Israeli startups visit Madrid to present their proposals
Seven Israeli startups took part in "Pitch Day" at the BBVA Innovation Center, where they presented the fintech proposals with which they seek to collaborate in the transformation of financial services, with the help of digital institutions like BBVA.
In an event organized by the Embassy of Israel, the Chamber of Commerce of Israel in Madrid and BBVA, the startups had the opportunity to present their projects and initiatives with BBVA experts, in a session where insights, advice and experiences were exchanged.
Israel is the Fintech capital of the Middle East and has startups specializing in areas such as identity, cybersecurity or blockchain. As the organizers explained, this is the first time that Israeli entrepreneurs have visited Spain to reach out to with the local financial world and explore business opportunities.
"We have the largest concentration of innovation and business initiatives in the world, the country's entrepreneurs have a strong vision of growth for their businesses," said Ami Levin, Minister-Counselor of Economy and Innovation of the Israeli Embassy in Spain.
The startups with BBVA experts
The participating startups presented their fintech projects, aimed at providing solutions to transform the financial environment: PayKey, one of the two winners of BBVA Open Talent Europe 2016, which enables instant payments within any social network; Earnix, an insurance startup that allows to develop customer risk models; Bondit, a high level platform for bond investments; I Know First, a solution that helps discover investment opportunities in capital markets; Scanovate, an application that allows users to pay bills by simply by pointing their smartphones’ cameras at the document; SecureTouch, which proposes a passwordless authentication technology (for smartphones, cars, smart homes, smartwatches, etc...) and ThetaRay, a platform offering data analysis and cyber security, operational efficiency and risk detection solutions.
Startups who have participated in the Pitch Day
Paykey
This startup was one of the two winners of BBVA Open Talent Europe 2016. PayKey allows making instant payments within any social network, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc. In this regard, Guy Ziv, vice president of the firm, says that this technology enables a new range of transactions in emerging channels and closes the gap between banking users and their social interactions (social media).
Earnix
Earnix Insurance is an insurance platform that allows to develop accurate and robust customer risk models, Understand the impact of pricing decisions, accelerate time-to-market of new offers and prices and Increase growth and profitability. José Monteagudo, regional manager of the company, highlights the visualization options that help out in analyzing these models to choose the best pricing strategy.
Bondit
The BondIT solution is B2B oriented – it was designed to empower financial advisers with algorithmic data-driven recommendations. BondIT’s purpose is to offer a high-performance platform for bond investments.
I Know First
This startup offers AI-based algorithmic prediction solutions to detect investment opportunities in the capital markets. I Know First’s algorithm development team includes Lipa Roitman, a scientist with more than 20 years of AI and 'machine learning' experience. Co-founder Yaron Golgher explains that the company’s proposal "is designed for large financial institutions, banks and hedge funds, as well as smaller investors."
Scanovate
Scanovate has developed a solution that allows users to pay the printed bills they receive via regular mail, top-up their prepaid plan or verify their identity by simply pointing their mobile phone camera at the document.
Scanovate VP Products Guy Stiebel explains: “The application allows executing tasks much faster, customers can optimize their time, processes are simpler, safer and more user friendly. “
SecuredTouch
SecureTouch is working to make passwords a thing of the past with the goal of making device experience seamless and secure. This technology will allow devices (smartphones, cars, smart homes, watches or any other IoT product) to identify us simply by the way we interact. No passwords, no user IDs, no hassle - just us.
According to SecuredTouch VP Sales Assaf Pilo, “ With SecuredTouch, companies can actively keep customers transacting rather than identifying themselves. The technology provides real-time trust scores between 0-1000. “
Thetaray
ThetaRay is the leading provider of a large data analysis platform and cyber security, operational efficiency and risk detection solutions. This platform protects financial services and critical infrastructure against unknown threats.
Mario Cohen, Sales Director of the company, emphasized: "Our target are organizations whose operations in extremely heterogeneous and complex environments can benefit from risk detection features."