Mastercard announced Monday (May 29) that Russian financial firms working within the collaborative FinTech acceleration program Fintech Lab has chosen 12 FinTech startups they plan to mentor and guide through the program.
According to a report, the banks include Ak Bars, VTB 24, Bank Saint Petersburg, Home Credit Bank and Absolut Bank. The twelve companies they are working with include 1C-SIM, a mobile identity and eSignature verification platform; DataFuel.ru, a social media- and transaction-based psychographic profile detection system; FinCase, a service to help banks automate portfolio management, focusing on mortgage and collateralized assets; Insurion, a platform for buying travel delay insurance; M4B, an online receivable-based financing service for eCommerce; Panda Money, a service that teaches kids financial literacy via gamification; Relation Rate, a scoring service that uses social media data and biometric identification tools; Right, a robo-advising platform to manage personal investment; Robin, a voice-identification and verification biometric service; Rubbles, an AI-based platform to personalize banking services for end-users; Sweet card, a service offering personalized cashback deals from retailers and uLime, a marketplace allowing for the additional monetization of a bank’s loyal audience.
According to Mastercard, the program will launch on June 5 and will last 12 weeks, with a focus on the finance industry and bank integration specifics, regulatory context and information security requirements. Strategic consulting for the program is being provided by Accenture, a consulting company with experience in hosting acceleration programs for FinTech in London, New York, Hong Kong and Dublin.
Five banks and Mastercard in partnership with FinTech Lab expect to implement pilot projects with the program graduates, Mastercard said. The move on the part of the Russian banks comes at a time when traditional financial services companies are partnering with, investing in or buying outright FinTech startups around the globe.