BBVA unveils a match-making platform for fintech startups
BBVA has launched a new service for startups looking to work with the bank, which matches up expertise with needs across the business.
Thanks to this new global network, which has already over 150 members, startups can get in touch directly with the bank’s business units and offer their technical solutions to challenges facing the sector.
The aim is that, in an increasing competitive market, both the startup businesses and BBVA can secure a win win by working together. But in order to do so, they first have to meet up. The Open Marketplace platform came into existence with precisely this in mind: help forge ties between different players in the fintech ecosystem to drive innovation in the sector.
By means of a search tool, a directory of profiles and a smart match-making system, the platform connects the services provided by startups and the needs of BBVA business units to create opportunities for both. When there is a match between the two, they can start to work together through the platform, which offers support in formalizing the relationship with the bank, access to case studies and virtual co-working spaces, as well as direct contact with the business areas interested in the solutions of startups with the aim of formalizing a joint proof of concept.
“The new platform provides companies with the potential to change the future of banking the opportunity to work on real problems that face the sector on a day-to-day basis and to work together with BBVA’s experts to find solutions,” explains Elena Alfaro, Head of Data and Open Innovation at BBVA.
Whether it has to do with creating a new process for signing up customers or creating a new service based on blockchain, there is room for all ideas and solutions that improve, speed up and broaden the horizons of banking with the future in mind.
How does it work?
As the name indicates, the platform is an open marketplace for ideas that puts startups in the groove of what the market needs. You might say it works along the lines of a ‘dating app’. Both startups and the bank’s experts need to sign up and create a profile explaining on the one hand the needs of business units and on the other what solutions they can provide startups.
"The business units can start to work through joint projects with the startups in a matter of weeks"
Through a data-based system of pairing, the platform, studies, compares and classifies different proposals and needs and finds points in common from which a beneficial relationship can arise. That is, when the characteristics of the startups match those the business unit is looking for and vice-versa, the desired match-making takes place. On the basis of this, and with the help of BBVA’s experts, the business units can start to work through alliances and joint projects with the startups in a matter of weeks.
Some examples of companies already working with BBVA on the platform are offering solutions for fraud detection through user activity on mobile phones, or automated PFM solutions based on artificial intelligence technology, among others.