The Fintech Show: A Window into the Future
On Thursday, December 6th Holt Accelerator debuted its inaugural cohort with an unconventional demo day that comprised of a live pianist, singer and a charismatic performance from its host, Jan.
“The Fintech Show: A Window into the Future”, is the brainchild of Jan Christopher Arp, Founder and Managing Partner at Holt Accelerator. By combining the allure and glamour of cutting-edge fintech with live entertainment, Jan and his team successfully transformed the standard sales pitchs into a unique and memorable experience. Audiences including the Montreal NewTech team, were enchanted as we collectively time travelled to banking and finance imagined in the year 2028. Befittingly, the show took place at the L’Astral theatre to a sold-out room of entrepreneurs, investors, advisers, and the wider start-up community.
2018 Star Cohort:
This event was the culmination of a rigorous search for top talent in fintech from all over the world. The result: 13 companies (CommercialPassport, Consilium Crypto, CreditSCRIPT, Curu, FundSeeder, Ivy Lender, KapitalWise, Liquidity Marketplace Ltd., LoanConnect, Owl, PrestaGente, QuantumnSense and SmartPay) were hand selected from over 400+ applications and numerous rounds of interviews.
This special group of talented and tenacious founders come from diverse backgrounds and global perspectives, including: 9 industries (reg tech, block-chain/ cryptocurrency, investment/wealth, management, personal finance, lending, institutional B2B, insurtech and payments), 5 countries (Canada, USA, UK, Colombia, and the Cayman Islands) and have raised a combined 10+ million in capital.
Sajil Koroth, Founder and CEO of KapitalWise (an AI platform for financial institutions to personalize banking) talked about the value of the 12-week training program. “The program at Holt Accelerator is exciting, they’ve helped us in multiple ways: we’ve been ushered to relevant events and introduced to key players in our field, including two big banks in Canada and we’ve already begun a pilot project with one of the banks.” He added, the demo day has “a very unique ambiance, this is the first time I’ve presented on stage in such a lively and charged atmosphere, it’s like a dance floor presentation, it’s been a lot of fun.”
QuantumSense, is a fully AI-powered semantic search and alert system that works in real-time. Founder and CEO, Marco Fernandez explains, “Quantum computing technologies are the future. Quantum Sense allows you to find all sentences that have meaning, we’re proud to say that we’re better than Google because we provide context — you can use our platform to automate banking reports, integrate it into unstructured data, and you can extract more information from any text. Our next expansion will include being able to do this with audio as well.” Marco who’s originally from Switzerland stated that one of the main reasons he’s come here is because in recent years Montreal has established itself as one of the “top for AI”. QuantumSense is a recent graduate of Creative Destruction Labs and is looking to raise a $500 k seed round. “One of the big benefits of being part of a program like Holt is that they have a large network of advisors, and are able to put us in contact with the right individuals who can help us to advance QuantumSense. What’s been extremely helpful is that since we already had an MVP, Holt has been crucial in helping us with our business strategy. Participating in CDL was an awesome experience, however, we really needed help on the business side which Holt is helping to fill”
I spoke to Vahid Mirjalili, COO at OWL about his experience as part of the Holt Accelerator family: “It’s been amazing, we’re constantly meeting exceptional entrepreneurial mindsets. We have access to world-class mentors and the peer group here is extremely friendly.”
Audience Highlights:
Ilias Benjelloun, President and Open Innovation Director at Montreal NewTech reflected on the show: “In a time where many are trying to groom startups with the perfect pitch, the perfect tone, the perfect slide deck, the perfect growth curve, Holt Accelerator took a stand. A stand against the look-alike perfect all staged similar McDonaldized demo day, with a bland aftertaste. They took a stand for artisans, to have quality ingredients, engaging, original and carefully mastered staging; they took a stand for the Alain Ducasses of the world. Behind every great startup, there are amazing humans; behind every great investment there is an inspiring team, behind every great success there is a perfectly imperfect story; and Holt Accelerator delivered an engaging, trust building, creative and memorable demo day. Best of luck to their memorable startups and lets all Bank on the future!”
Dr. Eric Chou has his own consulting firm that offers high-level due diligence for technology investments. He attended the show to networking and was curious and interested to learn about Holt’s 2018 cohort. “ I’ve studied algorithmic trading and want to see what ideas are emerging from the finance and technology fields.” He commented, “for me, the musical aspect of the show was the most enticing, it was entertaining to watch. I’ve been to other demo days and they don’t compare.”
Valtech a key partner of the Holt Accelerator program, helps corporations to meet the challenges of the digital economy. They offer services like customer experience strategy, user experience and commerce platforms, content and campaigns and etc. Nikola Cossette, Account Director at Valtech, says, “we were excited to be involved with the fintechs from Holt, we usually work with product launch and financing for large corporations with a longer time frame, whereas, with startups, it’s interesting because you have to innovate quickly.” When asked how he felt about the show, he commented, “it’s original, Jan brings a very different vision to demo day, he’s mixed fintech with entertainment.”
Audience member Viktoria Khavtasi, a recent finance graduate and team member at Kaira — is building a personal finance management software solution. She along with her team were recent winners of the Desjardins Cooperathon Open Innovation challenge in the finance track. “Seeing all these talented founders and teams was impressive. I’m so encouraged to see entrepreneurs like myself building these amazing fintechs - it inspires me to continue my entrepreneurial journey and to know that there are outfits like Holt Accelerator that focus exclusively on supporting startups in this space. It’s a struggle finding the right resources and guidance in building a fintech, I’m optimistic that Kaira can follow in the footsteps of these fintechs ”
Remi Dion, an electrical engineer with an IT background, is a technical consultant with Synechron. He’s also an aspiring entrepreneur who believes the best way to empower yourself and learn entrepreneurship is to surround yourself in the ecosystem. “I’m hoping to start my own start-up in the near future and relish events like this because I learn from watching others with a trained eye, to be able to spot the good and bad stuff.” He prefaces his next statement by warning me that it could be misinterpreted by some. “When you look at entrepreneurs, society tends to perceive them as successful because they’re on stage and all you see is perfection and we often end up putting them on pedestals. Since I make an effort to constantly be around [entrepreneurs] I’ve shifted from seeing them as monuments and rather as mentors. Events like this one make you realize that YOU too can build something meaningful that can change the world.”
The show ended on a festive note as event goers headed over to the after-party at Le Bord’elle to mingle and network after a spectacular show.
Holt Accelerator is one of Canada’s leading accelerators in fintech. with an emphasis on AI, they bring together the best and brightest from ideas and cultures to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society.
If you have a fintech start-up and are looking to receive business knowledge, support with fundraising, mentor-ship from world-class industry leaders, then apply to the Holt Accelerator Program and you could be part of the 2019 cohort!
