The BNP Paribas International banking group is searching for the most innovative ideas to reinvent and build solutions for a wide range of banking problems including the management of wealth and intelligent security solutions along with the innovation accelerator Plug and Play.
Under intense pressure from the multitude of fintech startups, banks like BNP Paribas are looking for ways to survive and possibly fight back. As the old saying goes, if you can’t fight them – join them, or even better, lead them. For this strategy, the proposed partnerships with the well-know Plug and Play accelerator and hackathon co-operation seems like a great idea.
The bank will host 36-hour hackathons, which will be open to fintech startups with diverse areas of expertise across Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Luxembourg, Nanjing, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, and Warsaw. In particular, the Singapore Hackathon seeks AI chatbots, natural language processing, data collection and analytics for beginners.
The hackathon ends with a presentation event where entrepreneurs can demonstrate and propose their ideas to a community of Fintech experts who are winning the opportunity to cooperate with BNP Paribas for the next five months and win 10,000 euro cash prize. For the winning startup, it will be an opportunity to use BNP’s massive global reach to expand internationally and try the new markets.
At the end of the competition, the selected fintech startups will participate in a final pitch event in Paris, participating in a group of members of the BNP Paribas executive team with winning fintech startups from other cities.
Innovation collaborations Mr. Jupe Tan, SVP of global business Plug & Play, said: “Plug and Play is excited to be a participant for the initiative BNP Paribas Accelerator with BNP Paribas on three continents and looks forward to helping drive the progress of the startups selected in Singapore.” Plug & Play is expanding operations in Southeast Asia and is working in Singapore and Indonesia with national and global companies to grow and develop Southeast Asian startups.
Plug and Play revealed recently, after two months ‘tough selection process from over 400 applicants, that 11 startups chosen for the first lot of their accelerator program in Indonesia were participating. During the first batch of the Singapore Startup Autobahn, a car industry plug and play initiative launched in partnership with Daimler and Mercedes, six startup companies have been announced. These are the first initiatives to be introduced in the area, including the international hackathon.