Bitso, Quotanda, and Destacame Win Innotribe Startup Challenge for Latin America

The three winners of the Latin America startup Challenge are:

·         Based in Mexico, Bitso connects Mexico’s traditional banking infrastructure to the new digital era of bitcoin and blockchain for international cross border payments. “Incredibly honest and helpful feedback. An amazing opportunity to present to so many relevant and smart people, we are very honoured and excited about the opportunity,” says Daniel Vogel, Co-Founder & President.

·         Based in Mexico, Quotanda has created a marketplace for student financing, managed by schools to help connect borrowers with lenders. “Awesome event. Incredible mentoring and coaching that re-invigorated and re-targeted my pitch,” says Grant Taylor, Co-Founder & CEO.

·         Based in Chile, Destacame improves access to credit and other financial services for individuals and SMEs currently excluded from the financial system. “Very honest, candid and valuable feedback to optimize both the message and the time slot available,” says Nerea Arcarazo, Country Manager, Mexico.

Winners of this year’s challenge received a 10,000 USD cash prize and invitations to attend Sibos, SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference, taking place from 26-29 September in Geneva. The startups will have the opportunity to share the stage with FinTech experts, providing great insights on innovation happening in Latin America to the financial industry at large.

“No matter where they come from, FinTech entrepreneurs always share enthusiasm for creating new concepts, and passion when it comes to execute and successfully market their ideas”, says Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Market, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute at SWIFT. “It was great to run our first Startup Challenge in Latin America, strengthening collaboration between banks and the FinTech community in the region, and to welcome a new group of promising companies to the Innotribe programme. Congratulations to all participants, we wish them lots of success in their future developments.”

Commenting on the innovation landscape, Juan Martinez, Head of Latin America & the Caribbean at SWIFT says: “This year’s Innotribe Startup Challenge highlighted the exciting FinTech developments happening across the region. The showcase at LARC was a wonderful opportunity for SWIFT and Innotribe to be part of this journey and we look forward to continuing our support to the three winners joining us at Sibos in Geneva later this year.”

The 2016 Innotribe Startup Challenge focused on supporting emerging FinTech ecosystems where demographic trends, economic growth and regional integration projects are creating fertile ground for new technologies to emerge. The Mexico City showcase was the second and last event of this year’s programme. The first event was held in Mauritius in May during SWIFT’s African Regional Conference.