The very first FintechMatters Roadshow took place last week in Bergen and we are not overstating when saying that the Roadshow was a success.
Connecting Europe and Norway
The roadshows' objective was to bring together the decision makers and opinion leaders from the Norwegian and the European Fintech Ecosystems and share insights about the latest regional trends, initiate international B2B collaborations and of course to network on a personal level. We'd say: mission accomplished.
The Roadshow brought not only together leaders from financial services , but representatives from academia and government were represented to show how collaboration amongst many partners breeds progress.
Industry innovation at its best
To set the scene, Bent Gjendem CEO of Monobank held the keynote about the Norwegian fintech ecosystem and showed the guests what really makes Norwegian fintech special. Meaghan Johnson followed with a key note about current European trends and pointed out certain Norwegian solutions that are making headlines, such as IDMee.
Atle Sivertsen, CEO of Finance Innovation and Natascha Tummeley, CEO
of Swiss Fintech Innovations shared insights about the Norwegian and Swiss ecosystem, latest initiatives and mapped the unique national and regional strengths of their respective ecosystems.
Innovation Norway joined the Roadshow and presented their current programs and initiatives within fintech. Innovation Norway's Global Growth South Africa program sparked interest amongst several participants in the crowd. The session continued with industry insights from Monobank, Sparebanken Vest, Sbanken, Quantfol.io, CreativeDock (DK), who shared their best practices and solutions.
“I was particularly taken with the mindset of the Norwegians towards innovating in a sustainable way and the attitude they take with the impact of macro-level issues. What we really enjoyed about the event was the intimacy that was obtained. It allowed us to openly speak about our challenges, solutions and thoughts on the future.” says Meaghan Johnson, FintechMatters.
Innovative solutions from Norway and Europe
The two day event continued at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and was kicked off by Associate Professor Eirik S. Knudsen, who informed the crowd about the new Executive MBA in Technology and Innovation of Finance starting this Autumn, which is the first of its kind in the Nordics.
The Roadshow continued with Innovator insights and how start-ups have been scaling and working to internationalize their solutions. Signicat, Artis, Idfy, DiggEcard, Handcheque and Dealflow pitched their solutions and the participants learned more about how these companies are operating in the Norwegian and international market. These are definetley companies that are worth following in the future.
The two-day event concluded at the historic venue; Stupet at NHH. Rector Øystein Thøgersen wished all the guests welcome to NHH and provided the about the background of Stupet to an eager and amused crowd. Thøgersen went on to tell the participants about NHH as an educational institution and NHH's international ambitions and goals as a leading University in Europe.
"With a considerable small population, Norway is often overlooked when compared to its European counterparts with fintech. The truth is, Bergen taught us a lot" says Dejan Stojanovic, Epiphanic.
Photos from the event:
