Hamburg Commercial Bank takes part in ekipa’s innovation competition for the financial sector
- Patron Christian Lindner (German Federal Minister of Finance): “Program provides an ecosystem for financial innovation”
- ekipa’s Finance Innovation Program brings together researchers, young professionals, students and start-ups with companies from the financial industry
Hamburg Commercial Bank AG (HCOB) is participating in this year’s innovation competition “Finance Innovation Program” with a practical task (“challenge”). The program, initiated by the Frankfurt-based startup ekipa together with the German Federal Ministry of Finance, brings together established companies with students, start-ups and researchers from Europe to enable the development of forward-looking financial innovations.
“The innovation competition is a great opportunity to promote innovation in the financial world and to work with young, interested people on digitalization solutions for the financial industry. HCOB is happy to support this program and we look forward to a good and productive exchange as well as new impulses,” said Carsten Schrader, Chief Information & Technology Officer at Hamburg Commercial Bank. “As a commercial bank, we have set a ‘challenge’ for the area of asset-based financing for corporate customers. The task is to develop approaches for a digital platform for project developers, investors and potential financing partners that enables joint, transparent and efficient interaction with each other.”
Christoph Kecher, Managing Director IT at Hamburg Commercial Bank, added: “Our IT landscape is already cloud-based and many of our processes are already digitalized. This is a good basis for our ‘digital platform challenge’. We are hoping for innovative ideas and well-thought-out concepts from the participants in the program and look forward to working together – we are already very eager about the results.”
Patron Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner said: “(Financial) innovations and digital technologies are the fuel of a competitive economy and a booster for growth. They also serve as a catalyst for the digital transformation of the economy and society. With the Finance Innovation Program, ekipa offers an exciting ecosystem that enables financial innovations and creates impulses for society.”
Application period ends 30 July 2023
The innovation program is divided into two phases: In the qualification phase, which runs until 30 July 2023, participants are invited to submit their solution approaches for the challenges presented on the ekipa homepage. Two teams will be selected from the applicants to develop ideas and create concepts with the respective company in the collaboration phase (which ends 2 November 2023). A prize pool of 30,000 euros will be available to the winning teams at the end of the program. The high-profile closing event in Berlin will take place in the presence of Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner.
About ekipa
The Frankfurt-based start-up ekipa was founded in 2018 and today employs almost 30 people. The company’s goal is to foster sustainable and future-proof innovations with various innovation programs and initiatives, thus changing the world in a positive way. The wide-ranging innovation programs include Deutschland 4.0 and Innovate2030. In addition, there are specific programs such as HealthTech, AI & Data Science or Future Finance which are dedicated to an important contemporary issue. For further information, please visit www.eikpa.de
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