Tag: climate fintech

The Q&A from Demo Day 11

Posted on by Jim Smith

Last week, at our 11th Demo Day, we saw five fintech innovators succinctly showcase their solutions to the most pressing challenges in financial services. The companies they founded built these solutions during their recent participation in our Data Access Residency with the support of several of our Data Partners.

The presentations were fast paced, and some of you may have missed the interactions between founders and members of the audience. So, here are a few of the questions audience members asked after seeing what these teams have built, and the answers these founders provided.

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Sandbox Wealth has built a turnkey open banking solution for wealth managers, including independent advisors and family offices, allowing them to offer sophisticated cash management and credit products to their clients. Ray Denis, the Founder and CEO, provided the product demonstration to the hundreds of people who tuned in for Demo Day.

JS: How are you thinking about Agentic AI?

Ray Denis: We’re looking closely at agentic workflows for document ingestion and yield optimization (for both assets and liabilities). Very focused on getting the data layer right before we dive into those features, but it’s a major part of the roadmap.

BC: How are high-net-worth clients onboarded (one at a time or through datasets)?

Ray Denis: We can handle onboarding one at a time or by mass onboarding with an integration to a firm or advisor’s CRM. We let our partners decide how they’d like to address.

BC: Also, how long to integrate for Registered Investment Advisors?

Ray Denis: The process is intended to be quick. After contracting, we can handle the one at a time onboarding almost immediately. I’d budget 60-90 days for mass onboarding to ensure connectivity with the CRM and the accuracy of the data.

Serene is transforming customer care in financial services by helping banks and financial organizations proactively identify, predict, and support customers in vulnerable circumstances. Savannah Price, Serene’s Founder and CEO, provided our Demo Day audience with a demonstration of the capabilities this London-headquartered fintech built while taking part in our Data Access Residency.

SD: What data and systems do you need access to?

Savannah Price: Open banking/ transactional data (current, credit card, savings accounts). Interaction data, voice-to-text (for sentiment analysis).

JB: Who is the end user of Serene? Which business unit of the customer would be the purchaser of this product?

Savannah Price: End user is the financial institution – Heads of Credit Risk, Heads of Collections, Customer Ops. Exploring scam susceptibility use cases at the moment with Fraud/Fincrime teams.

7Analytics has developed AI-driven flood risk modeling for insurers and asset owners, leveraging high-resolution datasets and 600+ physical parameters. 7Analytics can provide crucial information of flood risk, all the way down to the building level. Helge Jørgensen is Co-founder and CEO of 7Analytics, the first insurtech founded in Norway to present at Demo Day.

WC: What is your geographical coverage? Do you have data for commercial and industrial sites? What is the time horizon for your simulations? Which long-term scenarios do you use?

Helge Jørgensen: Yes – we cover commercial sites. We have several industrial customers in the US today that use our technology. Geographical coverage is based on where we see traction. Our technology is scalable, so we are ready to enter new markets.

EM: Are you also considering to expand to the UK?

Helge Jørgensen: We have our technology ready for the UK. We are running several POC in the UK now.

RK: How are your models/products different than First Street?

Helge Jørgensen: Our approach is different in how we are approaching the modeling of flooding. We use high resolution models (3x3ft), high resolution landuse cover, and ML on claims from insurance companies. We provide flood risk covering all flood types – urban, fluvial and storm surge. We also keep our input data up-to-date by using advanced tech for updating/enhancing the terrain and land use data.

Calculum is offering an AI-powered supply chain analytics platform that helps companies unlock working capital, improve supplier intelligence, and generate free cash flow by optimizing payment terms. Co-founder Eric Zager presented Calculum’s capabilities to our Demo Day audience.

JS: Can Calculum help corporates address disruptions in their supply chains caused by tariffs?

Eric Zager: Yes—by leveraging data and benchmarking, Calculum helps corporates negotiate improved payment terms and optimize working capital, providing flexibility to mitigate the impact of tariffs and other cost pressures.

TM: Any intention of supporting your customers on their receivables side, as well?

Eric Zager: Absolutely. While our core focus has been on payables, we’re seeing strong demand on the receivables side and plan to support clients in optimizing their entire working capital cycle.

BL: What are your thoughts about addressing opportunities in supply chain finance yourselves?

Eric Zager: We believe there’s significant potential in integrating supply chain finance capabilities into our platform. While we currently partner with leading providers, we’re actively exploring how we can offer direct solutions to better serve our clients.

Level2 offers the first fully visual no-code systematic trading strategy creation platform built for active traders. Andrew Grevett, Co-founder and CEO, provided a demonstration of the company’s product and an explanation of their B2B2C model. Level2 is making data-driven trading simple and accessible for all.

CS: Does the platform offer any type of education? I understand it enables a lot of resources for traders, but UI seems to assume the user already has a lot of knowledge around trading, and understanding trades.

Andrew Grevett: Yes, education is a key part of our strategy as the visual approach makes learning and understanding simple. It’s something we intend to enhance in the next version, moving more towards a more dynamic approach along with an immersive trading mode.

LZ: Does this include direct feeds (rather than the consolidated SIP tape)?

Andrew Grevett: We do not have any direct feeds at the moment; it’s all from the SIP tape.

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If you’d like to talk to any of these entrepreneurs about what they are building, please reach out to us here. If you weren’t able to attend Demo Day 11, we’ll be posting a recording showcasing the presentations of these five outstanding startups, as well as insights from thought leaders representing the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, MassMutual, and KKR, to our YouTube channel shortly.

 

Meet 7Analytics — A Demo Day 11 Presenting Startup

Posted on by Jim Smith

This year, Fintech Sandbox Demo Day will take place on April 28. The presentations will be virtual and the event, as always, is free. Demo Days are exciting because we get to showcase startups that are on the very cutting edge of innovation and you get to see what they’re up to before they’re discovered.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight this year’s presenting entrepreneurs. Today, we’re talking to Helge Jørgensen, Co-founder and CEO of Norwegian fintech 7Analytics. 7Analytics develops highly precise predictive models for flood risk for insurers and asset owners.

Helge Joergensen, Co-Founder & CEO of 7Analytics
Helge Joergensen, Co-Founder & CEO of 7Analytics

Helge, tell us a bit about 7Analytics. What problems are you solving?

Floods are frequent and expensive. And this keeps growing. Without much better data people cannot insure their homes and businesses keep their operations going. We provide that data at a much greater granularity.

Why is granularity in flood prediction important and how do you achieve it?

Insurers need to understand flood risk in-depth – property by property. Water moves along the landscape and even a few inches of height difference here or a green spot there makes a huge difference for flood risk. Only the best data tells you the difference in risk from one side of the street to the other.

What is your company’s origin story?

Our founder team built their skills in the offshore oil and gas sector which remains one of the most knowledge intensive industries in one of the toughest environments on Earth. From here a drive to learn and apply the best possible data tool to produce the best possible solutions has led us to flood risk and to breaking away from traditional approaches.

Can you describe what it’s been like to be part of the Fintech Sandbox community?

7Analytics has moved in two dimensions recently and Fintech Sandbox has been an important partner in both consolidating our services to the financial industry and establishing our US organization.

Why is data access important to your startup?

Data is all we do. Much geodata is open source, but we have only made it this far by building partnerships with leading industry players around data access.

What milestones has 7Analytics achieved so far?

Being live on four continents is a major thing that I am super proud of – this includes my own relocation from Europe to Boston and setting up shop here.

What trends in fintech are you most excited about?

Climate innovation has for a long time been very focused on getting emissions down. For good reasons. Now, adaptation is growing in importance and this basically is a matter of risk. Climate risk. And here fintechs play a key part in getting the banks and insurers up to speed.

How does 7Analytics think about leveraging AI in a differentiated way?

AI and Machine Learning is driving a paradigm shift in water risk modelling. The focus is going in a direction of high-quality, rich input data and really understanding patterns and building predictive power. But: many – also insurers – remain anchored in traditional models.

What’s next for 7Analytics?

Kicking in doors to more insurance companies that are realizing that they need much better data to handle the increasing flood risk.

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To hear more about 7Analytics and 4 other exciting fintech startups, be sure to register for Fintech Sandbox Demo Day 11!

 

The world needs FinTech like never before

Posted on by Jim Smith

A guest blog post from our friends at Rise, created by Barclays.

If you are an early-stage Climate FinTech founder, check out Rise Start-up Academy: Climate FinTech Edition.

Ever wondered how the fintech ecosystem can play a part in tackling climate change? A new report, Climate FinTech: An innovation thesis, from Rise, created by Barclays, highlights how one area of our industry could emerge to drive greater adoption of low-carbon solutions and technology.

That area is what Rise has identified as Climate FinTech. Climate FinTech describes organizations that build products leveraging a combination of climate, finance and technology solutions that support climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate FinTech products can range from quantifying a carbon footprint to embedding financing within a climate solution. The companies innovating in this space are addressing the significant challenges faced by both consumers and businesses, who find that switching to low-carbon solutions can be painful due to adoption barriers that include upfront costs and technical complexity.

“Reaching at least 50% carbon reductions currently costs about $55,000 for a typical single-family home” — Research performed by the University of California, Berkeley

“US Department of Agriculture agency set aside nearly $3bn to give to farmers who cut emissions, but about $1.9bn spent on practices not doing that” — The Guardian

Climate FinTech can make that switch more affordable and simpler than it is today. Solutions can be grouped into three themes:

  • Carbon management drives understanding and enabling control of emissions. Fintech Example:

Persefoni, based in Arizona, have developed a climate management and accounting platform to support businesses and financial institutions in meeting climate disclosure requirements.

  • Direct mitigation facilitates the absolute reduction of user emissions. Fintech Example:

Banyan, based in California, helps finance sustainable projects such as solar, wind or other renewable energy initiatives by connecting banks, lenders and developers.

  • Climate risk management measures and mitigates exposure to climate risk. Fintech Example:

Agcor, based in California, uses data science and machine learning to support the agricultural economy with risk management and water intelligence.

According to our report, this sector is growing at speed with over $2.9B of investment in 2022 with Carbon Management related companies receiving the vast majority of investment. Direct Mitigation, however, received only 11% of total investment. Our analysis shows that Direct Mitigation could be the key area to unlock significant emissions reduction and commercial gain with the right support and financing compared to the other two themes.

Through our fintech focussed Rise, created by Barclays proposition, we provide Climate FinTechs with the tools to engage, network and experiment with the bank and other top innovators to support growth in this area. We offer:

  • Tailored accelerator programmes and physical workspaces to help Climate FinTechs grow and collaborate with each other.
  • Access to a global FinTech ecosystem made up of cutting-edge start-ups and scale-ups through our physical locations in New York and London, and our virtual community in India.
  • A capability allowing Barclays to engage and experiment with Climate FinTechs, helping to tackle clearly defined business cases using synthetic and public data.

If you are an early-stage Climate FinTech founder solving a problem across our three Climate FinTech thesis areas, check out our 10-week digital Rise Start-up Academy: Climate FinTech Edition. Across the programme, start-ups will fine-tune their product, get to grips with the foundations of pricing, understand how to increase sales and learn how to build out their team. As well as developing a repeatable and scalable business model.

Key Dates

  • Applications opened: 8th Feb
  • Applications close: 4th April
  • Programme starts: 22nd April

For more information and to apply — https://rise.barclays/rise-startup-academy-climatefintech-edition/