Capital One today announced Warwick Analytics as one of the five finalists awarded a place on its accelerator programme, Growth Labs. The programme, launched in partnership with corporate accelerator and investment firm L Marks, aims to enable early stage start-ups to develop new technologies for the financial sector.
Each of the finalists will be able to work within Capital One’s software engineering department in Nottingham where they will have access to the company’s technical experts. They will also benefit from an intensive series of bespoke workshops and talks led by Capital One across branding, business development, legal advice and promotion services, as well as ongoing mentoring and support from top business experts at both Capital One and the wider financial industry. Following completion of the programme, participants will demonstrate their completed product and have the opportunity to bid for investment capital in a final pitch later this year.
The five finalists were hand-selected by a panel of industry experts and Capital One senior executives from a pool of 19 start-ups that were invited to the competitive pitch day. Each of the businesses, whose propositions range across financial management and fraud prevention to data insights and analytics, presented their idea and strategy in the space of five minutes, before being invited for question and answer sessions with the panel.
Chris Owen, programme leader of Capital One Growth Labs, said: “Throughout the application process our key objective was not only to diversify our final applicants but to unite some of the most promising technology and finance start-ups. We are incredibly excited to be working alongside all of these companies to help them develop their business strategies and innovate further in the technology space.”
The five organisations will move into Capital One’s headquarters on August 1 and begin their intense development phases in readiness for the climax of the programme on Demo Day, October 6.
Chris Newkirk, Capital One UK’s CEO said: “This business has always been concerned with innovating in favour of the customer, disrupting the financial industry and delivering new and exciting products and services. The Growth Labs initiative has attracted dozens of applications from the brightest and best fintech start-ups from the UK, Europe and America. It was a challenge to select the best five, and now the really exciting task begins of assisting and nurturing these businesses to help them perfect their exceptional innovations.”
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