The program is free and will give you the opportunity to test and develop your initial idea, network, and be challenged by experienced entrepreneurs and professionals.

Starting on October 5th, the online program will run for 8 weeks, with one session per week, culminating in a "Pitch & Mingle" session. Here you will be able to pitch your business concept to co-entrepreneurs and mentors from the industry.

Read more and apply here!

To give you some insight into what you can expect from the program, we reached out to the winner and runner-up from last year's program, Halvor Helland Barndon from Treck, and Zeynep Guzey from Clasp.

What is your business idea?

Halvor: Creating a platform for personal economy through organizing, managing, and forecasting outgoing recurring payments. These recurring payments include subscriptions and direct debit agreements, with more to come. The idea builds mainly on automation of these services, through communicating with banks and agreement suppliers.

Zeynep: Clasp is a system that acts as a channel between domestic p2p payment apps. In layman's terms, it is a channel bridging apps such as Vipps and CashApp, making it possible for users to send money to each other instantly across the border using the said applications.

Why did you apply to Fintech Confirm?

Halvor: We were lucky enough to be accepted to Fintech Confirm “last-minute”, and had been encouraged to participate as it is a form of learning arena. The larger portion of this encouragement was sparked by loose conversations on the idea, and we are happy that we decided to apply – as we not only learned a lot but also concretized the idea and value proposition.

Zeynep: It is impossible to deny the ambition of the project, so I knew this was not something I could attempt on my own. I needed to gain deep knowledge and understanding of not only the fintech industry but also how to build a functioning startup from scratch - all from experienced people I could trust. Fintech Confirm was the obvious choice, as the members of NCE Finance Innovation reflected exactly this from the encounters we had before I applied to the program. Not only were they enthusiastic, but also very eager to do the research and help expand the idea. I feel very lucky for having such generous company.

What was your biggest takeaway from the program?

Halvor: Although the program provides lessons on building a business on all levels, the greatest value for us was the networking. Fintech Confirm introduced us to many inspiring people, whom some of which we are delighted to still be in touch with today, following each other’s progress and lending a helping hand once in a while

Zeynep: I had a lot of takeaways from the program, but if I really had to pick one I would have to say that my most important lesson was keeping the text on my pitch decks short and to the point. The structure of decks is generally a complete contrast to what I had been taught in academia, and without the training, I don’t think I would have been able to get very far at all. I owe Torstein and Svitlana a lot here!

Who would you recommend the program for?

Halvor: We would recommend the program for anyone with an exciting Finance/Technology idea, either concrete or vague – as the team behind Confirm will guide you properly regardless of how far you’ve come. Confirm is also a great social arena, and is superb for anyone looking to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs.

Zeynep: I would recommend this program to anyone and everyone who has a business idea that goes under fintech! You learn a lot about how to navigate the jungle that entrepreneurship can be. It was and still continues to be a priceless experience.