The Swiss Fintech Awards 2021 Winners Are…

The Swiss Fintech Awards is organized yearly since 2015 to promote regional development and to strengthen the Swiss fintech ecosystem. A network of partner organisations and fintech experts select the best early and growth-stage startups through a multi-tiered application process. Additionally, the jury, consisting of 20 fintech experts, nominate the winner for the ‘Fintech Influencer of the Year’ category.

The ‘Early Stage Startup of the Year’ is selected from a pool of startups currently working on their first demo or prototype, or which are about to launch their first product or service. This year, the title was bagged by FQX, a startup digitalising promissory notes using blockchain.

Predominantly paper-based, promissory notes are an unconditional pledge to pay a specific sum to someone at a specific future date. By digitalising them as eNotes, FQX allows users flexibility to sell or transfer them to a third party with ease.

Benedikt Schuppli, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at FQX said,

Benedikt Schuppli

“The idea was born out of a real customer problem our Chairman experienced: with existing financing methods such as factoring, companies do not have the needed steering flexibility and institutional investors don’t have direct access to the real economy. By digitizing the formerly paper-based promissory note on a Blockchain, FQX is able to release the huge potential of the eNote for finance on a global scale to bring liquidity closer to the real economy.”

FQX claims that eNotes outperform other financing options because of their financial steering capabilities and global transferability. Moreover, banks and fintechs can integrate FQX’s eNote infrastructure on their financing platforms. This allows customers of financing platforms to benefit from the entire eNote lifecycle from issuance to settlement, FQX claims.

Schuppli added,

“Untypical for Swiss culture, FQX‘s vision is bold due to its global ambition to substantially change how companies access finance & steer liquidity.”

This, along with its diverse team – the oldest employee being 64 years while the youngest being 24 – is what made FQX stand out from the throng of applicants, the team believes.

FQX is planning to roll out its product to the existing client and partner base over the next few months. The startup is also eyeing international expansion, the team said.

The ‘Growth Stage Startup of the Year’ award was presented to Yokoy, an automated corporate expense management platform. This category evaluates startups with working business models and showing clear signs of significant growth.

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Yokoy automates the management and processing of expenses, invoices and cards for medium and large enterprises. Moreover, users can map out customised process flows and integrate Yokoy into their existing corporate systems.

Melanie Gabriel

Melanie Gabriel, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Yokoy, said

“We’re solving a true problem that each and every company independently of the industry knows and has. Too many companies are wasting money because their employees, managers and finance or HR teams spend too much time on manually processing expenses, invoices and credit card transactions.”

The spend management and corporate card industry in Germany, Switzerland and Austria alone is estimated to be above 28 billion USD, Gabriel said.

In its 1.5 years of operations, Yokoy has acquired over 300 customers including Stadler Rail, Swissquote and Bobst. In addition to Switzerland, the startup already has a presence in Austria and Germany and plans to expand further in the coming months. Yokoy is also aiming to double its user base from 50,000 to 100,000, and expand its team to 50 employees by the end of the year.

The ‘FintechInfluencer’ award recognizes individuals or organisations that have positively shaped or influenced the Swiss fintech landscape. This year, the award was presented to financial market and data protection lawyer Cornelia Stengel. She is also the Co-director of the Swiss FinTech Innovations (SFTI) association and a permanent guest of the Swiss Bankers Association’s (SBA) Commission for Digitisation.

Cornelia Stengel

“I am very happy – especially about the fact that even “dry” legal work can obviously have a positive influence on the fintech scene. It is a great recognition for me, but also for the top people I have the privilege to work with, especially at Kellerhals Carrard and Swiss FinTech Innovations, and to whom I dedicate this award.

“I still think that a lot of innovation comes from payment systems in the broad sense. There is a trend in the direction of embedded finance, a variation or perhaps further development of open finance, but in any case cooperation in ecosystems,”

said Stengel while talking about the future of fintech.

Stengel also foresees strong developments around digital currencies and assets, driven by both the central banks and private companies. She added, “And last but not least – the focus on the customer. I would also describe individualization or the ‘segment of one’ as a strong development, which is of course fueled by the aforementioned trends.”

The Swiss Fintech Awards winners were selected from about 70 accepted written applications after a rigorous selection process. Along with the award, the winners also received CHF 24,000 as prize money.

Swiss Fintech Awards 2021 Finalists

The post The Swiss Fintech Awards 2021 Winners Are… appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.