Hapoalim launches BankApp competition

Startups will compete for a NIS 100,000 prize and the chance for a NIS 1 million investment from the bank’s “fin-tech” fund.

By ILAN COHEN
Bank App (photo credit: BANKAPP.CO.IL)
Bank App
(photo credit: BANKAPP.CO.IL)
Bank Hapoalim on Monday launched a two-month financial-technology competition, in which startups will compete for a NIS 100,000 prize and the chance for a NIS 1 million investment from the bank’s “fin-tech” fund.
“The amount of talent that we meet is amazing,” Hapoalim chairman Yair Seroussi said at the launch event in Tel Aviv.
Winners will also be offered an opportunity to work at MindSpace, a new start-up workspace on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard, and given automatic entry to CitiBank’s accelerator program.
Three years ago, the bank launched a program to connect with local start-ups, which included a focus on fin-tech, Seroussi said.
“We met about 170 of these kinds of companies, and from them we deployed technology from 10, and I expect that next year we will deploy a similar number,” he said.
The idea was to expose the start-ups to the bank, give them a platform to grow before going on to international markets and get the newest technology out to Hapoalim’s customers.
The bank will allow developers to securely access some of its data to help them in their missions. The competition, which was announced earlier this month, will end with a demonstration day on November 23 in which 10 finalists will present their products.
Among the companies whose technology they have used are Tipranks, which evaluates stock-analyst performance, and cybersecurity technology from companies such as ThetaRay.