The final of the first Fintech Awards Luxembourg, organised by KPMG, took place on 21 June at the audit and consultancy firm's head office.
Governance.io, a fintech devoted to the management of investment funds, was the major winner at the event, with Scaled Risk picking up the award for Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year and Neurodecision also being recognized for its pitch.
The competition, organized by KPMG with a view to highlighting these young start-ups at the crossroads of technology and finance and boosting the visibility of Luxembourg within the international fintech sphere, attracted over 80 entries from Luxembourg and both neighbouring and more distant countries. Opening the session, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel encouraged European candidates to take the plunge whilst reiterating the government's fintech agenda and indeed the country's digital agenda in general.
The 10 finalists selected from among the 80 entries delivered a new pitch before a panel of professionals and representatives from the Place before the awards were handed out by Minister for Finances Pierre Gramegna.
Specializing in the management of investment funds and offering an overview of their value chain, Governance.io picked up the award for the Best Fintech Start-up of the Year, together with 50,000 euros in prize money, which the managers of the start-up have indicated will be used to hire new employees. This start-up will also be based at the Esch-sur-Alzette Technoport for four months.
Scaled Risk, and its founder and director Hervé Bonazzi in particular, meanwhile, took the award for Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year, which will notably involve spending an immersion week at Silicon Valley to meet with potential new partners. The company provides financial software that combines big data nad memory-based technological analysis to enable financial players to analyse trade transactions in scalable real time and better manage the risks involved.
Neurodecision, which operates in the behavioural finance sector, for its part, was awarded Best Pitch and receives a year's support from the KPMG Hub – the division of the firm aimed at start-ups – and a media campaign, in collaboration with Fintech Awards Luxembourg partner Maison Moderne.
These start-ups will soon have their own home in Luxembourg, as Xavier Bettel pointed out in his speech, at the site of the former police station on Rue Glesener, which the government will be refurbishing with the support of the City Council.
