Switzerland, a world renowned banking and financial hub, has witnessed a growing fintech ecosystem in the past years fueled by supportive regulations, a large pool of available tech and finance talent, and banks’ desire to innovate.
Geneva is one of Switzerland’s top fintech hubs, currently home to 22 fintech companies, behind only of Zurich with 88, and Zug with 45, according to the IFZ Fintech Study 2018.
In the Geneva fintech scene, here are ten existing startups to watch closely:
Foxstone
Founded in 2016, Foxstone is an online crowdfunding platform allowing potential investors and buyers to get in touch with property or real estate development projects owners. The company aims to democratize real estate investment by offering institutional quality opportunities to High Net Worth Individuals, Family Offices, Private Banks and Institutional Investors, promising increased transparency, lower minimum investment amount, and reduced fees.
SwissLending
Founded in 2015, SwissLending, member of the Swiss Crowdfunding Association, is a real estate crowdfunding platform located in Geneva.
SwissLending connects developers in need of funding with investors who seek advice in effectively investing their capital. The platform focuses on properties located in Switzerland, France, and Luxembourg.
Signatys
Founded in 2011, Signatys is specialized in digital signature and secured digital exchanges for financial institutions.
The company’s SignMit product is a mobile solution that allows secured verification between banks and clients by connecting documents to their smartphones. Using SignMit, financial institutions can digitalize any kind of workflow requiring a user validation that today requires a manual intervention such as callbacks, advisory, MiFID II / LSFin, documents signatures, and internal validations.
b-Sharpe
Founded in 2006, b-Sharpe is a fintech startup providing currency exchange services to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) as well as private individuals. It targets SMEs, migrants and frontier workers and expats in Switzerland who are seeking to exchange currencies at a better rate.
b-Sharpe is a financial intermediary regulated by the OAR-G which is itself affiliated with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
InvestGlass
Founded in 2014, InvestGlass provides a sales automation solution that gathers a CRM, content management system, KYC, PMS, and artificial intelligence supporting wealth advisors daily activities. The platform is designed to facilitate more efficient prospecting and onboarding of new clients, as well as managing relationships with existing clients.
Grydl Analytics
Grydl Analytics is a startup specialized in blockchain technology, big data and artificial intelligence technologies.
The company offers a search engine for blockchain content that helps investors and enthusiasts find relevant information and statistics about a blockchain project. Grydl Analytics aggregates multiple blockchain websites, cryptocurrency exchanges and social media data from over 2,000 sources.
Smartlink
Smartlink is a mobile wallet services provider, offering white-label mobile transaction platform solutions, contactless transaction capabilities, KYC solutions, and prepaid program management.
The SmartPay mobile wallet features a fully customizable user interface, is capable of hosting multiple unique card programs, and provides access to a mobile digital wallet, contactless HCE payments, biometric KYC, and more.
EZYcount
EZYcount, a trademark of SuperVX, is an online accounting and invoicing platform for self-employed and Swiss SMEs. The platform allows users to streamline their administrative tasks in a quick and efficient manner online.
EZYcount focuses on offering a simple solution that requires no installation and which can be accessed anytime, anywhere, with any electronic device. Plans start at CHF 15.5 per month for a one-year subscription.
Smart Execution
Smart Execution (Smex) is a holding company specializing in blockchain technology.
It operates ibani.com, a money exchange and international transfer platform, and is developing MtPelerin.com, which aims to become a fully regulated blockchain bank in Switzerland. Smex also provides consulting services to banks and financial institutions.
Decent
Decent is a decentralized application ecosystem comprised of the DCore blockchain and DCT token. The ecosystem includes APIs, SDKs, and other core features to help businesses build blockchain solutions.
Currently, the DCore product specializes in digital media and entertainment such as audio, video, text, software or video games.
The project is overseen by the Decent non-profit foundation based in Geneva.