Take part in the world's biggest fintech competition: BBVA Open Talent 2019
Applications for BBVA Open Talent 2019 — the biggest fintech startup competition in the world — are open until 5 July 2019.
BBVA Open Talent aims to discover the most innovative and disruptive fintech startups that BBVA Open Innovation can help to grow and develop through a combination of multi-sector expertise, funding, and industry exposure.
This year’s competition will select one overall winner - chosen from three finalists from a global applicant pool, as well as separate national winners from each of BBVA’s nine core markets: Spain, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Turkey, Uruguay, and the USA. Finally, one startup will be selected to receive the sustainability award – a prize exclusively for companies addressing sustainability through fintech innovation. All winners will attend BBVA Open Summit in Madrid and be awarded a place on BBVA’s online acceleration program. The overall global winner will receive a €100,000 investment from BBVA Anthemis Venture Creation Partnership.
"In the last decade BBVA Open Talent has welcomed 6,000 startup participants from 90 countries"
The identity of the nine national winners will be revealed on 12 August, with the announcement of the sustainability winner and global finalists following on 16 September. Finally, the overall winner will be revealed during BBVA Open Summit in Madrid, 24 October, in front of a global audience of startups, corporates, policymakers, and influencers.
Over the past ten years Open Talent has welcomed 6,000 startup participants from 90 countries, awarded €1.65 million in cash prizes, and worked with 750 executives. Open Talent has also been identified — alongside four other BBVA projects — as contributing towards one of the eight United Nations Sustainable Development goals: decent work and economic growth. BBVA Open Innovation’s main goal is to strengthen and collaborate with the fintech ecosystem.
Through hosting Open Talent for ten years, Open Innovation has been able to internalise new ideas and trends, and turn them into disruptive, innovative products. BBVA does not have all the solutions internally, so the connections formed during Open Talent and other events really are a win-win for both startups and BBVA, who can together bring innovation to BBVA’s customers and the wider fintech industry through accelerating the best ideas in the initial stages of their development.
Ainhoa Campo Nieto, Global Head of Open Innovation, said of this year’s competition: “Over the past ten years we have seen some fantastic businesses participate in Open Talent and go on to become real successes. As the competition enters its second decade, our focus is on identifying and rewarding businesses that are not only great innovators in their own right, but that are putting forward solutions to the big strategic and commercial challenges that banking and financial services are grappling with as the industry undergoes a digital transformation revolution, and developing products and services that address customer needs in ways that incumbents can’t always manage alone. BBVA will provide those companies with the support and opportunities they need to help those innovations take hold in the industry at mass scale”.
“Over the past ten years we have seen some fantastic businesses participate in Open Talent and go on to become real successes"
The requirements to enter Open Talent this year are that the company is a fintech, or is related to fintech, has been legally constituted after 1 January 2016, has at least one minimum viable product (or has one at demo stage), and has received less than €2 million in investment to date. If your company meets these requirements, you can submit it for consideration via this link.