Three Skolkovo fintech startups presented their solutions to the global financial services world at the recent Sibos conference in Toronto, after winning the chance to do so in a competition earlier this year.
Maria Veikhman (left), CEO and founder of Scorista, takes part in a meeting within Sibos. Photo: Scorista.
The three startups demonstrating their products and solutions at Sibos were Scorista, a credit scoring service for non-bank lenders, Oz Forensics KYC and digital fraud prevention solution, and Talk Bank, a chatbot bank in which customers perform transactions via messenger.
They won the opportunity to exhibit at Sibos, which took place at the Metro Toronto convention centre from October 16-19, after being awarded the top three places in the Startup Challenge competition organised by SWIFT Innotribe earlier this year, in which they were voted the best fintech companies by participants of the International Financial Congress in St. Petersburg.
“In attending Sibos, we have become part of the global financial community,” Maria Veikhman, CEO and founder of Scorista, told Sk.ru following her company’s participation in the event.
Svetlana Efimova, COO and co-founder of Oz Forensics. Photo: Sibos.
“We got the opportunity to find out the mindset and opinion of a huge number of first-class specialists from all over the world. We saw what potential there is for Scorista on the global arena, and most importantly, we obtained an understanding of how to realise that potential,” she said.
The three Skolkovo companies took part in a panel discussion titled “Innovating in Russia” on October 17 devoted to opportunities for startups in Russia, their relationship to the global financial ecosystem and the challenges faced by startups here.
Svetlana Efimova, COO and co-founder of Oz Forensics, said the panel discussion was highly rated by its audience, who posed some tough questions.
“The international banking community was introduced to Russian fintech thanks to SWIFT Innotribe,” who organised the Startup Challenge, she said.
Efimova said for makers of products for the financial sector, Sibos represents an opportunity to meet with representatives of banks and other financial organisations from all over the world at the level of decision makers.
“Thanks to close communication with other participants and to the content of the programme, you can get a good understanding of the market in various countries,” said Efimova, whose company is one of 13 Skolkovo startups currently taking part in the reality TV show “An Idea Worth a Million,” as is TalkBank.
“This year, the Russian team of fintech startups at Sibos consisted entirely of Skolkovo residents, and I’d like to draw the attention of international investors to these companies in particular,” said Pavel Novikov, director of Skolkovo’s fintech centre.
“All the companies are showing manifold revenue growth year on year thanks to the technology innovations that form the foundations of their products,” he said.
The annual Sibos conference and exhibition is a global financial services networking event organised by SWIFT. It is attended by more than 8,000 executives and decision makers from across the industry.
The theme of this year’s event was “Building for the Future,” and the conference programme included topics ranging from artificial intelligence and data to cybersecurity and compliance and regulations.
Next year’s event will be held in Sydney, Australia.