleased to be the exclusive management consultancy sponsor at the first FinovateEurope show held in London.  A packed audience of around 400 attendees were treated to a fast-paced format with seven-minute live demos and pitches from 35 financial technology vendors.  The firms presenting were drawn from all across Europe, including Cyprus, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as from further afield like Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand alongside the UK and North American firms. Some were established players showing new developments for the first time whilst others were pitching for capital investment as start-up businesses.

In the midst of this diversity, some clear over-arching themes came through, represented by these presenters:

Money management:

Figlo; IND Group;  Linxo; Lodo Software; LoveMoney.com; Meniga; Strands Personal Finance; Yodlee.

Security:

Business Forensics; miicard; SilverTail Systems; SolidPass; Voice Commerce.  

Social Investing:

eToro; Hopee (from Cortal Consors); StockTwits; Unience.

Online and mobile payments:

Boku; eWise payo; Mpower Mobile; SecureKey Technologies.      

Online small business banking:

Capital Access Network; Ixaris Opn Card Guardian; Liqpay; Xero.

 

Mobility and connectivity were the watchwords - with a heavy emphasis on payment mechanisms and smarter CRM.  The number of ideas around improved customer experience in online banking was perhaps an alert to the big UK banks some of which (though not all) were amongst the audience.

 

At the end of the show, the result of the votes of attendees for Best in Show were announced as follows:

 

eToro, Finantix, Liqpay.com, and Meniga

 

eToro and Liqpay were distinguished by their enthusiastic and engaging presentation alone.  Finantix is well-known to Bluerock (and we have some reflected glory in recommending Finovate to them) - not only were they one of the few that focused on financial planning but they also demonstrated the power f the iPad as a point of sale device for advisers.  Meniga was one of the Personal Finance Management crowd that impressed in terms of look and feel as well as the functionality of its online banking product.

 

Others to watch - well the Bluerock team was taken with the presentation from the first presenters Striata.  As the organisers said, they nailed their pitch.  Fidor Bank AG has already won plaudits elsewhere for its crowd sourcing and product innovation.  But the one for the financial planning community followers in Bluerock was Figlo, already serving banks and financial advisers in the Netherlands and with the potential to compete in the UK.