Geneva based banking software company Temenos has announced the launch of Switzerland’s first fintech incubator. While Temenos and other corporate members will provide mentoring and sponsorship, Polytech ventures will provide funding. Polytech is a 13 MCHF fund established in 2008 with a 10-year term. The fund invests in early stage start-ups, mostly in Seed and Series A rounds.
It has been named Fusion, the Swiss Fintech Factory. Fusion will be based out of premises in the heart of Geneva and will bring together fintech start-ups from all over the world. It hopes to capitalise on the country’s rich banking heritage, its existing business networks as well as its reputation for innovation in order to foster a dynamic fintech scene while working with established banks and financial services companies to strengthen Switzerland’s role as a financial services hub.
Guillaume Dubray, Managing Partner at Polytech Ventures commented: “This is a good time to launch a fintech incubator and Switzerland is the perfect place. The financial services industry is in the throes of digitization, opening up the possibility for new business models and ventures. The aim of the Fusion incubator is to bring together the best of Switzerland, a collaboration between a broad ecosystem of corporate members drawn from multiple sectors, academia and fintech start-ups, to build the next generation financial services companies.”
An ecosystem of corporate members and partners will provide expertise, mentoring and sponsorship while Polytech will provide funding for the start-ups. Temenos is the first corporate member to join the ecosystem, however the likes of Safe Host, a datacentre and business continuity services providers are expected to follow. There will also be academic partners, in particular Idiap, an affiliated research institute of the Ecole Polytechnqiue de Lausanne, one of Europe’s top 10 engineering universities.
Ben Robinson, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Temenos, said: “Temenos has a proud record of innovation. We are very excited to partner with Polytech to launch the Fusion incubator because it furthers our innovation agenda, giving us the exposure to new ideas and some of the brightest fintech talent that will help us to keep delivering outstanding customer success. In addition, we believe in giving back to our community and hope that by working with Fusion and its partners we can reinforce Switzerland’s position as a vibrant centre for financial services and financial technology.”
The program is already seeking applications from start ups and will run a bootcamp over the summer deciding which companies will finally get to participate in the incubator program. It will hopefully be fully operational by autumn.
(image credit: Janet McKnight)
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