FUSION, Switzerland’s first fintech accelerator, selects its first intake

Fusion, launched in February this year, is the creation of Polytech Ventures, a venture capital firm based out of the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL). The project brings together a broad group of stakeholders: corporate members such Temenos and Notz Stucki, which provide sponsorship and mentoring; resource partners, such as Capco, Kudelski Security, Arcanys and Interactive Data, which provide technology consulting; law firm id est avocats, which provides corporate and technology law expertise, and academic partners, including IDIAP (independant research institute affiliated with EPFL), which provide access to cutting edge research and facilities.

Fusion’s unique multi-sector and multi-partner approach, which not only gives the opportunity for start-ups to be mentored by leading companies in their field, but also takes no upfront equity stake and has a multi-sector and multi-partners approach, has attracted a significant level of interest, including over 100 applications to join the programme.

The start-ups making up the 2015 intake are drawn from a cross-section of countries and offer solutions across the spectrum of financial services, from insurance to wealth management. As examples, AceBanker from China offers a mobile app to democratize wealth management services in China, Biowatch from Switzerland makes authentication more secure and less cumbersome using wearable devices, Fundrs from Holland uses Blockchain technologies to make asynchronous payments easier and more secure, and Edge Laboratories from Switzerland delivers a disruptive risk & valuation software for institutional investors.

Guillaume Dubray, Partner at Polytech Ventures, commented: “We are delighted with the positive response we have seen to Fusion. Given this is its first year, we were concerned that we might not get that many applications, but the level of interest has been amazing and, in the end, we were spoilt for choice. As a result, we have been able to select 10 really exciting start-ups from all over the world to bring to Geneva next month. And we have been able to choose start-ups in areas where Switzerland is a world leader, such as asset management, data privacy and risk management.”

The 10 selected startups are: AceBanker, BIOWATCH, DXMarkets, Edge Laboratories, eINS, Fundrs, KY3C, Investivity, Scanye and Wecan.Fund.

Biowatch:Martigny, Switzerland
Wearable wrist veins biometric reader for secure wireless authentication with applications in mobile payment, e-banking access, smart device interaction and beyond.

Wecan.Fund: Geneva, Switzerland
Pan-European peer-to-peer loans to SMEs. Our crowdlending platform empowers investors and supports the development of tangible European economy.

Edge Laboratories: Lausanne and Pfäffikon, Switzerland
Risk and portfolio intelligence web platform for investing, advising and reporting for professionals, individuals and developers.

Investivity: Geneva, Switzerland
Digital investment management company providing professional investors with configurable, low-fee portfolios that are as sophisticated as hedge funds yet as easy to deal with as ETFs.

Scanye: Switzerland/Poland
Intelligent software available online and on mobile allowing people to pay bills in three clicks and allowing companies to manage their accounting much more efficiently.

Acebanker: Shanghai, China
An algorithmic-based wealth manager with machine-learning capabilities that helps every individual user customises the most optimal portfolio from multiple asset classes in Asia & globally.

DXMarkets: Singapore, Singapore
Platform for professional traders to trade and invest in crypto currencies and other digital assets and offering blockchain-based investment banking services.

eINS: Sofia, Bulgaria
Completely web-based IS for insurance companies comprising all aspects of the insurance process, as well as a specialized marketplace for their products.

Fundrs: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Software to time-stamp and authenthicate a permanent record of your data in the blockchain. It reduces the cost and complexity of conducting audits, managing records and protecting intellectual property. BaaS - Blockchain as a Service.

KY3C: Luxemburg, Luxemburg         
Big data and predictive analytics software solution allowing banks to gather information about customers (KYC), counterparties and competitors in a cost-effective manner.

About Fintech Fusion:
FUSION is Switzerland’s first fintech accelerator, based out of Geneva. FUSION capitalises on Switzerland’s position as a global hub for financial services as well as its world-beating reputation for innovation to drive the fintech agenda. Our aim, quite simply, is to fuse the best of Switzerland with the most promising fintech talent to lead innovation in financial services. Our approach is rooted in collaboration. Our corporate members and mentors are drawn from all areas of financial services, such as banking, insurance and commodity trading. We have academic sponsorship from some of world’s top engineering research institutes. We have involvement from venture capital funds, which will syndicate funding. And, we host start-ups from all over the world. This, we believe, is a unique mix promising to produce unique and game-changing results!

About Polytech Ventures
Polytech Ventures is an early stage VC firm based in Switzerland and in the USA. The company is strategically located at EPFL in Lausanne, one of the most dynamic and recognized innovation centers in the world, and with a permanent presence in the Silicon Valley. Polytech Ventures focuses on early stage start-ups working on digitizing industry value chains such as financial services. Polytech Ventures believes in the virtuous collaboration between academia, entrepreneurs, investors and corporations.  More information on: www.polytechventures.com

(RAN)