Bucharest, Romania, February 4th, 2022: Techcelerator, the most active accelerator for technology start-ups in Romania, is running, for ten weeks, until March, the second edition of NEXT FinTech, an acceleration program developed with the support of Google for Startups, GapMinder BV, Stripe, Seedblink, TechAngels, RoFintech Association, Romania Tech Startups Association - ROTSA.

The program started on January 25th, and, by March 25th, it will include eight intensive mentoring modules: sales, matchmaking with financial institutions in the region, product marketing, transition strategies to the international market and preparation for attracting investment, matchmaking with investors and investment funds.

Startups from countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, UK, Kazakhstan, and South Africa have joined the program with consolidated teams and digital products feasible for international expansion.

10 FinTech and SaaS startups from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, the UK, and Armenia have already been selected, with MVPs ready to launch or in beta testing.

These are: 

Credify is a B2B2C platform that actively participates in improving the online lending flow. Credify is designed to address both lending institutions, which are looking for solutions to increase the rate of loans granted without having an increase in the budget, and customers (individuals and companies) or brokers who hunt the best lending offer.

Zanumi is a financial intelligence cloud-based platform aimed to automate and simplify the accounting and financial review process as well as the preparation of the statutory and management reports and budgets. 

Infin8 is a Fintech based in Greece that is live in 6 countries. They offer account aggregation, payment initiation, and financial management to individuals and businesses, and support more than 160 banks, including most major EU-based Neobanks.

Vestinda is an investment marketplace platform. Beginner and seasoned investors can connect multiple financial accounts to build a diversified portfolio and automate investments in only a few minutes.

SPIN Analytics, a team combined of ex-bankers, data scientists, and credit modelers, has developed RISKROBOT™, a next-generation explainable AI-based platform, to help a bank turn its risk modeling utility from an artisan workshop into an industrial factory. The platform automates the data preparation, development, validation, documentation, and deployment of all types of credit risk models for regulatory, risk management, and business purposes reducing maintenance time by at least 90% and total costs by 70%. 

Banskpot is a lead marketplace made up of former employees in the banking and IT industry. They’ve

brought their experiences together to help grow the lending business, but more importantly to make it a pleasant experience for the end consumer.

Prime Dash is a FinTech with a clearly defined mission: to democratize technology and support financial institutions in their digital transformation process. Using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, and Advanced Analytics, Prime Dash has developed an intelligent ecosystem of financial products addressing the needs of financial institutions as well as companies. 

Text’n Pay Me is a banking keyboard that enables banks’ clients to send money in any messaging application, plus in any other application where they can find an input field. 

SOLO Fintech is the first digital accounting service in Romania for Independent Professionals. Their clients are liberal professionals (architects, doctors, lawyers), freelancers, creatives, but also couriers or UBER and Bolt drivers.

Boleron is a software company founded in 2019 with the goal to digitize the insurance industry. Focused on the customer experience Boleron is the first mobile insurance APP in Bulgaria, the first electronically signed policy, and the easiest way to buy, store and manage insurance policies.

The eight intensive mentoring modules are conducted with the support of over 21 regional and global mentors - experts and investors in banking, business development, representatives of global technology providers, FinTech unicorns in Europe. Among them are: Bogdan Ciobanu - Segment Head for CE Cluster, Citi Commercial Bank, Suleiman Arabiat - Senior Investment Manager, Elevator Ventures, Sergiu Negut - Co-Founder of FintechOS, Mike Parsons - CEO Qualitance, Irina Leca - Product Marketing Manager Google, Monica Sibișteanu - Head of Content & Community Monese, Petr Baron - CEO TBI Bank, Veselina Markova - Fintech Lead, Eleven Ventures, Valeri Petrov - Partner, Eleven Ventures and Ian Scarffe - Expert at the European Commission - Horizon 2020.

Thus, NEXT FinTech becomes the most extensive and applied program of bootcamps and workshops dedicated to fintech startups, which receive compressed and efficient mentoring throughout the program, starting from the identification and understanding of the target market and accessing partnerships with regional and global banks and players in FinTech and technology. In addition, start-ups with commercial traction are exposed to program partners to attract pre-Seed and Seed investment rounds.

"FinTech startups have become actual innovation drivers and promoters. At NEXT FinTech we have all the ingredients so that startups can say, at the end of the program, that they have traveled an accelerated route, they have gained experience, and that they have become eligible for future rounds of financing. A team of elite mentors has joined us, both, regional and global. Techcelerator thus provides a full context for the development of the local startup ecosystem", says Cristian Dascălu, GapMinder BV partner & Co-founder of Techcelerator.