Bankia : Goirigolzarri announces a new acceleration round for international start-ups at the inauguration of Bankia Fintech

• 'Objectively, Valencia offers the best possible conditions for talent and entrepreneurship to develop in an extraordinary way', said Bankia's chairman.
• 'Initiatives such as the one being launched today show how we are progressing towards implementing our new economic model', said Ximo Puig, president of the regional government.
• The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, said that he felt 'enormously proud that Valencia will be the headquarters of Innsomnia. This city is a real hive of ideas, projects and an attractive space for innovation and entrepreneurship, which the City Council unequivocally supports'.
• Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia will be 'one more pillar in this great collective project to make the magnificent port of Valencia one of the leading technology centres in Europe', said the CEO of Innsomnia.

Bankia today inaugurated Spain's first fintech incubator and accelerator -Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia- located in Base 2 of the Valencia Marina (the former headquarters of Team Germany), which has 14 participating start-ups from its first round. The bank's chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, used the occasion to announce a new round to attract international companies that will take place shortly.

'We are so certain that this project is on the right path that I want to announce that we will be launching future rounds for international companies, since one of the characteristics of the change that is sweeping through society is its global nature', said Goirigolzarri at an event attended by the president of the regional government, Ximo Puig, and the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó. Bankia's chairman explained that the choice of Valencia for this project 'was not exclusively due to the fact that Bankia's past, present and future is intimately linked with this region, but that objectively Valencia offers the best possible conditions for talent and entrepreneurship to develop in an extraordinary way'.

Goirigolzarri: We are so certain that this project is on the right path that I want to announce that we will be launching future rounds for international companies

The president of the regional government, Ximo Puig, expressed his deep satisfaction at hosting Spain's first fintech accelerator and incubator in the autonomous region. 'Initiatives such as the one being launched today show how we are progressing towards implementing the regional government's new economic model'. He went on to say, 'We have a territory that continuously provides us with proven advantages thanks to the efforts of companies and workers'. 'And this relationship, in the century in which we live, is intensifying, injecting greater knowledge and innovation'.

In his speech, the president of the regional government highlighted the fact that eight of the business initiatives selected to join the project originate from Valencia. He also drew attention to the presence of Bankia Fintech in the Royal Marina of Valencia, which is close to Lanzadera and the recently opened Veles et Vents cultural centre, which 'contributes additional value to the initiative because it represents a new step in transforming this space into a future cluster of knowledge and culture'.

Ximo Puig acknowledged the way that Bankia had reached out to the fintech phenomena, 'encouraging its development and putting itself at the head of this process'. He described Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia as 'a collaborative project that will generate benefits for all involved' and that 'it already forms part of the expansion of our economic landscape'.

The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, said that he felt 'enormously proud that Valencia will be the headquarters of Innsomnia. This city is a real hive of ideas, projects and an attractive space for innovation and entrepreneurship, which the City Council unequivocally supports'.

He went on to say, 'Valencia Marina is becoming an attractive centre for the wave of initiatives that is revitalising our economy. We have major assets and one of them, from today, is undoubtedly Innsomnia. The challenge that we face is to create new technological solutions, new business models and even new ways of creating trust, so that what we are doing benefits everyone'.

Fran Estevan, CEO of Innsomnia, the company that manages the accelerator, highlighted the appeal of the city of Valencia highlighting his belief that this initiative will become 'one more pillar in this great collective project to make the magnificent port of Valencia one of the leading technology centres in Europe'.

Why Bankia supports Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia

In his speech, Goirigolzarri explained that the bank's involvement in this project is in response to the 'enormous challenges' being thrown up by the digital revolution. 'Our response has been -and will continue to be- to collaborate with the best fintechs, combining the best of both worlds, so we can adapt to the needs of our customers and deal with their demands. For me, this is the best definition of adaptation', he said.

'This digital transformation process is changing customer habits, the ways in which they seek to relate to each other and with their suppliers. Right now they want to benefit from a competitive range of products and services that are more transparent and easier to compare', said Goirigolzarri, who insisted that the banking sector must be capable of responding quickly to these requirements and that transactions must be rapid and secure.

'Consequently, customers will be able to enjoy a better experience in their relationship with their bank, which will mean that they are more likely to interact more frequently, searching for better value solutions'. He went on to say that 'to make this possible, business models have to become more flexible and more orientated towards improving the customer experience'.

'At Bankia we believe that this project is the best way of fully participating and supporting this new wave of innovation -specifically talent and entrepreneurship- two of the core values on which a society's growth and progress are based', said the Bankia chairman.

Collaboration between Bankia and fintechs

Ignacio Cea, Corporate Director of Technology Innovation and Strategy at Bankia added, 'We cannot ignore the potential value that the ideas of these fintechs can generate for our customers. We must try to incorporate them into our catalogue of services and we have to do that by maintaining the independence of the entities that have generated them in order to extract their full value. It therefore has to be done in collaboration with them'.

'In this context, we needed a vehicle that gives us access to the fintech world and to work with it in a collaborative way; a vehicle for allowing new solutions and ideas to grow, working jointly with these companies', said Bankia's corporate director.

Fran Estevan, CEO of Innsomnia, explained that this project encourages companies to collaborate, not compete. It promotes experimentation over raising capital; it seeks to create a sense of freedom between the fintechs and the banking sector; and its guiding principle is that not everything must be focused on financing. Goirigolzarri also announced that Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia will form the basis for other projects, such as the http://www.bankiafintech.com/fintech/Open in a new window website, which was launched today and seeks to become 'the national benchmark for the fintech sector in Spain'.

Participating companies

The 14 participating companies in this first round of Bankia Fintech are seeking to provide solutions across an extremely varied range of financial areas, including risk, self-employed people, exports, financial security, cryptocurrencies, mobile payments, asset management, stock markets, immigrants, geolocation of businesses and real estate loans. The companies come from Madrid, Asturias, Castellón, Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona and are as follows:

• ARM: This Madrid-based fintech uses advanced automatic learning techniques to control risk management in real time and minimise the impact of these risks in defaults and refinancing, and control other financial parameters.
• BETTERPLACE: Start-up from Asturias specialising in biometrics. Its product is based on the geolocation of data for commercial purposes for companies and financial firms using public and private databases.
• BRICKFUNDING: Based in the world of aggregators and comparison sites, this Madrid start-up is intended for the new real estate crowdfunding segment, one of the clear growth areas for fintech.
• DECLARANDO: Bot advisor led by a tax lawyer from Castellón that provides solutions to the self-employed regarding tax advice.
• EXPORTORY: After several years of experience in commercial export management for SMEs, the driver behind this start-up from Alicante decided to launch a tool to minimise the risk of exporting products by small companies.
• HANDBE: Based in the field of biometrics, this Madrid start-up develops user identifiers from the veins and fingerprints on the palm of the hand without physical contact.
• INESPAY: Real time mobile payment application offering business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) solutions, developed by engineers from Valencia.
• MARKETPAY: This Barcelona firm hopes to provide a solution to marketplace problems relating to secure purchases of second-hand products between private individuals.
• PETY CASH: Specialised in payment solutions for mobiles, this Valencian firm has created a digital wallet to exchange debit and credit payments between friends based around a social network in which its members can interact.
• SIMPLE ADVISOR: This Valencian start-up is a spin-off from one of the most experienced groups in the world of fintech. It has developed an intelligent asset management robot for customers and advisers.
• SPLITFY: Based in the mobile payments sector, this start-up from Valencia focuses on providing solutions to group payments without any geographical or time limitations on access to the money.
• THE LOGIC VALUE: Valencia start-up created by financial experts and developers who have produced a bot advisor for valuing indices and listed companies around the world.
• TRANSFER ZERO: Madrid-based firm with extensive experience in the field of immigrant remittances, which is developing an easy, intuitive and secure solution for sending money internationally.
• ZANK: The proposal from this Barcelona fintech is to provide personal loans to young people at competitive interest rates and using simple tools, and to facilitate investments for small savers.

Characteristics of Base 2 in Valencia Marina

With around 4,000 m² of floor area spread over three storeys and a terrace, Base 2 in the Valencia Marina was originally home to Team Germany in the America's Cup.

Bankia Fintech is located on the top floor, where it currently uses around half of the 1,000 m² available, giving it the capacity to grow.

The Bankia Fintech offices have a studio for making videos and programmes to be broadcast on social networks and television, five meeting rooms (one with staggered seating) and a large area for hosting events that will be used for training initiatives and conferences.

A restaurant will open soon on the ground floor and upper terrace of the building and there will also be a gymnasium that makes use of the facilities and showers that were installed for Team Germany. Open in a new window