Bankia : selects 15 start-ups to incubate and accelerate and will create a Fintech Club for all of the program’s candidates

• The program is expanding from the initially planned 10 start-ups to 15 due to the high quality of the candidates, which include a large number of the leading start-ups in the Spanish fintech sector
• Various projects consist of people with extensive banking experience working with young IT developers
• The acceleration process will begin in one month in Valencia and will last until June
• The Bankia Fintech Club, which will also be managed by Innsomnia, will keep in contact with candidates that were not accepted onto the program

The Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program has completed its stage to select the start-ups for incubation and acceleration. However, it is increasing the number of initially selected fintech start-ups (companies that combine finance and technology) from 10 to 15 due to the excellent quality of the candidates, which will all take part in the program promoted by Bankia and managed by Innsomnia.

At the same time, it will create the Bankia Fintech Club, which will be open to all candidates that passed the initial selection stage. The purpose of the Club, which will also be managed by Innsomnia, is to help create a solid fintech ecosystem in Spain and to act as a nursery for future editions of the incubation and acceleration program.

The 15 selected companies hope to provide solutions across an extremely varied range of financial issues, 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.

The 15 selected start-ups and their areas of specialisation 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 designed for the new real estate crowdfunding segment, one of the clear growth areas for fintech.

CHIP-CHAP: Operating in the mobile payment solutions segment, this start-up from Castellón is a concentrator for payment methods across diverse systems and currency types, including cryptocurrencies.

DECLARANDO: Bot advisor led by a tax lawyer from Castellón that provides tax advice solutions for the self-employed.

EXPORTORY: After several years of experience in commercial export management for SMEs, the promoter of this start-up from Alicante decided to launch a tool to minimise the risk to small companies of exporting their products.

HANDBE: Based in the field of biometrics, this Madrid start-up is developing user identification systems based on 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 that allows its members to interact.

SIMPLE ADVISOR: This Valencian start-up is a spin-off from one of the most experienced groups in the fintech sector, which 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 accessing 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 using simple tools, and to facilitate investments for small savers.

Start of the program in one month

Following the selection of these 15 start-ups, the Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program will contact them to initiate the necessary procedures before launching their incubation and acceleration in Valencia, where the program will take place between October and June. The Fintech Club will be set up simultaneously to keep in permanent contact with its members, who will receive regular information and analysis about progress in the international fintech sector.

The application period for the Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program ran from 10 June to 25 July. A total of 48 start-ups, projects and spin-offs were entered into the selection process, which represents around 40% of the current fintech sector in Spain of around 120 firms.

Following an initial scoring process, 25 candidates were chosen and put forward to the second phase of the process. Personal interviews were then held with each team, before the short list was reduced to 15 companies.

Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia is the first fintech incubator and accelerator in Spain and is based on strong collaborative principles. Those start-ups that are incubated and accelerated will be invited to a 'Partners Day' with Bankia when they will have access to financing and investment and the opportunity to sign commercialisation agreements for their products with the bank.