Bankia : signs up seven companies that it accelerated in the first Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program

• The contracted companies offer a wide range of technology solutions in different areas including risk, SMEs and the self-employed, payments, financial markets and business geolocation, among others
• 'We are committed to open collaboration with the fintechs in order to add value to our customers', said Ignacio Cea, Corporate Director of Technology Innovation and Strategy at the bank
• Bankia is working with the fintechs 'under extremely flexible conditions', with an innovation team dedicated to 'facilitating the adaptation and integration of their ideas and proposals into the bank's range of services', said Cea

Bankia has signed up seven companies that it previously accelerated in the first Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program, Spain's first fintech incubator and accelerator. They represent half of the start-ups that completed the acceleration program last June.

'The high quality of the accelerated projects and their alignment with the bank's digital transformation strategy has enabled us to reach an agreement to contract half of the companies that took part in the first Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia program, which is a genuinely high percentage for these types of projects', said Ignacio Cea, Corporate Director of Technology Innovation and Strategy at the bank.

'We are committed to open collaboration with the fintechs in order to add value to our customers', said Cea, who went on to add that 'collaborating with startups has become a source of solutions that can introduce Bankia to new ways of working, as well as access to external talent and new opportunities'. 'We are convinced that this is the way to accelerate our innovation', he said.

The companies accelerated by Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia and subsequently contracted by the bank offer a wide range of technology solutions in different financial areas, including risk, SMEs and the self-employed, payments, financial markets and business geolocation.

Betterplace, Declarando and Exportory are three of the start-ups offering solutions for SMEs and the self-employed, both seen as strategic segments by Bankia.

• BetterplaceOpen in a new windowis a commercial data geolocation platform for companies and finance that uses public and private databases. Its application analyses information from companies and helps them to improve their sales; and geolocation data to help companies find opportunities to open new points-of-sale and enter new markets.
• DeclarandoOpen in a new windowhas developed a 'bot advisor' program that provides smart advice to the self-employed in a virtual environment, helping them to improve their accounting processes and file their taxes with assistance from a virtual tax adviser.
• ExportoryOpen in a new windowhas a tool that helps SMEs to minimise the risks of exporting their products. It uses an algorithm to calculate export risk, allowing SMEs to discover international opportunities for their products and to profile the safest destinations for their exports.

Meanwhile, the projects from ARM and Zänk operate in the field of risk.

• ARMOpen in a new windowuses advanced automated learning techniques to control risk management in real time using software based on predictive models obtained from artificial intelligence and automated learning.
• ZänkOpen in a new windowoperates in the world of peer-to-peer lending with a proprietary scoring system. It uses an algorithm based on a download of the applicant's banking transactions; it then performs a behavioural analysis of the applicant's spending, saving and repayment capacity and responds to the borrowing application in less than five minutes, stating the interest rate.

Another project, InespayOpen in a new window, operates in the payments segment as a payments platform that operates via bank accounts. It uses online bank transfers as the payment method for collecting debts, requesting collection from the debtor via email, which facilitates and speeds up payment.

Lastly, The Logic ValueOpen in a new window is a start-up operating in the financial markets, offering powerful analysis of listed companies, investment funds, management data and tools integrated into a single solution.

The bank has signed different agreements with the start-ups to develop a basic viable product that Bankia will pay for, which these companies will work on during the coming months.

Bankia is working with the fintechs 'under extremely flexible conditions', said Cea, with an innovation team dedicated to 'adapting and integrating their ideas and proposals into the bank's range of services'.

The agreements with these companies arose out of Partner's Day, one of the most important milestones in the Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia acceleration program. This event consists of a private and confidential meeting between different managers at the bank and representatives from each of the 13 start-ups that completed the project. The companies use these meetings to present their projects to Bankia that they have developed during the previous months.

We select the ideas and projects that offer the most potential and interest for Bankia's customers, who are ultimately the people that we have to provide the highest quality financial products and services to', said the bank's Corporate Director of Technology Innovation and Strategy.

Win-win relationship

Cea explained that he believes that 'Bankia's collaboration with the startups is a win-win situation, in which both sides benefit' since it combines the fintechs' ideas and proposals with Bankia's customer knowledge, which creates 'a perfect platform for designing the future of the sector'.

Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia is currently running a new program -its third- which expects to attract 20 new start-ups that can provide solutions and add value to the bank's seven million customers. The deadline for submissions is 20 September, which can be submitted via the websites www.innsomnia.esOpen in a new window or www.bankiafintech.comOpen in a new window.

Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia recently closed its second programme aimed at international applicants and is now accelerating start-ups from the USA, Israel, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia

Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia is Spain's first fintech incubator and accelerator. It launched its first programme in 2016, receiving applications from 40% of the fintech sector that existed in Spain at that time. A total of 13 start-ups were selected, which have now completed the acceleration process. Its first international programme was launched in 2017 and it is currently running a new national programme. The main difference between Bankia Fintech and other accelerators is its collaborative approach, since it does not demand equityfrom participating startups and the ultimate objective is for them to work in collaboration with Bankia's Innovation Department to develop and commercialise products that will meet the bank's needs.

Innsomnia

Innsomnia, based in Valencia, was created in 2016 from two projects - a financial platform with more than 10 years' experience helping companies and entrepreneurs to grow, combined with the most experienced innovation information team in Spain. In addition to managing Spain's first fintech incubator and accelerator, Innsomnia also helps the business sector to adopt digital technologies and supports a wide range of projects related to innovation, technology and communication.