The AIFC Tech Hub and Mastercard, an international payment system, summed up the results of the Mastercard Sustainable Banking Challenge and held a pitch session on the finalists' projects.
Eurasian Bank, Forte Bank, and Jusan Bank have become partners in the competition to find technology startups in the field of sustainable banking.
Applications were collected from May 30 to June 15. In total, more than 90 applications were submitted by startups from 12 countries near and far abroad. Experts from Mastercard, partner banks and the AIFC Tech Hub evaluated and selected 12 startup solutions, who presented at a closed session on June 24. Three startups presented their proposals to the experts on June 27 at the international conference Astana Finance Days-2022.
Three projects selected for the pitching reflect, according to the organizers of the competition, the most relevant areas that correspond to the main objectives of the competition - assistance to Kazakh banks in the development of sustainable banking and management of a wide range of ESG risks through partnering with the best fintech startups.
The first project was presented by the corporate well-being platform “Ponimau” (Russian Federation). The project aims to increase productivity by supporting the psychological health and social well-being of employees. The employee support program consists of psychologist consultations, sessions with life and business coaches, consultations with nutritionists, online fitness, etc. In addition, individual solutions for the employer’s tasks are provided: training programs, marathons, webinars by experts, emergency psychological counseling, etc. According to Darya Fedorova, Executive Director at the platform, during 9 months of work in Kazakhstan out of 570 employees of the company, 84 people applied for support, and more than 300 consultations were held. The average rating of consultations was 4.9 points out of 5. Most people apply for personal development, self-knowledge, family relations and anxiety disorders. According to the assessment of the representative “Ponimau” representative, the rate of return on investment (ROI) at the implementation of the solution can reach 54%.
The second project is TrustContract, which opens the opportunity to work with contracts online on a blockchain platform (Republic of Kazakhstan). According to Chingiz Dauletbaev, CEO of the company, today many people face typical problems in the process of drafting and signing standard contracts: high costs and delays in the signing of documents, use of courier services, irresponsibility of the counterparty in the return of the second original contract, the costs and inconvenience of printing, accounting and storage of paper documents, and low customer conversion due to the lack of instantaneous signing. The TrustContract project provides full online access to the contracts database, allows instant transactions with clients and partners, and saves money on paper and courier services.
The third project is the Super App creation platform from Overizon (Lithuania). As the company's CEO Alexey Nedorezov noted: "We increase the life cycle, engagement indicators and profitability of customers by embedding affiliate services, offers, subscriptions and content into the customer's mobile app. We integrate the necessary services, content, and affiliate offers, and deduce them in the display. We configure access to the content management system (CMS) to manage the affiliate program, as well as provide technical and customer support. As a result, it helps to increase profitability, reduce outflow and attract new customers, increase mobile app penetration, and the end-user can save money by getting cash back on usual purchases, use convenient services in the bank app, be informed, trending and constantly evolving".
Rafal Trepka, Mastercard General Manager for Central Asia said: "Thank you to all the participants and partners! We are sure that we need more competitions, conferences and meetings for the development of fintech startups, on the other hand, we need to approach this very pragmatically so that after such events there will be a real result. For us, as a technological company in the payment industry, it is very important to talk about inclusiveness, financial and environmental literacy of users. All these directions are very important now, that's why we with our partner banks choose the most relevant startups from different countries to accelerate these processes in Kazakhstan".
Bekzhan Mutanov, Deputy CEO of the AIFC Tech Hub underlined: "One of the main priorities of our organization is the development of startup ecosystem and stimulation of corporate innovations in Kazakhstan's largest companies, so we were pleased to have the opportunity to hold the Mastercard Sustainable Banking Challenge. Such initiatives are very important to ensure that our corporate sector has a clear awareness that the market has a lot of interesting solutions and teams that can surprise. We are grateful to Mastercard for supporting the competition and the important theme of sustainability. We are also thankful to our partner banks - Eurasian Bank, ForteBank and Jusan Bank for their proactiveness and openness”.
The startup finalists will have an opportunity to launch a pilot project with the partner banks (up to $10,000) with expert support from Mastercard and scale up the successful pilot project in the market of Kazakhstan.
The directions, terms and criteria for selection of the contest projects are available on the program website:
www.corpfintech.aifc.kz/mastercard_challenge
Reference:
The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is an independent jurisdiction launched in 2018. In accordance with the Development Strategy till 2025, the key task of the AIFC is to consolidate as a universal platform connecting the countries of the EAEU, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
The AIFC Tech Hub is a subdivision of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), whose task is to promote the development of the startup ecosystem, venture industry market, e-commerce, corporate innovation, and new technological areas in Kazakhstan (FinTech, GovTech, SatelliteTech, Industry 4.0., etc.). Together with international partners, The AIFC Tech Hub conducts programs to support market players, as well as facilitates the structuring of venture deals and testing of new fintech solutions within the regulatory sandbox of the AIFC jurisdiction.
https://tech.aifc.kz
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments, and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all. www.mastercard.kz
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