The third annual 3D FinTech Challenge will be held from September 16th to November 4th, 2015. The challenge is a seven week acceleration program for promising FinTech startups run by French software firm Dassault Systemes.
The 3D FinTech Challenge is a key element of Dassault Systemes’ drive to accelerate technological innovation in the financial services industry. It is open to FinTech start-ups from anywhere in the world.
This year, the program is being run in partnership with Deutsche Boerse Group. Deutsche Boerse executives have acted as mentors during previous challenges and – pleased with the experience – want to strengthen their commitment. According to Brendan Bradley, Chief Innovation Officer at Deutsche Boerse, partnering with Dassault on the FinTech Challenge provides his company with exposure to current thinking in the FinTech space as well as the opportunity to engage with the start-ups and fuel their development.
Each FinTech Challenge has a specific theme. In 2014, the theme was accelerating technological innovation within the investment management industry, and Prophis Technology was the winning participant.
For 2015, the theme is helping financial services firms and their regulators manage growing compliance requirements. The theme was chosen after a series of meeting organized by Dassault at which industry executives discussed their most pressing concerns.
As we all know, as a result of the financial crisis that began in 2008, financial services firms are now subject to much more complex and comprehensive regulatory regimes designed to protect consumers, tax-payers, and the markets themselves.
Managing regulation effectively and reducing the costs of compliance have become priorities for financial services firms. If your startup has technology or expertise that financial institutions or regulators can use to resolve some of the issues they are experiencing, then you are invited to apply.
If your eyes roll when you hear “compliance,” don’t let them. Startups working in analytics, big data, high-performance computing, machine learning, and data visualization all have a role to play in helping the industry meet regulatory requirement.
Here are some of the specific questions the challenge sponsors would like participants to address during the seven-week challenge:
- How could technology be applied to help support the different types of data formats needed by the industry and regulators to manage market reporting and monitoring?
- Could a common reference data factory or a data mapping process to a common published data standard be used within the industry to drive a single “standard” for data?
- Is it possible to help the industry deal with big data issue while simultaneously reducing the burden of duplication placed on market participants?
- Could pattern recognition, machine learning, or other forms of analysis be applied to the data used by the industry to assist in both the internal compliance and external regulatory process?
According to Mark Foulds, Program Director for the 3D FinTech Challenge at Dassault, entrepreneurs selected to participate will be those judged best capable of coming up with relevant solutions that address these key questions within the seven week period. You do not need a product, or clients, or funding (though having them is no barrier, either). You do need to have at least part of your team onsite for the duration of the Challenge, and you must be ready to collaborate with other Challenge participants.
The application period is currently open. It will close on August 22nd. Six finalists will be selected for the program which will take place at Level39 in London’s Canary Wharf. Finalists receive on-going mentoring from leading industry figures and senior executives at Dassault. They also received technical and legal support, and pitching guidance. There are classes on user experience and interface design, intellectual property and also on licensing agreements. The 3D FinTech Challenge does not take any equity from participating start-ups.
The program culminates in presentations to an audience of venture capitalists, private equity firms, industry experts, and senior financial services executives. The winning team receives introductions to Dassault clients who might benefit from its products and services. Dassault will further showcase the Challenge winner at events and customer forums it sponsors in the U.S. and Europe in the coming months.
Can you help transform the way compliance is handled in the financial services industry? If your answer is yes, then apply here.
1 comments On Focus of 2015 3D FinTech Challenge Is On Compliance
Thanks Jim and good article!