Author: Fintechnews Switzerland

Launched in February this year, FUSION is a Swiss accelerator program dedicated to financial technology startups. Self-proclaimed the “Swiss fintech factory,” FUSION was created by Swiss venture capital firm Polytech Ventures and Temenos, a leading banking technology provider, and is the very first program of its kind in the country. In September, FUSION selected its first batch of 10 startups coming from all around the globe to integrate its program. These startups come from seven different countries and tackle segments that include blockchain tech, insurance, crowdfunding, payment, wealth management, risk management and cyber-security. They are AceBanker, BIOWATCH, DXMarkets, Edge Laboratories,…

Das Staatssekretariat für Wirtschaft (SECO) und das Lausanner Start-up TawiPay treten in die Endphase einer öffentlich-privaten Partnerschaft ein, bei der die hohen Kosten von Geldtransfers zwischen der Schweiz und den Balkanländern aufgezeigt werden sollen. Nach der Analyse lanciert TawiPay nun eine Sensibilisierungskampagne, um über die effektiven Kosten von Geldtransfers sowie über Transfervarianten zu informieren, die zu vermeiden sind, will man nicht mehr als nötig bezahlen. Weltweit überweisen jedes Jahr schätzungsweise 232 Millionen Migrantinnen und Migranten insgesamt über 580 Milliarden US-Dollar an ihre Familien und Bekannte in ihren Herkunftsländern. Gemäss der Weltbank belaufen sich die Kosten für diese Überweisungen durchschnittlich auf…

Swiss bitcoin startup ECUREX has released an extensive 110-page report on the ongoing innovations in the financial sector brought by digital currencies. Main author is Paolo Tasca, Economist at Deutsche Bundesbank and Executive Director at Ecurex. Entitled ‘Digital Currencies: Principles, Trends, Opportunities, and Risks,’ the report is aims to be a comprehensive study on digital currencies with a deep quantitative analysis of their technological, entrepreneurial, economic, and legal aspects. The report is the result of over two years of work and suggests nine key findings. Larger transactions During the period of 2011-2015, ECUREX found that the average amount per transaction in…

Swiss Fintech Study by Roland Berger: Fintech will play an important role in the financial services industry. While Switzerland’s financial center offers a promising starting point for fintech companies, the country is still well behind expectations, according to this new report. Conducted by global consultancy firm Roland Berger and Swiss Finance Startups, the Swiss Fintech study is based on a set of experts interviews, questionnaires and analysis of global trends, and aims to identity the opportunities and challenges of the Swiss fintech ecosystem. Compared to leading international fintech hubs such as London, New York or Silicon Valley, experts said that…

The Aduno Group and Swisscard, two leading credit card companies, have teamed up with software company Netcetera, to launch SwissWallet, a digital wallet service that promises to “drive the digital transformation of credit cards.” The service, which will operate through a new venture called Swiss One Wallet AG, consists in a digital wallet linked to card networks. SwissWallet will allow users to centrally store their credit cards and use any one of those with a single login. SwissWallet, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks, will enable consumers to shop at any store that uses MasterCard’s MasterPass. The…

Illuminate Financial Management LLP, die von Mark Beeston gegründete Venture-Capital-Fondsgesellschaft, hat den Abschluss der ersten Kapitalbeschaffungsrunde für ihren neuen IFM Fintech Opportunities Fund bekannt gegeben. Co-Investoren waren der Finanzinformationsdienstleister Markit und die Gruppe Deutsche Börse. Beide Unternehmen engagieren sich damit stärker am rasant wachsenden Markt der Fintech-Early-Stage-Finanzierung. „Wir freuen uns, die erste Finanzierungsrunde des Illuminate Fintech Opportunities Fund abgeschlossen zu haben“, sagte Mark Beeston, Managing Partner und Gründer von Illuminate Financial Management. „Markit und Deutsche Börse sind global agierende Unternehmen, deren großes Kundennetzwerk von den verschiedenen Technologiefirmen, die Illuminate bereits unterstützt, profitieren wird. Wir freuen uns, diese beiden Unternehmen als Co-Investoren an Bord…

Crowdhouse.ch is Swiss real estate crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to acquire shares of rental buildings. The platform, which went live in late October, aims to gather several small investors and allow them to become co-owners of a property by investing a minimum of CHF 25,000. According to co-founder and CEO Robert Plantark, the idea is to give small investors the opportunity to invest directly into the Swiss real estate and earn revenues from both rental stream and the appreciation of the property itself. Plantark and his co-founder Ardian Gjeloshi both worked several years in the real estate industry prior…

Nearly one hundred people attended the 2. Digital Finance Crypto Tech Event in Zug this week. The technology behind the “Crypto Valley” startup scene was the main topic. Startups and interested people from more than ten countries (Switzerland, USA, UK, Germany, Singapore…) came to the event to inform and network with each other. The organizer – extendance GmbH – did the event this time in partnership with SERI (Staatssekretariat for Education, Research and Innovation). In the morning keynotes and a panel discussion were followed by twelve international startups who gave pitches about their company, products and services. In the afternoon…

Schweizer Fintech Unternehmen Run my Accounts revolutioniert Buchhaltung: Besonders die deutsche Buchhaltung bedeutet pure Fleissarbeit mit unzähligen Fehlerquellen. Mit der innovativen Schweizer Technologie von Run my Accounts können KMU ab sofort Geld, Zeit und Nerven sparen. Die perfekte Kombination aus automatisierter Online-Buchhaltung und Begleitung durch Spezialisten ist um Faktoren günstiger als eine konventionelle Buchführung. Und zugleich täglich aktuell. Unternehmen brauchen jederzeit finanzielle Klarheit Eine sauber geführte Buchhaltung erfordert viel mehr als nur die Erfassung von Belegen. Es ist oftmals harte Arbeit, bis endlich alles aufgeht und korrekt verbucht ist. Wenn ein Unternehmer sich spürbar entlasten will, muss er seine Buchhaltung…

Headquartered in New York, NexChange has recently released the beta version of its mobile application, a social network designed exclusively for financial services industry with a mission to unite the global financial community by enabling professionals to connect and share. Created by financial services professionals for financial services professionals, NexChange is led by a team of top banking and tech executives. Among its board members: Paul Scibetta, former CEO of JP Morgan Asia; Geoffrey Prentice, Founding Member of Skype; Bart Chilton, former Commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Engee Chen, former CEO of Yahoo Asia; Yong Hak Huh,…

Das Beratungsunternehmen Onalytica hat mittels einer Twitter-Impact Analyse die stärksten Fintech Brands analysiert. Dabei wurden 1 Mio Tweets und 120’000 Twitter Accounts in den letzten 3 Monaten analysiert und auf die Keywörter Fintech untersucht. Basierend auf diesen Daten wurde ein Page-Ranking erstellt, der dem Klout Ranking ähnelt, jedoch spezifisch auf das Keywort Fintech zugeschnitten ist. Dabei haben es auch 4 Schweizer Brands in die Top 100 geschafft. Wir freuen uns mitttels @FintechCH (Fintech Switzerland, 3000 Follower) zum eindeutig stärksten Schweizer Fintech Brand zu gehören. Weltweit belegen wir den Platz 58. Weitere Schweizer Brands folgen auf den Rängen 87  (SFS), 90 (FinnovationCH) und 97…

Online payment startup Nudipay wants to “redefine how we use money for everyday living.” And to do so, it has developed its very own ecosystem in which consumers can make online and mobile payments easily without risking their personal financial information, while providing merchants with low-cost day-to-day payments solutions and free marketing tools. Nudipay’s payment solution addresses some of the pain points with mobile payment adoption that lots of players, including Apple Pay, Google Wallet or PayPal, haven’t overcome, according to Les Toft, CEO and Co-Founder of Nudipay. “Everyone is talking about how mobile payments are the future. But despite the…

In case you missed these two news: London-based Yacuna will close its cryptocurrency trading platform next month, and Swiss Tawipay has partnered with the International Organization for Migration to work toward the lowering of global remittances costs. Yacuna to Close Its Cryptocurrency Trading Platform London-based cryptocurrency trading platform Yacuna has announced that it will close on November 25, inviting users with remaining funds to withdraw their money before that date. Without citing any further explanation, the company wrote in an announcement: “Bitcoin is a wonderful technology and we are proud that we have developed one of the first European…

Founded in 2007 by Reshma Sohori, Saul Klein and a number of European investors, Seedcamp seeks to help European startups “bridge the gap between knowledge and capital” and has invested in almost 200 startups from all over the world so far. Seedcamp’s program consists in monthly events, mainly in Europe, where selected startups can gain pitch training, mentoring and eventually compete for investment from Seedcamp by pitching in front of notorious VC and angel investors. Seedcamp’s investment cycle runs from October to September every year, during which the company holds an investment event in a different part of Europe and…

Swiss startup Fractal Labs provides businesses with a platform for automated operational and financial analysis. Its technology aggregates financial data, extracts insights, measures and forecasts performance, acting like an “Automated CFO.” Launched in October, Fractal Labs was founded by Google’s former Head of Initiatives and Product Partnerships Nicholas Heller with an aim of helping business owners, investors and advisors with financial data and forecasting. “Traditionally, data have been siloed and aggregating them, analyzing them have been a manual, tedious process,” Heller explained in a video presentation. Fractal Labs’ platform offers an intuitive user interface that allows business owners to compare…

Am Dienstag 3. November findet in Zug die Internationale Digital Finance und Crypto Technologie Konferenz statt. Der Event bietet neben einem spannenden Rahmenprogramm mit Fintech Showcases auch eine aussergewöhnliche internationale Networking-Gelegenheit. Dabei können vorab 20 minütige bilaterale Meetings über die Konferenz-Plattform gebucht werden. Und das beste am Ganzen, die Konferenz im Crypto Mekka Zug ist absolut kostenlos, inkl. Lunch und Apéro! Anmeldungen HIER Die Teilnehmerliste zeigt bereits bestätigte Anmeldungen von acht Nationen. Darunter sind Investoren, Startups, Regulatoren und Medienschaffende. Teilnehmer reisen teils aus Singapur, Indien, den USA oder dem Fintech Meka London an. Folgende Keynotes stehen auf dem Programm: Keynote Crypto:  Jun. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Faust, Ruhr…

Aiming at helping organizations generate value from their data, Wealthport is a data preparation as a service company that uses advanced machine learning algorithms and Big Data technologies to accelerate the preparation of data, improve their quality and enrich them with resources that are publicly available. Based in Schlieren/Switzerland, the startup uses state-of-the-art algorithm that clean, normalize and unify data sources the way a human expert would do. The startup has been experiencing growth in Europe and Asia, founders Tobias Wildmer and Bernhard Bicher said in an interview. “We basically save asset managers from drowning in information by turning tedious…

Am 20. November findet in Liechtenstein die erste FinTech-Konferenz statt. Zwei Jahre nachdem es in der Schweiz die erste Konferenz gab, plant man nun auch in Liechtenstein das Thema FinTech voranzutreiben. Wir haben David Meyer, einen der Initianten von www.fintech.li, exklusiv im Interview einige Fragen zur Konferenz und zu FinTech in Liechtenstein gestellt. David gibt uns unter Anderem Einblicke in das bisher nicht vorhandene Liechtensteinische Fintech Eco System und erklärt die Besonderheiten vom “kleinen” Finanzplatz. Zudem offeriert er Fintechnews.ch Leser einen Rabatt bei der Anmeldung.   Hallo David.Warum braucht Liechtenstein eine eigene FinTech-Konferenz? Liechtenstein hat einen eigenständigen Finanzplatz, der zwar gewisse…

Bitcoin startup Xapo is widely known in the space for being: 1) one of the most well funded startups; 2) one of the very first companies to offer bitcoin debit cards. Announced in mid-2014, the Xapo bitcoin debit card promised to allow bitcoin users similar spending freedoms to traditional debit cards. “With the new Xapo Debit Card you have the best of both worlds in the palm of your hand,” the company claims. But at what cost? How does it work? The Xapo Debit Card is a Visa card, meaning that you can use it anywhere on the Visa…

Mit CIPS lancierte China ein grenzübrgeifendes Bezahlsystem. 11 Chinesische und 8 internationale Finanzkonzerne lancieren mit CIPS eine Yuan basierte Alternative zum SWIFT-Netzwerk. CIPS China ermöglicht Same Day Settlement quer über Asien und Europa und soll vor allem die Kosten senken und schnellere Verfahren rund um Geschäfte, die in der chinesischen Währung abgerechnet werden, ermöglichen. Im Weiteren ist CIPS ein mächtiges Tool und Gegengewicht zum SWIFT System. Insbesondere Länder wie Iran und Russland zeigten grosses Interesse an CIPS. Iran war bis vor kurzem der Zugang zu SWIFT komplett verwehrt während Russland die NSA verdächtigte, das SWIFT System angezapft zu haben. Die…