IN JANUARY 2024 WE LAUNCHED THE INNOVATION LAB INCUBATOR PROGRAMME

We looked for businesses who were ready to take on a data-led financial services innovation challenge.

FinTech is a rapid accelerating industry and an intrinsic way to deliver financial services in the UK. But not all of the best solutions to challenges faced by financial institutions start as a fintech business or application.

BNP Paribas Personal Finance recognised this phenomenon and partnered with SuperTech for the second year to create this exclusive incubator programme.

We were thrilled to recruit eight successful businesses to the programme.

THE CHALLENGE

We received applications from anyone who had a digital tech solution to the challenge regardless of the market they were positioned in.

Businesses who had the solution and ability to tackle the challenge in the fintech space, applied by directly expressing their interest to us.

  • We asked “How can we use external data and insights to better engage financial services customers in order to generate mutual value and trust for the customer, the FS provider (i.e. BNP Paribas Personal Finance) and any 3rd party data provider alike?

  • BNP Paribas Personal Finance is a market leader specialising in retail finance, motor finance and personal loans, with over 50 years of experience in the UK. Through its consumer brand ‘Creation’ BNP Paribas Personal Finance supports many of the UK’s leading brands including Currys, John Lewis, Dreams and B&Q, providing innovative solutions to drive sales and build customer loyalty. It brings global expertise, innovative thinking and valuable customer insights, fuelling business growth for over 300 partners, and helping 4 million customers to buy the things they want through helpful and responsible finance.

    Customers are acquired through BNP Paribas Personal Finance when they purchase products (such as consumer electronics, kitchens, beds, sofas or cars) and their finance is managed through the Creation Finance App. Once registered, customers can see their balance and make payments.

    The Creation Finance App is at the heart of the business in the future where customers can not only manage their accounts but more importantly learn about additional services and experience value added services that drive engagement and usage of the App. The challenge therefore focused on opening up the opportunity to collaborate in the pursuit of this business ambition.

  • BNP Paribas Personal Finance looked to collaborate with a group of innovative businesses to develop ‘data-driven insights & added value capability’ that gathered relevant insight related to their customers from external data sources or from customers directly to then provide relevant additional value to customers.

SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPANTS GAINED

· The opportunity to work with BNP Paribas Personal Finance to foster a culture of open innovation and co-creation, showcasing your products and services to executives within the organisation as part of BNP Paribas Personal Finance’s “Innovation Week”

· The ability  to showcase and co-create their concepts, products and services with real customers from varied demographics

· Validation from BNP Paribas Personal Finance on the value/engagement creation and/or new data insights proposition 

· Greater Insights with real time data, knowledge and expertise from one of the worlds’ largest financial retail providers

· Valuable benefits from working hand in hand with specialists from inside a global finance institution to inform your product development and growth roadmap

· The potential to accelerate their business growth and investment opportunity

· Grant and funding support to grow their business taking it to the next level

· Access to specialist mentors and facilitators, guiding them along the way   

· The potential to develop a real-world case study supported by a major global Financial Institution 

FULLY FUNDED PROGRAMME INCLUDED

Tailored business and development package offered support and direct access to key stakeholders within BNP Paribas Personal Finance:

• Development sprint working alongside specialists at BNP Paribas Personal Finance, showcasing businesses products and services to executives and leaders with the organisation

• Invaluable knowledge sharing sessions from specialists and insider expertise at BNP Paribas Personal Finance to upskill the SMEs technical skills in a broad range of areas

• Peer to peer socials and meet ups to share collaborative intelligence and network

• Business development mentorship; fundraising, procurement process, growth plans, marketing support

• Guidance from product validation to commercialisation

• Brilliant opportunity to leverage SMEs co-creation services for their business

• Access to unique and flexible co-working space during the programme at STEAMhouse

• Project support from a dedicated Innovation Manager, and access to STEAMhouse support network